Col du Galibier - Home to the Gods of Cycling - b & w
£89.00
Gifts for cyclists, black & white cycling photography prints. Cycling Art.
Coming into view on the road at the bottom of the picture you could be forgiven for thinking maybe the Galibier isn’t so bad, well into the climb and apart from the initial ramp out of Valloire nothing has really tested you. All that training must have been more effective than you thought. You might even consider a coffee or an ice cream at a very attractive little cafe by the side of the road.
That is all about to change, crossing the bridge over the stream and the Galibier turns from being kind and gentle to anything but, with just a few pedal strokes. Unless you’re super fit and have brought your A-game with you by the time you are halfway up that first serious 10% ramp all the training will have melted away like ice cream in the midday sun.
What’s left is determination, grit, stubbornness and pride. Any two of which gets you to the top, or at least to the fork in the road that leads to the tunnel. After that, it’s just pride. There’s no shade or shelter on the Galibier, not a tree in sight, nowhere to hide or recover, no let-up to the relentless gradient. But if you insist on visiting the home of the cycling gods you can’t expect it to be easy, can you?
Like the man said, we don’t do it because it’s easy, we do it because it’s hard.
Available in colour - Col du Galibier
