The first biggish ride of the trip, somewhat strangely starting from the top of the Col de la Schlucht. There was a good reason for this, as it was the perfect place for an overnight van camp in cooler temperatures, and it allowed me to start out along the famous Route des Cretes, a superb wartime road along the spine of the Vosges hills. This gave an easy start in perfect weather, blue skies, warm but not hot. Fabulous views to the hills I did yesterday like the Hohneck, and then down to the lakes and valleys below. It was undulating but relaxing until I took the side road to the Col de Breitfirst. This is followed by the Col de Platzerwassel. All of these names reflect the fascinating Alsace blend of two cultures, and the riding, atmosphere and scenery were all superb as I started the descent. This was steep and hairpinned but I went reasonably well by my abysmal descending standards, and really enjoyed it. It eases off towards a series of villages like Sondenach and Metzeral and then enters lovely Munster where I'd been the afternoon before. The long final climb back to the Col de la Schlucht, the main business of the day really, starts in town and heads gently to Stosswihr before the long series of hairpins up the col. This was great training, never too hard at a steady 6%, but quite long with around 750m elevation gain. The road is a little busy but my early start helped and I quite enjoyed it. I added a little bit to the end, on the high road to Lac Blanc but was still conscious of not overdoing it (especially with rain and thunder forecast) so kept it to a 65k/1234m day and retired for lunch to the stupendous Auberge Firsstart near the Hohneck where I had roigabrageldi and an incredible local cheese platter with a glass of Edelzwicker.
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