A perfectly planned trip to watch a key Tour stage and, as a bonus, do another iconic Vosges climb. The nomenclature hereabouts is famously confusing: I'd done the Grand Ballon on the way down. This was just the Ballon, which is generally agreed to be the first mountain ever climbed by the Tour. After a luxury night in Besancon, I was recharged, particularly because I dined on a knepfle and munster gratin, another heavy Alsatian lunch! My plan was to head up the climb from the east, convenient for the journey home, and for the stage as the riders were heading up it from the north. I parked in Oberbruck and took the cycle path to Sewen and the start of the climb. I packed a rucsac, ready for a longish wait, and luckily the climb is a fairly easy one. Some hairpins lead above Sewen to the Lac d'Alfeld. This is, I think, the name of the valley the route then takes a big loop around. Or it might be the Langenberg, I'm not sure. Anyway, after a few steep sections the angle eases and I powered up (by my standards), passing a fair number of other cyclists en route to watch too. It took me a while and a bit of moving around to get to the best viewing place - the Ballon being a huge plateau really. It was a brilliant stage with the field completely fragmented and the weather just about stayed dry. The descent was fairly extraordinary, hundreds (perhaps even thousands) of cyclists pelting downhill (almost all far faster than me) after watching a classic stage in the world's greatest race.
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