Col des Aravis-Croix Fry

A double TdF col day is usually pretty tough. This wasn't, partly I suspect because of the direction I took them in. The only price to be paid was an awful finish up the very busy main valley road from Thones. After a night spent high above the village, I started from St Jean de Sixt around 8ish and adopted a nice sustainable rhythm for the Col des Aravis. This is a major link through the Alps and a frequently used Tour col. It is quite gentle, with steady 6% gradients often giving way to even shallower slopes, and as such is really enjoyable especially quite early on a Saturday before the traffic. Through La Clusaz via a giant hairpin and then the valley of Le Nom opens out with tremendous views up the limestone walls of the Pointe des Aravis (which I would visit tomorrow) on the left and the spires of the Dent du Chatalet and its neighbours on the right. A series of hairpins leads up to the top of the Aravis - just under 40 minutes from St Jean so not too terrible. The usual TdF ambience at the col, beautiful meadows and jagged peaks beyond: Mont Blanc in the distance. I then descended to the road junction above La Clusaz which gives access to the Col du Croix Fry from the east. This is by far the easiest side up the Croix Fry and is very quiet although the surface is a tad grippy. It still required a bit of an effort at times though, and led to superb new views over Manigod and Les Clefs. It was clouding over, and thunderstorms were forecast, so I didn't hang around, taking my usual hyper-cautious approach to the very long and winding descent (hundreds of cyclists coming up from Thones). Multiple hairpins before the gradient eases down to Thones. Then came the worst riding of the entire trip and indeed probably the most unpleasant experienc of the entire trip. The unexpectedly hard drag up the valley from Thones via Les Villards. This went on for a long time, and the sun came out immediately after leaving Thones making it very hot indeed. It was also very busy with cars just before lunch on a Saturday, not nice at all. I did a little extension to Le Grand Bornand before calling it a day after 50k/1300m. Just as well, as a thunderstorm did indeed hit an hour or two later, making me glad I hadn't included the Col du Colombier. Instead, I sensibly had a bath in the river and retired for Tartiflette in Le Grand Bornand!