Les Trois Ballons

This was a completely new course to last year, new start and finish so no painful finish up to la Planche des Belles Filles, but 14km further and with 4300m ascent this was just as tough if not tougher than previous editions.
There seems to be a strong correlation between gradient of slopes and the distance west from the route des cretes. Although the Grand Ballon was painfully long on this day, it was the final section after Servance around "little Finland" which held the steepest and most painful climbs of the day. One was 18%, and there were certainly other long sections of what must be 14% or more, just enough to have me wondering if I should get off and rest. Somehow I crawled up them all, in the end swerving from side to side and longing for what was supposed to be a run in the finish.
Lost a few kilograms on this ride, seriously lacking any hot weather training so far this year.

8 h 15m 26s, 498 out of 2583.

Getting closer to the start

Rare sighting of a rider not from Belgium or Holland