Col d’Izoard, 1953

In 1953, my dad went cycling in the Alps with a friend (I don't know his name unfortunately). It seems that they read an article about a tour over some of the Cols that the Tour de France used, and they decided to do it - without really knowing that much about what they were letting themselves in for. Information about the Tour was pretty scarce in those days, although he did have some wonderful French Tour magazines from the 50s.They got the train down to Grenoble, then cycled over the Lautaret, down to Briancon, over the Izoard, then the Col du Vars and the Col de la Cayolle - one Col per day - and then about a 50 mile coast down to Nice.They obviously passed very close to the bottom of Alpe d'Huez as they went through Bourg d'Oisons, but didn't really know that it existed or what a famous climb it would become. The Tour went up...
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