
The Col de la Loze was not a nice place to be on Thursday afternoon. Not because it is 26.5km long at 6.4%, or even because it was being raced as stage 18 of the Tour de France, but because it was cold, wet and miserable.
There was freezing rain, hail and low cloud to boot, not that the men dressed as lobsters were put off by the conditions, but it was noticeably horrid.