Bright blue skies for the first ride - 10km of flat through the Alsace vineyards, and then from Ribeauvillé (beautiful town!) we had the first climb - 6km at 5% including some sections of pavé for entertainment. A great descent followed down into Ste-Marie-aux-Mines, where we stopped for coffee.

The next climb took us up to the Château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg - another up through the woods and quite reminiscent of the Ventoux segment from Bedoin through the forest, but rather less steep!

The castle gives awesome views out over the Rhine graben (ask Andy) over into Germany and Switzerland, and was sadly closed to visitors.

Another fast descent took us to Sélestat for lunch - a classic Alsace town with lots of German-influenced ancient buildings. Very pleasant.

The remainder of the ride was rather a blast through the Rhine valley, with great overall pace and some nice tight riding, before a cooling forest on the outskirts of Colmar, and a cooling beer in Colmar.

A great start to the week.