now some of you will remember ronny’s brother kenny from when he came to visit not so long ago.  he has just got back from a trip to france where he followed the tour.  it makes an interesting read and kind of an insight as to why he was so good on the hills when he came to visit.   peter.

 

Friday

            Left for Paris.  Eng Kien gave me a lift to the airport (then went on to use my empty apartment for a couple more days).  No major issues with the flight.  Got off at Charles de Gaul – needed to get to terminal one (where the tour bus was meeting us).  Wow, what a big and confusing airport.  Even worse when you don’t speak French.  Waited 20 minutes for my bike to come out (didn’t mind the time as I was more worried about the bike being OK).

            The trip from terminal 2 to terminal one – involved a monorail transfer – didn’t expect that.  One cannot take the trolleys onto the monorail – thus had to wheel my bike down then hop onto the monorail.  Took a picture of the monorail map much to the amusement, concern (???terrorist???) of the French public.

            Found the bus, first French meal (no, not MacDonalds!), toasted baguette thing with cheese and sundried tomatoes.  One of many baguettes for the trip.  First Paris traffic jam.  Took forever to get to the hotel.  Noticed that the French are so much thinner than the British (myself included in that).

            Made the bike up at the hotel – all intact.  Saw Heinrich Haussler win his stage – paid 4 Euros for a coke – I’d get use to that…..Went out with my roommate for dinner – salmon creamy pasta dish.  Funny how a group of cyclist always try to psyche each other out.  Checking out other people’s gear and asking about gearing become really commonplace in the first few days.  Similarly, I’m checking out legs to see who will be a good wheel to suck and follow.  Went to bed later than expected (another common theme throughout)

 

Saturday – the bus ride to the Alps.

            Highlights

1)      placing the bike on the trailer – everyone really concerned as this was our mode of transport for the week.  A mishap here or anywhere means no more riding.  Similarly, no one wanted dents in their bike.  We shouldn’t have been concerned though – the trailer was well set up and our driver excellent.

2)      Amazing road construction through the mountains

3)      Checking out what was a 6% gradient, etc on the roads – these were the things we would be climbing

4)      Evening bike ride along the bike path in Faverges.  Lovely 30km ride.

5)      Stuffing as much food in as I could during dinner.  I would become known as the “bread monster”.

 

Sunday – our first proper ride, Cadel Evans and Haussler-78km

Today’s tour stage was the first time doing Verbier (in Switzerland).  It was billed as the first time the GC contenders would have a real opportunity of individual time gains.  Verbier is usually a ski resort in the winter.

We drove to Chamoix, rode a tour climb that wasn’t on the tour this year (the Forclaz – pictured below).  Out of Chamoix, I suddenly realized that all those “legs” in our group weren’t that strong.  That was despite my harder gearing.  It was also quite cold (not compared with Scotland!  I felt right at home).  Everyone else rugged up which turned out to be a bad move because they had to carry all their stuff for the rest of the day.  The other groups (staying in a different base) had left without waiting for us (oh well, no free ride here).  So here I am riding out when I catch this French junior training ride (even though I wasn’t really pushing it – wasn’t a race and wouldn’t be for the week).  I thought they may have taken me all the way to Verbier.  Unfortunately, only a couple of my little French helpers kept anywhere near a decent pace and their ride stopped well before Switzerland.  Nice group though (and I would see some of them later on in the week – amazing when you consider the crowds going up and down and sideways on a mountain top).  Caught an American guy with way too much gear for ability – super light weight deep rim wheels, a lovely Trek with new Dura Ace, etc).  The vistas don’t really change – mountains, valleys, green things – I was soon getting tired of taking photos and some people seem to stop every few hundred metres.  That stopped when they realized how far there was to go.

Rode through the passport check point (or actually flew past at 70km/hr following another cyclist).  Didn’t realize that was the border crossing till coming home on the bus ;-).  No cyclist stopped at the border.  I guess this was a day to smuggle something from France into Switzerland.  You had to do it on bike though.

Rode the Forclaz and then descended into the town of Martigny.  Unfortunately the only opportunity I had to break my speed record (and break it I did!).  Didn’t realize how fast I had gone till later – much later, like the next morning.  101.9km/hr (photo below)!  No wonder I caught up to a car and needed to slow down thereafter.  What a pity – I think I was stuck on 50km/hr for the rest of the descent.

Verbier climb – lots and lots of bikes and people.  Weaving in and out of crowds, cars and other bikers throughout the climb.  I’d have to say that by the end of the week I was sick of crowds and having to fight my way to the top of the climb rather than just pacing myself up.  Verbier’s a cat 1 climb.  I was around 250m from the finish by the top.  I mulled around the ski resort, reapplied sunscreen and ate some of the lunch I had brought up.  Then I wanted to descend and see the race a little further down.  The action wouldn’t happen at the end as there would be “no time to gain” at the finish line.  Similarly, I needed to get back to the bus by 1800 otherwise, it would be another 70km back to the hotel (over the Forclaz again – remember, 100km/hr going down is going to take awhile to go up)

Tour craziness – in an hour, the gendarmes (the French police) had barricaded the final 1km and were working on doing more!  The road, that I had previously climbed, was closed.  I needed to walk down to get back on the course and go down.  Mental note – lucky I didn’t bring my nice new shoes and my cycling cleats would take a beating during the week.

Waited for hours (I think 3-4 hours).  Got the Livestrong people (Lance’s charity), to give us yellow chalk (or rather they were throwing chalk packs out of the cars).  Wrote a huge “Cadel Evans” sign over the road.  Got some help from the French girl (around 8 yrs old) beside me.  Wrote “SPR” on the wall for Ronny – see the picture behind the people.  Waited some more.  Publicity caravan – finally.

The caravan – now some of the public just come for the caravan.  These are companies that pay the tour organizers a lot of money to drive around the tour before the riders arrive.  There are usually pretty girls (didn’t look at the guys) chucking out freebies to spectators on the road side.  Got my first Polka dot hat!  Wore that for the rest of the day.

The riders finally shot through.  Cadel lost some time (unfortunately, another recurring theme).

Heinrich Haussler story….Ronny you’ll be so jealous.  Now Heinrich was born in Inverell NSW (pretty close to Lismore and Tamworth).  His dad changed his citizenship to German (apparently to help his cycling prospects).  He’ll be an Aussie again by the end of the year.  He won a stage this year, on the Friday in the rain, blew a kiss to the camera near the end and then cried when he crossed the finishing line.  Ronny’s got a man crush on Haussler because he had a very good early season and was ranked number one on the tour rankings for awhile.  Haussler is the one nearer the centre line.  The French girl who helped me is in yellow with the pink hat.

Heinrich came passed – he was behind the leader but in front of the main group.  I ran beside him for a couple of metres and called out “Heinrich go”.  He gave me a wink and a nod, saw my Cadel sign and then said, “Go Cadel” with a big smile.  Made my day.  Let’s just say I was converted too and always looked out for him during the race.  I don’t think he expected anyone to recognize him because he isn’t one of the leaders yet.

Got back to the bus in time even though it was a 5km descent and a 5km ride to the bus.  All the tour descents are crazy during the race because everyone tries to leave the mountain at the same time.  Theoretically, we have to wait for the last rider, though sometimes the gendarmes will start letting people down before that.  There have been occasions where people have had to wait 30-60min from the first rider passing.  This is a problem when our tour bus is about to leave.  You should see the sight when thousands of bikes try to leave a mountainside whilst weaving through pedestrians and cars.  Obviously a few people will fall off (usually because they’ve clipped someone in front).  I was really worried about coming off during this mayhem – yes, there are people around with worse bike handling skills than myself.

Dinner at 2100.  The bus driver took a wrong turn.  Some grumpy customers (though I was quite content to just relax).  The bus kept on stalling near the end because of a computer fault.  The computer needed reloading the following day.  Dinner was lovely though.  We would have a different meat with the main meal every night.  It took us some time to realize that the Best Western had 3 stars because they had a chef who had won regional awards (in other words, the rooms weren’t flash, there was no pool but the place was clean).  Only one duck dish though many of use wished for more.  That was really good duck (cooked medium rare with a lovely sauce).

 

Monday – rest day for the riders, 133km, 3 cols for me 

Monday is a rest day for the tour.  Only two people (myself and a US bloke) decided to follow the guide on the hard day of riding.  3 cols – Col de Tamie, Col des Saisies, Col des Aravis.  The Saisies (used this year) (Cat 1) and the Aravis (Cat 2 or 3) have been in the tour. 

Tamie highlights

1)      A car pulling aside for me to pass them on the descent.  Never seen that before!

From the Tamie we went through Albertville (home of the winter Olympics, ?yr).  The Saisies is a really beautiful climb or would have been if the guide (Andy) and myself hadn’t tried to rip each others legs apart on the climb.  It seemed to go on forever, then a false descent, then another steep bit, then the cold bit where there were no trees and then the ski resort at the top.

Saisies highlight

1)      Coke – the devil’s grease went down like a treat.  Only 2 Euros.

2)      Waiting 30 minutes for Gordon to catch up – maybe I’m not that bad (I suspect that there are no kudos for beating a 55year old up a hill).

3)      Not freezing at the top of the climb

4)      I think the descent is where Johan Bruyneel (Lance’s team boss) flew over the side of the mountain on one of the corners.

5)      Had my usual mini lunch on the mountain top.  Rolls of bread taken from the breakfast table with nutella or ham and cheese.  I’m sick of both at present.

Lunch at Flumet.  Spag bol.  Then I made the terrible mistake of missing the turnoff half way down the mountain to the Aravis climb.  I made everyone climb another 1km for the day.  Let’s just say I wasn’t very popular with Andy for an hour!  This was mainly because I was going down the descents a lot faster than the other two – don’t know how or why – I’m usually really slow at descending.

Aravis highlights

1)      the cows at the top and the cow skins they sold.  Cows just milling about at the top around a town.  Very quaint.

2)      Not too hard a climb

3)      Lovely view and great hairpins.

Thank God it was downhill from the Aravis on (except for two minor named cols!)  What was meant to be a 120km day became 133km.  It took a long time because we waited for Gordon, had lunch etc but in retrospect it was probably the best day because there were few crowds.  The Aravis was pretty popular though – many cyclists at the top.  Probably locals just out on a holiday ride.

 

Tuesday – Col du Cormet de Roseland and the Col du Petit San Bernard – 141km from the hotel

Martigny is in Switzerland, the tour leaves, then goes into Italy and then back into France.  I only went from France to Italy and back again.  Today was going to be hard.  No one wanted to do the hard ride except for me.  People were happy to leave the hotel and ride the col du Cormet de Roseland (Roseland for short) but didn’t want to do the Cat 1 Petit-St Bernard.  So most people watched the stage finish from the town of Bourg St Maurice.  I needed to get into Bourg Saint Maurice in time to do the second climb so I was really worried about setting a good individual pace (at least into the finish town of Bourg Saint Maurice).

Left at 0730 with three Brisbane Aussies who were nursing their mate along (one of their group had overexerted early/undertrained before and never recovered for the rest of the trip).  These guys were big and fast on the flat – I mean 40-48km/hr on the flat fast.  Rode into Albertville in about 35minutes.  The road then went up and we split.  However, before splitting we got to see what other tours get up to.

Ronan Pensec tours – expensive but luxurious.  For 2600 Euros you get 3 less days than my tour plus pay an extra 1000.  To make up for it you get a tour guide, a support vehicle, Look bikes to ride.  They had left Albertville and had to stop 5km along to wait for their group to regroup.  Took 15-20 minutes for the stragglers to arrive!  When 10mins were up I asked where they had ridden from (expecting that they had done 60km already).  As I said, 15min wait for 5km!  Some really overweight Americans.  Let’s just say that this tour sells itself on guarantees that you’ll make it up the climbs and VIP passes on the stage finishes.  On the Roseland, they apparently stopped the cars up to a 100m from the top to let people out to ride.  The sag/broom wagon picks you up if you feel that you don’t want to ride anymore.  Why do I have to always do things the hard way?

Roseland – pretty hard especially the last bit after the lake.  Head wind all the way through here.  I couldn’t believe there was more of a climb after the lake (photo below).  Certainly deserved Cat 1 status and I thought it was even tougher than that.  I was a bit worried about the Petit St Bernard (also Cat 1 but so much longer – 30km long) – would I make it?

Got into town around 1130.  Our tour bus had just arrived.  Saw some of the walkers in our group.  Did the walking thing and had coffee with them (actually, I had another coke).  Needed to excuse myself early for another hill – left to ride the second col around 1215. 

Petit St Bernard – easy – 5-6% usually, nothing really steeper.  Just spun the legs gently and got up.  Lovely hamburger with tomato sauce and mayonnaise X 2.  Talked with some Aussies (a lot around).  The frogs below were Aussie supporters ;-).

The descent back into town was much nicer than usual.  I suspect many people from Italy were there and went back down the other way.  This was the stage that Jens Voigt came off his bike at 80km/hr plus or something.  Back on the bus having done 141km for the day.

 

Wednesday – day of pain, Col de Romme, Col de la Colombiere, 46km only

Woke up.  Took my resting heart rate in bed.  56beats/min.  Really bad news.  Should have been 41/42 beats/min.  A sign of overtraining and I felt tired/poorly.

Imagine the tour riders.  Today was meant to be the hardest day of the tour.  4 climbs – Roseland, Saisies, Romme and Colombiere (I didn’t count the Araches).  The Romme for the first time was in the tour.

I was going to take it easy and then on the bus had a change of mind (because everyone else had been psyching themselves up and saving themselves for today).  I didn’t do as much research as everyone else.  The Romme was apparently nasty but short – 8.8km short ;-).

We arrived at the base of the Romme.  We were warned not just to start climbing because the Romme would tear our legs apart if we started cold.  So I waited for Andy to do a little warmup.  Rode 800m, started to rain, Andy turned back to the bus and I thought I had my rest day (I don’t like riding in the rain).  Then it stopped raining, my bike was already dirty and Andy said let’s go on.  13% for the first kilometer.  That it, we rose 130m into the air for 1km of road.  That’s steep!  The second km wasn’t much better.  People were turning back all over the place.  People who stopped needed walkers to help them start again.  I just paced myself – no HR over 155.  I touched 168 somewhere but it would have been only for a few seconds.  Overtook some of our group and just ground my way to the top of the Romme.  Cold and windy.  Saw the French training group up on the Romme.  Ate some sugary things then continued.

There’s a leg numbing 3-5km descent from the Romme to the Colombiere and in the wet it’s not fun.  Brakes don’t work well in the wet.  There’s a little town and then a few well constructed switchbacks lead you from the town to another steep section of climbing.  The roads had recently been patched just for the tour.  The wind on the top of the Colombiere was fierce.  I got to the top, took a photo and then rugged up the best I could and came down (the back way that the tour usually goes up).  I wasn’t watching the race only to freeze to death.  Got another photo of Heinrich on the flat bit just before the Romme though.  My Alpine cough/sniffle started then too.  I define an Alpine cough as a dry hack that gets better on the bike but persists when you’re not exercising.

 

Thursday – Annecy time trial. 64km for me.

The only way to ride the Annecy time trial would be to wake early.  Needed to leave at 0600.  Rode along the bike path toward Annecy, then started midway along the course and then hit the climb (Col de Bluffy).  I couldn’t believe they put a climb there!  It felt steep but I’m sure it wasn’t as bad as the Romme.  Regardless, I took the climb in my easiest gearing.

Highlights/lowlights

1)      Nearly crashing with a French dude on his shopping ride as he weaved over a speed hump.  I was approaching the hill at 40km/hr and then had to hit the brakes.  Not happy since I decided to do this ride not at time trial pace but endurance pace.  It made the climb just a little harder when I hit the bottom at a snail’s pace.

2)      Descending the climb at an average of 52km/hr.  Let’s just say that the top riders did this for the entire time trial.

3)      The good looking girls in Annecy as I rode along the lake (since they wouldn’t allow us onto the start/finish line to ride)

4)      Getting back in time for breakfast at 0800.  First one home. 7 eggs for breakfast today.

5)      Sleeping for most of the day (3 hours after the ride).

Now when I woke up I borrowed my roommates “cyclingweekly” magazine with Lance on the front cover.  The landlady of the hotel recognized Lance and pointed to the picture.  She then said, “Lance Armstrong.  He stayed here”.

Hold on, reverse, reverse, I was taken aback.  Asked her to repeat and then she revealed the magical guestbook (that we didn’t sign being lowlife tour groupies).  The US postal team stayed in 2003 and 2005 for training.  They brought their own chef and were apparently very quiet and polite.  I’m proud to say I was the first to find out.  Even better, LANCE ARMSTRONG STAYED IN MY ROOM WITH CHERYL CROW IN 2005.  The picture is below and the room is 201.

 

Friday – Rest day

Needed to swap tours today because I was on a combination one.  So we repacked our bikes and then joined another bus.  I wasn’t riding today and the group that decided to get off the bus half way probably wished they didn’t either (it was only planned as a 50km flat ride).

Highlights/lowlights

1)      the riding group got stopped within 10mins of leaving the bus where we dropped them off.  They could ride a little more but ended up in the middle of nowhere on the course.  The tour is crazy, the roads as I said can be shut anywhere from 2 to 4 hours before the race even passes through.  The gendarmes police their little stretch of road like a king – one will let you go, another will stop you and make you walk and then you’ll reach another who tells you to get on your bike again.

2)      We watched from this little town in the middle of nowhere.  I still don’t know where it is (the bridge to the town is shown below)

3)      Dinner was crap.  I missed the 3 star Best Western.  We were now at a 2 star Ibis hotel.

4)      Saw Mt Ventoux from afar.  It’s just this huge mountain plonked on the end of the Alps.

 

Saturday – Mount Ventoux-cold, windy and I’m tired of waiting for the tour.  Amazing on the mountain though

A little history first.  Mount Ventoux killed British rider Tom Simpson (along with the amphetamines and dehydration – though this is contentious) many years ago.  There is a memorial where he died 2km from the top.  Ventoux also has the record for the windiest place on Earth – over 300km/hr measured there.  If it’s too windy, the gendarmes won’t let you ride.  There’s a weather building at the top of the mountain.

Woke up

1)      still windy – may not get to the top today.  Everyone worried that we’ve come all this way to ride this mystical mountain and then may not get to do it.

2)      took the hard option again of riding from the hotel (we lost our fancy bike trailer and I wasn’t putting my bike in the new trailer unless it was in the bike bag) – 40km to the base of Ventoux

The climb

1)      easier than I thought – maybe I had learnt something and decided to pace myself.  I don’t think so – methinks the traffic on the road made me go slow instead.

2)      the first 4 kms are essentially 5-6%, then the mountain kicks up and doesn’t let up for a total climb distance of 30km.

3)      Altitude gained 1.6km.  Height at the top 1912m.

4)      Cold and windy – you’d think I’d learn to bring even more stuff up.  Thus, I didn’t stay on the barren moonscape at the top of Ventoux.  I came back to just before Chalet Raynard (little restaurant and motel about halfway up). The Chalet is the intersection of a couple of ways up the mountain.  It is placed where the tree line starts to diminish.

5)      They say over 500,000 people were on the mountain that day.  At least 1 in 10 came on bikes.  I’d say there were easily 50,000 bikes there.

6)      It was windy – 50-70km/hr gusts, 30-40km/hr headwind for the last 3km.

7)      The descent was more dangerous than the ascent.  Took me 40mins to descend through the traffic and then I rode back to the hotel with a detour.  The detour was accidental.  I followed the wrong tour bus (the one to Avignon instead of Orange).  Never mind, last day of riding and I was finally feeling strong again.  I still beat our bus back to the hotel.

 

Sunday (yes nearly over) – Paris and the Champs Elysees

TGV into Paris.  The tour riders caught the TGV before us!  Got to see Cadel, Rogers, Contador, etc.  Closest I’d been to them all trip and the slowest they have passed me.

I’m never doing Paris again – well, not this way.  Crazy crowds.  We were told that if we wanted to see or be near the barrier we needed to pick our spot early.  How’s 1300 for a 1630 race that ends at 1515?  At least I got Heinrich Haussler again 😉 (pictured in the white – last on the train protecting Thor).  If you buy VIP tickets you’ll pay an extra 600 pounds for drinks/food and a grandstand seat (where you still may not be able to see the race).  The riders only go around the Champ Elysees 8/9 times so it’s a bit of an expensive experience in my opinion.

Had to find food for dinner

1)      Snails, duck and then a crème brulee.  Very yummy and I deserved it.

Would I do it again?????

1)      probably not anytime soon.  It was an experience but even though I was physically close I never felt so far away from the race compared with watching it on TV

2)      crowds and atmosphere amazing but for pure riding it was hard work (concentrating on dodging all those people).  I would like to do the climbs again without the tour being around.

3)      The waiting 3-4 hours for 5 minutes of racing gets tedious

Must do’s/don’ts

1)      don’t get sunburnt – personally wore 50+ throughout but those people on the first day who forgot were sore for the trip

2)      don’t bring your good cycling shoes – they’ll get hammered walking everywhere along the road, climbing the side of mountains for a better view, etc

3)      Coke is a man’s best friend when on a bike – I’m now sure of this.

4)      Food – plenty of it.  Even though I was sick of the French baguettes, I’m starting to miss it now.

5)      Seriously consider mortal gears and not the ones the tour riders use (like I did!).  Ronny, a compact with 50/34 and 25/12 at the back is all you’ll need.  I think a 53/39 and 27/12 would make it just as easy.  I’m glad I’m small – less weight to carry up every mountain.

6)      Bike clothes are all you need if you’re riding.  Wash and dry within a towel – dry usually by the next or following day.  I only took hand luggage for clothing (though I checked it in)

I’m told Spain and Italy grand tours are completely different.  You ride the course until 30minutes before the riders come.  The riders pass and then you can get straight back on your bike.  I’m glad I booked 2 weeks in Spain (in 3 and 4 star hotels – premium tour…..) and not the tour de France.  Even the guides say that for pure touring the Tour de France is the worst one.  But hey, it’s the tour and now I’ve done it.

Apologies for the photos – most were from my mobile because I didn’t want to carry the big camera on the climbs and there wasn’t room in my pockets.  I haven’t spell checked or grammar checked this email/attachment either.

Kenny