Day 6b

Lumpy, eh (see blog Day 6a). In talking with one of the pros serving as a guide for our group, he said, "Yeah, flat for around here. But, use your big ring, put some effort on the rollers and stretch your legs out a bit." Humm, I was skeptical, but believed him. Should have put the description in proper perspective, former Tour pro.

The first "roller" was the category 3 climb the Tour did this year just prior to the Tourmalet a couple of days ago; climbing 550 feet of elevation in 2 miles; an average grade of 5.2% with several sections in the 8-9% range. The next "roller" was a 800 foot climb over 5 miles, a constant 3% grade into a headwind with a nice kick at the end; 500 feet of the 800 occurred in the last 1.5 miles.

We then went down hill, a lot. Too much for my liking, because, what goes down… You got it, another bloody climb. Yep, I am picking up some Aussie-speak. To the best of my translation ability, "bloody" is generally synonymous with the adjective formation of the F-bomb, as in another BLOODY climb. The third climb of the day offered 1100 feet of climbing in 6 miles; an average grade of 3.5%. This time, the kick came at the start; 7-9% for about the first 2 miles, then a steady grade, again into a head wind. Heaps of fun, that one (a little more Aussie speak). But hey, that's what I'm here to do.

I learned that a 33 mile ride with 3,000 feet of climbing is a recovery ride (don't try to compute the math based on this summary, I did not include all the smaller ups and downs throughout the day). Thus far, in 5 days of riding I've logged 236 miles and 20,000 feet of climbing (nearly to the top of Mount Everest). We still have 8 days of riding remaining. I expect the climbing quantity to nearly triple. Tomorrow, we have another "recovery ride;" 62 miles and only 3300 feet of climbing. The big day will be on Sunday, Mt. Ventoux.

We watched the start of today's stage. We arrived in town early enough to mill around the team area prior to the start. Tried to get loads of photos, but there were tons of people swarming the teams. Garmin and Columbia were on the other side of the area from me. You needed to cross the course to get there, so I did not make it there. I did snap photos of Fabian Cancellara , Carlos Sastre, my boy Jens Voigt, Stuart O'Grady and several others. Cadel Evans came out of the camper, in the Yellow Jersey, the Aussies went nuts (he is Australian, if you did not know). He came over to the fence, shook a few hands and the body guards whisked him away.

We rode the bus to Carcassonne. Beautiful town. Think Spanish architecture mixed with the atmosphere of the Three Musketeers. This is the area around which the Musketeers thrived. I also got a new roommate, my bike. I had to say something to the tour directors. My roommate snored something awful. At most, I was getting 3 hours of sleep a night. This morning, I made a commitment to seek a remedy. They put me in a single room, for now at least. I offered to pay for a single the rest of the trip. Imagine knocking all this out on 3 hours of sleep a night.

Day 6a

Had some time to post a quick message this am. We have a short ride today; I could use the break. It is a 55km ride (34 mi). The ride is considered "lumpy;" meaning rollers, but large rollers. We are riding out to the start of today's stage, Lannemezan, watching the festivities of the race start, boarding the bus to Carcassonne. We'll be there for the next couple of day. Soon, we'll be attempting Mt. Ventoux. They say it is harder than Hautacam, greaaaaat.

Day 5 Tidbits

Ok, so you read the update, now for some stuff I found funny and some stuff I thought you'd find interesting; hope you enjoy…

Laundry...

With 5 days in and 4 days riding, it was time to do the laundry. I had been stuffing the spent rounds into a plastic hotel laundry bag for the last 3 days. I threw the bag in the closet in the room. After today's ride, I decided it was time to do laundry. I opened the closet and the stench nearly knocked me through the wall. So, it was time. I collected my stuff (use another word here, it is likely more appropriate) and headed to the elevator. Fortunately, no one else was on the elevator, the smell would have killed them. I asked the front desk, in my best French (which is English), for directions to a laundromat. The desk clerk knew, immediately, how badly I needed to find the place. She gave me very specific directions to the nearest place; only a 15 minute walk. Guess what, all up hill! Damn!

Crazies on the Hautacam…

The first few climbs did not feature the day's Stage Finish. Hautacam did. More whackos, fewer Rastafarians; the cops were everywhere. But, it did not stop the dudes dressed up in lingerie from exposing themselves to EVERYONE. Ugh, could have done without that sight, especially when I am totally in the red on effort. The one cool, humorous event came from a group of boys about 10-12 years old. I rounded a hairpin turn, the road tipped up significantly. I was giving all I had. My face was dripping with so much sweat, it was as though I had a bucket of water dumped on me. The boys ran alongside me (they really could have walked, but pretended to be running to help me feel better), shouting "allez, allez, allez." One boy put his hand on my hip and pushed for several strides. I smiled and gave back an exhausted sounding "merci" as I exhaled (or rather panted). The kids and their parents all rolled with laughter. I smiled again, for only two or so pedal strokes, when Ms. Hautacam rudely reminded me that I had not finished my work for the day.

Freezing at 60 degrees...

On the climbs, you are putting out so much effort you are totally soaked in sweat from head to toe, at least I am. You feel like you are in 100+ degree heat, digging a ditch. When you peak the summit, imagine a 55-60 degree day, with wind blowing at 15-20 mph. You are freezing. That is why you see the pros putting on coats and all sorts of gear for the descent. I am averaging approximately 30 mph on the descent. The pros are doing 40+. This compounds the chilling effect. Now, do this at speed, shivering like mad trying to corner. Takes a fair bit of concentration, but well worth it.

Profound respect...

I thought I was in shape and prepared for this trip; scratch that, I know I am. I started training last November, after my other broken collar bone healed (also bike crash related). Since then, I have logged more than 5,000 miles on the bike; and most of the training has been pretty intense. I race locally and have ridden with some of the best riders in the area. The top riders in our area have always impressed me with their aerobic capacity and ability to ride fast and corner. After experiencing these climbs and watching the pro riders on the same routes, I am stunned. These boys are flying up the hills and still have the mental faculties to be mindful of attacks from other riders, respond to those attacks, watch for crazy fans, and contemplate their own moves. When they crest, they do not stop for water, apuse to catch their breath, or take pictures; they immediately head down the other side at breathtaking speeds; requiring even more mental focus, as they need to stay ahead of the road to anticipate the hairpin corners and faster descending riders. I may be a little biased, but this has to be the hardest race in the hardest sport I know. The aerobic capacity, raw strength, ability to process/execute team strategy and intra-race tactics is unreal. Now that the sport is cleaning up its act, I am hopeful more folks will gain an interest in the sport. The element that strikes me the most about these guys and the sport is the need to FOCUS; on the training, diet, race, proximity of other riders (elbow to elbow at speed), etc. If you get nothing else out of this blog, or from trying to catch some TdF time on the television, I'd like for you to appreciate what these guys are doing and try to study their faces.

These boys are clean...

One of the guys in the group with which I am touring is the physician who developed the drug testing protocols for Team Garmin (formerly Slipstream) and Team Columbia (formerly Team HighRoad, formerly T-Mobile, which had some drug testing problems). Both Garmin and Columbia are US based teams. He has talked about it quite openly and believes the sport is nearing the point where we are getting all the drugs out of the sport (now that I say that, watch someone bust). He also commented, and it may seem biased, but that it took the US based team's to lead the way. From the white face and blank stare on Mark Cavendish's face on the Hautacam, I would say that he is one sprinter who is not doping. Cavendish is a sprinter for Columbia and has won 2 stages in this year's race. On the climb up Hautacam, Cavendish had a teammate with him to nurse him up the hill. His teammate was screaming at him to get up the hill; he looked more rubber brained than I felt after the Tourmalet.

Taking pulls...

"Taking a pull" is cycling lingo for taking a turn on the front. The second rider in a line of riders uses about 23% less energy to carry the same pace as the first guy in the line of riders; the second rider uses about 30% less than the first rider. The benefit of being more than 3-5 back is not all that much more significant, but a 23-30% discount in energy used is a pretty good benefit. On the Hautacam, a group of 5 riders, pretty well off the back, came trolling up the hill. The lead rider was a fella from Team Cofidis. As the turned the corner on which I was sitting, the Cofidis looked back at the other 4 riders and yelled: "Is somebody else going to take a f!*^ing pull." No one came around. So, the Cofidis rider tried to put in a dig (put a gap on the other 4 riders); he failed, and the others did not respond - they were all too far back for it to matter.

Lantern Rouge...

The Lantern Rouge (Red Lantern) is the last guy in the race, both on the stage and across the combined 21 stages. The Lantern Rouge for the Houtacam stage was a lonely fella from Agritubel (a French agricultural organization). When he rolled past me, again a secluded area, he pulled off the road to, ahem, relieve himself. He must have consumed a ton of water on the day's stage, because it was a good long "relief." He then remounted his bike and proceeded up the hill. The funniest thing about it all is that the end of the race has about 4 cars filled with race officials and media. They all had to stop and wait. I love this sport!

Day 5

Sorry for all the typos in the original Day 4 post. The day's ride gave me rubber brain (an experience I relived again today). Hence, the post had many logic and grammatical issues. I think I fixed the logic, but make no warrants or representations on the grammar.

So, speaking of rubber brain (I guess I owe Murdock 2x $0.25 for each time I used the term I first learned from him). At the 8 mile point in today's ride, we turned the corner, I saw 17km to the Cul du Soulor. Son of a …. another 10 mile climb. This one was a bear on the first 5 miles, an easy, flat 1 mile in the middle and then another 4 miles of pain Captain Insane-O (Jamie Raddin, a great friend and coach) would have a hard time imagining. The last 4 miles took about 35 mins to climb, average grade of more than 8.5%. Oh, we weren't done yet. We descended 3 miles, then back up another 8 to crest the Cul d'Aubisque. More fun in the 34x25 (this is my gearing, 34 tooth on the front, 25 tooth on the rear; yep, I'm driving a compact crank - it's the only way to go). Aubisque is an epic climb for the Tour. The side we climbed was the less severe side; only 8-9% grades. On the back side, I saw the road tilting at 14% on the descent. This is the side the Tour ascended last year - no thanks. Nope, I am not making this stuff up. I am getting the data from my Garmin with GPS, so I think we're fairly accurate.

The top of the Soulor offers magnificent views. The Pyrenees are off the charts with beauty as well as the challenge of the climbs. The Pyrenees appear to be solid rock, granite I suppose, with lush, green, high mountain vegetation. Some sections are totally rock, some beautiful meadows. The meadows are filled with dairy cattle, goats and sheep of the region. They seemed to wander generally everywhere and you can hear their collar bells ringing throughout the region as the rock mountains provide a great sounding board to amplify the bells ringing. By everywhere, I do mean everywhere. We encountered several animals on the climb and the descent. You'd round a corner and there'd be a 2,000 lb animal. Not so bad when straining along at 5 mph on a 9% climb. A little more exciting when whipping around a sweeping corner on the descent at +45 mph. Yep, with the collar bone only a little over three weeks in the healing process, I am taking it easy on the descents. But, bombing the descent is the reward for all the effort on the climb. I'll deny myself some things; but not this. As my boy Keanu Reeves puts it in "The Replacements, " "Pain is temporary, chicks dig scars, but glory lasts forever." I count this as a win.

I can't wait to reduce the video from the last few days to another post on YouTube. I have not had the time, between riding, recovering and eating. I have had no time for seeing the sights of Lourdes, other than what I viewed riding through the city and the area these last few days. Lourdes is really beautiful, but I am a little disappointed with the commercialization of the religious significance of this city. It is like walking through the Disneyland of religion; the items offered for sale in the shops are cheap, look like trinkets and generally not worth purchasing, even for the symbolic significance. The Grotto and the Fortress are absolutely stunning; worth the trip to see. Between the majesty of the Pyrenees and the beautiful towns, this is a special place.

Day 4

Sorry for the late post. Day 3 was a moving day. Following the stage, we moved from Toulouse to Lourdes. It was a long enough bus ride to author the Day 3 post. Day 4 was a 'real' day of riding. Woke, ate and got straight to the ride. We rode 2/3s of the TdF stage today; one Cat 3 climb and 2 beyond category rating climbs. In all, 75 miles.

Well, today I tasked this body with more than I have in its 43 years. The body's response was less than the operator hoped for, but adequate to achieve the goals. The climb on Tourmalet was indeed off the charts. We hit the base after 23 miles of rolling hills and one category three climb; climbs are ranked 4, 3, 2, 1, and beyond category or HC. Tourmalet is an HC; 10 miles of 8.5% grade tilting to 9% at the summit with ABSOLUTELY NO grace anywhere along the route. Near the summit is a gorgeous ski village of La Mongie. Approximately 4k from the summit, my left leg was wretched in nearly a full cramp from the muscle on the inside of the knee, running all the way up the inner leg to the groin muscle. This was my first HTFU moment. I pushed through it to the summit, unreal pain. Doing this climb took more than an hour and the pros kill this climb in less than 1/2 the time.

We then rolled to the Hautacam, another HC climb and the finish for today's stage. I made it to within 6k of the summit when the police shut the course. I made it about 2/3s the way up this climb. Word is, the last 6k is an average grade of 10%+ with no grace. I had mixed feelings about not being able to summit this epic climb, but pretty sure the last 6k would have popped my cork.

Being stopped, I rolled back down the hill a bit, reaching a spot on the climb that put me in a GREAT place to watch the day's stage. I was situated in a secluded corner, near a rushing waterfall, with lots of lush vegetation and trees around. At the 2/3s point on the climb, I was in a perfect spot to watch the selection of elite riders when the attacks from the lead group began. If you watched the stage on Versus, I was the dude casually sitting on the ground along a rock wall at the 8.6k to go mark.

Awesome day! Body is definitely feeling the efforts. We still have 12 days of riding to go, 9 of them contain serious climbs. Awesome to experience all this, concerned about completing it all.

Day 3b

This was a great day in Toulouse/Lourdes area. Weather was cool and a little breezy, great day for climbing. We rolled out of the hotel and headed straight to the Col d'Aspin. We rode for 15 miles or so, then hit the 8.5 mile climb. The fun part about this adventure was the grade. First third of the climb at 6%, second third at an average of 7%, then topping it off at 8% for the last third. The people on the route were great. The cheered for all riding the climb, and there were hundreds attempting the climb and 10s of thousands along the route. The funniest part was about 2k left in the climb. There were about 12-15 Rastafarian looking dudes who appeared to be totally baked (stoned). The roamed out in the road and cheered me on, slapping me on the ass, it was so funny because both they and I knew it was all a big joke. It was really pretty hilarious. For the fellas on the team, the Col d'Aspin climb is a little like the back side, easier side of Hog Pen.

The ego boost of the day was the descent from the Col into the finishing town. We had 10k of pretty technical corners on the descent and then 15k rollers to flats with a modest head wind. Once I cleared the congestion of descending riders and people walking up the back side to find a spot to watch the race, I forgot about the brakes and let it fly - fun stuff. On the rollers and flats, I was riding it pretty hard with our group leader, Eric Van Lancker, Graeme Baxter, another former pro and friend of Eric's. We had about 10 of us in all from our group. I was taking pulls on the front rolling at 30+ mph until we hit the town; what a rush.

The Tour had an exciting day as well. The finishing town had a huge mob of folks and when the solo rider who, Ricardo Ricco, went off on the Col come into the last 150 meters, where I was standing, the crowd's roar was deafening. Unbelievable to see this event in person. The crows on the climbs are going nuts and in your face, the crowds in the town are going nuts, behind the barricades making more noise than a rock concert. Incredible.

Dinner tonight was also pretty special. Allan Davis came by for a 15 minute interview. Allan is a stud sprinter, formerly on Discovery (Armstrong's prior team). Allen is taking a year riding with Mitsubishi, but I'd expect him to be on Team Columbia next year.

Finally, I posted a boring video compilation from my first day's easy ride around Paris. It is a 2 minute video, pretty boring 2 minutes of your life you'll never get back, but it is only 2 minutes. With this as the selling point, how could you not view it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pKMmHFjXfE&feature=email.

Day 3a

I am hopeful to post 2x today. We had another early start, 6 AM. We have a 2hr bus ride to the mid point of todqy's stage. From there, we'll do the climb to Col d’Aspin, watch the stage finish, then ride to the hotel in Lourdes. The eats are great, I'll need the 100k (60 miles) today to burn all the calories I'm wolfing down. The French people have been great hosts and the Aussies are an easy going bunch of folks.

Day 2

Up at 5:00 AM local, pack your gear, load it on the bus, grab some coffee and board the bus for a 9 hour bus ride to the Pyrenees. Traffic in Paris today makes the US traffic (Boston, NYC, SFO, you name it) look fast. Added to that, this is a holiday weekend with Bastille Day on Monday. It took 14 hours to travel from Paris to Toulouse, 500 miles. The roads jammed with cars, toll booths and the French union laws for bus drivers. We are in a nice motor coach, but the union laws require a 30 minute break for the driver every 2.5 hours.

We are eating dinner tonight at the hotel, same hotel as Team Lotto; team for whom Cadel Evans, Robbie McEwen and Yaroslav Popovich race. It'll be pretty cool to catch one of those guys for a photo. Popo has been a favorite of mine for a few years. I'm sure it will be next to impossible with the focus the team has to put Cadel in Yellow. Cadel, flanked by two pretty large body guards, popped his head in during dinner to say hi to our group. We are about 40 in the group, 90% Aussie, who greeted Cadel's visit with a big ovation.

We are in the Pyrenees and I am sure the team for Alejandro Valverde will be extremely aggressive. The Pyrenees are typically the domain of the Spanish riders with huge throngs of Spanish fans supporting their team. Not only is Valverde Spanish, but rides for a Spanish team and this is the first time in a while they have had a real shot to win the GC with a Spanish rider/team. I'd look for Valverde to make a move in the Pyrenees, particularly since he is down 1:30 to Cadel at this point in the Trour.

Our ride group is led by Eric Van Lancker, a former pro with Team Panasonic in the mid/late 1980. He has ridden 7 times in the TdF, with 3 Tour stage wins to his credit, team time trials, and won 2 stages in the Giro d'Italia, Amstel Gold in 1989and Liege-Bastogne-Liege in 1990. He has been a team director for Lotto and currently works as team director for the US-based Team Navigators. Tomorrow, I expect to put him the pain box in the climb to Col d'Aspin. Well, at least one of us will be in the pain box. We are climbing the hard side, the side the Tour will race (I'll going a wee bit slower).

Day 1

Arrived in Paris on time, bags made it, bike traveled fine. Clearing customs was easier than clearing TSA on a domestic flight in the US. The tour group organizers were exactly on time for the pick up at the airport to the hotel. The hotel was not so prepared. First task, assemble the bike. Then took a 25 mile spin along a tributary of the Sien towards Paris.

First day was pretty uneventful. Everything is off the charts expensive. The hotel has WiFi, but it is for a fee. So the better option was through Orange, a telecom provider. The fee is 15 Euro for 10 hours of internet access. A pint of beer at the hotel was 8 Euro (figure it takes $1.65 to buy 1 Euro). So, no beer for me; I'm way to cheap and it was not The King (Bud).

The median age of the group is likely young 40s. The tour group is out of Australia, so 90% of the group is from Aussie-land. I met some pretty cool folks on the first ride. Kind of interesting meeting 40 strangers and then being assigned a roommate for the next 20 days. Yep, we're sharing rooms throughout the trip. Though not much in common, we get along reasonably enough. Being Aussie's the entire group is really behind Cadel Evans for the Yellow Jersey. I fit in well with the group since he is my fav for the Tour. He finished 2nd last year to Contador by a minute and a half. I think he has a stronger team this year, so hopefully he'll pull it out. I'd really like to see one of the US Teams (Garmin or Columbia) win the Yellow Jersey, but I do not think their general classification rider is strong enough to pull it off. I am pretty encouraged that the US Teams have a decent chance at winning the best Team competition.

The Grand Depart

Rode for 2.5 hrs last night, moderate pace. Organized my piles to pack, but did not pack anything until this morning. Still need to break the bike down, but took a break to post and articles and get some breakfast: Cheerios, blueberries, and chocolate chips. Breakfast of champions, particularly the chocolate chips; semi-sweet.

I have to say, even though there is a ton going on right now, I am pretty amped for this trip and fairly focused on the training benefit this trip will offer. The sights, towns, race and people will be intriguing, but from a fairly selfish perspective, the anticipated training benefit and experience of working the climbs holds the strongest entertainment value for this 'vacation'. As with most things in life, I am sure there will be surprises along the way that may changes this perspective. I look forward to these 'surprises' and will do my best to share the experience through articles posted on the blog.

Final Prep

Did not ride on Tues, took the day off. Four hard days in a row was giving the shoulder some pain. I think it is all muscular, not the injury. The body wants to compensate for not being able to use the parts it normally wants to use. As a result, the body's compensation caused other muscles stress and are a little sore. This too shall pass. I am so looking forward to this experience. Good news, I think the legs and lungs are ready.

Please try to get updates on the Tour de France itself. It is incredibly exciting this year. There are no clear favorites and with two US teams (Garmin and Columbia)doing so well it would be good to give the sport more suppport. The Stage 3 race performance by Will Frischkorn, Team Garmin, was awesome! He was in a 4-man break from mile 0 on a 123 mile race. This is this kid's first TdF and only got word of his opportunity to participate 9 days prior to the start. You could see he was totally gassed at the end, but digging like crazy for the finish line. He finished second by less than 1/2 a wheel length. Meanwhile, his team director was in the announcer's booth going nuts rooting for his guy to win. Yesterday, Will's teammate from Garmin, David Millar, had a great result in the individual time trial race. Stayed tuned, more to come...

Hill Repeats

Rode on Sat with Greg Anderson, the Cat 1 rider from Cali in town for the US Masters National Championships. Good ride, two hours, three good climbs in the area. I was working hard, Greg just spinning up the climbs. Always impressive to ride with guys who have such a huge engine. Today's ride was a solo effort with the iPod doing hill repeats on my favorite climb in the area, Oregonia. It is a 2 mi climb, moderate pitch. Rode big ring 21, mashing a big gear at low rpm. Trying to simulate the efforts I'm likely to experience at the end of this week. For those new to cycling, hill repeats are the two words which bring a wry smile to any cyclists' face. You work hard up the hill, turn around at the top, ride to the bottom, do it again. The magic (pain) is to meet or beat your best time each time up. After 5 repeats, it was time to head home.

In the afternoon, I watched the Team Dayton Crit. My team, Team Abundance, had some mates in the race. Team Dayton does a great job with race organization. Lots of really good folks on that team. The 4s did well with Zach-man taking 3rd. While he was our only podium in the 4s, we had a few more in the top 10. The 3 race was a bit more eventful. A crash on the last lap took out about 12 folks, with two pretty serious injuries. The injured riders appeared to be OK, but likely a broken bone or two. We had one casualty on our team; the crash took out Bill Childers. Bill wrote later this afternoon to report road rash but generally OK. Bad news, the bike is broken badly. Ryan Good, from Team Abundance took 3rd in the 3s. Not to toot the horn too much, but Team Abundance has 7 riders in the top 10 cat 4 riders in the state (1,3,4,5,6,7,10). We also have the #1 ranked Cat 3 road race cyclist and #1 ranked Cat 3 crit race cyclists. To quote Ryan Good, "We have one dankk ass team." I'm not up on my hip-hop lingo, but apparently being 'dankk ass' is a good thing.

Sorry for the mundane today, but a really good friend told me the key to a good blog is to post, post, post. Hopefully, I'll have more exciting stuff to come. For now, I feel like the posts are a little too much like Doogie Howser's journal. If it really gets boring, I'll describe the experience of cleaning the run-ins for the 10 cows we have on the property. The run-ins are a stable-like structure for the cows to take refuge from the weather. It is also the place where we have the water feeder. The cows spend A LOT of time there - use your imagination.

Independence Day Ride

First ride on the road since breaking the collar bone 13 days ago. The weather was awful, 65 degrees (F), rainy, slick roads. Not likely the smartest adventure with a cracked collar bone on the mend, but I committed to some teammates and a rider in from out of town, Greg. Greg rode with a few of my teammates on Tues. Greg is a Cat 1 from California. He is staying with his dad and competing in the Masters National Championships in Louisville, KY. We rode approx 38 miles.

My doc was right, damn it. With only 13 days into the healing process, I really have no strength in the left arm. We were 45 mins into the 2 hour ride, the road was wet, the rain pretty steady and glasses a bit fogged over when I hit a small pot hole. Damn! it was like fire coursing through my shoulder. I had to stop pedaling and asked Greg to hold up a bit. We resumed the ride after soft pedaling for a minute or so. I need to be more attentive on the road, but I know I can do the miles; just need to be a little more cautious to avoid problems. I have another week to allow more healing. We did 3 decent climbs in the local area and I managed the distance and pace reasonably well.

I also received the Oregon Scientific action camcorder. It has a mount for the handlebars. It works pretty well and using the Microsoft Windows Movie Maker, I was able to easily dub some music over the video to create a .WMV file with integrated action and music. I am looking forward to providing scenes from the race and rides.

Gratuitous Plug

While this trip is not sponsored by Cole Products, Wheelie Fun or Abundance Investor Coaching Systems, I wanted to share the love.

My friend Bill Danishek helped me land Cole Products as a sponsor for our local race in Springboro, Oh. Cole came through big for the race. Not only did they sponsor the largest purse in the region for a single day, Spring road race, but they also provided five wheel sets for us to give away as prems or other incentives. While we had 200 riders across 5 racing categories, the value of the support Cole provided likely exceeded any marketing value they derived from the event. As a result, I took it as a personal mission to help get the word out about the company and their dedication to promoting cycling, amateur racing and quality products. Please visit their site and check out their products http://www.cole-products.com.

My local bike shop, Wheelie Fun (the best bike shop in the world), has been fantastic. They are the best shop I've visited for not selling you a bike, but helping you buy the right bike for your body type and riding style. Bob Duncan, an awesome coach and bike builder, and Dave Bordewisch, the master mechanic and great friend, keep me on the road riding the very tasty Veritas, a bike designed and built by Bob Duncan.

My team's sponsor Mark Matson and his company Abundance Investor Coaching Systems have been incredible supporters. Mark's ambition in business and in cycling is highly motivating. Not only has he built an incredibly successful business, but he races and hammers on the training rides with the strongest on the team. Few know, however, that he is doing it with two hip replacements and 2.5 pounds of titanium in each hip. His support for the team has been generous and I'd like him to know how much we appreciate it.

And for the fellas on Team Abundance, thank you all for your contributions to the team and the sponsors. We have a great team of riders and quality people. While I'll miss a few races over the next few weeks, I look forward to returning and contributing to the team's efforts in Aug and Sep.

Epic Ride Plan

The following table highlights each day's ride, the planned distance and the primary feature on the ride. The cycling fanatics will likely appreciate the names of the climbs planned for this trip. My goal is to blog about each day's event and capture video throughout the experience from a handlebar mounted camera. I hope you enjoy the material.

Day	Distance	Lodging Location	Today’s Feature
Friday, 11 July	40 km	Paris	Paris Countryside
Saturday, 12 July	No ride	Toulouse	Bus transfer to Pyrenees
Sunday, 13 July	70km	Lourdes	Col d’Aspin
Monday, 14 July	130km	Lourdes	Col du Tourmalet, Hautacam
Tuesday, 15 July	110km	Lourdes	Col d’Aubisque, Col du Soulor (the TdF has the day off, may as well get a look at some climbs in the area)
Wednesday, 16 July	50km	Carcassonne	In/around Lannemezan today’s race start location
Thursday, 17 July	100km	Carcassonne	Pic de Nore
Friday, 18 July	100km	L’Isle sur la Sourge	Vendargues several rollers to the TdF stage finish
Saturday, 19 July	70km	L’Isle sur la Sourge	In/around the towns of Roussillon and Gordes, watch the stage at feed zone
Sunday, 20 July	80km	L’Isle sur la Sourge	Mont Ventoux
Monday, 21 July	40km	Les Deux Alpes	Day off for the tour in Cuneo, IT. We’ll do a local loop around Fontaine de Vaucluse. Bus to the Alpes.
Tuesday, 22 July	140km	Les Deux Alpes	Galibier, Telegraphe, CroixDeFer, DeuxAlps (looks like a day for Metallica on the iPod)
Wednesday, 23 July	75km	Les Deux Alpes	Alpe d’Huez
Thursday, 24 July	120km	Clermont-Ferrand	Relatively flat day, rolling terrain around Bourg d’Oisans
Friday, 25 July	120km	Clermont-Ferrand	Relatively flat day, rolling terrain around Vichy
Saturday, 26 July	110km	Bourges	Boussac-Bourg, Briante, Pouligny and Culan to the finish of today’s Time Trial in Saint Amand Montrond
Sunday, 27 July	-0-	Paris	Watching the finish, 1355 km (850mi) is enough