Day 16

On Day 15 we drove from a business travel hotel and town to Amboise, a town in the center of castle country and which had a castle of its own in the center of town. It was far more relaxing and we had dinner at a nice restaurant near the outer walls of the castle. The restaurant specializes on crepes for dessert. I could not offend the house, so I had a crepe with Grand Marnier. On Day 16, we covered a lot of ground. We visited 2 castles or palaces and drove 1.5 hours to the finishing town for the day's race, the time trial.

The castles were awesome. One was started in 1515 and took nearly 150 years to complete. It has bits of gothic and renaissance elements to it. It was initially built as a hunting lodge by the king who started it, but Louie the XIV finished it and turned it into one hell of a lodge. It was quite impressive. The most notable features were its 77 stone spiral staircases. Probably the newest innovation of the time, so it was over used; but still cool.

The second castle was built across a river. It was interesting to see the use of 4 archways traversing the river as the supporting foundation. The castle itself was then built on top of the arches. The grounds were the most notable aspect of this castle. The gardens were spectacular. There were two primary gardens. Both had water features. One garden used red flowers for the primary color and highlighted it with white rose bushes and greenery. The other garden used yellow flowers as the primary color and highlighted it with lavender and other greenery. I liked the yellow garden the best.

On to the time trial. The day time temperatures were hot, wicked hot and hard to find shade for shelter. We arrived at the finishing city with about 2 hours left in the race. We had a great parking spot and position on the race course. We parked within 3 blocks of the 1 km to go kite, and walked about 600-800 meters towards the finish to sit near the 250 m to go point, right after a chicane on the course. It was an incredible view of the racers. The cyclists were hammering; covering the 53 km in just over an hour; for non-cyclists, this is really moving. The last 2-3 km were pretty flat and the boys were smoking along at nearly 60 km/hr. The sound coming from the bikes and the look on the faces of the racers created an awesome sight and sound. Sastre had the ride of his life and retained the Yellow Jersey. No one would attack him on the last day. He will win the TdF this year.

Day 15 TidBits

Off the front…

There's off the front and then there is really off the front. 'Off the front' is a term we use to describe a rider who puts in a huge attack on the group (peleton) and then gets significantly far enough ahead that the rider is considered 'off the front' in a way to be in a good position to win the race. My friend Jamie is often off the front putting us all in the race or ride trying to chase him in a significant amount of difficulty. The past few weeks have offered me the opportunity to watch the truly gifted athletes in the TdF hammer off the front and put huge gaps into some of the top riders in the field. It is simply amazing to watch these guys open huge gaps in such a short amount of time. It is really hard to appreciate how fast these guys can accelerate by watching on TV. I have also seen some average looking guys in our group just completely hammer up these climbs. A fella named Bruno, a 50 year old Frenchman, is one such guy. On nearly every ride, this 5'5", 165 pound guy tears up climb after climb. As I commented when riding with Greg Anderson, see post on Hill Repeats, it is always inspirational to ride with guys with huge aerobic engines. You know you too can get there, it is just a simple matter of training. So, no matter your vocation, train hard and get off the front in your own competition - its well worth the view, I'm told.

Managing cramps...

In the Day 4 post I complained of significant cramping in my legs on the climb to "Tore-my-legs-off" (Tourmalet). I consulted the former pro rider leading our group about ways to manage or mitigate cramps, other than water (I believed I was hydrating myself well enough). His advice, "Train more." Great, sounds like my friend and coach Jamie. So, I regressed to a prior experience, my days in wrestling. When I wrestled in high school, I would drop a lot of weight the week leading up to a match. Obviously, most of the weight loss was water weight. When subsequently putting the body under the strain of competition, the muscles would sometimes seize with cramps due to lack of good hydration and proper nutrition. To combat the cramping, I would typically dose myself with aspirin about 45 minutes prior to my bout. This would thin the blood a little bit and help combat cramps. Well… works in cycling too. Over the past few days on significant climbs, I'd drop 4 aspirin in the water bottle, add some PowerBar mix for sugar and minerals and top off with water. I consumed this special concoction over the first 1.5 hours of the ride. While I experienced muscle fatigue, I did not cramp. I also concentrated on good hydration pre/post ride and tried to add a little extra salt to the food. The combination seemed to work. Not a long term solution, but the combination of tactics really helped me perform on the rides this past 10 days.

Training metrics...

One of the important elements of this trip for me, besides the experience, was the training benefit the trip offered. Over the last two weeks I've been on the bike for 39 hours of total riding time. I am sure I spent more time with the bike, but this is a riding time only metric. In the 39 hours, I covered 580 miles and 49,000 feet of climbing. I am done with riding for the week. I am short of the contemplated 800+ mile goal, but I think I got my money's worth. In all, I think I consumed more than 450 baguettes, and still counting.

Expected benefits...

I expect this trip to improve my aerobic engine significantly. When you are working a climb for 1.5-2 hours with your heart rate at the very high end of your aerobic range, while intermittently operating over it, you expect it to translate the activity into a bigger overall engine which will operate at a higher capacity when returning to the racing environment. For me, this will be the races in late Aug and Sept. We'll see what happens. In short though, I now know a lot better what I can do and know that I can do just a little more when needed at race time. I expect I'll retain the training benefits even though I will not be riding for the next week. I will, however, continue my assault on the supply of available baguettes and all the other rich food of the regions we visit.

Day 15

Day 15 was a travel day. The fam and I got out of the Holiday Inn and drove three hours towards Paris. We are in an area called Loire. This is castle central for France. There are dozens of fairy tale looking castles and palaces throughout the region. We'll spend some time touring this area tomorrow. I'd love to make it to watch the time trial tomorrow as well, but not sure we'll make it or not. I'd suggest watching it if you have the opportunity. The top three riders are not known for their time trial abilities. The currently placed riders in positions 5-6 have some strong skills in this discipline. The excitement will be to see whether the riders in positions 4-6 can win by a sufficiently large enough margin in this one race to take over the top spot. It should be close. I am hoping for a close enough finish that the race on Sunday is more than a ceremonial ride.

Typically the tour winner has a commanding enough lead going into the last day, Sunday, that the race is more ceremonial than a meaningful race. The lead is sufficient large that while the race is contested for the win for the stage, the overall leaders ride the race simply to stay out of harms way of the sprinters and make it across the line to complete the race. It would be cool to see this race hotly contested. We have VIP tickets in the grandstands on the finishing area on Sunday. I am sure it will be a great day regardless.

We are currently staying in a small town named Amboise. It is largely a rural area, surrounded by rolling hills. The town is smaller than the cities surrounding Dayton, with no real industry here. It is hard to compare these towns with cities in the US. Each town is pretty unique with it own ecosystem of sorts. The towns are highly concentrated and not nearly as spread out (roomy) as towns/cities in the States. Most survive off tourist dollars and if the people are not involved in the tourist industry, they commute to the larger cities for work. The streets are narrow, very narrow. The shops and eateries close around 8 PM. On the walk to diner through the winding streets and past the many shops, I noticed people walking home from work, stopping off at a local bakery to grab a baguette, I assume for dinner or breakfast. It seemed odd to me that they'd walk home with their oversized bread sticks wrapped only in a napkin. It is interesting to me to see how differently life is lived outside our little corner of the world. I hope the boys notice it as well.

In the center of town is an old castle. The city streets radiate out from the castle, the former center of town life, and meander in an irregular path out of town. Along the routes, the streets are lined with shops, apartments and houses. Mostly brick and stone structures, the buildings are colored with the many planter boxes with bright red and pink geraniums and other flowers. Pretty cool, and fairly typical postcard perspective of what you'd expect in a small French town.

Day 14

I am posting day 14 on day 15. Sorry for the delay. Day 14 started GREAT, ended so-so. The ride was awesome. We did a 73.5 mi ride, 85% of it was on the race course, with another 2,000 feet of climbing. We rolled through the stage start, conquered the Cat 3 climb, and rolled through to the feed zone to watch the race shortly past the feed zone. The pace was hot, we averaged 21 mph across the 73 miles. For a normal club ride, this is a pretty good pace. Including a Cat 3 climb in the mix as well makes me feel pretty good about the ride. I actually feel I am getting stronger through the last couple of weeks. I took enough rest days (2) to recover from the extremely hard rides to make the longer days with moderate climbing a day on which I can get high productivity from the legs.

So what is a Cat 3 climb, relative to the monsters I climbed earlier in the week. It is climbing 1200 feet in elevation on a 3.0 mile climb, an average grade of 8%. It is short in length, steep at the beginning, softens at the end. It was a great climb and I felt really comfortable. I think my average speed was in the 6-8 mph range, which is pretty good, for me.

The ego boosting event of the day came prior to the climb. We steamed along at a strong pace of 22-24 mph on the mostly flat route. I was throwing water down regularly, but there was no break in the pace. At about mile 56, my bladder finally cried mercy. I pulled off the back of our 12 man group and stopped to relieve the bladder pressure. I was a little discouraged because I believed there would be no way to catch back on. Another rider, Ben, had the same idea, but perhaps a mile or so earlier. As I was getting back on the bike, he was passing me. I jumped to his wheel and suggested we hammer as hard as we can to catch back on. He agreed. We took turns mashing the pedals for 2.5 miles at an average pace of 25-27 mph, 1 km of which was a modest climb. We caught the group of 10 who were well up the road. We were impressed with ourselves and the group was surprise to see us. While pleased to be back on the group at mile 58.5, the climb started at mile 60.5. Only 2 miles of recovery, at the same hot pace we maintained for the first 56 miles prior to the climb. So, not really a great opportunity to recover. I felt great on the climb and rode hard. Very pleased for what I determined was my last ride of the trip.

The so-so part of the day was the hotel in Cleremont-Ferand (sp?). It was a Holiday in Express, ugh! It was a room for 2, with an added bed. It was crowded for 2, let alone 4. We piled in, but determined pretty quickly that this was not the place for us. We called an audible on the play and began planning the deviation to the travel plan before dinner. More to come on the updated plan.

Day 13

Nothing to report regarding a ride. Today, I chilled with the fam. It is Matt's 19th birthday and we spent it waiting for 5 hours for the Tour to roll through. We began the day with a 2 km walk up Alpe d'Huez to a little beyond the first switchback. The fam was huffing and puffing. They got a little taste of climbing these hills. We hung out there for a bit and then drifted back down to the base of the climb. It was a warm day and sunny. We found a spot in the shade in a bend of the road just before the real start of the climb.

Matt and I walked about a mile into the nearest town to gather some groceries. While there, we also snagged some camper seats, to avoid sitting on the ground and some rice mats to roll out and relax a bit while waiting for several hours. We also grabbed the vacation staples: cookies, pringles, coke, kit-kat bars, water and for the junk food part of the meal, nectarines. We killed time until the Tour Caravan rolled past. This is the caravan of cars with media and sponsors of the TdF. They throw all kinds of trinkets. We had some decent separation between the group of people prior to us and our spot. It is a little like a moving Halloween. As the Caravan rolls past, they throw things to the crowd. Since we had some space, the throwers had some time to re-load. We got a fair share of loot (junk). I think the fam was entertained by this.

Then the race came through. It was a hot pace. There were three off the front (I think), by about 1:30. All of the leaders were in a group of 25 or so, including 4 members from Team CSC. The CSC boys are hammers. Stuart O'Grady led them down the descent from Galabier. Cancellara then led them up the long ascent of Criox de Fer. This boy is a TT man, not a climber. He was able to stay on through the top to reattach to the lead group during the descent. Heading into the climb, it was Cancellara, Sastre, Andy Schleck and Frank Schleck. Cadel Evans was behind this train as was Christian Vandevelda. Shortly after they past us, Sastre launched up Alpe d'Huez. He won the stage by a massive margin (for this late in the tour and for a mountain stage where the leaders were all together at 15 km to go). He not only passed the few riders off the front 1:30 ahead of him, but put another 2:30 on the leaders. This caused the Yellow Jersey to change hands, but not teams. Frank Schleck out of Yellow, onto to Carlos Sastre. They made this climb look easy. It is truly impressive to watch these boys race uphill. The TV simply does not do it justice.

Tomorrow should be an easy day. Our plan is to ride 70 miles, 60% of which will be on the course tomorrow. We'll be stopping at the feed zone to wait for the tour. The fam will meet us there. This should be a good day to snag some souvenirs. As the riders roll past, they toss away water bottles, their feedbags and other junk. If we position the boys correctly, we should be able to get a few items. I think the boys are enjoying the experience.

Day 12

Sorry for the late post on Day 12, but I was too bloody tired to do much of anything after the ride. Yesterday was the epic ride of all epic rides. It was by far the hardest day on the bike I have ever experienced. I rocked the Alps for 97 miles. It took 7 hours and 20 minutes, but I climbed Galibier, Telegraphe, Croix de Fer and Alpe d'Huez. Yep, you got it 3 HC climbs and one smaller climb. And, I rode them in that order. So, Alpe d'Huez LAST. It was a bone crushing day with over 8,500 feet of climbing. This is essentially the same route the TdF will ride today, July 23rd. However, they will do a total of 210 km, 130 miles. They will start in Grenoble and roll to the base of Galibier. Yesterday, I started approx 1/3 up the climb to Cul du Galibier. Grenoble is on the other side of the mountains from where we are staying. We made our way towards the race route and intercepted it on the way to Grenoble, unloaded the bikes and began the epic day. Trust me, I did not miss those 33 extra miles. I'll try to describe each climb.

Galibier was tough only because we started at the 10 km to go point (6 miles). The pitch was already steep and no warm up. You spent the first 3 km of the climb getting the heart rate up and finding your climbing rhythm. It was shaping up to be a cold day and I was prepared. It was sunny, but the wind was strong and much cooler temperatures in the Alps. It was about 50 degrees at the start. I wore bib shorts, ss jersey, a vest, arm warmers, a wind jacket and gloves, fingered gloves. At the start, the jacket and gloves were packed in my back pocket. I wore the vest, but rode with it unzipped and open (looked like a very chic Euro cyclist), that would change. As we approached the top of the climb, the wind was whipping hard. As you hit the switchbacks you either had a strong head wind, or some wind to help push you up the climb. At the top, it was insufferable. Sweaty and not fully buttoned up, the wind was chilling you to the bone. I took one photo, zipped up the vest and got outta there. The descent was a rocking 25 km descent. You'd think this would be fun. At the top, your focus is pretty intense because you are freezing and your body shivering as you try to manage the speed and the corners. But, you want off this mountain to warmer temps. As you hit the lower slopes, your back, arms and hands are pretty fatigued from holding on, braking and managing the bike around the turns. I'd almost rather be climbing again, well, almost.

Telegraphe, after all the long climbs, was an 'easy' 6 km climb with a comfortable 5.5% average grade. It was basically a small climb on the descent from Galibier. We rocked it so fast I was surprised when we completed it. We rolled down the mountain for another 10 km to a small town where we snagged a coffee and mentally prepared for Croix de Fer.

It was a cat fight on Croix de Fer. This is a long, bloody climb, 19 miles of climbing to be precise. As you go, the pitch keeps increasing. It starts at 5-7%, hard to believe I now find that a comfortable incline, then it tips to 8-9.5 for the next 'forever' number of miles. The mountain keeps coming at you for 2 solid hours of climbing. As you start doing the math in your head on the time/distance to crest the climb, you think to your self there is no way you did the math correctly. You then check it and damn, you were right the first time. Heart pumping and sweat pouring from all over you body; this was a hard climb. The length make this climb so much more mentally challenging than some of the others. You know the work remaining and you also know the pitch will not get any more forgiving. Each time Ms Croix de Fer took a swing, Ms Veritas would swing back and eventually we got to the top. At that point, I was 4:45 into this epic ride and 53 miles down. While munching on a sandwich, I was calculating the remaining work. Did I really want to ride the next 25 miles to the base of Alpe d'Hues and then did I really want to climb for 9 more miles on this epic finishing climb of the Tour. I decided to head that way and make the call when I got there. If I bailed, the bus was meeting us at the base of Alpe d'Huez anyhow, I could lick my wounds there and get on with the next day.

At the base of Alpe d'Huez, the mountain beckoned and Ms Veritas was eager and urging the legs to have at it. I topped off the water bottles at a faucet near some port-o-lets. I had no idea whether it was good water, but plenty of other riders were filling, so I followed suite. With a full complement of water, off I went. The 4th climb of the day. The first 4 km of this climb are a beast; grades of 10.2, 10.6, 10.4, and 10.0 respectively. The climb then moderates to a rather constant 7-9%; nice. The legs were burning. By my calculations, I figured I'd reach the top at the 87.25 cumulative mile point for me on today's ride. When I started the climb I was at 77.5.

So, how do you get through this. At each 1/4 mile point, I grab 2 harder gears, that's right harder gears, get out of the saddle and stand, pedaling 1-2-3; 1-2-3, 1-2-3; find the next easier gear, remain standing and pedal 1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2-3; then get back in my easiest gear, sit and grind to the next 1/4 mile point. The 1-2-3 is a pretty slow 1-2-3; at this point I am spinning a cadence of 55-60 rpm, so each stroke is about a second. It takes nearly 10 minutes to complete a mile. The reward is taking a drink after each set. This rhythm and tempo keep you hydrated, focused on interim objectives and using different muscles so as not to break down from remaining seated the entire ride. First you concentrate on getting the miles to go into single digits, then to 5 miles; hell, anyone can ride 5 miles. Next I looked for 3 miles; anyone can ride 5 km. Then I am desperately seeking a mile to go; then 1 km. As you go, the crowds grow larger and urge you on. It all helps get you to the top. As you near the top, you see the preparations for the finishing 1 km; the barrier gates, the signage, the grand stands, the television platforms, etc. Adrenaline takes over and you imagine you are riding off the front, having dropped all the competition and heading for the stage win. You complete the mission and indeed won the day.

Alpe d'Huez toys with you the entire route. At each switchback (and there are 21 of them) there is a tribute to each rider who has won a stage of the TdF on Alpe d'Huez. To help you out, the French have numbered each point. You got it, you start at 21 and begin counting down. Its like a big tease the entire way up. After 21, the first marker, which happens to feature Lance Armstrong, you think to yourself, oh hell, I got 20 more of these to go. After number 13 or so, it becomes a real tease. You search like crazy for the next turn and the distances are not consistent. Some are short, other are LONG! The long gaps are typically preceded by steep grades. It is a great climb. As you near the top, the switchbacks become closer to each other and you can see the remaining turns with about 4 to go. Your spirits lift, you feel a sense of achievement because you know you are close and you know you are going to complete it; yet you are still 3 miles away. Once you complete the last switchback, you have about 1.5 km (1 mile) to get to the finish line. It is a little more level, but through the alpine village atop Alpe d'Huez and jammed with people doing all sorts of things: painting the street for their favorite rider, drinking a beer from a pub watching all the action, meandering around with apparently no idea of the struggle you're having and generally not paying attention to anything.

I reached the top of this beast, the 4th of the day. It truly was the hardest, longest day I've had on the bike. It was also the most fulfilling and fun (now that it was over). I sustained a bit of an injury on the climb. My right calf was severely strained, just from the effort, not from any impact. So strained that I can feel a golf ball size lump and the area is showing sings of a significant bruise, almost 2" in diameter. I know when it occurred. At signpost 7 on Alpe d'Huez. The road tipped up (a 9%er), it was a 1/4 mile marker for me. I got out of the saddle and jammed 1-2-3 and felt my calf muscle twinge. It hurt pretty bad, I thought it was the onset of cramps, but kept pressing. The cramps never came and the strain of the mountain made me forget about the leg, until I got back to the hotel. Man, is it sore and bruised. I am taking Weds off, spending it seeing the sights and watching the race with the fam.

Day 11 Tidbits

Kind of boring today

Rest stops…

The rest stops along the way are a unique experience. If you recall, we need to stop every 2 hours for a 30 minute break for the driver. We typically stop at a rest stop with a grassy area typical of rest stops in the US, but they also have services; such as, gas station, small restaurants, bathroom facilities, etc. Some are popular stopping point and are over crowded with cars and people. The people seldom see the need to wait in line to use the facilities. The entire area becomes a facility. The stench is everywhere. Lovely for a 30 minute break. The facilities are also a unique experience. Few have actual commodes. While they may have urinals, the 'other' facility is basically a piece of 2' x 3' porcelain on the ground with a hole towards the rear of the base for the, ahem, deposit. On either side of the porcelain base, towards the front are markers for feet placement. I found them unsuitable for use. As refined a the Euros, the French in particular, pretend to be in the international community, they lack a significant level of basic decency in so many other areas. The US has its issues to be sure. But I find it particularly disappointing when people act so indignant with the behavior of others when they have so many warts themselves. This is one item I am working to improve - checking myself so as not to be too hypocritical.

Cleanliness…

The climb to the Hautacam was littered with people for 14 km. The people were partying and throwing their garbage everywhere. The Tour Caravan is an interesting event. It is a caravan of all the team vehicles, sponsors and entertainment that rides the ENTIRE route staying about 1 hour ahead of the lead group of riders in the race. Along the route, the Caravan participants throw souvenir items to the crowd. The items range from goofy trinkets, pens, and newspapers to team shirts, hats, and more collectible items. Many of the items are retained by the spectators, more is discarded along the road. The next morning, several in our group went back to the Hautacam to attempt the climb again. The overwhelming comment was that they did not see one piece of trash on the route. Pretty impressive for how little the French otherwise seem to work.

Day 11b

The Alps are stunning. They are considered young mountains formed by the collision of the continental plates of Europe and Africa mash together . (I think this is correct. I read it on the Internet, so it must be true.) The peaks are sharp with jagged edges. The faces are craggy with many water fall lines running the length of the peaks. In some places, you can see layer upon layer of rock. It was as if liquid rock was poured in a pile. The rock was allowed to cool, then the next layer poured on. The shape of the mountain takes the shape of the underlying hardened lump. Then, keep doing this until you are at 8,000 feet. Eventually, the peak you form is pointed and sharp. Just like in Colorado, you can watch the weather change as you enjoy a coffee. The clouds surround the summits as the sun works to break them up. The clouds slowly keep their steady pace of enveloping the peaks and eventually win out towards the end of the day.

We are atop Les Deux Alpe. It is a sister peak to Alpe d'Huez. Starting at the village at the bottom, each day we'll have an 18 km climb to the hotel. This is not unlike Rod's logistics the year we had team training camp in Georgia at the top of Neil's Gap. This is about 2x as long and an average grade of 6.2%, so a bit steeper as well. Rod, this is your kind of place. Now, put the village of Helen, Ga atop the climb and you have the setting here, with huge snow covered, cloud shrouded peaks in nearly every direction. Pretty awesome scenery. Since this is the off season, we got a pretty good deal on the best hotel in the area. It is a well appointed place. The only disadvantage is that it is at the very highest point in town. So, after doing the 18 km to the town, you have another 2 km to the hotel with grades that will touch 15%. For the guys who did camp with us. Imagine the climbs to the cabin we rented this past season at the top of 2x Neal's Gap and you only have the ascending parts of the wind through the community to the cabin, none of the descents. We are here for the next three nights; nice! I may not be game for this 18 km leg crusher each day, but I'll give it a go. The option is to catch the bus in town.

This is a pretty hotly contested TdF and the Alpe d'Huez stage looks to be a race making stage. It will be a 210 km race, with both Galibier, Croix de Fer and Alpe d'Huez (all are HC - beyond category - climbs). We drove past the start of the climb. The place is packed. In years past they have had more than 1 million people on this final 15 km. They anticipate more this year. As a result, the warning is Alpe d'Huez may be scrubbed as a possibility for our group to climb. The plan for a few in our group is to roll down our mountain at 6:30 AM on Weds and give it a go. We should be at the base of Alpe d'Huez by 7:30 AM and take about an hour to climb. We are looking to take an alternate route off the mountain and come in the back way to town before climbing the 18 km back to our hotel. That's the plan anyhow. The plan was hatched by a couple of Aussies and me at dinner last night. The plan was influenced by a fair bit of mountain juice and likely excessive confidence in conquering Mt. Ventoux. It was also done without the tour guides and maps of the region I scrounged up on my way to dinner. Getting very lost is a highly probable outcome, but it should be an adventure.

Day 11a

The TdF is heating up. Cadel is no longer in Yellow, it is Frank Schleck of Team CSC. Schleck, his brother Andy and Carlos Sastre are all on CSC and they all climb with the best in the world. On the Cat 1 final climb yesterday, they took turn punishing Cadel Evans. Towards the end Cadel looked defeated. Cadel had no mates around him. His only teammate who can climb, Yarislov Popovich, fell off the back of the lead group in the final 10 km. CSC is good, very good. If they can continue to put time on Cadel in the Alps, they will keep the Yellow jersey. Cadel's only shot is the individual time trial (TT) towards the end of this week. In the earlier, shorter TT of the TdF, Cadel put 1:30 into Schleck. This next TT is a longer, 50 km TT, on a flat course. I'd look for Cadel to put 2:00 on Schleck.

Watch for an exciting stage on Weds, it is Alpe d'Huez for the finishing climb. Twenty-one switch backs, climbing 14 km with an average gradient of 8.1%. Each hairpin bend is marked with panels honoring the winners of each stage that has finished there. The tour has had 23 stages finish on Alpe d'Huez. As a result, the French had to start again at the bottom with a double panel honoring, among others, our boy Lance (I'm sure that thrilled the French). I will do this climb on Weds AM, early, then roll back, shower and find a spot on the course to watch the action with the Fam. The mountain is already littered with people and campers. Only way I'll make it on the TV will be chasing the lead group, doing something crazy. Watch the race, I'll not make it on TV.

We leave Provence today :-( for the Alps. I love Provence, it is my favorite part of France. The Northern part of this region offers beautiful scenery of rolling hills of vineyards and olive orchards. I smile just riding thorough the area imaging living here on a small vineyard. To the South, you have Cannes, Antibes and the Mediterranean, the Cote d'Azur. If you want a treat, Google 'Antibes, Provence' and view the scenes. This is a romantic and magnificent place. Although no one really works too hard, in keeping with good French culture, the people are pretty cool. They don't speak much English, be we all manage pretty well.

With my new found confidence, and legs, I am looking to put a 'le spanking' on the monster ride tomorrow. We are doing 4 major climbs (Galibier, Telegraphe, Croix de Fer, and part of Alpe d'Huez). In addition to the climbs, we'll be knocking out 140 km in total (87 miles). It will be close to the type of climbs and distance of a mountain stage in the TdF. I took the day off today. It is a travel day for our tour group. The only ride offered was an early 40 km around the local area. I chose to celebrate a little last night with some Ventoux mountain juice and slept in this morning.

The family leaves Cincy this afternoon to arrive tomorrow morning. They'll have a time getting to the Alps. They land in Paris, take the TGV to Grenoble, rent a car, then drive to Les Deux Alpes. We plan to connect after my ride tomorrow, have some dinner and catch up. The Fam will likely sleep in on Weds as I make my trek up/back Alpe d'Huez and then we'll find a spot together to watch the race.

Day 10

Mt. Ventoux, meet Ms. Veritas. Today, Ms. Veritas and I 'le crushed' Mt. Ventoux. The weather was a bit on the bad side. It was cooler than yesterday, but not cold. Overcast most of the day and clouds rolling in; very humid. As we approached the base of Ventoux, I heard several claps of thunder and the rain started coming down, not hard but steady. It felt like a warning from Mr Ventoux to stay off his mountain. I felt pretty good and was looking to give it a go, so I ignored the warnings. I turned on to Ventoux, 24 km to go. The grade was a constant +8%, my heart rate monitor and cadence sensor were not functioning. So, the only metrics I had by which to judge the effort were breathing rate and speed. I let the legs and Ms Veritas do the talking. We quieted Mr Ventoux and had a great day.

Ventoux is an epic climb for several reasons. It is one climb on which Armstrong has not one a stage of the TdF. It is not only long and steep, but offers two very different sceneries. The lower 2/3s of the mountain is covered in a thick forest and heavy vegetation. It holds the moisture and humidity extremely well and somewhat protects you from the wind. The top is very different. You leave the forest and are almost immediately into what they call the 'moonscape'. Not a tree in sight, the mountain is totally covered in rock and stone. The wind whips hard around the corners and to help you out, the road on the last 1/3 tips more and more aggressively upwards. The last 2 km felt vertical and the computer measured +15% for long stretches. What a climb. It took me 1:35 to nail it. Based on the 2:00 estimate, I am calling it a victory for Ms Veritas and me.

Instead of taking the bus home, I decided to ride the 30 km back to the hotel. We had about 8 in our group. Another fella, Kevin, and I sat on the front pulling the group the entire 30 km. We hammered home at an average pace of +23 mph. The boys behind said they enjoyed the pull home. As we rolled into town, Kevin looked across with a bit of a grin and said, "Looks like we didn't work hard enough on Ventoux." Like I said, it was a good day.

Day 9

Did absolutely nothing today. I am looking at Mt Ventoux tomorrow and am pretty nervous about making it to the top. Before coming, I generally had no concerns about completing any of the climbs or any of the rides. The training with the team and the rides in the mountains of Georgia, I thought, would be sufficient. I have not been trying to race these climbs, but trying to keep a steady, hard pace and complete it. Since knocking a few out and experiencing these climbs, I've had an attitude adjustment. The climbs are just so long and steep. Tomorrow will likely be a 30 km (hour and a half crusey) ride to the start of Ventoux and then two hours of grinding away. By grinding away, imagine your heart rate at 160 beats per minute for two hours. The pedal cadence will likely be around 55-60 revolutions per minute mashing away in your easiest gear. Mentally, this is tough because no matter how steep the grade increases, you know you are out of gears. Your only respite is to get out of the saddle, hammer through it and look for a more forgiving grade in the next several meters. The former pro guiding our tour group, Eric Van Lancker, has been coaching me a bit. For the fellas on the team, this dude won the Mt Ventoux stage in Paris-Nice a few years back. He did the 21 km climb in 1:10. He gave me the 2 hr time objective.

I tried to do laundry again today. I came upon a new revelation today; the French will never conquer the world. No one works around here. It is Saturday and so many places are closed. The Laundromats have very limited hours and not open on Sat. Is has been the same on nearly every day. When you would normally expect shops to be open, they are generally closed because they don't want to be bothered. Pretty strange. The only places which are open nearly 100% of the time are the brasseries and small restaurants. The owners are pretty friendly and love to take our Euros. So, I went to the super market, bought some laundry detergent and did the wash the way my ancestors used to do it; well sort of. I washed in the sink in the hotel room, threw the soapy clothes on the floor of the shower, left the shower running the entire time as the rinse cycle, wrung the clothes somewhat as the spin cycle and hung them to dry all over the room; dripping of course all over the carped floor. The part about the ancestors referred to laundry by hand versus a machine, I sound a bit spoiled and melodramatic.

The afternoon and evening were awesome. I took a 3 hour power nap with the window open. I felt the hot summer air and warm breeze of Provence through the open window. Temperatures were just below 90, not a cloud in the sky. The evening cooled quite a bit and the breeze picked up. Ten of us loaded in the van of the logistics manager for the trip, Wim. Wim drove us to Gordes, about 15 km away. This place blew me away. I encourage you to look it up on line (http://www.gordes-village.com/html/presentation2.html) its worth the few minutes. You can check out this link, or Google it. It was a castle carved out of a stone cliff in the mid 1500s with a small city etched all around it. It was truly fairytale like in the view as we approached the city. When there, the views and the beauty met all expectations. The old city streets had been preserved. It felt like walking through time. We walked to the edge of the old city, through the pave (cobble stone like) streets to the former city wall. Looking south, you saw acres of vineyards, olive orchards and lavender fields. Beautiful and aromatic.

We walked back to the city center to the only restaurant on what was likely the old 'town square'. We had dinner on the terrazzo, near a fountain in the center of the plaza, surrounded by large stone buildings that had been turned into shops (again, not open and not really sure of their hours). The terrazzo was not all that large, maybe 50 feet in circumference. The restaurant used about a quarter of it. They had a vine covered trellis on their main patio and then extended into the terrazzo with tables and large umbrellas. Between the trellis area and the terrazzo area, a small 5 piece band was playing, mostly American jazz and some reggae. The sound echoed off all the old stone buildings, pretty cool atmosphere. For the past few days, I have been eating pretty good. Sticking to food and vegies of the region. It is a lot like eating in California, if you do the Cali thing and try to eat locally grown food. The food has a great taste and the restaurants appreciate your eating their locally grown food. I have been partaking in the wine of the region as well; only Cote du Ventoux for me over the last few days. Been trying to get a bit of the mountain juice to help propel me up this beast. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.

Day 8 Tidbits

Commitment to a cause...

On the climb to the Tourmalet, a Canadian fella named Jim (we'll call him Jim C) had a bike malfunction. His seat fell off. No kidding, with 5 km to go to the top, a seat bolt broke and the seat fell off the bike. With no way to re-attach it at that point, he stuck the seat in his rear shirt pocket and rode the remaining 5 km on the Troumalet STANDING. The last 5km are the hardest part of that climb. From what I understand, folks were applauding when he passed and they only saw a seat post and no seat. What killer commitment. He and I chat often and typically eat breakfast together. I asked him what he was thinking with continuing on the climb. He said he was on a mission and needed to get to the top. When I asked why, he explained that on that day, his divorce became final. I inquired some more as to why the Tourmalet was so important for this day. He said his plan had always been that when he reached the summit, he would throw his wedding ring from the top. So, he needed to reach the summit. Since the ring was in his saddle bag under his seat, he blamed the bad karma from his broken marriage for his seat bolt failure. So, how did he descend. At the top, the support van for our tour waited to assist stragglers and cart home the broken and weary. They also had some tools, but no bolts. The mechanic removed one of the two bolts holding on the handlebars and used it to partially secure the seat. It still was not too secure, but Jim C descended the Tourmalet the way he finished, mostly standing on the pedals and bracing himself down this 10 mile descent. Now that's commitment to a cause. You may not believe in his cause, but the physical achievement was impressive indeed.

Help me, I'm shrinking...

Since my senior year in high school I have been wearing XL shirts. I currently sport an XL kit. (A kit is what cyclists call their cycling shorts and shirt. I also mentioned bib shorts. Bib shorts are not typical spandex shorts with a pad in them. They are cycling shorts with overall shoulder straps, there is no waist band; much more comfortable than typical cycling shorts.) While climbing the Pic d'Nore in the mist, the cold was getting to me. When I reached the summit, Jim C (from above), offered me one of his shells, a weather proof jacket, fits snug so as to not grab the wind. It breaks the wind and traps some body heat; sufficient to descend out of the clouds and down to a warmer altitude. Jim C happened to be carrying two that day for some reason. Jim C is approximately the size of my eldest son Matt, 5'5" and probably 140-150 pounds. I said sure, not caring about the size. When I looked it over, the tag indicated size "M". I figured I'd give it a shot. Worse case, it does not zip. I got both arms in, the sleeves were about 5" too short. When I reached back to grab each end of the coat to attempt a zip up, I nearly fell over. Both ends met and I was able to easily zip up; to the neck. I felt good and bad. Good about the apparent loss of mass around waist, bad about the apparent loss of mass in the chest and shoulders. Given what I am doing, I think I'll appreciate the loss of mass. Now, I just need to keep reducing the mass and increasing the speed; "We need more power Scottie. I'm giving her all I've got Captain."

Day 8

Crusey day today (an Aussie term for an easy ride). We did 32 miles, 30 of it on the course today. The last interim sprint point was an up hill sprint of about 3-4% grade. It would prove to be a bit of a stinger for the pros, but not too bad. The final 10 km of the race today will be FAST. We were tooling along at 23 mph without needing to put in a ton of effort; the pros will be cooking along at about 30-35 mph and this is before the final sprint. To make the final 10 km even more interesting, there is a ton of road furniture on the route and several chicanes. Road furniture are fixed objects in the road, like roundabouts, small speed bumps, fixed sign posts before/after the roundabouts and various other objects and barriers. We took all the elements at speed with a smaller group of 8-10 riders; pretty fun. Along the way, I was thinking to myself that in a few spots there were a sufficient number of hidden surprises that an accident would surely happen.

Well, it did. At about 8 km to go, a Gerolsteiner rider came blitzing around the roundabout clockwise. As he tried to rejoin the traffic which went around the roundabout counterclockwise, he came across the middle too soon. In the middle of the road, only 1 car width from the roundabout was a concrete circular fixture with a metal sign secured by a 3" thick metal pole about 2 feet high. The rider hit it dead on. Both the rider and the bike launched in the air. He went about 2 meters high, the bike about 3. The bike was flung high enough, several other riders passed under the bike as it spun through the air. The rider fortunately landed on his ass. Anyplace else and I am sure the injury would have been race ending. On the replay, they show the team support personnel dragging the bike back to the support vehicle. It was literally snapped in 2; held together by only the brake and shifter cables. What an amazing sight. The rider was up and walking around, limping quite a bit. Not sure whether he finished or the state of his general condition, but it was an impressive crash. Cavendish, Team Columbia, won his 4th stage today. He gapped Robbie McEwen big time with 200 meters to go. He had clear separation and then a group of 6 trailing him. I was 50 m from the finish. Damn, these boys are fast.

Only unpleasant experience of the day was the crowd. The Euros are very pushy and impatient. The crowd at the finish was big. People simply needed to take there time and it all would clear. Not good enough. The folks were shoving people, diving there shoulders between older couples try to manage the crowd and did not care one wisp about who they were hurting. Several older women's faces showed they were clearly distressed, near the point of breaking down. One jack ass, shoved me hard to make a one person advance in a huge crowd. I fell to the left an was able to brace myself with a near by pole. At the same time, he shoved on older woman to my right into other people separating her from her husband. She was falling and I had support. I helped her up with my right hand, grabbed the jack ass by the neck from behind with my left and pulled him behind me. I ushered the older woman up to her husband and turned to face the jack ass. He was about my age, with a punk ass look and a prissy looking earring in his left ear. In my best French, I said "If you don’t chill out, I'll drop you right here." My right fist was up and I guess I looked a little fierce. I think he understood my French. Several people clapped and shouted something French; I think it was positive.

Day 7

What a difference! My posts about the rides to date have not sounded too sanguine, to say the least. Today was a TON better. Shows what 12 hours of sleep can do for you. Today's ride was no slouch, as I had previously thought. It was not a recovery ride, it was a two climb, 72 mile, 6,350 feet of climbing affair. On the first climb I was tooling along with no problems when others were struggling a bit. I checked my instrumentation and I was not working too hard, but seemed to be having a pretty good day. At the 35 mile point and one climb down, I chalked it up to finally getting some sleep. Between today and a nice comment to a post from a good friend and fellow Cincy cyclist, John Murdock, I regained confidence that I can manage the work to come, the remaining Alpine climbs and Mt Ventoux on Sunday.

The second climb was a grind, but I did it with a smile. It was an 11 mile affair offering 3000 feet of climbing, an average grade of 5.2%. But, that's not the kicker. Midway up, the grade tipped a wee bit steeper. Ms. Garmin, my cycle-computer, measured several (meaning more than my brain could recall) meaningful sections (indicating it was more than a few pedal strokes, more like 100-200 yards) registering in the 15-23% grade. For the uninitiated, this is pretty bloody steep (please see the Day 6b post for the definition of bloody). But, I was completely in tune with Ms. Veritas and we crushed this hill together. I was dropped by the lead group of 6 riders. The 25 of us in total were littered across the 11 mile hill. I was extremely happy to have some time to myself and suffer this climb. I really did enjoy this effort.

I also learned on this climb that I still have very little strength in the left arm from the collar bone break. On the +20% pitches, I tried to stand and pull on the bars to push the cranks over. Not only did I have no strength, but experienced some pretty intense pain to remind me. I climbed out of the saddle with enough strength to support my body, but the legs still had to do all the work. I concluded that this likely led to the cramping on the Tourmalet. I did very little standing as the pitch never exceeded 15%, it was just an unrelenting, constant 9.5% ass kicking. Standing on the climbs allows me to use my body mass to turn the cranks and modestly changes the muscles being used, but I cannot use much of the upper body to pull myself around the pedals. The constant repetitive motion is what likely led to the cramps; but I think the body is learning to compensate and I am concentrating more on good hydration and stretching.

The descents are where I notice the soreness in my shoulder the most, particularly the long descents of more than 8 miles. Most of the breaking is done with the front brake, which you trigger with your left hand. Recently, my rear teeth have been bothering me and I could not figure out why. Today, I learned why. While the descent was significant, the drops off the side of the road in the Pyrenees were frighteningly intense. Today, not so much. In the Pyrenees I was concentrating so hard on staying on the road and breaking at the right time to manage the corners while still enjoying the descents, I did not notice another coping technique I began using. On today's descent, while breaking, at speed, into the corners, I was grinding my teeth to compensate for the pain I was feeling from the force of breaking and managing the bike in the corners. At the end of the rides, my neck muscles and shoulder bothered me, but I chalked it up to the healing process, pumped in some aspirin and hit the sack; more than likely it is from healing and some fatigue as the muscles and bone are not that ready for this stuff. Well, the rest seems to be, so I'm planning to watch it more carefully - or, just not use the brakes and go faster down hill (just kidding mom).

The scenery and weather conditions made it all the better. The climb is on "Black Mountain" (Pic de Nore). The side we climbed was only a single lane wide road, but permitted two way traffic, cut through a dense pine forest. The ground cover was lush green vegetation. The pine tree forest was like dense packed asparagus spears; relatively bare trunks with bristly tops. The weather, by most people's standards, was awful. The entire mountain was socked in a deep fog/cloud with a constant light drizzle. Temperature was about 55-60 degrees and a slight head wind in the general direction of the road. I say general, because of the many switchbacks, you sometimes had the wind at your back, but not often. The mist was so thick and the temperature cool enough that the hair on my arms stood on end and collected the mist like grass catching the morning dew. It made my brown arm hair appear blonde. It was cold, but because I was working so hard, I was not cold in just the bib shorts, base layer and short sleeve shirt. What a great day in the saddle.

The descent was totally the opposite of the climb. We descended for 11-12 miles. It was a great descent. The first 4 or so miles were in the clouds - that was cold. As we descended, we also headed away from the weather. The last 6-8 miles were in some pretty intense sun, with temperatures pushing close to 75-80 degrees. Between the wind from the speed of the descent and the sun, I dried out pretty quickly - I used the brakes less ;-). The ride into town was awesome. We had about 10 miles of soft rollers heading back into town, a slight breeze in the face. I was on the front with a former pro, Dave McKenzie. Dave is an Aussie who won 2 stages in the Gyro d'Italia. He is a good guy and we chatted while cruising along at 22 mph into the slight headwind. My heart rate was creeping up as we hit the 1.5 mile to go point, but I was still hanging with Dave, and felt great given the long ride, hard climb and the difficult last few days. So I pressed on and finished in town. Great ride, great day.

The Carcassonne area is really beautiful. The area is surrounded by vineyards and monasteries. The roads are often lined with tall trees. The area reminds me a lot of the setting in the movie "A Good Year." This is one of my favs. Its kind of a chick flick, but I liked it.

Day 6 Tidbits

The tidbits from Day 5 seemed to be a popular item , I'll try to find some more tidbits to share as I go...

A great bath can make all the difference...

Upon arriving and unloading at the hotel in Carcassonne, I purchased some salami, bread, chips, water, apple and a coke at a near by grocery. I dragged my weary self, bike and gear to the third floor. I put the hot water full on and drew a hot bath, made the sandwich of salami and bread and got in. I soaked for nearly 30 minutes while eating my sandwich. Man, o man did that feel good. After cleaning myself , next it was the bike's turn. I brought some cleaning rags with me. So, I pulled the front wheel, set the bike in the tub and showered it off with the hand held shower device so popular in Europe. With the grime, sweat, sports drink, bugs, and other gunk cleared away, Ms. Veritas is looking pretty sexy again.

For those not familiar, the bike I'm riding was hand made by a good friend and great bike builder, Bob Duncan. The brand he chose for the bike is Veritas. And, the truth is precisely what you get. Ms Veritas tells me when I'm slow and when I'm fast (mostly tho, she says I am slow and HEAVY). Best, most comfortable riding bike I've owned; and I own a few. I am hopeful that this trip will help with both the heavy and the slow criticisms. BTW, I have received tons of complements on the ride. It is simple in design, a classic look in the over population growth of carbon fiber bikes. It is light, very light, but stiff. Stiffness helps you increase the efficiency of transferring the energy from a pedal stroke into forward motion. The welds are very well done, not easy to do with titanium. The pros in our group looked it over very hard because it stands out amongst all the carbon firer here. They love the bike, great work Bob.

Vascular legs...

Something every cyclist strives for is to be so muscular and lean that your legs not only look strong and shapely, but also show some veins near the surface of the skin. Not the varicose vein look, but think blue lines running along the muscle lines of the legs; a good indicator of how lean you are. Also, along with digging scars, some say chicks dig this look as well; particularly when guys shave their legs. Well, you can take it to the extreme. Today, I was about 20 feet from George Hincapie (9 year Tour rider, 7x with Lance, US athlete). I was near the guard rail at the start and yelled out "Hey, George." (I am such a tourist. Lost a ton of cool points on that one.) George look right at me, waived and smiled. I felt a little goofy; I'm sure the French people around us believed us to be 'partners'. Not possible, he married the podium girl from a few years back when he won a stage in the TdF. No kidding, it really happened that way. Well, George's legs are a mess. His legs look like a 90 year old man with varicose veins all over this legs. WOW. A physician in our group commented that while it appears unhealthy, it is not likely that bad. There are two levels of veins in the body, deep and shallow. The deep ones do the majority of the work. Thrombosis in these veins is a serious matter. I have no clue on this subject, so I took his word for it. Doubtful chicks dig Geroge's legs.

That boy's got some ass behind him...

Fabian Cancellara , world time trialing champion, rolled out of his team bus. For those unfamiliar, a time trial specialist has a huge engine. These boys are not the thin wispy mountain climbers and they typically cannot spin up a bike in a short distance to top speed like the sprinters. These boys can turn a big gear, with huge power, for a long time. Cancellara is bigger than most cyclists, but still thin. His legs are HUGE. I would bet his legs are 32-34 inches around. And this boy has some ass behind him. Not in the weird kind of way, but power. Think NFL lineman, but weighing 175 pounds, only 50 pounds from the waist up. He is small in the shoulders, waist and chest. Dude looks like the Hulk in the legs and ass. Pretty cool to see all this in person.