A Hard Day's Climb - Guest Post from Rob Beezer

As Lance Armstrong used to say, "Today was, a uhhh, hard."  But then, I
only used caffeine to assist me up the hill.

Down the block, over the river, but now turn right at the 5-way
intersection.  Only the 13 kilometer Col des Cyclotouristes (seriously)
remains unexplored from this junction.  We did about 20 kilometers of flat
roads, and I found an undocumented frontage road along the  highway that
was superb.  I've been really glad that I got a SIM card with a gigabyte
of prepaid data, since using Google Maps has been really useful at various
points.

The Col de la Madeleine is a very famous major climb for the Tour, in use
24 times since 1969.  The marker at the bottom says 1500 meters over 24
kilometers.  That's 6.25 percent average.  Other sources say more.  For
the folks back home, Longmire to Paradise is 2700 feet over 11 miles, or
4.7 percent.  Numerically it sounds a lot like Hurricane Ridge.  But it
took me about five rest stops to make it.  One was a long coffee-coke-tart
stop at a hotel 10 kilometers from the top in Celliers.  I have no idea
what berry composed the tart, and the proprietor did not speak much
English so could not help, but it was sure tasty.

Another short rest stop was memorable.  Tom pulled the van over just shy
of a stream.  Another rider stopped to chat.  Then a descending Londoner
saw the group and pulled in to ask Tom if he had any tape.  His bike frame
was breaking apart near the bottom bracket where the carbon fiber chain
stay was joined to the metal bottom bracket.  Tom produced some electrical
tape and some duct tape.  Neither Tom nor I thought the repair would prove
of any use, so we wished him luck on a careful continuation of his
descent.

Made another coffee-Orangina-blueberry-tart stop at the top of the col,
joining Tom, Lars and Evan, who each had a full lunch at the restaurant
perched at 2000 meters elevation.  Lars was feeling much better,  though
he lost his helmet this morning, so rode up, and then down, without it. 
Andrew still is not eating much, but soldiered up the whole way in
Luther's company (and arrived before me).  The climb seemed much harder
than Hurricane Ridge, possibly because there are some flat sections (and
it was very hot).

Descent required one stop to rest my hands from working the brakes. 
Traffic is about equal parts bicycles, motorcycles and cars.  On the
descents, the cars generally have to sit behind the cycles (human and
gasoline powered), though I invariably gave them opportunities to pass in
the hairpin turns.

We finished in a new town, Saint Jean-de-Marienne, located in the steep
valley we descended into off the col.  We are staying at the Hotel St.
Georges.  Hotel is an upgrade - air-conditioning is a real plus.  Dinner
was arranged for us across the street at Hotel Europa.  It was a simple,
but delicious, meal of salad, chicken with brown gravy, pasta, rice,
bread, dessert and coffee.  But perhaps it was exactly what tired cyclists
needed.  Hit the hay early, passing on the outdoor concert with the Led
Zeppelin cover band.  Fortunately, the concert did not keep us from
sleeping.

Col du Pré and Cormet de Roselend - Guest Post from Rob Beezer

After breakfast, we went a block down the main street, and then left over
the river, but instead of turning onto the bike path, we turned left at
the 5-way intersection towards Beaufort on a departmental road. The
weather forecast was iffy (rain in the morning, thunderstorms in the
afternoon), but we ended up having nice weather all day.  Beaufort is
well-known, at least locally, for their cheese.  We did about 20
kilometers of gradually rising terrain as we hugged the Doron River.  The
biggest excitement was the double-trailer of cordwood that passed me on
the curves along the rock walls, after waiting patiently for only a
semi-dangerous place to pass.  I've had no serious close calls, but I'm
finding the riding here on the mountain roads requires all my skills and
attention.   In our favor, there are so many serious cyclists out and
about that the cars are accustomed to us.

At Beaufort we had an option for a two-col day.  Tom had parked at the
junction.  Andrew, Lars and Luther choose to go directly to Cormet de
Roselend (not even the locals know what a "cormet" is, it is just another
high mountain pass).  Evan had opted for the detour via Col de Pre.  So
did I.  Halfway up I came to the small village of Areche, where I refilled
my water bottles at the public fountain, and located an espresso at the
hotel where the road left town.  Now the climb became a series of very
short switchbacks, each one providing a view seemingly straight down to
the previous ramps, down to Areche, and down to Beaufort.  It reminded me
of the photographs of the switchbacks of Alpe d'Huez.  As I climbed, the
view of the valley expanded.  I almost got pinched by a huge baby-blue
tour bus on a right-hand hairpin turn, as it descended, and tried to share
the apex of the turn with me.  Presumably, it hit one of the weight
restrictions further up, since I recalled it passing me.  Not sure just
how it turned around, though.

I took several rests, carefully considering the location of each, owing to
the difficulty of restarting on the steep one-lane roads.  The markers
every kilometer, designed exclusively for cyclists, frequently advertised
the upcoming kilometer as having an average 10% or 11% grade.  With two
and a half kilometers left, Evan surprised me by coming down my way.  He'd
been to the top, but not gone far enough over to find the restaurant Tom
had promised.  So we rode together to the summit of Col de Pre, having
climbed about 1500 meters total on the day to get there.

At the col, we chatted some with a Parisian cyclist, who was proud of his
membership in the Mount Ventoux Cycling Club. I noticed his Mount Ventoux
water bottle, which was nearly identical to the one I was using today, a 
souvenir from a stay in Vaison-la-Romaine in 2004.  We had a good laugh
about that, and he told me that the bicycle shop there had since closed.

We dropped over the crest, and very quickly found the bar and Tom.  Lars
was there too, having reached the lake, but then running out of gas and
now riding in the car.  The scenery was terrific with the blue Lac de
Roselend 200 meters below us, and the Mont Blanc massif before us.  By
now, my formula is an large espresso  (grand cafe), a soda (Coca or
Oranginna), and a fruit tart (tartelle).  In this case, the raspberry tart
was quite delicious.

Col du Pre is just a waystation.  We  dropped down to the lake (formed by
a dam) and rejoined the main road.  Another seven kilometers or so, plus
another 500 meters of elevation, took us up through an incredibly scenic
alpine meadow, bisected by a raging mountain stream, to Cormet de
Roselend.  There was a herd of cows pastured just below the col, clustered
around a portable milking station.  The high peaks, the raw rock faces,
the meadow, the cows, the blue sky and the stream made for a
picture-postcard-perfect scene, to say nothing of the cowbells.  There was
a restaurant or two along the road, but we turned back down after
obligatory photos.

Back the way we came, though not over the Col de Pre.  As we left the
lake, the road entered a very bowl-shaped valley, with a very narrow exit
in evidence some hundreds of meters below us.  It was hard to imagine that
a road was going to take us there along the very steep wooded slopes.  But
it did.

It was a long, hard climb, but it felt good to have done it.  You cannot
describe the thought of the Tour de France riders climbing several cols in
a day and finishing with something like this.   A ham and cheese crepe in
Albertville was my reward.

Classic Climbs of the French Alps Tour - Guest Post by Rob Beezer

Tuesday, and our first official ride of the VeloSki tour Tom is leading. 
We had a choice between a five-col day or a shakedown cruise around Lake
Annecy with a col or two.  Given Andrew's condition, we all opted for the
lake circuit.  We set off on the bike path out of Albertville, which is
very pleasant to ride.  I ended up in back, and Tom turned around short of
the lake to get the van, and follow driving support.  I caught up to the
group getting coffee at the south end of the lake.

The closer we got to central Annecy at the north end of the lake, the
crazier the bike path got.  Hard-core cyclists, vacationers, children, kid
trailers, rollerbladers, pensioners, walkers, runners, all sharing the
path and trying to have a good time.  Some close calls, but nothing
critical.  Again, I found myself behind the group.

Halfway down the east side of the lake, I found the turnoff for Col de la
Forclaz (Montmin).  Eight kilometers, six hundred meters of elevation. 
How hard can a five-mile climb be?  With a few hours in my legs and the
afternoon sun, the 12% grades took it out of me.  I've found resting every
300 meters of elevation is a good formula.  But Tom caught me taking an
unscheduled rest stop just shy of the col (as I soon discovered).  A
couple of cold drinks, and Tom made me a ham sandwich and I was ready to
go again.  The views of the lake were superb from this elevation, and many
others had driven up for that reason.

Lars found the last bit of the climb steep, and Andrew decided to stick to
the lakefront.

The descent was uneventful, but I rode my brakes quite hard on the 13%
grades to keep everything under control.  I found Tom near the bottom and
he gave me (simple) directions to the bike path.  Cruising into
Albertville, Luther and Andrew hailed me from the crepiere.  They were
showered and dressed, but I couldn't wait, so I joined them for coffee and
a caramel apple crepe.

Dinner at the hotel included an interesting dish.  A bed of lettuce, with
toast on top, then a layer of foie gras, topped by a fried egg, to which I
added pieces of fresh tomato.  I enjoyed it, but my digestive tract was
audible in its complaints about the assault.  It was a hard day of riding,
with almost 100 kilometers distance and close to 1000 meters of elevation.
But its been good and I'm enjoying it.

Col de l'Arpettaz - Guest Post from Rob Beezer

Tom went into ride-leader mode today.  After returning from Morzine, he
worked on our transfer into central Albertville and our accomodations at
Hotel Million.  He sent me out for a ride up the Col de l'Arpettaz. 
Climbs are rated by category for racing, 4 through 1, with 1 being the
hardest (a subjective combination of distance, elevation, and grade). 
However, some climbs are beyond categorization, "hors categorie" in
French, or HC for short.  Col de l'Arpettaz is an HC climb.

Made my way to the nearby town of Ugine on the bike path, then turned
uphill through the town.  As the houses transitioned to farms, I mistook
the direction on a sign for the col, and it cost me several kilometers
uphill before the road turned to gravel and showed me my error.  Back on
the route,  I labored alone up the 16 kilometer climb, gaining 1200 meters
of elevation.  I never used my tallest gear, holding it in reserve (or was
it pride?).  Two cyclists passed me, and only a few cars.  Lots of
pastures and forest, plus an ocassional farm building.

It clouded up and began sprinkling near the top, so I was glad to have my
wind jacket with me.  And as I had been promised, almost every col has a 
restaurant.  There it was, at about 1700 meters elevation, all by itself. 
An alpine oasis.  I had a espresso and a Coke, was tempted by the pies,
and filled my empty water bottles.  As I began my descent, I could see a
rain cloud in the distance, and hear the thunder.  Eventually the storm
was upon me.  Refuge under a tree worked once, but I resigned myself to
seeking warmer and lower ground.  I gingerly made the descent in the heavy
rain, working the brakes hard the whole way.  Halfway down, the one-lane
road joined a very generous two-lane road, which sits just above a major
road in the canyon.  No cars, gentle grades, sweeping turns, and
eventually dry warm pavement worked with the wind to dry me out out also.

I found the now-familiar bike path in Ugine, and made my way into
Albertville.  The skies opened again, and I once more got soaked.  Tom was
picking up the other riders at the train station.  They were coming from
Paris where they watched the final stage of the Tour on the Champs-Elysee.
After a hot shower, I watched the coupled bikes come out of their
suitcases for assembly.  Luther is spending the summer near Chamonix, so
had ridden here and only needed to remove his rack.  Evan was missing
critical pieces of his wheel, a problem solved by having Tom drive him to
the bike shop where he purchased a new $700 wheel.

We had a very nice dinner in the hotel and got to know each other.  Andrew
had to excuse himself as he was feeling quite ill.  More about the fourth
rider, Lars, later.

Hanging out with Cousins in Morzine - Guest Post from Rob Beezer

Long story made short.  Hortense is my cousin, by virtue of a common
ancestor who lived in Toulouse around 1700 which we can document.  Her
nephew, Paul, and my son, Robert, have visted each other's homes for
extended visits.  Hortense's daughter, Mathilde, has spent the past year
studying at Edmonds Community College, so has been to our home several
times during the year.  My sons are the fifth consecutive generation to
visit Hortense's family in Bordeaux.  Hortense is the only one of four
sisters in my generation that I had not yet met.

Conveniently, Hortense and three of her children were staying at their ski
chalet in Morzine, about a two hour drive away.  Many emails, some owing
to my disrupted travel, finally resulted in a visit being organized.  Tom
and I drove out Sunday morninng, and we promptly set out for a day hike. 
We drove to the edge of the alpine village, then turned up the road to the
Joux-Plane.  At a final elevation of 1700 meters, the steep road is famous
as the place where Lance Armstrong bonked in the 2000 Tour de France.  We
hiked for several hours, mostly on a ridge line up towards the very top of
the ski lift.  It was never flat.  Lunch was baguette sandwiches with
blueberry sausage and soft cheese.  The six of us all sat on a single
chair of the chairlift, parked at the upper terminus.  Soundtrack for the
afternoon was the continuous cow bells from the two herds of about fifty
cows each.

On the way home we stopped at a marvelous shop in the village.  Cheeses,
sausages, hams, jams, yogurt, wine and many other regional specialties
were displayed in a rustic setting.  Hortense made a selction for dinner. 
The most outstanding part of dinner was raclette.  This begins
with half of a  large cheese round.  It is placed under a heating element
table-side with the exposed part of the cheese placed facing upward to be
heated.  When the cheese is melted, it is slid out from under the heating
element, then tilted so the melted cheese can be scraped onto your plate. 
Delicious!

First Ride in France - Guest Post from Rob Beezer

(For the metrically-challenged, take two-thirds of distances in kilometers to get miles, and take elevations in meters, multiply by three, and then add ten percent to get feet.)

I got a good night's sleep, and felt like I had any sort of jet-lag whipped. Maybe it is a hidden advantage of taking two days to get here. We had a very French breakfast on the patio, in the crisp mountain air, with a great view of the valley. It took until about 2:00 PM for my bike to be delivered, so the morning was given over to chores, and attempting to wait patiently.

Once the bike was delivered, Tom reassembled my wheels and gave them air, while I got the frame together. No topological invariants were violated in attaching the rear derailer. I got my accessories and clothes organized, and off we went for a ride.

We went south towards Albertville, on a mix of roads along the canal, then south of the city center turned west to ascend the steeper side of the Col de Tamié, topping out at about 870 meters (from a low of about 350 meters). The Tour de France had gone this way yesterday, when I first arrived. Main event was 10 km at about a 6% grade. Given that it was now about 4 PM, it was quite warm. Tom asked how it compared to home and I suggested the top half of Longmire-Paradise. Steeper, but a bit shorter, and a bit lower. The descent was more gradual than the ascent, and featured the Abbey de Tamié, where they have been making cheese since about 1300. The final 20 km were a gradual downhill run on a bike path, interrupted by an espresso stop in Ugine. At 45 km and 600 meters elevation gain, it was a good warm-up, and sure to promote jet-lag recovery.

Having watched the Tour for countless hours on TV, it was a thrill to ride the same roads. Indeed, names of favorite riders and teams were freshly painted on the road. The bike path home parallels the main highway in the valley, and we could see many gaudy cars from the pre-race caravan heading down the road after today's stage. Presumably, they were headed for tomorrow's final stage in Paris.
Back home a shower and fresh clothes awaited me. I'm going to ride clean from now on. Annie recommended an especially nice restaurant in Albertville. So we had a very nice dinner at Le Bistrot Gormand. I decoded many of the menu options, but not all. The result was a few surprises - some expected, some not. Ever have roasted pineapple? Yum.

Sleeping in Airports - Guest Post from Rob Beezer

Tom has allowed me to guest-blog on his Tour de France 2013 site. Since when Tom taught with us at the University of Puget Sound (2001-02), we have worked together on various projects and put in a few miles together on our velos. I've always been jealous of his summer cycling trips. I signed-on back in January to come for a two-week stint, and have been preparing myself physically ever since.

My departure from Seattle on Wednesday evening was marred by the eventual cancellation of my 6 PM flight. The creeping delay featured two separate opportunities to leave the plane for food, bathroom breaks, etc. It was about 12:30 AM before I completed a rebooking and reclaimed my luggage. With a 6 AM departure, there was little sense in trying to go home and just return in a few hours. Rational choices for hotels had all been snapped up by a big British Airways cancellation earlier in the evening. The "Sleeping in Airports" website suggested benches without armrests by gate C16. However, I was now saddled with my bike box, so could not go through security and Delta would not store the bike overnight for me.

Remember making forts as a kid? I sure do. I found a quiet, dark corner above the lobby in the south end of the terminal. I put the bike box parallel to one wall and blocked up the open end with my second rental cart of the day. My fleece sweater came out of my bag to pad my hips, and my mesh bag of sox, underwear and riding gloves became a pillow. I set my backpack of valuables (passport, money, electronics) close by my head and set an alarm on my phone. I got about four hours of decent rest sleeping on the floor.

When I tried to check-in at 4:30 AM, my reservation was fubared, the special services lane was under-staffed and I missed my 6 AM flight. Rebooked for a 10 AM departure, through Detroit and Amsterdam. A half-hour late into Amsterdam, I had one hour to get off from the back of the plane, get a boarding pass (Seattle could not do it for me), clear immigration (did not yet qualify for the short-connection expedited lane), move from E concourse to C concourse, connect to free WiFi and alert Tom I'd made it. But I did. At least for the hour-long flight to Geneva, I was upgraded to travel in the relative luxury of Business Class.

Of course, my luggage was not so fortunate, and neither my bag nor bike arrived with me. Tom met me at the airport, and we had a nice drive on minor roads, since the Tour had a major road shut down. This included a full frontal view of Mont Blanc, its 4850 meter peak obscured by clouds, but the glaciated slopes very visible.

The bed-and-breafast outside Albertville is superb, nestled on a hillside in a lovely Alpine valley. It was very odd to watch the day's stage of the Tour on TV, knowing the riders were just over the ridge, and the scenery matched the two-hour drive we just completed. The thunder we were hearing was part of localized rainstorms that were playing a factor in the race, since there was a big separation in the leading groups. Eventually the rain found us as well.

I'm writing this Saturday morning - my bike arrived in Geneva last night and is to be delivered this morning. I got a very good night's rest. It is a beautiful mountain morning, and breakfast on the deck was lovely. Hopefully, we'll get a ride in later and I can test my legs.

Lessons from Mont Ventoux

Mont Ventoux (1912 m or 6273 ft) is an isolated peak in the Provence region of France known at "The Giant of Provence."  The top of the the mountain is barren limestone and there is a 50 m telecommunications tower on the summit.  "Venteux" means windy in French, and they have recorded winds as high as 320 km/hr (200 mph) at the summit.  Fortunately, there was only a slight breeze on the two days that I was there.

Mont Ventoux was originally forested but was stripped bare of trees to meet the demands of shipbuilders beginning in the 12th century.  There has been quite a bit of reforestration lower down the mountain, but the top of the mountain remains barren.  The ecology of Mont Ventoux is different from anything that I have ever seen.  There are even some species of butterflies and spiders that are unique to Mont Ventoux.

There are three routes to the top of Mont Ventoux.

• South from Bédoin: 1617 m over 21.8 km. This is the climb used in the Tour. The fastest time to date is that of Iban Mayo in the individual climbing time trial of the 2004 Dauphiné Libéré: 55' 51". Mortals do the climb between 1:30 and 3:00.  Eddy Merckx needed oxygen at the summit after winning the stage in 1970.  Tom Simpson collapsed and died one kilometer from the summit during the 1967 Tour.  There is a monument to Simpson at that point.  The forest is the hardest part of the climb.  The 8 km below Chalet Reynard averages well over 9%.  This is where Froome attacked the peloton to win yesterday's stage and put a virtual strangle hold on the 2013 yellow jersey.

• Northwest from Malaucène: 1570 m over 21.5 km.  This is about as difficult as the Bédoin ascent but is better sheltered against the wind.
• East from Sault: 1210 m over 26 km. The easiest route. After Chalet Reynard, the climb is the same as the Bédoin ascent. The average gradient is 4.4%.

I am very glad that I had an opportunity to see the Mont Ventoux stage of the 100th edition of the Tour de France on Bastille Day, but this was crazier than watching the Tour on the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrénées.  Too many crazy fans and that wall of people that seems to part just before riders actually happens.

There is just enough room to get the team cars through.  I'm surprised a lot of riders aren't injured.

So what are the lessons learned.

• Stay in Sault and not in Bédoin.  If you want to go up the "easy" side of Mont Ventoux, it's right there.  If you want to ride the hard side, you can ride through through the Gorge de la Nesque to Bédoin to climb Mont Ventoux from the hard side and then take the easy and much less crowded descent back to Sault.  Sault is also smaller and seems more friendly.  I am staying at the Hotel Albion, a great find.  If you don't speak French, they do speak some English.

• The ride through the Gorge de la Nesque is spectacular and highly recommended.  You will see very few cars. On Ventoux itself, going through the 8 km forest section (9+%) up to Chalet Reynard was pretty brutal.  There were hundreds of cyclists on the road, and more than a few were walking.  I only stopped once to eat something.  Well, I stopped two more times to avoid getting run off the road by camping vans.  Mont Ventoux may not be the hardest climb that I have done, but it definitely ranks in the top 5. As far as suffering goes, I made a conscious effort to stay within myself, so today didn't even make the top 40 as far as hardest days on the bike.  Mont Ventoux should probably be on everyone's bucket list, but I didn't find the climb all that pleasant because of the huge number of both cyclists and cars.  For this reason, I doubt that I will ever repeat the climb.  Chalet Reynard is a good place to stop for a break.  Actually, it's the only place to stop for a break.

• Standard advice for Mont Ventoux.  Get the lowest gear that your bike will handle.  I used a 34 x 32.  Take a jacket or vest for the descent even if it is hot in Bédoin.  Fill up with water in the little town right before the forest.
• Watching the Tour on Bastille Day on Mont Ventoux is worth it, but only once.  The fans are a more than a little crazy.  Even getting down on the Sault side afterwards was pretty difficult.  One idiot managed to wedge a camper van in the single lane between the two lines of parked cars.  It was stuck worse than the Orica GreenEdge team bus.  One cyclist got even into a fist fight with a pedestrian.  I would much prefer to hang out with the Basques on the Col du Tourmalet in the future.
• The lavender fields in July are fantastic!

Tomorrow it's Albertville and the Alps.

The Tour de France - The First Half

It's been an interesting and exciting Tour so far.  Here are some random thoughts on the winners, losers, and interesting moments for each stage to date.

• Stage 1.  The bus gets stuck at the finish line, Kittel wins and Argos-Shimano get the first yellow jersey, and big crashes.  If there was ever a case to be made for race radios, this was it.  The Orica GreenEdge bus got stuck under the finish banner.  The officials decided to move the finish line to 3 km out.  Then they decided to move back after some of the teams had already started winding up for the sprint, and there was the inevitable big crash.  Tony Martin went down hard as did Ted King.  Contador and Sagan also went down.

• Stage 2.  Bakelants (Radio Shack-Leopard) managed to hold off a hard charging field to take a solo win and yellow by a single second.  A great ride.
• Stage 3.  Simon Gerrans outkicked Peter Sagan at the finish to win the stage.  Pretty cool!
• Stage 4.  The Tour moved from Corsica to Nice.  Orica GreenEdge wins the team time trial and Gerrans gets yellow.  This sort of makes up for the bus incident.  Ted King, injured in Stage 1, missed the time cut by 7 seconds.  The officials did not make an exception.  This stinks.
• Stage 5.  Cavendish gets his first win in the 2013 TDF.
• Stage 6.  Another sprinter's stage and Griepel gets his first win.  Gerrans loses yellow to his teammate Daryl Impey, South Africa's first yellow jersey holder.
• Stage 7.  Sagan finally wins a stage.  It looks like he has a lock on the green points jersey too.
• Stage 8.  First day in the Pyrenees and Sky dominates.  Mark and I cycled up to the top of the finishing climb at Ax 3 Domaines.  This is a rather short (7 km) but very steep climb.  Richie Port did a great job of setting up Froome for the win.  The Belkin team did okay as did Valverde.  Evans was over 4 minutes back, Hesjedal over 8 minutes, and Van Garderen over 12 minutes.

• Stage 9.  If Saturday's stage was Sky's day, Stage 9 was definitely not.  Porte went from second to 33rd place and Kiryienka didn't make the time cut.  This was a hard day with five major climbs.  Garmin blew the race apart on the first climb with repeated attacks isolating Froome.  Porte got dropped, and Movistar road tempo to make certain that he didn't get back up to help Froome.  Daniel Martin attacked near the top of the last climb and was joined by Fuglsang.  Martin took the win.  Go Garmin!  I am still not sure why Movistar or Saxo Bank didn't attack Froome more on the last climb.  Froome was by himself while Movistar had four riders, Belkin three, Saxo Bank and Katusha each with two.  Okay, so you don't send off your GC guy, but the others could have attacked and the GC riders could go if Froome cracked.  Froome is good, but he can't cover everything.  Andy Schleck is also showing signs of life.  It was interesting to see the start in Saint Girons.  Lot's of cool bikes!

• Stage 10.  Kittel wins again and Tom Veelers goes down in the sprint.  Many are blaming Cavendish for taking Veelers down.  At first I thought that this might have been the case, but after looking at the videos, I think Veelers was a fault.  Veelers was one of the leadout men for Kittel and pulled off to the left, but the road was curving to the left.  At the last moment, Veelers drifted slightly to the right.  Cavendish was simply following the road when he leaned into Veelers.  Veelers should have pulled off to the right or much further off to the left.  Cavendish could have avoided contact, but this would have taken him out of the sprint.  Watch the video and decide for yourself.
• Stage 11.  Tony Martin wins the time trial, Froome extends his lead, and Cavendish gets urine thrown at him.  I am glad the Martin won.  He seems like a genuinely nice guy.  Unless Froome has a really bad day in the Alps or on Mont Ventoux, he is going to win.  No matter what you think of Cavendish, he didn't deserve this sort of treatment.

Of the original 198 riders in the race, there are 182 riders left.  Riders out so far:  Kiryienka (Sky) and King (Cannondale) both missed the time cut. Van Den Broeck (Lotto Belisol), Shar (BMC), Bouhanni (FDJ), Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale), Noval (Saxobank), Gutierrez (Movistar), Bagot (Cofidis), Bono (Lampre-Merida), Dennis (Garmin), Vandervelde (Garmin).  Astana has lost three riders to injury including their GC man Brajkovic.

The Pyrénées

On June 30, I did the 8 hour drive from the Alps to the Pyrénées, where I spend the week at the Lanterne Rouge.  The next day I road up the Col de Spandelles and the Col du Soulor, two HC climbs. Everything was going fine until the last 5 km of the Soulor.  I didn't eat enough and bonked badly.  I had to stop and rest every kilometer to the top.  Fortunately, it was all downhill to St. Savin and the Lanterne Rouge.  It started raining about 5 minutes after I got back.  Tuesday and Wednesday went better.  Thursday took me up the Cirque de Troumouse with Paddy and Roxana.  It was a tough day but nowhere near as punishing as Monday.  This is one of the few climbs in the area that I haven't done.  The view from the top is spectacular.

Friday took me to the Ariège Pyrénées and Les Deux Velos Cycling Lodge.  I arrived in time to do an easy loop over the Col de Saraille.  Saturday was TDF day.  Mark, one of the owners of Les Deux Velos, and I drove over Col de Port and then towards Ax Les Thermes.  We parked the car about 3 km north of town and then cycled to the top of the Ax 3 Domines, the finishing climb of Stage 8 of the TDF.  The stage was spectacular with Sky decimating the field.  Below is a shot of Chris Froome winning the stage and taking yellow.

Since we were stationed inside the barriers near the finish, we had to wait for all of the team cars and the caravan to descend the climb.  I took off a bit early and had to dodge a few gendarmes on the way down.  We didn't get back to Les Deux Velos until around 8 PM.  On Sunday we drove to the start of Stage 9 in Saint Girons.  It was interesting to see all of the team busses line up and watch the bikes and riders get ready for what turned out to be a punishing day on the bike.

I did manage to get in a Sunday afternoon ride up the Col de Port.  Directions: go out the front door, turn left and climb for the next 14 km (the actual climb starts 2 km down the road).  This morning took me to back up the Col de Port, down the other side to Tarascon, over to Foix, up the Col de Péguére and Col de Portel, and down the Col de la Crouzette.  This last col is very steep.  One section is over 18%.  Mark blew out three tires last week on the descent because his rims overheated.  Not wanting to repeat his experience, I stopped several times to let the rims cool off.  The other obstacle on the ride was a herd of cows at the top of the Col de Port.  I spoke nicely to them and they let me pass.

Today I rode over the Col de la Core, had lunch in Seix, and then rode home over the Col de Saraille.  Below is the view to the west from the Col de la Core.  Tomorrow is an easy day.