Rest Days are Important - Guest Post from Rob Beezer

The past six days have featured one day of hiking and five days of
climbing on the bike.  With two very big climbs upcoming on the schedule,
I elected to take a rest day.  Visited the cathedral, home to dead Counts
of Savoy from the last 1000 years, if I understood correctly.  Got some
cash, visited the post office to send postcards to my sons, got caught up
on blog posts, arranged my freshly-laundered bike clothing so it would
dry, and had a long delicious lunch with a generous carafe of wine.  The
latter eliminated any thoughts of taking a short spin in the valley.

The rest of the crew (including Tom) went for a loop over the Col de
Glandon, the Col de Croix Fer and the Col du Mollard.  These are but three
of the ten cols available directly out of Saint Jean-de-Mareinne.    Lars
hopped on the wheels of a couple of pros from the Cofidis team, hung with
one of them on an ascent, and then followed in their slipstream on a
descent, passing cars as they went.  Sounded like it was a real thrill for
him, especially since the pros seemed to know the descent well.

After post-ride massages (arranged by the hotel), we made a trip in the
car to the two sport stores in search of a helmet for Lars (a success).  I
got another pair of riding gloves (with the pulls between the fingers),
some lightweight armwarmers (Mavic, bright red, on sale), and a Col de
Madeleine commemerative jersey (even though I swore I wouldn't).