2016 Tour de France—Winners, Losers, and Key Moments

Well, the 2016 Tour de France is now in the books.  Of course the Tour is of interest to some and very boring to others—like cricket I suppose.  If you get it, then this year's Tour did not disappoint.  If you don't get it, then you can ignore the rest of this post.  For me, the Tour is the Super Bowl, and it lasts three weeks!

Winners

• The Brits.  Froome took time where no one expected—the descent off the Col de Peyresourde, the attack with Peter Sagan. Sky was definitely the strongest team this year.  But there was also Mark Cavendish's four stage wins, Adam Yates finishing fourth as the best young rider in the Tour, and Steve Cummings, who soloed to a win over the Col d'Aspin.
• Africa.  Dimension Data had five wins and Louis Meintjes (Lampre) from South Africa finished 8th overall.
• The French.  Romain Bardet pulled out a beautiful stage win in the Alps, which was good enough to put him in second place overall.  Bardet can climb and descends like a madman.  If he could learn to time trial, he could win the Tour.  Julian Alaphillipe also showed some spark. He came close to winning Stage 2.  These two riders are the future of French cycling.
• Peter Sagan, Rafal Majka and Tinkoff.  Despite losing Alberto Contador early in the race, Sagan won his fifth consecutive points jersey and 3 stages and spent three days in the yellow jersey.  Majka won his second polka dot jersey as the best climber in the race.
• The Belgians.  Thomas DeGhent won the Mont Ventoux stage.  Marcel Kittel (German) won a stage, Dan Martin (Irish) finished ninth overall.  Both ride for the Belgian team Etixx-Quickstep.
• The Dutch.  Bauke Mollema had a great race before fading in the last few stages.  Tom Dumoulin won two stages before crashing out and breaking his wrist.  This is especially sad because he would have been a favorite for the time trial in the Rio Olympics.  And Wout Poels was the key domestic for Chris Froome.
• Australians.  After a disastrous first week, Richie Porte fought back to fifth place.  Richie needs better luck.  Orica-Bikeexchange won a stage and had the best young rider.
• The Columbians.  Although Quintana was never a challenge, he did place third overall.  Sergio Henao was one of Froome's key helpers and finished 12th.  Jalinson Pantano won a stage and probably would have won the overall prize for the most aggressive rider in the Tour had it not been for Peter Sagan.

Losers

• The Americans.  Tejay van Garderen collapsed during the last week of the Tour.  He dropped from the top five down to 29th place.  Cannonade Drapac finished near the bottom in the team standings.  Their highest placed rider was Pierre Rolland, who is French.
• The Italians couldn't win a stage and their big hope for the overall win, Fabio Aru, cracked on the last mountain stage and dropped to 13th.
• Alberto Contador crashed twice in the first two days and finally pulled out sick.  A healthy Contador might have changed the race.
• Astana.  A high budget team with no results.  According to some, this is a team full of dopers and run by an ex-doper.
• The wildcard teams.  Nothing!
• The fans who caused the crash on Mont Ventoux.  The crazy, drunk fans almost ruined the race for everyone.  Certainly, Bauke Mollema and Richie Port would have picked up precious time had it not been for fans who stopped the motorcycle on Mont Ventoux.

Draw

• BMC.  Yes, Greg van Avermart won a stage and Richie Port finished fifth overall, but I'm certain that Porte would have done better had it not been for the ill-timed puncture on Stage 2 and the Mont Ventoux disaster.
• Movistar.  Yes, they won the team classification as well as one stage, but the GC battle between Nairo Quintana and Chris Froome never materialized.

Key Moments

• Cavendish is back with four stage wins.
• Chris Froome took time where least expected—the descent off the Col de Peyresourde, the attack with Peter Sagan.
• The motorcycle disaster on Mont Ventoux.  Fans got in the way of the motorcycle causing the yellow jersey to crash.
• Contador abandons.
• Quintana never materializes as a threat to the overall race.

I am now in Tour de France withdrawal and have to wait eleven months before I get my next fix.

Barcelonnette and the Southern Alps

Barcelonette is a town located in the southern Alps of France.  Although it is the largest city in the Ubaye Valley, it only boasts about 2700 inhabitants.  The town was founded in 1231, although the Romans lived in the area in the first millennium B.C.  During the Middle Ages, control of the area bounced back and forth between France, Savoy, and Provence.

Between 1850 and 1950, Barcelonnette was the source of a wave of emigration to Mexico. On the outskirts of town, there are several houses or villas "colonial style" erected by emigrants to Mexico, who returned to the country between 1870 and 1930.

The town is hit hard by the First World War, with 81 deaths. During the Second World War, the Ubaye valley was one of the important centers of resistance mobilization that followed the invasion of Normandy. The city was liberated in the summer of 1944, before the arrival of Allied troops.

The city is now mainly a tourist and resort centre, serving many ski lodges. The Pra Loup ski area was the finish of a stage of the 2015 Tour de France. Barcelonnette is the only subprefecture of France that is not served by rail transport.

As far as cycling goes, the area is famous for the Brevet des 7 Cols.  These are seven mountain passes that climbed from the Ubaye valley.  You can get a punch card from the local tourist office and validate your achievement at the top of each climb.  Although I haven't done all of the climbs, I have been to the top of the Col de Vars and the Col de la Cayolle (twice each ) as well as the Col de la Bonette, Europe's highest pass.  If you climb all seven cols, you will have cycled 400 km and done 7200 m of climbing.

Although it is not part of the Brevet des 7 cols, the climb to Maljasset gets special mention. This is a 72 km out and back ride which climbs up to the hamlet of Maljasset, one of the highest inhabited villages in Europe. The climb is fairly gentle, save one section of 8% and one brutal kilometer of 11%.

On a side note, it snowed the night of July 14.  The  Col de la Bonnette and the Col de la Cayolle were closed the next morning—much to the frustration of a group of motards.

Navigating the French Legal System

I have spent the last 4 hours and 110 euros trying to get my car out of impoundment. When I checked into the Hotel de la Placette Barcelonnette on Thursday, they said that all of the public parking was okay. However, they failed to mention that Saturday morning was market day—no parking and violators will be towed. When I went to find my car this afternoon, I knew immediately what happened as I read the sign in the lot. The hotel was closed for the afternoon, so I went to the Barcelonnette tourist office.

The people at the tourist office said that all of the city offices were closed for the weekend and then went to work making phone calls. They called the Gendarmerie (French National Police) to find out that the local policeman who towed my car did not come on duty until 5 PM. It was 3 PM, so I walked 20 minutes to the Gendarmerie, who told me the same thing. After stopping for a sandwich, I walked to the impoundment lot and tried to call M. Philippe Catan, the local policeman. It was after 5 PM, but all I could get was his voicemail. I decided to walk the 20 minutes back to the tourist office. After about 15 minutes of trying various numbers, they directed me to the Hotel de Ville (city hall), where I finally met M. Catan. It cost me 110 euros ($121) to get my Renault out of jail, but M. Catan did give me a ride out to the lot. He said that the normal fine was 300 euros ($331), but he give me the foreigner (and first-time offender) discount.

Lessons learned. (1) It helps to speak some French. They spoke English in the tourist office. The Gendarme that I spoke with spoke some English. M. Catan spoke only French. However, I didn't want my French to be too good, since I wanted to play the helpless tourist card. (2) Look for the signs that say stationnement interdit mercredi et samedi du matin and don't trust the hotel. And check your car each evening for windshield flyers. (3) Make friends at the tourist office. They were exceptionally helpful.

First Post France 2016—Bastille Day Rain, Snow, Sun, Barcelonnette, Ventoux, and Nice

Yesterday was Bastille Day in France. The Bastille was a fortress-prison in Paris which had often held people jailed on arbitrary royal indictments that could not be appealed and did not indicate the reason for the imprisonment. The Bastille was known for holding political prisoners whose writings had displeased the royal government, and was thus a symbol of the absolutism of the monarchy. The Bastille was stormed by angry citizens and mutinous Gardes Françaises (French Guards) on July 14, 1789, marking an important point in the French Revolution.

Bastille Day is equivalent to the American Independence Day and is celebrated with similarly.  The official name of the holiday is La fête nationale, but most French refer to the day as Le quatorze juillet. No self-respecting citizen of France would refer to this national holiday as Bastille Day.

I had intended to write about the rain in Albertville and the snow around Barcelonnette last night as well as Barcelonnette itself.  And then there was the mess on Mont Ventoux in the Tour de France yesterday, but these are items for the next post.  None of this was very important when compared to the tragedy in Nice last night.

France suffered its third terrorist attack in 19 months last night in nice when a truck drive 1.1 miles through a crowd of spectators who were watching the July 14 fireworks in Nice.  The death toll currently stands at 84 and is expected to grow.  The suspect was eventually killed by police, but the details of who and why are still emerging.  This is such a tragedy, and I cannot understand why any human being would commit such an act.  And I am at a loss for a remedy.