Homeward Bound

Monday 7/26

Got up early to have breafast with the rest of the group and make sure my bike would make the flight back to the US with my friends. One last breakfast of croissants, proscuitto and cheese, runny eggs and almost raw bacon. The hotel itself was nice with no complaints there. After seeing my sleepy compatriots off I went back to the room and took a leisurely time getting showered and my stuff packed for the flight home. The final bus to the airport left at 11am. I thought about maybe taking a cab or the train and discussed it with the girl at the desk. It would be a long train ride and after my experience the night before didn't sound so appealing and the cab ride was like 60 euros ($80 or so). I saw Stan and Patty in the lobby and we all decided to go ahead and go to the airport early and hang out there until our 3pm flight. Fortunately that was the right call. First, the bus driver dropped us off at the wrong terminal so we had to take the tram to the correct terminal. Then the line to the ticket counters and check-in was pretty long. The good thing for me, I only had my one rolling duffel since my bike was with the earlier group and flight. I would help Patty with her bike and we finally made it through to the counter and got our boarding passes. We had a few hours to kill so we decided to get something to eat for lunch and look for some last minute souvenirs. We met up with a few others who were on our flight. Everyone was upset that Delta was charging them 200 euros ($240 approx.) up front for their bikes. At this point everyone kind of resigned themselves to fighting it out with Delta once they returned home. We had a decent lunch and did some shopping. I bought a map, a Tour du France program, some t-shirts and a few other things then headed to the gate and the flight home. The flight itself was uneventful and arrived pretty much on time. The customs check-in at Atlanta Airport is messed up but I finally made it through and my son Matt and I made our connection and I headed back to the house. It would be 10pm or so before I got home. A fantastic trip in all. A trip of a lifetime.

Here endeth the blog.

Bordeaux to Paris (final stage)

Sunday 7/25 - Had to get up about 5am to pack all the stuff up, eat breakfast, load our luggage (except what we would wear and need for the day) and our bikes onto the bus and bike trailer. At 7:30 or so we boarded yet another set of buses who would drop us off at the Bordeaux train station for us to catch our private TVG (Bullet Train) back to Paris. Our tour buses would make the drive back with our stuff and eventually meet us at the hotel in the Port of Versailles area of Paris. The train was chartered by Graham Watson Cycling Tours for all the different groups in addition to ours that did similar tours. There was plenty of room and many including myself slept part of the 3hr+ ride to Paris. One of our group who had a GPS clocked the train at 188mph during our ride. Despite the speed, the ride was smooth and quiet. When we arrived in Paris we boarded another set of buses chartered by the tour group and headed to the Champs Elysee where the final stage and award ceremonies would take place. Even though we spent very little free time in Paris outside of this afternoon, this was certainly the place to be on this day. The Champs Elysee is like the Times Square of New York, the showcase downtown area of the city. It is surrounded by huge beautiful museums, the Arche de Triumphe along with high end designer retail stores. Intermixed in this are lots of great little sidewalk cafes priceless statuary and fountains and beautiful buildings that were built hundreds of years ago. That was probably the most striking thing about Paris, the mix of 14th, 15th maybe older architecture side by side to post modern. On this day, the final day of the Tour du France, there would be over one million people along the Champs Elysee. The boulevard that makes up the Champs Elysee is several miles long and probably about 4 lanes wide in each direction. It is bordered by trees then stores and restaurants. The Arche de Triumphe is much bigger than it appears in pictures and on most days (not during the tour finale) you can go to the roof top for a great view of downtown Paris. For those thinking of a trip to France and/or Paris, plan a good week in Paris to really enjoy the museums and sights. I would get no closer than about 2 miles to the Eiffel Tower. As soon as we got off the buses everyone kind of split up into different groups to do different things. Tommy and I started out with some other folks but we got separated not too far into our walk. Most people were going to get something to eat and maybe try to find a good location to watch the final Criterium stage. A Criterium is a short race course, typically of no more than a few miles, with most being pretty flat. The final stage would see the riders do ten laps around a 6+ mile course mostly on the Champs Elysee. The Champs Elysee rises at about a 2%-3% grade for 2-2.5 miles then descends down the other side. The riders would reach speeds of 20-25mph going up the grade and 45+ going down the other side. Although this stage typically is mostly ceremonial (the overall Tour winner is usually decided) there are other prestigious awards that can be determined during the final stage. In addition to the Yellow Jersey (overall TDF winner), there is a Green Jersey (best sprinter), Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Moutains) and White Jersey (Best young rider under 25). All had been decided with the exception of the Green Jersey which was being hotly contested by about 4 different riders all within striking distance. For the most part, we spent much of the afternoon, people watching, sightseeing, eating and souvenir shopping. I wanted to get a couple t-shirts and stuff for my kids, etc., so we spent a good while surveying what was available. We watched the progress of the riders who were heading to Paris from some distance away at a leisurely pace. This is where they normally drink their champagne and do their riding photos for the press, prior to the final to the final criterium. When they reached Paris and the Champs Elysee, the excitment in the crown rose exponentially. The first couple of laps were fairly tame and then there was the usual breakaway group who took off from the peleton, vying for press time, pushing the pace and hoping to have enough strenght at the end for a stage victory. Cycling has become so technical that the teams know exactly how much rope to give the breakaway before they start reeling them in. In most cases, not all, the breakaway will be caught before the end of the stage. The endurance of these athletes not withstanding, the team managers and leaders know how much is left in everyones tank and when to make their move for the final push to the finish. I heard Lance compare pro cycling to Nascar racing. Tommy and I did not find a good vantage point early on as we wandered around so some of our earlier pictures were taken from 20 people deep along the sidelines. After the finish, things eased up and we were able to get pretty close to take pictures of the parade of teams, a casual procession of each team, the riders, managers and support personel usually without helmets. Some of the teams like Saxobank which had a great following throughout the Tour took the time to mingle with their fans on the sidelines, pose or pictures, sign autographs etc. Because Saxobank is a team based in Holland, some of their fans wore Viking like helmets which a few of the riders took and wore for their final spin. One of the intriquing things about the Tour du France is the close access you have to the riders. On some of the mountain stages, the riders literally have to ride through crowds of screaming cycling fans a little over a bikes width apart. You would think that in this day and time the security of the riders would be threatened but thank God nothing crazy has happened to alter that access. I think it's one of the coolest things about professional cycling is it's close relationship with fans. I remember going to Brasstown Bald to watch the Tour du Georgia riders ascend to the top of Georgias highest mountain peak, a brutal three mile stretch with grades in excess of 20% near the top. This would be the mountain top finish after 100+ miles of racing over several other mountains and steep rolling terrain. I took pictures of some of the riders from just a couple feet away. Some of the riders who were trying just to finish the stage would get help with people pushing their bikes in some stretches. I think for the most part, cycling has a pretty astute following. Most people who ride more than just casually understand and admire the fitness, endurance and long term commitment required to reach this level of proficiency. Most of the pro riders have been involved in competetive cycling since they were teens. It takes years to build up the stamina and endurance to ride at this level day after day. I was able to get a few good pictures of some of the key riders and shortly after that we decided to try and make the bus back to the hotel. The buses back to the hotel were to leave at 7pm and we were pushing it with only 20 minutes or so to go. We figured they might move that time back since the riders arrived in Paris about an hour after originally predicted. After a few wrong turns and about a mile of walking we reached the place where the buses were to be but they had already left. We were told to take the Metro (subway system) back to the Port of Versailles and our hotel if we missed the bus. No big deal, right? After another mile of walking and communicating with French people speaking broken English we found the Metro station. When we went to buy our ticket through a machine, all the information was in French with no English subtitles. Luckily a young french guy noticing our indecision came to our aid and helped us purchase our ticket. We proceeded through the turnstile with what we thought were validated tickets. After looking at a map for maybe 15 minutes we finally found the Port of Versailles stop. It was clear across the map with no direct route as far as we could determine. We would have to board one train then get off at a station to board another train and then possibly another train before we would get on the train to our destination stop. Thank God for color coding or we might still be in a tunnel somewhere trying to find our stop. It probably took us a good hour maybe longer to get on the final train. The Port of Versailles would be like the 15th stop of 17 stops from where we boarded but at least we were on the right train. It was probably 9:30-10pm at this point. About 3 stops from our stop, 4 guys and 1 girl wearing these green sportcoats borded the train and started asking the passengers for their tickets which the checked with a handheld electronic deal. No problem, here's our tickets. Then the guy who checked my ticket said "not valid" only in French, but clear enough to know that they had a problem with our ticket. In a matter of seconds three or four of them kind of surrounded us and told us that we were riding illegally and that the fine would be 25 euros (about $32 in my estimation). We showed them our receipt for the tickets and proceeded to claim innocence which quickly turned into "were just dumb Americans, not criminals, leave us alone" talk. None of these people could speak English very well so we were at a stalemate. Two stops before our stop they literally forced us to exit the train. One of the guys used a cell phone to call what we determined to be the police. A visit to a Paris jail was not on my itinerary but it seemed it might be on theirs. As luck would have it, our dumb American act prevailed and apparently the police told them to let us go. We proceeded to our destination stop and after maybe another 45 minutes, a few wrong turns and broken english directions later arrived at our hotel. Out of 75 people, we were probably two of the last 5 to reach the hotel and we would have to dismantle and pack our bikes in our boxes, try to get something to eat, check into our hotel and get our stuff ready to fly out in the morning. Since I had someone taking my bike back on the Air France flight which was early in the morning, I would have to coordinate that as well. Eventually we met a big group of our comrades in the bar. Apparently they got in pretty late and missed the hotel dining hours and sent a few out and about to buy pizzas. We would buy into the whole pizza thing and drink wine that we purchased at the hotel bar. It was a fun time nonetheless sharing stories of our day in France. Some people didn't even stick around the Champs Elysee and decided to rent bikes and tour the city. One group bought cheese, bread and wine and had a little impromtu picnic in the moonlight under the Eiffel Tower. Our Metro story probably claimed top prize however. I don't think anyone came close to getting arrested. It was probably after midnite before the group broke up. The Air France group had to leave at like 6:30 in the morning to make their flight which I believe was at 10:30. My Delta flight was at 3pm so I would have time to kill, a good thing after a very eventful last day in France.

Time Trial Day in Bordeaux

Saturday 7/24 - Went to breakfast at 6:30 with the intent to do an early ride along the time trial course and maybe all the way to the wine country and finish in Paulliac. Rode with Ann, Dane, Jim and a few of the guys who came from Mobile, Alabama. I guess we got a little late start because they would not allow us on the time trial course which started just down from the hotel. We decided to find a road the paralelled the course and possibly get on the course a little further out of town. Our ride took us through some industrial areas of Bordeaux which were not very scenic. The roads were still pretty good and there was a bike lane similar to the Silver Comet trail in Atlanta that would pretty much follow the canal which paralelled the early part of the time trial course. We kind of went a little astray at some point and wound up in a residential area that kind of looked like it could have been in Florida somewhere. We checked one of the guys GPS's and headed back towards the course which we intersected maybe 8-10 miles outside of Bordeaux proper. The crowds were already gathering and we came upon a bend in the road where some bleachers were set up and a large group of people were congregating. We were kind of hemmed in and decided to just wait it out for a little while. Suddenly a group of cyclists, mostly older guys and girls wearing what was a charity group cycling kit came by. Apparently, they were a fundraising group that had been allowed to ride the course to promote the charity they were supporting. There may have been 50 or so in the group and after the last of them rode by we jumped out on the course and rode as well. I guess we were about two miles or so into our course ride when we were kindly directed off the course by some Gendarmeres. While on the course we were cheered by the on lookers and even had a few take our pictures. That would be the closest we would get to the course. Some of the other people in our tour group headed out a little earlier and were able to ride most of the 57km course. We decided to split up shortly thereafter, with my plan to go back towards the start gate to check out the riders and festivities. In all we probably rode about 30miles out and back. When Jim and I finally reached the time trial start area, we saw Fabian Cancellara (would win the TT by a whopping 5 minutes) was warming up in a turnaround and then proceeded to the start house. I was able to get a few pictures before he took off but it was pretty crowded close to the start house. The start was in the green space between the canal and the downtown business district, the perfect setting for this event. I wound up going back to the hotel, showering and meeting up with Tommy and Doug and we walked over to where the team buses were parked. With a time trial, each rider races against the clock and they depart the start gate every two minutes. In order to be ready to give it their all, the riders will will warm up on a trainer for half and hour, hour etc. to make sure their muscles are good and warm. Even though you are looking at a 30+ mile ride, you have to carefully time your effort so that you basically finish with nothing left in the tank. The riders ride in reverse order of their overall standings in the General Classification with the leaders riding last. The fastest riders would finish in maybe an hour fifteen minutes which means they would be averaging close to 30mph over that time and distance. I can tell you, riding for an extended period at any pace over 20mph even on a flat course with no wind at all is very difficult. Just because it's flat doesn't mean it's easy. You still have to pedal and the cadence and effort is still very taxing. Reducing wind resistance, bike handling and effort management are the keys to being a good time trialer. We got some great photos of some of the guys and the time trial bikes including Lance and tour winner Alberto Contador. Wound up losing Doug but hung out with Tommyand took some great photos. Headed back to the hotel for shower and nap before heading out for dinner. This would be the last night in Bordeaux and all our luggage would need to be packed up before a 6:30am transport to the Train station. We would ride the TVG (bullet train) to Paris for our final day and night before flying back to the USA. Some of the people were going back to the same restaurant we had gone to the night before but Tommy and I decided to find a new place a little less pricey. We walked down to the waterfront and stopped at sidewalk cafe that specialized in Italian food. I think we spent about 25euros each for dinner and a beer a far cry from the 65euros ($90) we had spent the night before. The food wasn't as good and we didn't have the stunning French girl next to us but we did have a really cute french waitress. She really took the time to try and explain some food items to us in broken French/English and just had that cute lighthearted lilt in her voice and manor. When we tried to tip her additional money at the end, she got confused what we were trying to do, so we just paid the regular bill. Don't want to offend anyone by paying more than was the custom. We took a walk through part of the town and went over by the Opera House which kind of looks like Grand Central Station ony smaller and cleaner. It was lit up beautifully but none of my photos turned out very well so you'll just have to take my word for it. We headed back to the hotel around 10 and called it a night.

Pardon the interruption

Okay, sorry about the delay folks, but I have a doctors excuse. I was doing a Gaps ride (see earlier posts) last Sunday 8/22 and on the final descent and yes the final switchback before the bottom I took a bad spill. All things considered I consider myself extremely fortunate to have only suffered a separated shoulder, deep laceration requiring 8 stitches on my knee, bruised ribs and an assortment of mild to medium grade road rash along my left side. I say fortunate because if you go down on the road at 30+ mph you are probably in for a couple broken bones, more severe road rash and possibly much worse. As I headed into the last turn feeling great having climbed three mountains and two descents, I had finally found a rhythm on the last and longest of descents. Descending is a bike skill that doesn't get mentioned much in lieu of sprinting and climbing skill but is something that you have to learn. It takes bike handling skill but also a little bravado to lean into a turn while doing 30mph stradling a piece of carbon fiber that weighs maybe 17lbs. on tires that are maybe 1.5" wide. Needless to say, I dove into the corner with the correct form and line and just as I reached the apex of the turn there stood two pools of gravel, one more towards the center of the road the other near the outside edge. In approaching the turn I saw two state troopers had pulled over two cars maybe 75yds from the turn. They did not have their big lights on so I figured that it was probably just two guys playing fast and furious on the turns and the troopers pulled them over. What I didn't realize at the time was that another car probably in front of them had hit this gravel and careened off the road into the woods dead center into a tree about 20-30 feet off the road. The car was obviously totaled with the front bumper pushed up a foot or so into the engine and both front wheels pointing in like a pigeon toed 13yr old. As I reached the apex and saw the gravel I knew that something bad was about to happen. A split second survey of options revealed that I had to try and hold my line through the outside gravel and hope that the bike would somehow hold to the road. Needless to say, the bike slid out immediately upon contact with the gravel with yours truly attached to it. I don't really exactly remember the immediate sequence that followed but I know I tumbled over two or three times before coming to a stop on the shoulder of the road in some dirt. If you have ever been in a physically traumatic situation like this, adrenaline seems to take over. I initially did not feel too bad. I could see the blood running down my leg and arm but my hands, face, head etc., would all escape unscathed. As I took a quick physical inventory I realized I had a pretty good lump on my shoulder which I immediately thought was a broken collarbone. That is one of the most common cycling injuries. Jason who was behind me saw everything and rode back up the 50yds or so to tell the troopers who were on the other side of the curve out of view. One of the troopers came down and then called for an ambulance. The other guys, Dale who although a great climber is a very slow descender came up shortly thereafter and both Doug and Keith who were ahead of me came back up within a minute or two after Jason went to get his car. Doug is an Antithesiologist and after checking me out figured I suffered a third degree shoulder separation but was most concerned about my left knee which took the brunt of the impact. He knew the Orthopedic on call at Kennestone Hospital about an hours drive back into Atlanta but I would have to forgo any immediate aid other than what the EMT's could offer. Here again, other than not being able to lift my arm and being banged up I wasn't in excessive pain. We decided to drive back to Atlanta for treatment. Fast forward to today, Saturday 8/28, seven days later, a three and a half hour emergency room visit, two Orthopedic oppinions later and here I am, on the road to recovery. I actually worked all week full days and went to the gym from Wednesday on to do cardio and leg work. I am feeling better every day and hope to be back on the bike in a couple three weeks. I will always have a knot on my shoulder from the injury and it may never be 100% again but I should be able to resume most of my activities. If after three months I still have alot of soreness or pain then I may have to look at a surgical remedy. In conclusion; cycling can be dangerous but so can pretty much everything else in life. My passion for cycling is not diminished and my faith in God is even stronger. I'll be back, God willing.

Bordeaux

Friday 7/23 (cont'd) - I believe I wound up falling asleep on the bus because I woke up when we stopped at a toll booth with a big traffic jam. That was the first really big traffic jam we encountered during the whole trip. It probably took about a half hour to clear and then not too long after we arrived in Bordeaux (about 6:30pm). Bordeaux is a beautiful city, second largest city after Paris. What we saw of it in our two day stay was a city of 12th, 13th and 14th century architecture intermixed with modern buildings and rail transportation. Where we stayed was just off the main boulevard that ran along the canal. I think it was probably Bordeaux's version of 5th Avenue and Times Square. There were restaurants and hotels pretty much all around us intermixed with an old opera house and just across from green space area complete with skate park and other retail that ran along the canal/river. The Individual Time Trial scheduled the next day would start within easy walking distance of our hotel. When we crossed the canal into Bordeaux we were stopped because they had closed the main road to set up the time trial barriers and start area. After about a half hour of sitting on the bus about half of us got out a walked the mile or so to the hotel. It was a beautiful early evening and Bordeaux is a really interesting and pretty city. After checking into the hotel and to my surprise my own room with no roomate, we were free to explore the city and restaurants for the evening. The Hotel Normandie was very nice, pretty modern with balcony windows straight out of Romeo and Juliet and the much appreciated AC. It wasn't that hot in France but I like sleeping when it's cool to moderately cold in the room. I hooked up with three other guys and we headed out to find a place for dinner. Just a little over a block away on the square we found a nice sidewalk cafe where we ate outside. The food and wine were great and the scenery (ahem) was great as well. There was a french girl with her boyfriend we presume sitting just behind me and thankfully so. I say thankfully because she was a classic stunning french beauty and it probably would have been difficult for me not to stare. As it was, John who sat across from me developed quite the crush. We wound up spending three hours or so at the restaurant, drank three bottles of wine and our bill came to with tip about 260 Euro's. I didn't really sit down and calculate it out but I think we were looking at about $320 or so American. This was going to be my big splurge meal so I didn't mind and the food was terrific. When the young french girl (probably late 20's) go up to leave, she waved to us; What a sweetheart. After settling up with the waiter and he was excellent we headed out for a quick lap around the square and then back to the hotel for the night. The next day we planned to do a ride, hopefully on the time trial course, watch some of the riders and do more exploring. I mentioned the waiter because the tab as far as I could tell in pretty much everywhere we went included a 10% gratuity. This was not the first time that we would try and leave a tip in excess of the pre-determined amount which was understood and met with confusion. I think the french think that great service is just a part of a good meal and don't look at it as anything special. Imagine that.

So long to Lourdes

Friday 2/23 - Left Lourdes in two buses headed to the feed station in Sabres. The feed station is a point on a stage ride where the riders receive their food and hydration rations in excess of what they carry on their person. Typically, riders are handed a shoulder bag called a musset bag that they sling over their shoulder and root through various food stuffs, cans of coke, etc. It's usually a pretty good place to observe the riders in that they slow down (do not stop) during the approach and handoff, kind of like a moving pit stop. There are usually a lot of fans around the feed stations because riders often throw their water bottles and stuff they don't want tot he crowds before they start racing again. We arrived in Sabres about 11:30 with the anticpated arrival of the riders around 2pm. We unloaded the bikes (we had prepared our riding gear in advance) and started out pretty much as one group for a ride. The group quickly broke into a couple of groups which ended up going different directions and for various lengths. Because of the inclement weather the last couple days, one of the buses and 36 or so select riders decided to ride the Tourmalet instead of meeting at the feed station. From the Tourmalet, the riders would descend back to the bus which would then head directly to Bordeaux. I chose to ride with a group from the feed station area that included our tour guide Tom. About midway through the 25+ miles that we rode we stopped in a small town and had lunch. There were at least two other groups, one that chose to ride a longer ride at a more brisk pace and the other a more moderate pace and in a different direction. I think I chose the right group because we encountered alot of traffic on the way to Bordeaux and our trip wound up being a good deal longer than originally anticipated. After heading back to the bus from lunch we timed it about right to see the riders coming through the feed zone. Not long after seeing the riders pass through we headed back to the bus, changed and after taking a head count, loaded the bikes and headed to Bordeaux.