Tour Trip (Chapter 3 continued)

Here are some additional photos from the Port de Balles stage and climb.

Tour Trip (Chapter 3)

Monday 7/19 - A scramble to eat breakfast, load our bikes and get our riding gear and provisions for the day for our first real mountain climbing of the trip. The buses would drop us off at an area close to the town of St. Martory. There were two ride options; 85km over two climbs and then the very difficult and steep Port of Balles and a longer but flatter 95km that also included the Port of Balles climb and descent. I went with a group of guys who I new who had done this tour in years past, one who spoke fluent French. I figured if we got lost at least we would have someone with us who could help us ask for directions, I know, a non-manly thing, but riding a 100 miles or so back to the hotel if we missed the bus pick-up didn't sound so good. Anyway, as luck would have it we made a turn which we thought would take us to our key roadway number but after about 10miles discovered we had essentially made a large loop and were close to where we were dropped off. After a meeting of the minds, we resumed our journey across southwest France. We rode through a few small charming French villages that all looked like something out of the movie Sound of Music until we came to a town and what appeared to be an impasse to our destination. Our French speaking member, Jim, went into a bakery that was open in the town and within minutes, Jim, the proprietor, his wife and a customer were all standing out in front of the store speaking french and pointing here and there. Ultimately, we had to ride up this street about 2k and make a left at the statue of St. John, go around a roundabout and take the 3rd road which would put us on road 936 or whatever the number was to our destination. The customer even followed us in her car to make sure we made the correct turn. Contrary to what you may have heard, French people are very friendly and helpful. I did not find one rude person on our trip not even in Paris where I had heard they tend to be rude to Americans who don't speak French. I am sure you have your idiots just like any other place but I did not meet anyone who was not extremely patient and gracious.

After about another hour of riding we came to a hilly area that I thought might be a climb. As it turned out it was just a short climb to the town at the base of the Port de Balles climb all decked out with banners and full of tour patrons awaiting the arrival of the riders. The hill up to the town square was not very long maybe 200-300yds then it turned right through the town square and headed straight up the mountain between homes and businesses. I had hoped to do that climb but everyone I was with was a little spent from our 40+ mile ride to get there. Not 10minutes after we arrived they closed the road to riders in anticipation of the Publicity Caravan that preceeds the arrival of the tour riders. I had a chance to walk my bike through and then after a ways ride up the climb but decided against doing it myself which eventually would prove out to be a wise decision. The buses were parked back down the hill in a little parking area and we rode back there, changed our shoes, stored our bikes and walked back up to the square for some lunch and to secure a good vantage point to view the riders as they started the ascent up the Port de Balles. Some of our people from the other groups actually made it up the Port de Balles but told of how steep and hard it was. There was no access to water along the way except from a spring from a rock on the side of the road and almost everyone who rode it was near heat exhaustion if they made it to the top. The climb was a little over 6miles long but had parts that went from the average of 6.5% to over 14% slope. At that grade, just keeping enough momentum going to keep from tipping over is difficult over even very short distances and the tour riders race up them, maybe not at 20mph but probably 8-10 anyway. Having ridden some beyond category climbs before has given me a new appreciation to the fitness level these guys. They may be the fittest endurance athletes in the world.

I wound up climbing on foot about 1-2km from the base with a few others from our group and took pictures while the rider came through. Thomas Voleker of BBox who was leading the breakaway and was the first one up the climb would wind up winning the stage. The total stage length was 187.5km or roughly 116miles long.

After the stage went through we headed back to the bus who would take us back to the hotel in Toulouse for the night.

Tour Trip (Chapter 2)

Left the hotel in Chatereaux around 9 heading to Toulouse. There was some misinformation on the itinerary, the trip to Toulouse would be a 5hr drive not 3 as stated. We had two buses, for simplicity, one was white the other pink. I was on the white bus. About halfway into our ride to Toulouse the pink bus started having transmission problems. The driver attempted to override the automatic tansmission computer to drive it manually but apparently it was overheating and giving off a burning fluid odor. We decided to stop at the next rest stop and reprogram the computer and look at potential alternatives if that didn't work. It was Sunday, and nobody in France works on Sunday pretty much. It was a beautiful day and apparently vacation season for the French as well because the rest stop was jammed. We went into the rest area and there was a line to both the men's and women's rest rooms. In France whether riding a bike or visiting a crowded rest stop a minimal amount of modesty is sufficient. The door to the men's room was wide open with clear view of the occupied urinals while the women used the stalls in both facilities. No need to go behind a building or go into the woods if doing #1. Find a tree, bush or just turn your back and let fly. Actually, I'm okay with that, although the bathrooms are a different story. In this particular rest stop facility, the toilet was pretty much just a hole in the floor, and this was a modern facility. Oh well, enough of this crap (ha!).

About an hour later after the bus transmission had cooled and the driver felt confident that he had reprogrammed the computer to use the transmission manually we boarded and made our way towards Toulouse. We actually arrived in Toulouse late afternoon and since dinner wasn't until 8 were able to get in a little ride along the canal of about 30 miles. Toulouse is a really pretty city but we really didn't have much time to explore the city since we were leaving the next morning. The ride along the canal was on a bike path. We had to ride a few miles through the city before reaching the canal path but as seems to be the case wherever we went, the roads were great, the drivers very courteous and the scenery beautiful.

Tour du France trip (finally) Chapter 1

I'm sorry everyone, I was supposed to be rooming with a friend who took his computer and I intended to update my blog with pictures and commentary daily. However, our coordinator messed up and had me with another guy and it became too much trouble to coordinate the use. In France, most of the hotels charge for internet use by the day and if you are lucky enough to have a hotel with a computer desk for public use, the keyboard is very different. They use a lot of different symbols and after looking for about 20 minutes one day, I still hadn't figured out how to type in the @ symbol. Actually, we were so busy pretty much from dawn till bed time that it would have been difficult even if I had my own laptop.

I arrived in Paris at 5:45am on Sat. 7/17. There were two other tour trippers on my flight that I knew about, Patty and Stan so we quickly passed through customs and headed for something to eat. The majority of the group were due in 8 something on Air France and with them was my bike box. Delta wanted to charge $200 each way for my bike where Air France was charging $55. Luckily I found someone whose wife was not riding and agreed to take my bike as part of her luggage. Well 8 turned into 10, 10:30 etc. and we found out that the customs officials decided to all take a 1 hour morning break about the time the group came in. Eventually, though we all hooked up, got our bikes and after a little confusion loaded our stuff onto the bus and bike trailer (enclosed Belgium bike carrier) and headed to what would be our final trip day hotel about 45min away. On arrival we assembled our bikes, stored our boxes, grabbed a bite to eat and waited for the remainder of our groups arrival from a later flight. The bus left Paris mid afternoon on our 2-1/2 day journey to Lourdes in the southwest Pyrennees region of France. First stop was Chatereaux, a charming small town about 3hrs south of Paris. I never realized that France is pretty much on the same lattitude as Maine so the weather was ideal and because of the earths axis it stays light there till about 10:30. Chatereaux as well as almost every other town and city we visited or passed through was beautifully landscaped and very clean. The roads in France are very well maintained, most all have wide bike lanes and there are NO BILLBOARDS. I don't know if that is true everywhere but I never remember seeing a billboard the whole trip. We had a group dinner at the hotel, talked a little about the upcoming days activities and some including myself headed out on the town for a little exploration. We would have breakfast at 8 then start our journey to our next layover city Toulouse at 9am.

Final Tune-up

Well, I leave in 5 days and I have been trying to figure out just how to taper my training to be fresh for the rides next week without losing fitness. Oddly enough, even with a short layoff, sometimes a week or less, the fitness level starts to deteriorate. I don't believe we will get to ride at all before Sunday, so I don't want to pack up the bike till the last minute.

I rode a 25 mile hilly ride on Saturday at a moderate pace and did my last mountain tune-up at the Gaps in Dahlonega yesterday (Sunday). I got there late, having gone to church first so I didn't get on the bike till after 11:00. The forecast called for 90's even in the mountains but I don't think it ever got quite that hot. Riding on the right side edge of the road I was in the shade for most of the climbing, so that definitely helped. It was a 35 mile ride with about 10 miles of climbing, 5 miles of rollers between Gaps and 10 miles of descending (Wheeee...). I kind of surprised myself. The climbs did not seem to be as steep and as demanding as the last time I rode them a couple weeks back. I wasn't going to break any speed records on the climbs but I did manage to pass a few folks on the way up but it was probably just one of those days that are becoming fewer and further between. There were three guys from a cycling group in Augusta I met up with at the top of the first two climbs and I passed them on the last climb. Not many hills in Augusta except maybe at Augusta National where they play the Masters but I don't think they would allow cyclists on the cart paths (you think?).

Well, if you have been keeping up with the Tour, you know that Lance Armstrong is pretty much out of the picture for winning the Tour or even finishing on the podium (1st, 2nd or 3rd). He crashed yesterday (stage 8) and got caught up in a couple other mishaps which knocked him out of the Peleton and he didn't have it in him to fight his way back. He finished almost 12 minutes behind the General Classification contenders and it would be virtually impossible to make that up over the next two weeks. He's currently in 39th place overall. He pretty much conceded that in the post stage interview, but plans to try and win a stage or two and support other riders on his team that have a shot (Levi Leipheimer currently in 8th and possibly Andres Kloden 22nd I think). I guess there comes a point in time in every elite athlete's career where they have to realize that there is no substitute for youth. I learn that lesson pretty much every group ride I do (HA!!).

Don't let the spandex and pagentry of the Tour fool you, these guys are tough. Tyler Ferrar an American sprinter from the Garmin team broke his wrist in a crash in an early stage and is still riding. They've even had guys who broke their collarbones continue riding to finish stages. I cracked my collarbone once on a camping/hiking trip and there were'nt enough drugs and alcohol around that would have gotten me back on a bike. Road rash? What's a little skin here and there. Oh yeah; the real reason cyclists shave their legs is so it's easier to clean the wounds from road rash, not aerodynamics as is often thought.

I will take off today (riding that is) to do a dry run packing my bike. I plan to do easy rides Tues, Wed and Thurs just to keep the legs moving.

I'm not much of a techno geek so hopefully I can continue making posts as planned throughout my trip. I hope to take a lot of pictures and post to my blog at least every couple days if not every day during the trip.

Au revoir!

July 4th Weekend / Start of the Tour de France

The Tour de France officially started on Saturday with the Prologue (5.5 mile time trial). If you get Versus on your TV they are showing the Tour about 5 times a day. Here again, it is a three week stage race with only 2 rest days over that span. Fabian Cancellara with Saxobank won the Prologue so he starts out with the Yellow Jersey. He's not a strong climber so he's not really favored to win the overall Tour but will probably be involved in the outcome for most of the flat stages and time trials. Time trials are individual races against the clock. It's a discipline that involves riding strength, technique and aerodynamic efficiency. Lance Armstrong did well and is currently in 4th place. Each stage (day) involves different terrain and distances. The rider with the lowest accumulated time overall wins the Yellow Jersey and keeps it until someone comes in with a lower accumulated time. Even after three weeks of racing 2,400 miles or so the difference between the leader and second thru tenth place may only be seconds.

Well, I did a ride with three guys on Saturday that I had never ridden before. I had planned to go to the Gaps in Dahlonega but someone suggested riding Burnt Mountain instead between Jasper and Ellijay. Based on the Mapmyride.com profile, it was going to be a 40 mile ride with a 6 mile climb up the one side and it looked from the profile about the same on the other side. We rode up the front side without too much difficulty although I never really found a rhythm and didn't feel that good. On the descent down the other side, I reached a top speed of 47 miles an hour which is probably the fastest I have ever been on a bike. Unlike the Gaps, the Burnt Mountain ride is fairly straight with only a few moderate curves. The Gaps are swithback after switch back so it is a much more technical descent. Going down Woodys gap which is a good 6-7 miles, my speed will vary between about 32-38 mph and because of the swithbacks you have to lean into the curves which is pretty thrilling and scary at the same time. When we reached the 20 mile mark at what was supposed to be a store stop (turned out to be an abandoned gas station) we decided to split up. Two of the guys followed the remaining route which was pretty flat for the most part while Dale, a 47yr old British guy and I decided to ride back over Burnt Mountain the other direction. Dale is a strong climber and he wanted to do it just for the workout. I wanted to do it as a training ride for my trip. Needless to say, by the time we reached the mountain and started to climb we realized that this side was much steeper than the 6% grade that we rode up on the other side. Since I wasn't feeling that well, I really struggled and actually had to stop and get off the bike three or four times. I would ride up a couple hundred yards and I would be red-lining at 160 bpm for most of the distance and just had to stop and recover. As you get more fit, the thing you notice most is that you recover from hard exertions much faster. I would stop for maybe a minute then get back on the bike and ride some more. Dale stopped to pee and take a few pictures and still beat me up to the top. When we finally reached the top, I screamed down the other side. I'm a pretty good decender but Dale is relatively new to road cycling and doesn't feel confident to go very fast. We had about a 10 mile ride back to where the cars were parked. The other two guys were surely going to beat us back but to my surprise, I arrived back at the cars first, a good 10 minutes ahead of Dale and maybe 20 ahead of the other two. Apparently my friend Richard (another Brit) bonked real bad and struggled to just make it back. Oh yeah, one more thing about the Burnt Mountain ride; when I was decending down the steep side at a doe jumped out about 100yds ahead of me with a little fawn behind her. The fawn saw me then jumped back onto the shoulder then back after her mother than back off the shoulder then back towards the doe then finally back off the shoulder and into the woods as I approached. I did not want to hit Bambi doing 40+mph, it would not have been a pretty sight. After we got back, the guy who did the mapmyride profile looked at the profile again on the computer and some of the back side climb exceeded 18% grade with a couple around 20% grade. In cycling, those are beyond category climbs. Climbs are categorized 1-5 with 1 being the toughest. Beyond category I believe is anything in excess of about 12% grade. Most all the rides in the Pyrennes are going to be no more than 6-8%, but long. The Col Du Tourmalet, a very storied Tour de France climb and a stage that I hope to ride the Tuesday after I get there, averages 6% grade but is 18 Kilometers long (11.16miles...UP). The longest climb that I have done to date is 8 miles, Fort Mountain in Dalton. Ideally, I would like to do this climb just to say that I did it, but I don't want to burn myself out and not enjoy the trip. I plan to take a lot of pictures which will give me plenty of times to stop and rest for a few seconds at least. It's comparable to Alp du Heuz the most famous of the climbs in the Alps portion of the Tour.

On Sunday, I needed a rest ride so I did a 20mile loop from my house to and around Stone Mountain (inside the park) and back home. This was the 4th of July and Stone Mountain has one of the largest fireworks extravaganzas in the southeast. I didn't leave the house till about 5pm so many of the roads to the park were already closed to car traffic (perfect for cycling). There must have been 250,000 or more people in the park walking all over and oddly enough only a few cyclists. Normally, the park is full of cyclists doing training rides. There is a lot of climbing with very low speed traffic which can only go around about half the park. The back half of the park is limited to one way traffic only with the other lane split for runners and cyclists. Over the last ten years or so, it has become a haven for walkers, runners, cyclists and the like. I even ride there some after dark because the roads are well lit and there is virtually no traffic after dark. I finished the ride in good order and felt fine.

On Monday (holiday) I did a 45mile ride which starts at Atlanta Cycling in Vinings and heads west past Six Flags towards Douglasville. It was a really nice scenic course with some of the same roads we ride on the Beyond Six Flags (fast) Saturday training ride. There were a few climbs on it that were pretty substantial but the pace was pretty moderate. I fell off the main front pack but finished with two other riders a few minutes later. I ran out of water with about 3 miles to go and after packing the bike and changing, went to the Deli to have lunch with some of the riders. I felt fine until I got out of the car then my left leg cramped up so I could barely walk. I also started feeling a little light headed. Once again, I probably did not prehydrate enough or drink or eat enough along the way. On a ride like that I will burn up about 2,000 calories. If you don't eat, you bonk which means you run out of energy, strength, stamina and it can be really ugly. We passed a guy walking his bike up a steep hill on the way back that was ahead of us. He must have done the same thing because he said he was cramping bad. The only thing you can really do at that point is eat, drink and try to walk it off till the electolytes reach the muscles and the cramping subsides. After I ate and drank quite a bit, I went home and watched some of the Tour I had TIVO'd and fell asleep for a short time in the lazyboy. Bad move. When I got up both legs started to cramp again. It is important that you make sure and walk or do something to allow the blood vessels to carry away the lactic acid that builds up from really hard exertions. That is what fatiques the muscles and ultimately leads to cramping if the fluids don't thin the blood enough to keep it flowing and clearing the lactic acid. I'll try and do better next time. I plan on doing a more moderate version of the Silver Lake loop tomorrow nite at Atlanta Cycling, then take off Wednesday and ride Thursday. Not sure what I will do this coming weekend but I will probably do at least one more long hard ride over the weekend then taper down to a couple shorter moderate rides on Monday and Wednesday and that will be it before my trip. Till my next post.......

I leave for France exactly two weeks from today. It's almost here and it seems I still have a lot to prepare. This is the July 4th weekend so I get an extra day to do stuff. I am taking my bike in to the shop today to have my new carbon handlebars and seatpost installed and do some tweaking with the shifting etc, then tomorrow I am planning a north Georgia mountain "Gaps" ride. This will more than likely be one of the last tune-ups to what I will be actually riding in France, long medium grade mountain climbs. In today's paper there is a two page article about the Tour de France and Lance Armstrong. The Tour is the third most watched sporting event in the world behind the World Cup (soccer) and the Olympics. They predict 15 million people will view the Tour roadside along the 27 or so stages over the three weeks. Yes, I will be one of them.

I took a little break from riding last weekend because I had out of state family guests. I needed a little break and we had a great time. I didn't ride for four days. I rode the Monday recovery ride, Tuesday at Stone Mountain and the Decatur Ride last night. All these are approximately 20 mile rides. One last ramp up this weekend and next week and then I'll taper off a little to make sure that I'm recovered and rested before my trip.

I know I will have a great time regardless, but for someone who likes to get the most out of every experience, it's a little unnerving. My son Daniel, who is going to be staying at the house and taking care of the dogs, car etc., has not been the most trustworthy in the past. I am placing a lot of faith in him to do the right thing, but trusting a 21 year old with all that responsibility is certaininly a little worrisome. I guess I am just harkening back to my younger days when my parents would go out of town and leave my step brother Charlie and I at the house. Oh crap, I definitely don't need to think about that :-)

Back to the trip. I don't know how I am going to feel once I start riding there. Hopefully, I won't trash myself to the point that riding becomes more of a chore than the fun challenge I hope it is. Secondly, I want to document all this in pictures and continue this blog along the way. I am not taking a laptop, so I hope I have access to a computer at the hotels or internet cafes and the time to make some entries. Also, can I upload the pictures I hope to take along the way and how often will I be able to stop and take pictures. Will I find a group of riders I feel comfortable riding with (pace). After riding, who will I pal around with for after hours? I probably know a handful of the people maybe more I don't know, because only about 30 of the 75 people going were at the initial meet and greet. Doug, who will be my roomate, I know casually from riding, but that's about it. He's an anesthesiologist and has been on a couple of these trips. He should be a good resource to help me get the most from my trip. He's also a strong rider and may be a little out of my league, I don't know. He's a smallish guy, probably about 150 lbs and small guys always are stronger riding in mountains. I got an email from my friend Matteo (in Italy). I sent him my itinerary and invited him to join us for a couple rides if he can. We can probably put him up in the hotel with us for a night or two if need be.

Questions, questions, questions, the language barrier, the food, the whole culture thing. I feel a little like Barney Fife goes to New York City. Hopefully I can just embrace the differences, roll with it and have a great time. That's what I'm counting on. Well, Delta wants to charge me $200 each way to fly my bike, so I am going to ask another guy to take my bike on the Air France flight which arrives a couple hours after mine both ways. His wife is not taking her bike so they volunteered to take mine. Air France is charging $50 each way as a negotiated group flight rate. I do know that at least one person I know, Stan is flying my Delta flights. He's another one that has done several of these Tour trips over the last couple of years. Back to reality and work. Till next time.