T24: When the Dream is Over...

A 7.30am wake up for my final day. Breakfast was at the flat with my host Mikhael who has been a champ. There's been ice-cream in the freezer, chocky in the fridge with beers, a much needed washing machine (so I go home 100% clean - YAY), and a VERY comfy bed. I was totally happy with this choice of accommodation.

Then kit on for one last ride. I'd heard yesterday at the Randomee start line from an Aussie chap called Harry (who used to ride with Neil Stevens from OGE) that there was a daily Paris bunch starting at the very gentlemanly hour of 9am. 

So I set the Garmin for Longchamps and mounted The Raptor for his final French outing.

It was nothing much to speak of in terms of scenery and it was pretty flat but I'm happy to report that I was fairly, shall we say, competitive...I dropped the bunch...twice. Maxxxxxed 'em!!

It was very hot again today - over 32 by 11am. Post ride I thought I'd get one last coffee opportunity in - hell, it can't hurt to give these frogs one last chance. Then, as if to taunt me, knowing it was departure time, the best French coffee I've had. Far out...are you just trying to hurt my feelings. Anyway, I had another.

Yes by the way, that is a rude helmet tan!!

Then, some lemon juice for the paper cut that was my departure from France, was to find a sensational fresh fruit grocer down the road who sold me the plumpest, bursting cherries and most delicious punnet of strawberries ever. Humph.

 

The stats:

 

Count:	20 Rides
Distance:	1,739.87 km
Avg Distance:	86.99 km
Time:	76:14:23 h:m:s
Avg Time:	3:48:43 h:m:s
Max Time:	8:50:03 h:m:s
Elevation Gain:	35,779 m
Avg Speed:	22.8 km/h
Max Speed:	92.4 km/h
Avg HR:	122 bpm
Max HR:	178 bpm
Avg Bike Cadence:	76 rpm
Calories:	36,164 C

 

Highlights:

 

The ugly:

• Coffee in France. Don't bother unless you are 100% desperate.
• Smoking in Europe. It's just part of the scene whilst eating out at any time of the day.
• Getting my mobile stolen on the flight home and needing a full new identity profile built from scratch - from bank accounts to Strava to Woolies and beyond. Double Humph.

The Amazing Bits:

• Virtually all of it! If you love riding or if you love food or if you love travel or you love scenery, or cheese, or smallgoods, or the mountains - then at least once in your life - you MUST spend time in France.
• Cheese.
• Small goods. There is no wrong time.
• Wine. White, Rose or Red.
• Coffee in Italy - liquid magic.
• Gerro in yellow.
• A panache and watching the Tour at the end of sweet day or riding.
• The actual TdF100 which was so entertaining this year...it had everything. Especially loved Saxo's move in the crosswinds.
• Annecy. If you only go to one place in France - this would be it.
• Completing 200k on the same day as hitting nearly 5,000m of vertical.
• Virtually every descent. Oh baby!
• Virtually every climb - especially the ones with big names: Ventoux, Telegraphe, Galibiere, Iseran, d'Huez.
• As a group we tried to sit around and determine the best meal or best day - it was not possible. So many rides/days/meals/ice-creams had their own awesomeness and such differences that earned their own spectacular memories.

The missing rides:

• Embrun to Gap
• Pra-Loop to the ITT
• La Randomee du Tour

I don't want this to end but the very fact that it does makes it even better. I can't wait to see my little family. Hooray for home, hugs, lovers and little people.

Thanks for reading...I genuinely hope you enjoyed it and that it may have inspired you to do a little riding trip of your own. The planet is open - own it!!!

This has been My TdF100 and it has been way beyond expectation - simply awesome!!

 

T23: Kittel wins on the Champs Elysees

So yesterday I just went for a ride around Paris. It's not often you can go out on a ride, do 120k and say: "oh yeah, and I saw the start and finish of the final Stage of the 100th Tour de France". In fact, you only ever get to say that once in your lifetime - and it was a great privilege.

I meant to go out at about 7.30am but I slept until about 8.30. Today was the day to ride the Champs Élysées with around 10,000 others in La Randomee du Tour. My aim was to take off with the lead group and smash it around the 7km pro circuit representing Bike Culture. So I donned the black and white fighting kit and headed out.

The Randomee wasn't starting until 2.30pm so the night before I checked bikely.com for a route out of Paris that would cover about 50k as a bit of a warm up and explore. The route took me towards Sens, mostly along the Seine and on B roads so it was pretty nice heading out through the 'burbs. I got about 40k south but then decided to head west to Versailles to see them setting up for the start of the final stage. Since I left late from the apartment, time got the better of me. I realised that I better get back to Champs Élysées if I wanted to be on the front of the start grid like T-Bird always taught me. Show your intentions he reckons.

So it was about a 70k loop altogether before getting back to the Champs Élysées. (Garmin was excellent to nav from with openstreetmaps.nl loaded. It indicates every turn to take and recalculated if you miss something. Brilliant for a free download and way more detail than the Garmin Maps that some of the other guys had). It was very cool when I got back into town because 1. they had closed off all the roads to set up and 2. the buzz was building as the crowd took up positions around the circuit. 

I got to the start of the Randomee about 12 which was two and a half hours before rolling - but if you want pole position...! Whilst waiting, I met another Aussie, Harry, who was more than happy to mind my spot while I ducted off for a Coke, yoghurt and banana - for one cannot "race" on an empty stomach and I'd only stopped for a quick pain chocolat earlier in the day for breakfast. It's very French to ride the drops whilst munching on a chocolate croissant for fuel (apparently). Rego opened at 1pm and being one of the first through allowed me to be right up on the tape.

 

Now the only problem with this early arrival idea, was that I was standing in the middle of a 6 lane asphalt road and it was 37 degrees. The black BC kit is smart looking as — but it was extremely hot standing there in the boiling sun. On this occasion "pole" position meant actually being shielded from the direct sun by the only street pole and traffic light in the middle of the road, so at least that kept the beaming UV and infrared rays from melting my head. It was a day to be thankful of the 30+ sun cream. 

So here I am thinking I am right behind the marshalling cars, I'm going to give this a real crack as soon as the flag drops. One lap of pure fury - I will bury myself on the cobbles. Then the corporates arrived and filled in in front of the tape, in front of me, and many of them were on town or mountain bikes and then I realised...there will be no racing. This will be rolling. Damn them corporates who pay the bills *shakes fist*!!!

Well it might not be a race for them, but I didn't dress up and wait this long to have my hopes of leading the peleton home on the Champs Élysées dashed. So as soon as the tape dropped and we had the big gee up New Year's style countdown from 10 to 1, I was away. The corporate townies were no match for The Raptor and within the first 50m I was on second wheel behind the cars...and even though my max speed achieved during the lap was 22km/h...it was AWESOME!! Being right on the front, behind the cars, alongside the TV cameras on motorbikes, moto-photographers and a couple of dudes flying flags (who were clearly very decent young racers) was spesh. A couple of the young fellas were taking the piss and kept yelling ATTACK - highly amusing!! So I just soaked it all up. 

I think the best bit, even more than going under the flame rouge 1km to go kite and the actual finish line on the Champs Élysées, was emerging out of that famous dark tunnel into the blazing sun to massive MCG-esque cheers from the 10 deep crowd on either side of the road. Total rock star moment!

 

Randomee done I set the Garmin for Versailles. One thing that has amazed me about the Tour is that you can be one street away from all the action and you wouldn't know it wasn't just a boring old Sunday arvo...and then you turn the corner and BANG, the street is packed with cars, bikes, motos, press, the caravan, buses, podiums and merch outlets. In this instance I happened to turn the corner fairly quick, right outside the Versailles Palace and with such pro looking kit on (not to mention matching Raptor), rolled straight up between the barriers without being stopped by security, crowds either side, past the Kilometre Zero banners gaining accidental entry to start area and rode straight through nearly to the team buses before I realised what was going on! Whoops. Then a chap rode up to me fairly quickly and asked me for my access pass in French, to which I replied: "Moi? Pour moi, c'est ne pas possible. Pardon Monsieur." So he asked me to leave. So I did. But not before some punters snapped some shots of this unknown hero who was rolling through the sign on area.

It was pretty tricky getting access to the riders as they signed on - the crowds were big. But I got a few snaps none-the-less.

 

Froomey gives cuddles a few tips as they roll out. 

 

After the pro's rolled out in a pretty festival like fashion (as they do on the last day), I turned back for the flat (only about 15k away) and a shower. It was still damn hot and even hotter amongst the massive crowd as I got down to the Champs Élysées and found a spot about 100m past the finish line. Perfect timing as they had just started their second lap and I had a great view of the big screen. They were hooting!! Martin tried real hard, Cadel even had a go, but in the end it came down to the expected bunch sprint: Cav, Greipel & Kittel. Sagan muffed it and got caught on the front with one turn to go. Kittel just too strong with an organised train and a great win. VavaFroome, rolled across the line with nearly his whole team and didn't even make it past us in the throng. 

 

 

 

 

I was so tired and foot sore walking home - a big day of standing (over 5 hours) plus 115k on the bike. I smashed a chicken sambo and a mineral water (so hungry and thirsty), picked up some TdF merch and headed home for bed.

 

What a Tour!!

- My highlights and final blog tomorrow- Cycling Tips Blog TdF100 highlights and fantastic shots from the final stage

- SBS Cycling Central's Al Hinds TdF100 highlights

- If you've ever wondered how the TdF is broadcast to the world (look out tech nerds) - this is an excellent explanation.

What about this fella...he's having a real crack at it...hehehe

 

T21/22: Paris

No riding yesterday for my transit day to Paris. I caught the TGV and we had a max speed of 300.1km/h...not bad. 

I'd booked my accomodation through airbnb.com which worked brilliantly and I highly recmmend it. What I do not recommend at all is lugging a bag on wheels in one hand, a man-bag over the shoulder and a bike bag on wheels in the other hand whilst negotiating the sweaty, smelly, hot and filled with stairs subway. I need a man-servant for it is simply not possible to manage stairs with that much bulky gear without significant risk to one's personal safety. Anyway, I made it and the flat is great.

Like I've mentioned before...Paris doesn't exactly rev my engines - snice n all but I'm not sure about all the fuss (especially when you are solo)...it's just another big city with too many humans, tourist prices (like $6.57 for a 250ml bottle of lemonade to watch the tour in a brasserie), and a few cool buildings. I am an art philistine so that doesn't help.  To be fair, there was a massive public concert on in Chatelet and that was very cool - and doofy. To be completely frank, it was better than say the Australia Day concert on the lawn at PH with a couple of outdated Aussie Idols. 

Now this morning I didn`t get up till 9am, which was very nice. The order of the first part of the day was hanging out with Christopher who made his way over from London yesterday afternoon. After dropping him back at Gare du Nord for Eurostar, I unpacked the bike. I need something fresh for the blog devotees I thought. So to spice it up for yo'all, I decided on Jezza's Twilight Tour of Gay Paris (that's Gay Par-ree, not the Tour of the Cox Bar in Chatelet which is a COMPLETELY different thing!!!). It's a speed tour of the main landmarks in one hour between 7pm & 8pm (totally light still with sun setting). I seriously had to rock out the Sydney urban MTB skills in the traffic.

Here goes, spot them if you can:

Now what was cool - smacking down the Champs-Élysées at over 50km/h past tomorrow's finish for the pro's. I was in the drops, out of the saddle and true to my word, as I smacked it over the line some bystanders cheered wildly - ahhhh, Cav for 3 seconds!!! 

A dude doing tricks in the park:

And back home safe to #23...

For the tan dissers check out this razor sharp line (even darker in real life...honest)!!

Tomorrow I tackle the Champs-Élysées with around 10,000 others as we ride one lap of the pro circuit at 2.30pm. Wish me luck - it's timed and there are numbers!!!

Sorry about uploading the last fews rides - without the rest of my Diamond Cycling Tour possie, I am without a computer that has Garmin Communicator installed. Damn those 1st world problems.

T20: An Epic Stage on Alpe d'Huez

Wait, wait, wait. OMG!!! Before I tell you anything else - we just had Italian coffee - in Italy!!!! And it was freakin AWESOME!!! I'm totally coming back...oh, sweet baby Jesus (as in the one from Talledega Nights) I was in heaven - AND, get this...it was at a truck stop!!!!! Mind you, it was the flashest, Italianest truck stop I've ever been to. 

Get this: we rock up for petrol and a dude comes out to fill 'er up — as in a ridgy didge bona fide driveway attendant (!!) ...but wait, then he washes the windscreen, wipers up, with bubbles, and it's raining!! I nearly cried. Even writing about it now, there's a little tear welling up in my eye. So then, we go inside and, without a word of a lie, Pavarotti is playing, there is focaccia and Italian torte on display, the aroma of great coffee is filling my olfactory senses and there's a massive, massive machine with four grouppos hanging underneath. I didn't want to build it up too much but when I saw her tamp, twist and pour I nearly wept with excitement and anticipation. The crema flowed ever so slowly, dark at first, then frothy caramel love curled back upon the spout and softly trickled into the little warmed cup. And we stood there at the cafe bar, like proper Italians, and quietly went about drinking our coffee (oh except for the fact that occasional little squeaks of delight were escaping from me involuntarily).

On the advice of our petrol attendant I went for the cappuccino. I was not disappointed. In fact, I nearly cried again as the flavour of joy danced upon my taste buds. It was so smooth and delicious and the perfect temperature - mind you, I could tell that from the instant my fingers touched the cup. GOLD. It was so good that I had another very shortly thereafter. IN THE TRUCK STOP I tell you - we are coming back fo sho. 

___________________________

Right then. Earlier that day...we smashed the hotel breaky and bolted for Alpe d'Huez at sparrows (well 9am!!), looking forward to what could be the most explosive stage of the Tour yet. 

Now I must digress briefly to confess that I absolutely love small goods for breakfast. Why are we not doing that? Prosciutto, jambon, salami, frommage of all shapes, sizes and tantalising smells...c'est magnifique and a particularly wonderful way to start the day. 

With the Diamond Tour officially over - me, Tony, On-ree and Tim piled into the van, bikes on the roof and set the GPS for le Bourg-d'Oisans. Sonia (the GPS chick) was obviously still exhausted from last night because she took us on a crappy 30 minute tour of Nice freeways past the same church three bloody times. 

Finally on the way, she took us into Italy and this for the first time in my life. Woohoo!! Truth be told, the only reason I knew to begin with was because my mobile beeped to tell me I'm with a new Italian provider. And sure it was on the highway but I still had solid *glimpses* of Monaco, San Remo and the Mediterranean. The roads are equally awesome in Italy so consider the recon done team, we're coming back here to ride, eat, drink coffee and par-tay. (Too much with the par-tay??)

Of course that's when we needed petrol and you've already read about that. 

These euro types really know how to tunnel. We went under the Poggio on our way back into France. The tunnels were the only relief from the pummeling rain. So the closer we got to this epic stage (and running nearly an hour behind schedule due to Sonia's unrequested Nice+ tour and our amazing coffee stop), the more we discussed paying off a live visit to Dutch corner and the more we considered the merits of a little French pub, a TV and beer. 

As we wound our way back up into the Alpes, the rain continued and the temperature dropped. The peleton was 15k from the base of the first ascent of Alpe d'Huez as we rolled into La Grave - about 15k from our anticipated intersection with the route. Text from T-Bird at home told us that the break away was just turning onto the climb. Would we? Wouldn't we? Unreplicable atmosphere and a fleeting glimpse as the pro's go past albeit with the chance of getting very wet and cold; or warmth, comprehensive race watching and beer? Tim spotted a large TV broadcasting the tour inside the La Grave pub as we drove past. It looked warm, dry, cosy and it had a large TV, beer and hot food...decision made.

We parked the car and in we went - Hoegaarden, pizza, hot chips and Tour coverage. Under the circumstances, it was a great decision and we settled in to watch the fight. We were kinda rooting for TJ - I mean BMC needed something from this tour but it wasn't to be. In my opinion, ride of the day went to Ritchie Porte...legend. He marked the moves, he towed Froome, he protected on the sketchy, rough and damp descent, he went back to the car when his leader bonked, and he covered the gap to get back to him in order to tow Froome up the Alpe for the second time and the finish. Simply sensational. 

Outside the pub - 25k from the fireworks.

On-ree had friends from Canberra on the hill and they were also our hosts for the night. Massive ups to Ben and crew for allowing us to crash with them in the most rustic and quaint ski lodge home in the tiny village of Le Pied du Col - that experience alone was an honour. We provided beaucoup wine and cheese as compensation! Unfortunately I couldn't get a shot of the outside because we got there after 11pm and left at 5.15am for me to catch the TGV to Paris. It was utterly charming. 

No riding today due to rain and not going up the Alpe to watch the Tour. Quite frankly, very happy with a rest day. 

T19: A Lumpy Time Trial & Another Beautiful Ride

I'm sorry. I'm running out of adjectives and I'm feeling like I'm starting to repeat myself. And without mentioning any names, I'm sorry that blogging is not all up to date every day so that when you wake each morning in Australia you can get your overnight TDF100 experience update. I mean, Leisl do you have any idea how tiring it is to get to breakfast at 7 or 7.30am after maybe only 7 hours of deep, uninterrupted sleep; pack your bag and carry it to the van (like without help); ride 100 odd kilometers up some fairly large lumps, whilst stopping every so often for photos, coffee and lunch; yelling weeeeeeeee or yaaahooooo (quite loudly) as you hit yet another descent loaded with smooth sweeping hairpins; then find a pub, drink panache, watch the tour; find your hotel, shower, hand wash your kit and try to organise your photos; then get to dinner at about 7.30pm and chew the fat about all the awesome stuff you did that day which doesn't finish until 10.30pm and you are engorged from sensational gastronomic delights; and THEN you try to blog. Dude...it's exhausting!! 

And no sooner have you done it, you have to do it all over again. And then again. 

Anyway - here we are. We started with a lovely 10k drop from the Pra-Loop ski resort. Into a fast 1-3% incline at a cruisy 32+kmh for about 15k and then our only hill for the day. It was a classic French climb through forest and small villages, then above the tree line to the summit as the pitch went up. Paul and I tapped out a good tempo (for it was his last hill of the Tour) and then I hit the last 2k hard as we turned into a headwind on 10%. Great climb to Col de Vars. 

Here are just some of the spectacular views enroute. 

The summit:

Now...the descent to get to Embrun was absolutely in the Top3 of the Tour. I'm not even going to bother trying to describe it. Simply beautiful. 

The road is bottom left...so sweet.

We went pretty much straight to the start of the ITT. I mentioned yesterday it would be tough and those poor buggers faced a nasty long gradient straight off the ramp. We got there just in time to miss Sagan but right on song for Alba, Gerro and Hansen. 

We gave Gerro a massive Aussie Aussie Aussie (there are a tonne of Aussies over here) as he was waiting in the starting house and he laughed. That was pretty cool. 

Just as we were leaving the starting area we bumped into Raymond Poulidor...massive TdF legend during the Merckx era (famous for never wearing yellow and 8 times on the podium without winning). He seemed happy about it though!

Then we ducked over to the base of the second climb of the ITT to watch the boys come past. It was cracker. We were close enough to see their eye balls, hear them breathing and appreciate the beautiful silence that is the whirring of magnificent machines being wound up in the big dog. 

We even had time after the Froome-dog went past to cross the bridge back to Savines le Lac, get into the pub and watch on the big screen as Contador did his best, but Froome was better. 

A road side bird bath followed, into shorts n t-shirt, bikes on the roof and then a 3 hour transit to Nice. The drive was gorgeous, very windy and seemed to only go down. We basically went from 2,400m down to 0m. Even though we got into beachside Nice at about 11.30pm it was pumping. Three went out for icecream and a knee deep wade in the Med. I wasn't one of them - directly to bed...do not pass go.

It was the last official day of my tour with Diamond Cycling Tours and it was a great, great day.