Pretty heavy-duty roadwork on 84 as they’re preparing to install a rumble strip. A bit foggy at the start of the ride but really nice at the finish. Marcus and Kevin had a good time on the hill; it won’t be too long before Kevin’s giving Marcus a bit of a challenge!
We arrived in Lourdes last Friday, and since then have ridden Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday. I was looking forward to today as a “rest” day, but y’know, even this wide “comfy” train seat has me squirming more than I would be on my bike.
From some place high above Gavernie. Would be scenic if not for the clouds.
(And would be more wordy if I hadn’t uploaded that from my iPhone while on the ride, and I wasn’t carrying my regular glasses so to say I’m blind when it comes to using the tiny screen and keyboard is an understatement!)
Today was our first day out on the Bike Fridays in France; a supposed-to-be-easy ride that turned into 72 miles and quite a bit of climbing. See, I’d read about this national park at the end of a road that was supposed to have awe-inspiring views of waterfalls and glaciers and all sorts of stuff we might have been able to see where it not for the clouds that had moved in on us. But it was a good ride, we both rode pretty strongly (and for once, I think I was the better climber overall, or at least towards the end) and Strava says we did really well despite riding pretty heavy bikes and, in my case, loaded down with all sorts of gear.
Tomorrow is our first day to intercept the ‘Tour, in the mountains above Foix. Film at 11. But for now you can see the Strava details and another French encounter with sheep.
There were several accomplishments this morning! Starting with me getting out of bed; one of those nights where I didn’t sleep very well, not helped by a toilet that started to leak again at 2:30am (no big mess, since I’d put a bowl underneath the area it was leaking, just a loud drip-drip-drip or I suppose they were min-splashes).
Too many to count on the ride this morning; only notable missing person was Todd, whose work schedule has changed. One new guy who thought he should ride up ahead of us; I told him if he’s climbing in 28 minutes as he said, there’d be no problem. I was right. It’s my job, after all, to police the back of the field!
First accomplishment? Kevin got a new personal best of 24:46, and he’s now the go-to person for keeping track of times when the others he’s riding up front with don’t have their garmin or forgot to start & stop them. That used to be my job.
Chris at the front, just starting his big push, with Kevin (the pilot) behind. The shadow to the left is the other Kevin; today, I wasn’t concerned with him. Just Chris.
The more-important accomplishment happened toward the end of the ride, where George usually pushes the pace to get me blown off the back before the final sprint, but for some reason was feeling pretty kind today. It was an ideal situation for me, being 3rd in line behind Chris at the start of the sprint, letting me draft while keeping an eye out for when Chris started moving fast. I quickly passed up the #2 rider (Kevin the pilot) and settled onto Chris’ wheel for exactly the right amount of time to strongly come around him and take the sprint. Like in the old days. Since I’m getting older, shouldn’t there be more “old days?”
Saw this in the duck pond on the LaHonda to Pescadero shortcut. Had to stop and take pictures; I’ve never seen a green duck before. I’ve never seen a painted fake duck this colorful! No way would I have come across or noticed this in a car. Life goes by at just the right speed on a bike. -Mike-
Today we’re going to take you through the planning involved with seeing a stage of the Tour de France. We’re going to assume you’re on your own, you don’t have a rental car, but you do have a bike. Pretty much my typical trip to the Tour de France the past 6 or 7 years!
View Larger Map
This is the first stage Kevin and I will see in France. This isn’t yet an accurate rendition of the route, since it comes up 30k short of what’s listed for the length, but good enough to cover all the various mountains along the way, and good enough to plan the day. Below is the profile for the stage. If I spend a bit more time with the distances shown between each point, I can likely figure out the actual route a bit better.
Google maps driving directions for getting from Lourdes to the Mur de Peguere, viewing point for Stage 14. Available train stations are the small dark circles.
The plan is to take the train from Lourdes to a station that we can ride to the race course from, thus avoiding having to rent a car. This particular stage is the one furthest from our hotel in Lourdes, making it the most-challenging to access.
Our options include taking the train from Lourdes to Boussens (the second circle from the right) and riding through Saint Girons and the backside of the mountains the ‘Tour will be climbing, or taking the train all the way to Toulouse and then another train south to Foix, where we can climb the actual roads the ‘Tour will be heading up. It’s a longer ride from Boussons, but a much-earlier train departure if we want to get to Foix. 6:23am vs 10:26am. The 10:26am departure gets us to Boussons at 11:46am, plenty of time to ride the 45 miles needed to intersect the TdF route, entirely on roads not ridden by the race. The 6:23am train to Fois (the furthers-right dot on the map) arrives in Foix at 10:03am, plenty of time for the 15 mile ride up the mountain.
Using www.BikeRouteToaster.com, I am able to check the profile of “unknown” roads and see what we would face on our rides from the relevant train station to the race itself. A big help when riding an area you haven’t been to before.
View Larger Map I’m favoring the early departure, since that would allow us to ride different roads on the way back, including the very interesting-looking D33 which looks like a paved cowpath that gradually descends for 20 miles or so. If you want to get an idea of just how cool D33 looks, check this link.
So for now I’m thinking the early-morning departure, painful as it is, makes the most sense. Take the train from Lourdes to Toulouse, transer at Toulouse and head to Foix, get some food and head up the hill to see the race come through (we need to be in position 3 hours ahead of the race, so a 10am arrival is not as early as it seems, figuring that the race is going to come through around 3:30-4pm and it might take 2 hours or so to ride the 15 miles up the hill).
This morning I get an email from Ueyn, a former regular of our Tuesday/Thursday-morning rides, letting me know that some guy from Texas was in the area yesterday and rode up Old LaHonda 30 seconds slower than Kevin.
http://app.strava.com/rides/6974489
For those unfamiliar, “Juan Pelota” is the name of Lance Armstrong’s ranch in Texas. And “Juan Pelota” did a smokin’ 110 mile Palo Alto-Santa Cruz loop, including the 2nd-best-time on Strava up Mt. Charlie. No biggie, except that it was on a Trek Speed Concept time trial bike!!! You don’t climb on a time trial bike. Unless you’re Juan Pelota. In which case you climb very, very well indeed (after a “slow” warm-up on Old LaHonda anyway).
Warning: Next section rated PG: Regarding “Juan Pelota”, the name isn’t random. “Pelota” is “Ball” in Spanish. “Juan” sounds a lot like “one.” And one certain famous cyclist who went through testicular cancer had one of his two testicles removed.
It wasn’t the easiest way to start the day, watching Fabian Cancellara, cyclist extraordinaire and riding Trek’s new Domane bike at the Tour of Flanders, crash and break his collarbone.
But for the rest of us, today was the first day without a threat of rain for a while, and after yesterday’s on-again off-again downpours, a wonderful surprise. Kevin (my son, not the pilot) and I headed out for the default moderately-hard ride, the one you do when you’re too lazy to come up with something imaginative so you fall back on the dependable. Woodside/Old LaHonda/Pescadero/Tunitas. I can’t even imagine how many times I’ve done that ride.
Predictably, Kevin was a whole lot stronger than me going up Old LaHonda; my time was 22-something and he was 19-something (his fastest time yet, while for me… sigh). From there it was off to the coast, accompanied by some pretty stiff headwinds that tend to favor my strengths over Kevins’. I was able to hold my own on Haskins (just barely, but I didn’t let him know that) and by the time we got to Stage, I could have put him in serious trouble if I was that kind of dad.
Heading up the final stretch of Stage Road north of San Gregorio, we found ourselves chasing a tandem that was doing pretty darned good (tandems typically bog down on steeper climbs); we didnt’ catch up to it until the foot of the Tunitas Creek climb. From a distance I was able to make out a style of riding that made me think it could be Tom Ritchey, which turned out to be the case. No wonder that tandem could move!
We also ran into a chicken crossing. First time for everything! (And then later a turkey… in a car.)
Shortly after that someone caught up to us from behind and rode past us pretty quickly. I cautioned Kevin that we should ride a reasonable pace, but while I was willing to concede ground slowly, Kevin suddenly rocketed past first me, then the other guy, and flew up the hill. Hmm. It was just minutes ago that Kevin wasn’t riding that strongly, so I went into “Levi” (Leipheimer) mode and rode at my max sustainable pace, gradually clawing my way back to and then past Kevin. I made sure to keep him in sight though; the plan wasn’t to ride him into the ground and ditch him.
Despite the wind, a great day to be out on a bike. And I’d say that even if I wasn’t relieved to see I still have a few advantages I can exploit over Kevin.
A big group this morning, probably waiting about 5 minutes for my arrival at the top of Kings. I've got work to do!
If this is what 56 feels like, I can’t wait to be 57! I’d like to say it was fun this morning, but that’s not quite the right adjective. “Fun” lost out as a description in so many ways, beginning with a mistaken weather report that said rain from 7am-on (it’s 1:30pm presently and rain has yet to make an appearance) so we rode our heavier, slower, less “fun” rain bikes… in my case, my 5900, which is a pretty nice machine, except that I’ve got tires on it that are suited for uber-nasty conditions but feel like you’re riding through sand. It also wasn’t much “fun” when you round the corner to view the first big hairpin going up Kings (at the halfway point), looking forward to seeing how far ahead the rest of the riders are… but there are none in sight. Hate that! It means that I’m already over a minute down from the next-slowest rider on the climb.
It’s at moments like these that you start searching for an appropriate tune in your head, something that matches both your pace and your predicament. Sadly, I could not recall enough of the lyrics from Procol Harum’s “About to Die” to carry the tune. Maybe I should have gone for ELP’s “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends…” Or, if things were really dire, Procol Harum’s “Still There’ll Be More” (warning: the lyrics are a bit, er, harsh).
It’s funny too when you’re looking at the elapsed time and thinking, well, I’m still at this point on the climb and they just finished. Actually, even though there remained 4 or 5 minutes to go when that thought hit me, it was encouraging. Not that much further to go! I started thinking about how you feel better as you get into the ride, and if I could survive to west-side Old LaHonda I’d be feeling pretty good! And to the extent that simply surviving that far was an accomplishment, I was feeling better. And at the end of the ride, I felt a lot better than I would have had I not ridden.
But note to self: I’m not going to let myself get so out of shape and gain so much weight next time I’m off the bike for 10 days!
Oh, the Don Draper remark? In the recent season opening episode, a surprise birthday party is thrown for Don, whom we discover doesn’t do birthdays. I can relate to that. But a surprise birthday party at only 40 years old, as if that’s a big thing? I had one at 50, and got to admit my wife did a pretty impressive job with it, but it didn’t change my mind about birthdays in general. Judge me by what I can do, not how old I am. That thinking might change as I get older and even slower. –Mike–
Two very long days down (and that’s not counting a travel day getting here), two more to go! The first two were spent in board meetings for the National Bicycle Dealer Association, our industry’s attempt to improve the quality of bicycle retailers to ensure our survival in a world that gets tougher for business every day.
The next two are designed to improve conditions for our customers, although with the current climate here in DC, status quo will be considered a victory.
