We took the TGV from Lyon into Paris which was a good decision. We really need to get high speed rail in Canada. It was fun getting all of our luggage on though, especially all four bike boxes. It's a good thing we were the only ones in our car with bikes.
On Thursday we traveled up to Annecy (well nearby anyway) to watch Stage 17 of the Tour de France, which was a 40km individual time trial.
We parked in a small town to the south of Lake Annecy, Faverges, and biked down to the course. That’s definitely the way to do it, since the roads any closer than that were closed after 7:00AM. We were also able to pick up some pain au chocolat (chocolate croissants) at a local Boulangerie/Patisserie which were excellent.
We searched out a position about 1.5 km from the 20km point on the course, which was on a downhill turn – made for excellent picture taking. I don’t have many pictures from the day because our camera batteries died fairly early in the day; thankfully Andrew’s camera lasted all day and he got lots of great pictures – we’ll be stealing a bunch from him later.
The stage starts with the publicity caravan which was great fun. There are tons of different cars and floats from many of the tour and team sponsors. Many of them throw free stuff; we got several hats, lots of ‘food’ (the sugar covered sugar was our personal favourite!), and various miscellaneous other items. Several riders were pre-riding the course so we got to see some of them then as well.
Thankfully the day started off a little cooler than it had been in Vizille the previous day (and night). It had been 36 degrees the day before and only cooled down to about 33 overnight.
Eventually the riders started to arrive at our location and the time passed amazingly quickly after that. We got to the course at about 9:00AM and didn’t leave until around 5:30PM but it seemed much shorter than that. It was very cool to see all of the pro riders going by; the camera helicopters flying over, etc. Also neat to be able to get so close, I think one of the riders just about took our noses off once when he passed so close!
We were somewhat surprised with the result – since when does Contador beat Cancellara in a TT? Andrew was happy to see Armstrong down the ranking a bit – without his having to use the beating stick or a rock to ‘help’.
Yesterday we decided that it was time to attempt to ascend L’Alpe D’Huez. We had a short 30 minute drive to get to Bourge Oisans, the town at the base of the mountain. Then we had a short ride, maybe a couple km, to the base of the climb. It’s just like you see on TV, you go around a turn and there is the wall that is the first pitch. I’m not sure what the gradient is at that point, I’ve seen anywhere from 10-12%. That lasts for the first few km, until after the third switchback. I rode with Andrea through the first switchback, and part way on to the second, to give her a hand to get past the really steep bit. Here's Andrea at the first switchback; if you look in the background you can see the switchback sign.
Unfortunately, the initial steeps proved a bit too much for her and she only managed to make it about 1/3 of the way to the summit before she decided that it would be smarter to turn back and have fun riding down. I’m very proud of her for trying though. After the third switchback it got a bit easier and was basically just a steady grind most of the rest of the way. It was quite fun arriving at switchback number ?6? (they count down as you go up) and you could finally see the ski resort above you; knowing exactly where you need to go gives you a bit of a boost. I had to laugh at a guy I heard cheering on his buddy with about 5km to go “looking good, only 2km to go… … …until the 3km to go point!” After about switchback number 2 it gets a bit steeper again for the final climb into the town of Huez. When you finally see the official completion sign it is a great feeling!
I searched for Andrew and Heather but didn’t initially find them; a few minutes later while I was on my way back down (around switchback #4) they called me from the top so I rode back up and we had some Coke at water at the top – Coke never tastes better than after a hard ride.
Then came the fun part, going back down! Heather and I rode down together, Andrew is a bit more tentative on the descents than we are. This is the view looking down from one of the switchbacks.
I loved looking down at my speedometer and seeing speeds well in excess of the limit! My highest speed was about 78 km/hr, on the final pitch into town - I think the limit was 50km/hr. We then searched out Andrea, loaded the bikes into the cars and wandered around Bourge Oisans a bit, looking through a couple bike shops and finding some drinks. We finished the day by heading up to Lake Laffrey for a very brief swim – it was one seriously cold lake; Andrea couldn’t get in past mid-thigh. It felt fantastic to me though.
Last night, to celebrate our last day in the Alps we headed into Grenoble for dinner at a restaurant, recommended in the Daily Planet book, called La Fondue. Simply put it was delicious. If you are ever in Grenoble I highly recommend it. We had salads to start, then got a beef/chicken in wine fondue and a cheese fondue to share between the four of us. We even managed to find a wine that Andrea and I actually liked! After La Fondue we got some gelato and coffee for desert.
After that was less fun since we had to head back to the house in Vizille to clean up and pack for today’s journey into Paris.
Last night, to celebrate our last day in the Alps we headed into Grenoble for dinner at a restaurant, recommended in the Daily Planet book, called La Fondue. Simply put it was delicious. If you are ever in Grenoble I highly recommend it. We had salads to start, then got a beef/chicken in wine fondue and a cheese fondue to share between the four of us. We even managed to find a wine that Andrea and I actually liked! After La Fondue we got some gelato and coffee for desert.
After that was less fun since we had to head back to the house in Vizille to clean up and pack for today’s journey into Paris.
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