Ventoux

"Somewhere up there is Ventoux." Kris pointed in the dark, "I'm not sure where but its there."

We already passed through some spectacular Alps scenery, stopped for gas and sandwiches. The last few hours were long twisty climbs and descents. Dusk led us through a canyon with a very narrow road that twisted and turned more than a strand of spaghetti on a plate.

We crossed the Col d'mort homme, and were in the limits of Sault, or that might have been the flickering lights below us. We were in search of a spot to set up camp. We had already been in the car for 7 hours. Jane continued to inspire and lead us but we were on one road that went up and she had become quiet.

We started seeing campers and vans. A good sign, we were on the right path. After checking a few spots, we settled on one where there were already a few tents and campers. It was now midnight.

We got out of the car and immediately felt the wind. The strong mistral was actively blowing a cool breeze. We had to unpack the car to get the tent and sleeping bags, using one flashlight and the interior lights. We had forgotten to buy D batteries. Tired, cold, windy, hungry, and thirsty for a beer, we fumbled setting up the tent, couldn't get it staked down as well as it should with the wind but camp had been pitched so we stood around the car and drank a beer celebrating the day's stage, our arrival to Ventoux, and discussions of tomorrow's ride.

Paul and I, as it seems to be tradition on bike epics, share an air mattress. Within minutes of settling down, simultaneously we asked "Are you on the floor?" "Is this mattress leaking air?" Yep, we had a mattress with a leak. And tomorrow, was going to be a three time ascent of Ventoux... This was going to be a long, cold, windy, uncomfortable night. And I had to get up already to go outside...

Hanging at the first time check in Annecy.

I think we arrived right around rider 150. Managed to park in a field for 3Euros. The kids collecting the money made bank!

We sat just before the barricades at the first time check. Chairs, beer, and sandwiches. All good as we settle down for a long day.


It goes a little like this:

"Who's next?"
"Rider ------"
"That team _____"
"Anything up the road?"
"Yep... no... I think I hear sirens."
"I don't hear anything."
"I gotta piss. This guy isn't a big deal to me or his team."
"Again?"
"Go to hell."
"Here he comes..."
"Who is it again?"
"Allez! Allez! Allez!"
"Wow did that car almost hit you?"
"I thought the gendarme was going to run me over."
"Everybody else is standing in the road."
"Watch out for those car's side mirrors."
"How did your picture come out?"
"Who's getting more beer?"
"Damn! That sun is hot!"
"Who's next? And who is after that? And then who?"
"Here's the standings."
"Hey! here comes the next guy....And"
"Another guy is passing him."
"What's the time check?"
"I can't read it."
"I don't understand it."
"Here comes Cadel."
"I hate your fucking dog!"
"Is Cadel's dog preventing him from winning the Tour?"
"Do you want me to judo chop you?"
"Man it is getting crowded!"
"Look how many people are crowding the road."
"Who's coming up next?"
"We are starting the top ten."
"Really, where has the day gone?"
"Crowds up ahead are moving back, ____ is coming!"
"Allez, Allez, Allez, go get him you @$&*#@$%!"
"I just pulled my hips back at the last second to avoid getting hit by the team car."
"Did you snap that photo in Lance's face?"
"Yes you did! Nice shot. He is focused."
"Schleck mafia coming!"
"Flying!"
"My camera is too slow. Why didn't I buy an SLR?"
"Here comes Contador!"
"Racing for his life!"
"Missed the pic. I thought I had it. Did you?"
"It is going to take forever to get out of here."
"We aren't getting to Ventoux till midnight."
"Are we riding then?"

Lessons learned on Stage 17

Lesson 1 - what goes up, goes way up.
Turn everything off in the body except that which makes the legs pedal in geometric shapes.
I had started in circles but was now pedaling triangles. The first few kilometers up was okay. Now I am starting to tire, the view of the villages kilometers below has disappeared. Keep pedaling. Is that someone up on a triple ring ahead... dig deep boy, dig deep... Pass them. People are cheering me, kids yelling "Allez!" The Cote d'Arches is a Cat. 2 climb and I don't even have a team kit.

Lesson 2 - what goes way up, goes way down.
Turn everything off in the body. Should probably just close your eyes as well.
I thought I had gone fast before. This was insane. Would you jump out of a car at 45mph? I wouldn't, but I kinda was in a metaphorical sense. And to add more of a thrill, it was raining. Is that another switchback? I can handle all but my brakes being wet. How are these other riders passing me? Their brakes look just like mine. The donkeys waited for me in a town about halfway down.

We met up in Cluses and played in the sprint zone.


Lesson 3 - You can't always get what you want.
Rain sucks even more when you have a 9 mile descent off a mountain and two more mountains to do that day.
Look up to the sky for some sort of idea as to what the remainder of the day will bring. Looks like more rain. Not fair. We are just a few kilometers from the base of the second climb. Well, what do we do fellas? I called it. I couldn't bring myself to descending possibly two more mountains in the rain. Yeah. I was scared. Lets just find a spot on the course nearby and watch from there.


Lesson 4 - Amazing what you will wait for.
Just stay in the feed zone. After 3 hours, the caravan will come. An hour after that, comes the peloton.
Rained on and off, the caravan! "Gimme your free stuff!" Haribo tosses the least best selling candy. Cochon tosses TINY dried sausages, Cofidis a reuseable foldable grocery bag. Neither Casse d'Espargne and BBox tossed us a shirt or hat, nor did any sponsor girls jump off their floats and join us for the remainder of our journey.

Lesson 5 - Coulda, shoulda, woulda... you just never know.
The sun comes out! Why were we here? Oh that's right... I called it.
The peloton came through the feedzone. Hushovd on a solo breakaway. A large break following. A second group. The peloton. All fishing around in their bags while they pass me. The sound of the bikes. The team colors. I turn down the road and there I see... kids running left and right alongside grabbing bottles and mussetes. All I managed to snag was a funky strawberry lime fruit bar. Didn't taste too bad. Paul grabbed two bottles and presents them to Velocirouleur and me.

Lesson 6 - The fun just never ends.
Rain, fear of riding off a mountain, no caravan booty, no team mussetes, still I'm riding with my donkeys and having a good time.
Especially since the Velocirouler booked us 3/4 of a way up a mountain and we were way down in the valley. We dodge Gendarmes who tell us the road is closed and begin to ride our way back to the hotel. I snag a race route marker and shove it up my back. This is the best souvenir I could get. We are thirsty for liquids in brown bottles and meat and frites. Velocirouleur leads us through the Sallanches valley. Backwards on the race route we go, while the peloton slogs it out up the Colombiere. We begin our own slugfest up to the hotel. It goes up and up, and turns and twists, always Mont Blanc in view.

It is a lonely ride. Velocirouleur has pulled away, Paul is somewhere behind me. I plod my way, through a few roundabouts and switchbacks, wondering how much longer. Tired, hungry, questioning if we would have had the sun with us on the Romme and Colombiere. In the village of Colombioux, I see Velocirouleur. I stop next to him and we stand in the doorway of a bar watching the finishing kilometers of the day's stage.

The final kilometers to the hotel aren't too bad. I've become numb to the climbing. I focus on turning the cranks. I don't even look at Mont Blanc. I wonder how the pros do it, day after day.

Latest pics from Belgium and France

Due to Flickr's free membership policy, I am restricted in the amount of pics I can post per month. More pics will be posted after Aug. 1st. Here are some to enjoy.


Most are of the 4 stages we watched. Following the Tour is awesome! Definitely going to try and do this again!

Ronde Route

Berg-a-licious!

Just got back from riding part of the Tour of Flanders. Exhausted, but we are off to the Brussels airport for the rental car.

Real quick - ticked off 6 climbs... cleaned them all and kept the legs from exploding.

Kwaremont
Pattenberg
Koppenberg
Taiinenberg
and I can't remember... but they ended in -berg

All pave! All cobbles! Several at 15+%!

Pics and full blown cobble by cobble report coming!

Belgian Riding

Paul and I arrived in Belgium last week to visit our best friend Kris who is doing a stint here with the Army. So far we have done some rides, watched the Tour, and consumed alot of Belgian beer. Tomorrow we load up the car to set off for the French Alps to ride parts of the Tour de France and watch the race from the side of the road.

Pics are here.

Ride Recaps:

Friday - Riding in Mons, Belgium. Kris took us on a 1 hour ride in his area. Finally rode some pave, the snobby bike word for cobblestones. Learned that I may never want to ride them ever again. My whole bike and body vibrated and shook. I was afraid my entire bike would just fall apart and then my limbs would fall from my body. So we rode two sections of pave, each about 75-100 yards, and did one section a couple times, just because you get through it holding on for dear life, trying to go fast and skip over the gaps, keeping yourself from being shaken from the bike, and when you get back on smooth road (which doesn't really exist in Belgium), your body has a pleasant tingly feeling. Saturday - Modified Liege Bastogne Liege Ride sponsored by La Redoute Velo Club. Wow! Parts of the same route as the pros, including the Cote de Vecquee and La Redoute (!). We did the 115km version of the ride. None of us had the leg strength to do the 200km version that is most of the route. We were also granted some traditional Belgian weather - rainy & cold. Rode with arm warmers and a vest most of the ride, a few times broke out the rain coat.

Much of the course went through the Ardennes Forest, which is beautiful, and Belgian farm country. We would do these long gradual climbs, forest and farmland on both sides. Just as Paul would become frustrated with the length of the climb, a descent would begin. And these were long, open descents. We would just pick up speed and run for what seemed like forever wide open at 35+ mph, sweep through little villages - the kind that you would call very cute and quaint and put on a postcard. And then a climb would start again.

The Vecquee was a good test of what I can expect for gradient on Ventoux in a few days. Felt good just steady pedaling up. Highlight of the ride was climbing La Redoute, the famous climb in Liege Bastogne Liege. Average grade is 8% but there are several sections that are 10, 11, and 20%. Whole road is painted with riders names. After 65 miles, we turned off our prescribed route to do Redoute. I was nervous of the steep grade because my legs were feeling tired. I kept trying to test myself against Kris who has become a power rider. He is a regular tempo-potamus. I could stay with him longer than I thought, but soon I'd fall off his wheel and not be able to get back on it, especially when we went up. I'm blaming the rainy spring at home for taking away my training time...

All day long, it was cloudy, chilly, and windy. After a 1/4 way up Redoute's 7% section, we stopped for some pics at the memorial. The next part of the climb was where the steeper sections would start. Oddly enough, the sun finally decided to come out. Kris led up the climb with the goal being for him to take pics when Paul and I summited. I focused on my own tempo and not following Kris' pace. Having followed this race for years, to finally be on this climb riding it no less was awesome. As the climb got steeper, the names of pro riders painted on the road increased. I started reading them out loud. Not sure if it was to distract me from the 20% grade I was on, pedaling out of the saddle, trying to minimize the burn in the legs and save my energy for the remaining section at 10%. It really brought the whole climb alive, the history and excitement of it all. Can't really describe what it means to me but it is something I will never forget.

Thank goodness the ride back the start was all downhill. I mean all downhill. It did not flatten out till we were on the road to the parking lot. Must have been a 20 minute run.

I think that ride shook out the last bits of jet lag.

Mount Weather

Liz put out another call for a long ride. This time it was much closer than Raystown Lake. A BikeWashington posted ride along the spine of the mysterious Mount Weather starting and ending in Viriginia's horse country and budding wineries. It was a beautiful 56 miles along some rolling terrain and a 2 mile climb to the top of Mount Weather at a thigh burning 8% grade.

As usual, I made the sacrifices to the bike gods by blowing my front tube "just adding a little extra air." Would not be a good ride with Liz without a "mechanical of some sort." Thank goodness she is patient. It isn't cool to find out that both of us absentmindedly had the wrong CO2 cartridges either. It would really suck to be on top of Mount Weather with a flat and have some men in an SUV pick us up... ain't no bike riding in Guantanamo.

Right on to Rectortown road, heading out of Marshall horse country began. A few short almost insignifcant climbs and the views opened up, the rolling green fields and the miles of stone walls, long driveways, guardhouses, some service entrance driveways, one small paved airport. These rolling green fields were not grass but money, rolling hills of Benjamins. Alot of money out there. We had the roads just about to ourselves which was good because we were trying as hard as we could to check out some of the houses and the little bits we could catch were fantastic. The few cars that came up on us, followed us for a bit before finally pulling out and passing, don't get it when they had a clear view of the road ahead.

In a blink, we entered and exited Bluemont to begin the first part of the climb, a steep straight 1/2 mile climb probably at 7%, a nice switchback into a flat section before we were spit out onto Route 7. A few pedal strokes up 7 and the real climb began. It was intimidating. A long straightaway that went up at 8% for 2 miles. I licked my chops, geared into the easy rings, unzipped the jersey, put my head down and thought about the pedal stroke, just an easy cadence, focus on utilizing the entire stroke and grind. Honestly, it was not as bad as I thought. A good indicator of how I'll handle July's epic climb of Mt. Ventoux in France at this year's Tour. I felt really good and comfortable,. I enjoy climbing in general so I had the mental state of mind to hold out.

Once we got to the top, we saw the fence for the Mount Weather Operations Center. Of course, we went off the cue sheet and took a side road along the fence.... just to see where it would take us. A closed off fence with barriers, perfect spot for a picture, air tower in the background. Back on the main road, we stopped at the main entrance and snapped a few in front of the sign and main gate. While I took Liz's picture, I watched a black SUV drive over the bridge. A bit of panic went through me, afternoon ruined as we are interrogated and probably have our bikes taken... all I could think about was the description of the place having a crematorium and me mysteriously disappearing. Luckily the SUV just kept on going. We were being monitored anyways with the cameras. Not too mention, hard to hide any WMDs in bike clothes. It did get eeriely quiet as we continued down the road with the facility on both sides of us.

The top of Mount Weather isn't flat. We had several miles of rolling hills before a long descent off the mountain. Good roads, good sight lines, nice turns, and we were over 40 mph down the mountain.

We went through Paris, VA pretty quickly and out on Route 17. Liz made a joke about the electronic radar sign up ahead and naturally, I just had to see if it would pick me up. I geared down and began the hard pedal mashing to get some speed. I was getting close and I had speed. And then a car came whizzing by, 50 mph; a second car at 45; I'm almost there knowing I'll be picked up, and a third car at 45 as well. I hit the spot and watch the sign count down to 39 mph. I'd like to think that was me as I did catch the pull of 3 cars go by, but I might have been down at 35 or a bit less. As fun as it was, my legs were burning and it was only mile 38. We had 18 more and alot of undulating road with some climbs.

At Route 66, the ride was pretty much over as we rode parallel to 66 for 10 miles to get back to Marshall. We finally got all the cars that we didn't have for the entire day. That last part seemed the longest, and for some reason, I thought we were rid of all the hills. They weren't bad, I was just a bit tired.

Looking to get out there again and try to do some repeats on the Mount Weather climb in anticipation for Ventoux. Bike gets packed up in two weeks.