Watching le Tour de France

[an absolute highlight: meeting the famous Tour de France devil]
As Katie and I had learned shortly after our arrival in France, several stages of the Tour de France would be passing very close to Toulouse!! After many months of waiting, the Tour was finally here. I ended up spending the entire weekend watching the Tour and I wasn't disappointed. On Saturday we saw the Stage 13 individual time trial in Albi, and then the next day I saw the mountaintop finish of Stage 14 at the Plateau de Beille in the Pyrénées (Katie was extremely nice and stayed in Toulouse on Sunday to meet our friend who was arriving from the States). All of our pictures from both days can be found on our Picasaweb page. Both stages had their attractions.

Albi was nice (in spite of the afternoon rain) because there were riders passing by for most of the day so you could walk around the course and see them from various spots. We also got lots of goodies from the promotional caravan: I was dreaming of one of those polka-dot hats and big green hands! I now have more of those things than I know what to do with! From a race point of view, the time trial was important as it established who the main favorites for the race would be. The big surprise was that Michael Rasmussen managed to preserve the yellow jersey heading into the Pyrénées.

The Plateau de Beille was what I would describe as a classic mountain stage: lots of crazy people crammed onto the sides of narrow mountain roads. There were definitely more hard-core fans on this stage and lots of pre-race festivities (you have to arrive at least 6-8 hours before since they close the roads). The race, however, goes by in a relative short period of time (though didn't seem too short to me). As for the goodies, they were few and far between. When the publicity caravan made it to the slopes of the Plateau de Beille, I barely got anything! Too many people and the people giving away stuff were quite stingy. Oh well. The excitement of the race more than made up for it. The first mountain stage in the Pyrénées did not disappoint. The first riders to pass were Alberto Contador and Michael "Chicken" Rasmussen, the yellow jersey. The crowd around us went crazy when they went by (they were going super fast, I might add). There was even a guy in a chicken suit (a Rasmussen fan, I assume) running right in front of us (this made all the TV highlights so we could see where we were on TV).


[Contador, Rasmussen, and his fans in pursuit]

It's difficult to describe just how close the riders, motorcycles, and support cars get to the crowd. You can literally stick your hand out and touch the riders if you wanted to. Everyone covers the road prior to the riders arriving and then moves out of the way just enough to let the police motorcycles (who are trying to clear the way) pass. The riders are directly behind but it would be quite hard for a rider to try and pass someone for fear of running into the crowd. I actually saw a motorcycle cop shove a fan a few feet on a later telecast. As a rider, I guess you just focus on riding and assume the crowd will clear a path for you.


[in the words of my friend Adam: Kaku-fanboy]

And what cycling-related post would be complete without a reference to Laurent "Jaja" Jalabert? Actually, Stage 14 started in the town of Mazamet which is, in fact, where Laurent grew up.

Alpe-d'Huez (Sheryl Crow, Eat My Dust!!!)

Prior to my arrival in France, my only definitive goal was to ride the famous climb up to the ski town of Alpe-d'Huez in the French Alps. I had seen it many times while watching the Tour de France on TV and wanted to experience the "fun" myself. While not the longest or steepest climb, the 21 switchbacks leading up to Alpe-d'Huez are probably the most famous in all of cycling. Katie convinced her cousin and two friends (all from the States) to join us (we also did some rides in the surrounding areas) in early July. Although we didn't have a lot of time to ride (the weather was also unseasonably cold and wet), we did get a taste of Alpine riding. We ended up riding l'Alpe-d'Huez (the mythic climb), les 2 Alpes (nice views, not too hard, and a short ride--especially if you take the cable car down!), and the Col de la Croix de Fer (our longest and coldest ride--windy, rainy, even snowy at times--yet the most beautiful by far). We also drove up to the Col du Galibier (part of stage 9 of this year's tour). The following is a brief account of my Alpe-d'Huez climb (you can check out all of my photos here).



Each hairpin on the way up to l'Alpe-d'Huez is numbered and named after a rider(s) who has won a Tour stage there. The first turn is #21 (Fausto Coppi/Lance Armstrong) and is located in one the steepest portions of the entire climb... not an enjoyable way to start! Fortunately, I'm happy to say that in general I felt quite good on the climb. After the enormous amount of hurt I felt on Mont Ventoux (see my earlier blog), I learned my lesson and was much better prepared for l'Alpe-d'Huez. I was also highly motivated to beat the hour and a half time that Sheryl Crow (Lance Armstrong's ex-girlfriend) recorded a few years ago. The way I see it, Sheryl Crow is to the Alpe-d'Huez climb what Oprah is to marathoning. As someone who considers himself a decent biker, I was not going to be embarrassed by some pop singer. And apparently I'm not the only one who feels this way. It's all about pride.


[a nice view of some of the hairpins--you can see the town of Bourg d'Oisans, where the climb starts, in the upper left]




From what I had read about the climb, I was pretty nervous during the ascent. My legs felt really good but I was worried that I would run out of gas before the top. Thankfully, that moment never hit. When I finally made it to turn #1 (Giuseppe Guerini), I was in a good rhythm and making decent time up the mountain. I also kept my concentration up since turn #1 is NOT the final turn. While it's called the famous 21 hairpins of Alpe-d'Huez, there are in fact a few more turns to get to the actual finish. Actual is italicized because apparently the finish line keeps moving. The climb used to finish just after turn #1 (at the entrance to town), but as the town grows the Tour de France finish moves further and further back. Apparently the current TdF finish isn't even accessible now (it's in the middle of a construction site), so where we finished is as close as you can get (they have a nice little sign there). All in all, the ride is about 8.7 miles with an average grade of 7.7% (12% max)--at least according to one website I read.

And for those of you keeping score at home, I made it to the old finish line in just over 1 hour (1:01) and to the "official" finish line in about 1:05. Either way, I beat Sheryl Crow!! Mission accomplished, and I didn't feel like I had suffered all that much. Just to give you some context, the best Tour de France rider (Pantani) did it in around 36 minutes--and this is after they've ridden 100+ miles and have gone over 3 or 4 "above category" (HC) climbs before this. The most Katie and I have done so far is 2 passes (Category 1 & 2) on one ride and about 70 miles. Doped or not, it's quite impressive to see some of the mountains the tour riders go over. All in all, I was quite happy. Riding up the Alpe-d'Huez was something I wanted to do for a long time. Katie and I definitely intend to ride some of the famous climbs in the Pyrénées before we head back!


[The happy group: Joe, Amanda, Katie, Me, and Paul]


[At the top of Alpe-d'Huez... for me, a dream come true]