July 21st Stage 18 Pinerolo-Galibier

Having driven back from Pinerolo to Briancon after the start of the race we made it back even before the Caravan hit Briancon again. We watched the caravan come through and then went to our hotel lobby to see what was happening in the race.

We saw Andy make his move on the Izoard and watched the riders summit and then descend Izoard. The base of the mountain is very close to Briancon and knowing that Briancon was positioned (I think) 40k from the finish, we watched on TV until the lead group hit around 45k to go knowing we had time to walk outside and find a spot to watch them come through.

It was going to be a lot different than yesterday which was the group coming through earlier in the stage and up a steep hill. This time it is a flat section where they would fly through.

Maxim Iglinsky is 1st through. It just happened that Astana had their mechanic bus setup on this corner from the previous night. Only one other team was setup here but neat that his team bus is in the background as he leads the race through Briancon solo.


Not far behind is a chase group of 4. Andy Schleck had caught the breakaway group where he had a teammate waiting to deliver him to the base of Galibier. Note the differences in apparent effort between Schleck and his teammate!

Around 2'40" later the chase comes through. Schleck's move has rocked the peleton as he is actually gaining time. He went from 2' up over the Izoard and now at 2'40"
His lead would eventually balloon to 4' before Evans almost singlehandedly brought the final gap down to around 2'



Frank Schleck, staying on Basso's wheel.

The chase group had strung out the peleton. Contador was hurting, unable to stay at the front and came through around 20" down on Evans & Voeckler. Not a good sign. Even watching the Izoard ascent in the hotel I was commenting that he was nowhere near the front of the peleton when Andy made his initial attack. A sign of things to come as he eventually catches up to Evans and Voeckler but then cracks with a few kms to go at the top of the Galibier and loses all hope of winning this year's TDF in the final kms of the Galibier.




More riders coming through.


Cavendish in the Green jersey. He along with the gruppetto would not make the time cut and get penalized 20pts, again putting the chase for the green jersey somewhat in doubt.



Phillipe Gilbert conserving energy on this stage.


Having made the long descent the riders remove the newspapers from their jerseys and chuck them to the ground. The rest of the ride is pretty flat before the road kicks up on the slopes of the Galibier.


The pace of the riders coming through was fantastic - probably between 40 and 50kph. Its a little scary standing there while the officials and team cars as well as motos zoom by at speeds enough to kill you if you get careless. Its important to warn your kids of what to expect and be safe at all times and respect the race and the dangers that are there.

July 21st Stage 18 Start in Pinerolo

The morning of July 21st the Tour would start in Pinerolo, Italy and make its way over 3 huge mountain passes and finish at the summit of the Col du Galibier - the highest mountain finish ever in the Tour de France.

We got up early in the morning, had breakfast and drove to Pinerolo. Only about 85km from Briancon but almost 2 hours. Just like the cyclists do, we had to navigate mountain ascents and switchbacks, tunnels and hairy corners. The drive out of Briancon is a beautiful climb to 1800m that I would have love to have rode on my bike but just ran out of time. Then we go through the village of Sestreire in Italy topping out at 2000m and then its all downhill to Pinerolo around 300m above sea level. We make it, park our car and walk about 2k to the start area.

All the roads are closed off with barriers lining them so it is easy to figure out where the start is, just follow the course. It gets crowded at the finish - the front of the area is the Leopard Trek and Movistar team buses. We hang out here a bit, but it is very crowded. My girls get an autograph from Rui Costa, winner of stage 12 to Super-Besse.

Here he is with some gals. Eventually he has to coochie-coo the dog before he can get to racing.
We decide to head down the line to the HTC bus. I figure it is going to be packed with people waiting to see Cav but maybe just because it is further away from the start there is hardly anyone there which is awesome. We get lots of room up against the barriers and get to see some movie stars ;-)

I have the DVD of Chasing Legends - a cycling documentary following the HTC team in the 2009 Tour de France. Together with my family we must have watched it 10+ times so are super familiar with all the players. Along with Cavendish the team directors Brian Holm and Rolf Aldag got a lot of camera time in the movie and were likeable and funny.
So it was awesome to see both of them there and they were both nice enough to chat and sign autographs for my girls.
Here Rolf comes over to sign after my wife calls him over in German. They seem enthused that we are big fans of the movie.


Brian comes over later after chatting with some guy from Sky and is also super nice. I talk to him about todays stage and tell him I loved his line in the movie during one of the mountain stages where he says "Some days I wish I was still a professional cyclist........but not today!"
Todays stage is definitely one of those.


Brian brings over some hats for my kids - Sweeet!!
Highroad fans for life!

Later on, Mark Renshaw a.ka. Prince Harry emerges and is happy to talk to the fans and sign authographs. He appears a little smaller than I thought considering he is such a workhorse.
Super Nice guy.
Interesting seeing a guy with an Ironman Canada hat there too.
The entire time riders were going back and forth and eventually to the start line so I snapped pics of many of them. The teams with buses at the front I didn't get.
Phillipe Gilbert

Alberto Contador & convoy


Sammy Sanchez who had a great tour
Badass Laurens ten Dam
World Champ and multiple stage winner Thor Hushovd. He had lots of supporters as Norway was well represented. I probably saw more Norway flags than any other country
The Yellow Jersey - Voeckler looks like he is lauching an attack.
Ryder Hesjedal playing it cool
Hanging out at the start was very enjoyable, the teams and riders pretty approachable. It was a great time and I am glad we made the effort to get over there as it was not super easy.

July 20th Col de Granon

This was one of the most enjoyable rides/climbs of my time in France. In the high alps the views were spectacular. While the views riding out of Nice are incredible also, I am more into seeing nature than the landscapes around Nice where the architecture of small towns and cities is combined with rugged landscape to make great viewing.

This is a shot looking back toward Briancon in the distance from probably midway up the climb.




The summit was cool & windy. Thank God for the sun. A mountain biker who arrived shortly after I did took this pic.
On the way back down looking in the opposite direction of Briancon to what looks like a ski village to the southwest.
The descent and the gorgeous vistas
Briancon again, this time from higher up.

Time for an espresso back in Briancon.
Depressing....My riding is done, now time to take the bike apart and pack it for home.

Stats: A Hors catégorie climb of 11km @8.8% topping out at 2413m
This one was a bloody hard climb, the wind was whipping me as I went up - the views again making up for everything.

July 20th Stage 17 Gap-Pinerolo

Today's stage came through Briancon from south to north. This meant the riders would go right through town and up a super steep hill about 400m long and a 11% gradient. Perfect for spectating as the speeds would be moderated by the hill.

The front group comes through. A huge breakaway of close to 20 riders packed tightly. They are doing around 15kph up the hill.




Sylvain Chavanel is one of my favorites. Here he has made the break and is targeting this stage.

About 2 minutes later the peleton comes through as one huge group. Still early in the stage and things have not yet begun to thin out. Europcar is working hard at the front.

Voeckler tucked in safely behind.
Gilbert too.
The Norwegians were out in force.
A great day of spectating, we spent probably about an hour on the hill, mostly waiting and the riders were through in about 5 minutes total. The next day it was about 18 minutes from first to last rider.

July 20th The TDF Caravan

I wasn't sure what to expect when we watched the caravan come through. I knew my kids would love it and I was pretty sure it would be cool to see at least once.

What suprised me most was how long it was, how much time it took to actually come though and the speeds at which they were driving.

Its nothing like a parade - they leave an hour and a half before the cyclists and have to arrive at the destination with the same time gap so there is no lollygagging.

There are about 34 sponsors represented in the caravan, each one seems to have 5-10 cars and at different intevals there are race officials, team cards, police and gendarme

Many of the sponsor vehicles have people on top throwing stuff out to the crowds. As the caravan was poised to come through Briancon I decided we would watch it from a side street just before they make the turn up the big hill where tons of people are already camped out waiting for the cyclists and caravan to come through. At this location there were hardly any people so my kids had a field day scoring prizes.

After I returned I was talking with my boss at work who is French and was telling me a funny story about this years tour I had not heard about. Apparently the caravan was given instructions not to throw out prizes at certain sections of the course - mainly on mountain passes in the national parks as it creates a mess of litter to clean up or just gets blown off the road into the parks. Obviously they want to minimize the footprint of the caravan so the instructions make sense. Well, when the caravan comes through some of these areas there are hundreds or thousands of fans waiting for their goodies and when they don't get any they are pissed. Apparently they start throwing bottles and stuff at the caravans and even attacking them (easier to do in the mountains where everything is slow speed) for their prizes (crap like packs of candies, clappers, foam hands, stickers, magnets, coupons etc...)

Funny story that went into a discussion of him trying to compare cycling fans in Europe with their North American counterparts. He ended up choosing NASCAR fans as the equivalent.

Some pics of the caravan:

July 18th Col de Vence

My last ride in Nice - so sad :(

I had one ride left in my planned routes, the Col de Vence. Not a huge climb but I was excited to see some new territory. All my previous rides were either east or due north from my apartment. This would take me west past the airport and then up into the hills. The terrain is definitely different, more rolling & smooth compared to the rocky, ragged and steep terrain on the other side of Nice.


Some stats on the Col de Vence:
Category 1 climb, 12kms @6.4% topping out at 963m

Below is one of the signs for the route - at this point the gradient is 5%. Not sure if it means 5% to the top or 5% for the next kilometer. These signs are at every kilometer and the rest of them were all 7%

This climb was different in that the slope was easier to tackle, and very consistent throughout. Not really any steep pitches to trouble you. The views were of a barren landscape with small brush and not really any trees. You could see very far but because it wasn't steep you were never really able to see much of the road you came up from.


Once to the top, time to descend. This was a prefect descent for me as there were only a couple switchbacks and the gradual slope meant I could actually make it down without using my brakes much! Certainly my most enjoyable descent from the risk/exhilaration standpoint.

My first problem cycling in France came up as I flatted on the way back. I was on a pretty busy road - 2 lanes each way with a speed limit of probably 80 or so. I hit an elevated reflector and as I did noted 'thats not good', lost a water bottle and went back to retrieve it. As i did so, I heard the dreaded hissing of a pinch flat. I rode a bit longer to find a safe place to pull off and make my repairs. All was good except that my CO2 was empty so I was limited to a handpump to inflate my tire. I was able to get it to around 60psi and rode home the rest of the way easy. Thankfully it was flat or sligthly downhill and the last 7k or so a beautiful bikepath along the Promenade des Anglais.