Tour de France Spectator 2011

Alpine Crossing

2009-07-27T21:20:00.002-04:00

This video is from our private ride on the gondola from Aiguille du Midi, France by Mont Blanc to Helbronner, Italy. (Actually, it's the reverse trip, so we're headed from Italy back to France.)

Col de la Colombiere

2009-07-27T21:19:00.001-04:00

This is the video we shot from stage 17 at the base of the Col de la Colombiere. You can see Andy and Frank Schleck, Andreas Kloden and then Alberto Contador.

Cliff Hanging

2009-07-27T21:17:00.003-04:00

It's a little difficult to see, but this is a video of people climbing from the glacial base to the top of the Aiguille du Midi. It was an impressive site, but I can't imagine with the wind and cold that it was very enjoyable (or safe).

Rocks and More Rocks

2009-07-27T21:14:00.002-04:00

The giant field of rocks that were left in the glaciers wake. Hiking over these in Sketchers proved to be quite challenging, see earlier post.

La Mer du Glace

2009-07-27T21:12:00.001-04:00

This is the La Mer du Glace (glacier) at the end of our hike from Mont Blanc down to Chamonix. Look how much it has receded.

Garmin Team Bus / TT Stage in Annecy

2009-07-27T21:10:00.000-04:00

Hiking Into Oblivion

2009-07-27T21:08:00.002-04:00

We caught these two guys as they started out from Aiguille du Midi down the steep slopes to the glacier near Mont Blanc. It's pretty much a sheer drop-off on either side of the thin path.

Back in NYC -- More to Come Soon

2009-07-27T07:35:00.005-04:00

We're back in NYC now, landed last night at midnight, and I'm leaving for work in just a few minutes. It's always a little disappointing when the official Tour de France ends in Paris after three weeks, but don't despair, we'll be posting a few more things over the next day or so. We have some videos from the road (of the race and our antics), the URLs for most of the Chambres d'Hotes where we stayed, and a map of our personal Tour de France -- I think we drove close to 2,000 km over the past 10 days in our little car.

I still need to go through the caravan booty that we picked up from the road in addition to the two waterbottles we scored, but forgot to tell you that I sliced my finger this year using the wine bottle opener knife to "recycle" one of the TdF direction arrows. All is good now -- it happened very early on and has healed.

I've included a photo from our hike near Mont Blanc... not that it has anything to do with this post, but I really like the image. After traveling for nearly two weeks with our Canon G9, the Altoid box camera (Pentax Optio S4) and a small Netbook, it was fantastic to see some of the photos we took on a large screen this morning.

Calling London

2009-07-27T07:27:00.002-04:00

We had a 12-hours layover yesterday in London traveling from Lyon to New York. Thankfully, our friends Mikaela and Zsolt moved there recently so we were able to meet up with them and their kids for a few hours. Above Angel and I with something royal in the background and Angel and Mikaela opting for a more contemporary method of communication.

Cornish Pasty Shop for Mom Lowery

2009-07-27T07:20:00.000-04:00

Also on our layover, we found the Cornish Pasty shop near Covent Garden -- the pasty is popular in the UP of Michigan. Last time we were in London, we saw a place similar to this around the corner but didn't get a photo.

L'Alpe d'Huez Revisited

2009-07-25T12:56:00.002-04:00

We drove up L'Alpe d'Huez yesterday morning before heading down to Provence and Ventoux. It was our plan to drive both mountain passes but the crowds on Ventoux scuttled that plan.

What a fantastic thing to do in a car! The road was littered with cyclists on their way up in various states of exhaustion. We've seen a number of mountain passes that they include in the TdF, and this one was pretty fantastic. Officially there are 21 switchbacks, but we counted several more towards the top.

Above you can see me standing relatively refreshed in my 2008 TdF Alpe d'Huez t-shirt by the Arrivee sign, as well as an exhausted rider rolling across the official finish line used in the Tour. One of us biked up, the other, nearly blew out the car's clutch.

Ventoux and Ready to Roll

2009-07-25T12:47:00.002-04:00

Photo from this morning at the foot of Mont Ventoux, well, at least as close as we could get. It was windy, and I truly mean windy this morning. If it weren't clear and sunny, you probably would have thought a tornado was in the area. Our little car was blown all over the road, and for a minute I had visions of us rolling down the autoroute and a big gust of wind flipping it. No worries, we made it safely to our final pit-stop in France right outside of Lyon.

What a stage today! Instead of fighting the crowds in the heat to see only a glimpse of the riders, we decided to drive the hour to Lyon and camp at a cafe with television to see the entire Ventoux climb. Our plan was nearly scuttled when we hit some incredible traffic on the autoroute just north of Ventoux. Today's stage passed over the autoroute, so people were stopped or slowed for miles to catch a glimpse. Once drove over that road (we just missed the riders but saw the helicopters take off), we counted stopped cars for at least 40 km afterwards trying to go the other direction!

We made it to the the town where the race started yesterday and grabbed a table indoors by a television. I mean, wow, what a stage, I'm glad that we chose to skip it live, especially after seeing the coverage of the area where we would have positioned ourselves -- it was wall-to-wall people.

Alpen Navigator

2009-07-25T12:44:00.002-04:00

That's right, this lady with the trusty Michelin 2008 map of France is the person who navigates this tour de France. Right here, she's standing on top of L'Alpe d'Huez.

The Giant of Provence & The Line of People Trying to Drive Up It

2009-07-25T07:12:00.000-04:00

Mont Ventoux, Kilometer 0

2009-07-25T03:37:00.003-04:00

This is how close we got last night to Ventoux before they shut the roads down. Good thing we were just going there to see what it looked like and had reservations at a place down the road.

Classic Frenchman

2009-07-23T15:35:00.004-04:00

A few nights ago after the Annecy stage, we stayed with a lovely French family. The Chambres d'Hotes was actually run by the parents, but the daughter and her kids were in "town" from Paris visiting.

They were all fascinating people, and once they learned we were from NYC and following the TdF, really excited to talk (the daughter spent a year at Purdue University in Indiana). The father, probably now in his 70s, was a classic Frenchman -- loved cycling (and cycled), drank pastis and drove like a bullet.

You know in movies where the old French guy goes blazing through the countryside in his car, well, we took part in one of those excusions. We needed to eat dinner so they offered to drive the route to a nearby Grill. As soon as we pulled out of the country driveway he flew up the road leaving Angel and I in the dust. I had to turn off the A/C in order catch up with him, and then the road started zigzaging. Wow, happy to report we made it there in one piece.

After learning that Angel was a teacher, they wanted her to have a photo with the grandkids to show her students next year -- real, live Frenchkids.

Stage 18

2009-07-23T13:23:00.002-04:00

A few more photos from Stage 18 today. Danny Pate in the start house, Dave Z warming up, and the Versus truck overlooking the lake.

Astana Mob

2009-07-23T13:22:00.001-04:00

This was the mob around the Astana bus. Can you see Lance? Neither could we.

Bob and Chris

2009-07-23T13:11:00.002-04:00

Amazing position for us today in Annecy lead us to meet the Versus guys again and Chris Carmichael. Above I'm standing with Chris and Angel with Bob Roll -- made the entire TdF right there getting to meet Bob Roll (well, not quite, but it was pretty great). My photo is here. That guy is a rock star in the cycling / commentary world. We were sitting on the lawn and looked up to see him walking by. Asked him how his rental car was doing (diesel / unleaded debacle). He said that they pumped it out and it's running better than before. (Robert, it made me think of your sister's experience.) If you haven't read Bobke's book, check it out. There's one story in there that makes me laugh out loud, literally, every time I read it, even in public places like the Union Square Barnes and Noble.

Sea of Humanity

2009-07-23T13:07:00.002-04:00

And after the riders passed by us on Stage 17, this is what it looked like outside the bar where we had spent a few hours earlier in the day. They put up two flatscreen televisions and were attracting spectators on their way back to cars, RVs and buses. What an exciting thing to be a part of!

Stage 17

2009-07-23T13:00:00.003-04:00

Above are photos from our position on the Col de la Colombiere yesterday. Hincapie and Sastre. After spending a few hours at the village bar, for both the beverages and bathrooms, we hiked up a kilometer or to to get this position -- it was fantastic! By this point in the day, after biking over four mountains, the riders were spaced out over at least 30 minutes and slowly rolling by us. From our vantage point, we also could see them at four spots along the route -- coming down the previous mountain and in a few places coming back up before they got to us. We're pretty sure this is before Hincapie wrecked, and incredibly relieved that he didn't break his collarbone. By the way, also happy that Jen Voight's wreck wasn't worse.

(For those who are interested, I will post of video when we get back to the States of the lead group of Contador, Kloden and the Schlecks passing us.)

Friendly Gendarm

2009-07-23T12:47:00.002-04:00

As you might have read on the Twitter feed yesterday, we were making good time from the end of the stage 17, to our Chambres d'Hotes until we ran smack dab into a closed road 4K from our pit-stop. They were clearing all of the TdF vehicles out of Le Grand Bournand so everything else couldn't move for a few hours.

Angel called ahead to let them know that the road would be closed for two hours, but was pretty sure that there was a little of confusion. Not wanting our reservation to be canceled, she asked the Gendarm, who was keeping the road closed, if he could call and make sure we still had a room. He was very friendly, as each of them have been on our travels, and called for us. The photo below it is of the view from our private balcony once we arrived. And the room, plus breakfast, was only 47 Euros. The harrowing mountain drive up to the place once we got moving again, a few years off of our lives.

[Uh, yeah, Carol reminded us that we didn't provide an update after Tweeting that we were homeless in Laussane. We secured a room at a Movingpick Hotel, and were so exhausted from it all, also ordered room service. I ended up with what was a plate of lox for 33 Swiss Francs, Angel had a burger.]

Alex, France for our friend Alex F.

2009-07-23T12:42:00.002-04:00

Our friend Alex just ran her first half marathon in Napa, CA last Sunday. In honor of one of our athlete friends (and a tad bit by coincidence since we drove through this village), a little piece of France for you, Alex -- Congrats on your event, we're really proud of you!

Mountain Madness

2009-07-22T08:04:00.007-04:00

We're at 7,5 km to go to the summit of Col de la Colombiere -- today's final of five climbs, and it's going to be intense. From the pictures, you can see that we're parked in this field by the town of Le Reposoir, eating delicious pizza made fresh by Lino in his truck (four cheese brick oven pizza for 8 Euros), and enjoying beers with these crazy Dutch guys dressed in costumes that you'll no doubt see featured in the Versus TV coverage today.

It's been raining on and off today (now featuring thunder), and currently, we're back sitting in our car waiting another hour or so for the caravan to roll through town.

We stopped at one of the cycling jersey vendors on the road into town, and I found one of the increasingly rare Slipstream Chipotle jerseys from last season... you know, the one with the burrito in the back pocket. Well, on our way back to the car, we saw one of the Garmin vans driving up the road and when Angel held up the jersey, he stopped and handed us a used Garmin waterbottle, and those are nice waterbottles (check them out on the Slipstream website). Typically I don'ttake someone's used dishware with such excitement, but (1) it's a Garmin waterbottle and (2) I don't plan on using it until we've washed it three or four times.

Now, how long does it plan on raining, and how wet will be get today?

Playing Hooky (do people even say that anymore?)

2009-07-21T05:25:00.004-04:00

We had such a great time yesterday (and our clothes were really dirty), that we decided to take the day off from spectating to use the free detergent we scored from the caravan and do our laundry (see photo on Twitter of the laundry shack next to the Intermarche). We also wanted to see what else our pit-stop town of Saint Gervais (vintage poster photo) had to offer. And, I really want to go down the luge run in Chamonix.

While we were enjoying a nice relaxing lunch in St. Gervais's town center, all of a sudden, all the TdF support vehicles started rolling by us. Every team bus except Garmin's, drat! Come to find out, the only road leading to the finish line in Italy today (that the cyclists aren't biking on) is the one we're sitting next by. Nice little treat on our "day off."

Too Many Texts

2009-07-21T05:24:00.001-04:00

One of the fun little things that happens when you move from one phone network to the next is that they send you text messages saying, "Hi, you're on our network." And T-Mobile sends me messages saying, "Hi, you're on their network," as well as, "Thing might cost more on this different network."

Typically this happens in the States when we travel, but being situated on the border of three countries (France, Switzerland and Italy), and going to each of these countries, we're constantly moving in and out of different networks (even within the same country). Anyhow, even though these messages are free, could you please stop sending them to me? I already have literally over 100 in my deleted folder. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the notice, but get disappointed when I go to check my "12 New Text Messages" only to find out they're not from anyone I know really.

Boiling Pot of Cheese

2009-07-21T05:05:00.008-04:00

We ended our terrific day around Chamonix and Mont Blanc with some fondue -- burned my mouth a few times but it was delicious (and when is a boiling pot of cheese not delicious?). It really was quite stunning to take the tram over to Italy, even the video we shot can't truly relay how awe-inspiring it was. It was freezing up there and the snow was blowing up at us from the viewing decks, but there wasn't a cloud in the blue sky and the views were spectacular. Rick Steves was right when he said that the money you spend for the gondolas on a clear day is worth every penny and more.

I can't imagine what it must be like for the people hiking below us to look up at the mountains and across the vast snowy landscape. Or how cold it was a night for those that chose to camp on the mountain. We've included some photos here and might upload the video we shot from our trip in the cabin (where we had the best breakfast nook view ever!). Might even upload the video of the two guys we caught hiking out over the snow cliff on their way down to the plateau. Uh, yeah, probably won't be doing that anytime too.

[We close this with a shout out to our friends who live in Colorado (hey Hoyt!), who get to see, bike and hike in this stuff a lot more than we do. Don't get me wrong, it's impressive to stand at the base of the Empire State Building and stare up at that too.]

Vera Bradley on Mont Blanc

2009-07-21T05:01:00.002-04:00

Hi Mom, this one's for you. Angel brought along the Vera Bradley bag you gave her for Christmas -- thought we would include this photo of its travels for you.

Extreme S.L.U.M.S.

2009-07-21T04:55:00.002-04:00

OK, S.L.U.M.S., this is the trip we need to take... Brasserie du Mont Blanc makes beer from the glacier water of Mont Blanc and then sells it at the very top of the mountain. We'll come to Chamonix, take the tram to the top, buy one of the three varieties of the Brasserie du Mont Blanc beer that they sell and then take the 40-minute ride over the glaciers to Italy. At the little station in Italy, we can pick up an Peroni for the ride back. It's that or Bermuda -- Randy, I'll let you figure out the micro brew situation there.

And why wouldn't you want to see Ben Hur live?

2009-07-21T04:43:00.000-04:00

Sketchers & Asics vs. Glacier Rocks

2009-07-21T04:23:00.004-04:00

Yesterday following our excursion to Mont Blanc, we hiked for about three hours (can't find the distance right now), to Montenvers- Mer de Glace, or the rapidly receding Sea of Ice glacier. As always, we came amply prepared for our journey sporting the latest in hiking footwear (Dick, I hope you and Doug had better footwear for your hikes). Glaciers sure leave a lot of rocks in their wake -- lots of them, that it seems you need to hike over to be able to view the glacier itself. For a second there I thought that might shoes were going to break in two; however, I was already contemplating the story that I was going to tell the people at Sketchers about why they should give me a replacement pair of shoes (I mean, come on, we "hiked Mont Blanc" in Sketchers). Even so, we made the spectacular journey from the mid-point tram station to Aiguille du Midi to the glacier. The weather was beautiful! Below are images of us by the glacier and the rocks we walked over. You can find out more about the places we went by visiting this site.

TdF Rest Day - On Mont Blanc

2009-07-20T05:49:00.001-04:00

It's rest day #2 for the Tour, so we decided to spend it in beautiful Chamonix and take the gondola to Mont Blanc and Helbronner (Italie). A photo from our journey is on the Twitter feed, more later. It's absolutely beautiful here and a perfect day weather-wise. On our way back from Helbronner we scored our own cabin and had a fantastic private 40-minute trek over the glaciers and through the mountains... Stunning!

Chasing Waterfalls

2009-07-19T13:33:00.005-04:00

This morning, we left Laussane and drove to the top of Col de Mosses. Once there, decided that we weren't very excited about our position. So, we drove back down the mountain and headed up the route to just outside the city of Martigny, the launch point of today's final climb. We're positioned across the street from this waterfall (see if you can find Angel at the base of it) and the La Cascade restaurant (see Twitter feed photo).

Spent about three hours relaxing on La Cascade's patio looking at the mountain, drinking a little abricot eau de vie and having lunch. Can't wait to see how the race shapes up on the mountains today. Hope everyone enjoys the stage on Versus -- it looks to be a terrific one!

Also saw the Livestrong chalk bot and crew again today chalking the roads of Switzerland.

Just Spinnin' in the Rain

2009-07-18T16:22:00.000-04:00

On one of our many trips into Intermarche today, we saw this image on the cover of L'Equipe. We think it really captured yesterday's festivities, so we bought a copy. You can probably see it better on their website but thought we'd share it here (including a shot of the Garmin baseball hat).

HINCAPIE!!

2009-07-18T16:21:00.000-04:00

Above are images from our Stage 14 vantage point today in Delle. There's the one of George Hincapie in the breakaway (Go George!), and one of the green and yellow jerseys flying through with the rest of the riders in the peloton.

We've never positioned ourselves on the back side of a small roundabout, and it was quite exciting as each rider in the peloton had to ride single file passed us. We had enough time to recognize, and cheer, for many of our favorites individually.

Chicago Garmin Store Shout-Out

2009-07-18T08:12:00.000-04:00

From my friend brian -- the Chicago Garmin store's (does NYC have one of these?) window display. Need to get one of these to hang in our livingroom. Note: First need to get 14-foot ceilings.

Stage 14

2009-07-18T07:33:00.000-04:00

It's raining and cold again today, so instead of battling for position on a category 3 climb, we instead opted to position ourselves in the parking lot of the Intermarche in the town of Delle. The peloton will be moving pretty quickly by this point, but we're right next to our car and have quick access to the supermarket's restroom. If the gendarme don't block off the rear exit for this place, we should also have quick passage to the tunnel into Switzerland. We're interested to see what this thing is like as we have to pay 40 Euros to drive through it (about $60, yes?). Hopefully this tunnel isn't the same underground place in Switzerland where they house the CERN reactor.

The other photo is of one of the Carrefour cars in the caravan (sponsor of the polka dot / king of the mountains jersey). Pretty decent take today considering we were standing in a crowd of kids, and yes, we let the kids have first dibs.

Singing John Denver songs in French

2009-07-18T05:37:00.004-04:00

Last night, our Chambres d'hotes (I'm pretty sure each time I write those words I'm changing the spelling) recommended that we eat dinner at Les Amis de Georges. It was a small place in a small town with about twenty locals who became our friends by the end of the evening (notice the photo where they insisted we hold the guitars).

It was the kind of joint where the host (above), waiter, server, and performer was the same guy. He also was a cyclist and a big fan of Lance Armstrong. His daughter battled cancer and the whole Livestrong campaign touched him personally.

It was all-French, all-night long and quite terrific, especially during the performance portion of the evening / sing-along when he/we sang a John Denver chart in French -- you really haven't experienced John Denver until you've heard it in the "original" French.

Wet & Cold, But Still Excited

2009-07-18T05:29:00.004-04:00

From our vantage point for Stage 13, on the back side of Col de Pflatzerwasel. The riders barreling down the mountain right before a tricky corner, in the rain and most likely freezing.

Even in the cold and rain, you couldn't hide Angel's enthusiasm for the race; although, it did dim slightly after we'd been standing there for a while.

Farm Fresh Fromage

2009-07-18T05:09:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, after we drove up into the clouds for about 10K and found our parking spot for the day, we wandered to a little dairy farm, Ferme Augerge Hahnenbrunnen at the top of Col de Hahnenbrunnen. Initially we intended to just grab some cafe and use the restroom. However, with the rain picking up outside, we decided to have a Kroningbourg, then some vin and then some food. In the end, we stayed at the quaint mountain-top restaurant until just about 45 minutes before the race came through, leaving only about an hour for us to stand in the rain and get soaked.

Above is their fromage plate -- all made right there on the farm -- can you pick out the butter without eating it first? I guess if you can order lard from the menu, eating butter straight without any bread isn't that big of a deal. It was still pretty tasty, bon appetit!

Thank You!

2009-07-17T06:18:00.000-04:00

Now that's a nice shower (see earlier post "Can a guy get a shower curtain?!) -- just like the one at the Perkin's homestead! OK, end of the shower curtain / sans shower curtain lament.

S.L.U.M.S. En France?

2009-07-17T06:11:00.000-04:00

I have a group of friends, a subcommittee actually, organized under the acronym S.L.U.M.S. that explore local microbrews. We've talked about going international after a recent foray to Houston. This photo is of the local brews from the Alsace region. Anyone in for July 2010?

Day 1

2009-07-16T19:00:00.003-04:00

Great first day spectating. Weren't able to get ice but made due with our plentiful picnic supplies -- too bad for the Comte though. Picture on the left is of the full peloton barreling down on the breakaway (and getting their time split), second is of the lead Garmin team car. Speaking of Garmin, I'm pretty sure Dave Z laughed at me as I cheered them.

Angel scored a Cervelo waterbottle -- hold on Julie, if Carlos Sastre wins (and we somehow manage to get it signed), you're in luck. Don't hold your breath.

This afternoon we drove about halfway to where we'll be watching tomorrow's stage and it's amazing at how fast you go from fields of wheat to mountains. Think we're just a stone's throw away from Switzerland and Italy now.

We had a terrific dinner on the patio of our chambre d'hote overlooking the valley that the riders will rider through tomorrow. Our host doesn't speak much French, so we used the Rick Steves' phrase book and a lot of gestures. Still managed to have a fantastic five-hour dinner with him.

Livestrong ChalkBot

2009-07-16T18:47:00.004-04:00

While we were driving the course today scouting a location to picnic, we ran into the Nike / Livestrong chalk bot team. We stopped to grab a few photos of their work and spoke with the friendly crew. They have quite an impressive operation, literally have bot that is chalking tens of thousands of messages across miles of France. The guys said their biggest problem was finding the space they needed to chalk the road with around 1500 new messages coming in each day. They're hoping to chalk 100,000 messages by the end of the Tour. Don't be dismayed, follow the above link and send in your message -- we might just see it on the road (in which case we'll take a photo).

Can a guy get a shower curtain?!

2009-07-16T12:36:00.000-04:00

I love France... the people, the food and drink, the fantastic roads we get to drive every day, the scenery and history, and the charming Hotes d'Chambre we stay at each night, BUT can a guy get a shower curtain now and again?

Over our years at the Tour, I have watered more of our bathrooms than I can remember. It's sort of like the Macy's 4th of July fireworks except with water (should have seen the aftermath in the room we stayed in near Lourdes when the tub was literally in the middle of our guest room). The shower wand is great and it's not that I don't try really hard -- there must be a page in Rick Steves' travel guide that I missed where he discusses the proper technique. Perhaps everyone has a shower curtain in their personal bathroom but like the authenticity for travelers of not having one.

In search of a shower curtain.

Thanks Mom / Thanks Lisa

2009-07-16T12:33:00.000-04:00

Putting Christmas presents to use. Unfortunately, we were unable to locate ice (or glacon) this morning, so the (currently warm) bottle of rose is purely staged for this photo... tomorrow mom.

Remembering Col d'Aspin

2009-07-11T20:31:00.005-04:00

In homage to tomorrow's stage when they will bike over the Col d'Aspin, I'm including one of my favorite home-shot images from our Tour de France travels. Angel took this photo out of the car window just as we were about to summit Col d'Aspin (en route to our hotel following the stage back in 2005 that George Hincapie won). This side of the mountain was all blue skies and sun, the other side wind and rain. We were hoping to drive up Col du Tore My Legs Off (also included in tomorrow's stage) but the the hair-raising drive up and over this mountain was enough for one day.

@tdfspectator

2009-07-11T10:26:00.006-04:00

TDF Spectator is now on Twitter (@tdfspectator). Won't know until we are en France if it will be used for more than just following the riders, commentators, and @waffletruck.

A Few More Feeds...

2009-07-05T20:05:00.003-04:00

And who can resist the Tweeting of Bob Roll and Dave Zabriskie? (I enjoy that DZ is following NPR News on Twitter.)

Tweet Away

2009-07-03T12:20:00.008-04:00

I have a full-time job that I love (that doesn't include Tour de France spectating), and can't provide substantive updates to the blog until we land on the roadsides of France. SO, if you can't just can't wait, and the Versus TV, cyclingnews.com and VeloNews.com coverage isn't enough for you, try following some cycling legends on Twitter. On the sidebar I've included a selection of Twitter feeds... George Hincapie, Lance Armstrong and Director Sportif of Team Garmin Slipstream (Chipotle) Jonathan Vaughters.

TdF Travel Guide

2009-07-03T09:11:00.003-04:00

Over lunch yesterday, my friend brian reminded me about Graham Watson's new book, the Tour de France Travel Guide. Graham Watson is a TdF main-stay, like Phil, Paul and Bob. Each year, he captures some of the most amazing images of the race -- we have one of his prints of the peloton biking through a field of sunflowers hanging (and by "hanging" I mean rolled up in the original mailing tube waiting for me to get it framed) in our house.

I'm running to Barnes & Noble today to pick up my copy.

Complete TdF Rider Roster

2009-07-03T09:06:00.004-04:00

Velonews has posted the complete rider roster for the TdF, with bib numbers. Print it out and keep it by the television for all your home commentating needs.

Fantasy Cycling Team

2009-07-03T09:01:00.004-04:00

Create your very own fantasy cycling team today with Versus and possibly win George Hincapie's TdF bike. I had a team last year, but as soon as we went to France it tanked. The way it works is you choose a set list of riders under a salary cap and then select the daily line up from your team. Unfortunately, since we didn't have an internet connection to update the team each day, the line up that I was stuck with when we left for France was stacked with sprinters, and they didn't fare to well in the mountains. If you happen to win George's bike, could I possibly take a spin on it? I think it's my size.

My 2009 Line-Up:

Starters...

Fabian Wegmann

George Hincapie

Kurt-Asle Arvesen

Kim Kirchen

Serguei Ivanov

Christian Vande Velde

David Millar

Tyler Farrar

Fabian Cancellara

Bench...

Egoi Martinez

Yury Trofimov

Mark Cavendish

Andy Schleck

Filippo Pozzato

Alexandre Botcharov

It's Nearly Here... Grab le Burrito

2009-06-30T23:33:00.003-04:00

This Saturday marks the start of the 2009 Tour de France. While the "Le Burrito" is actually from last year's Team Garmin Slipstream's festivities, why not grab a delicious Chipotle burrito while enjoying the coverage this weekend?

Ventoux Panorama...

2009-06-29T22:07:00.002-04:00

Check out Graham Watson's 180-degree view of Ventoux... http://www.velonews.com/media/VentouxPanoramaflat/VentouxPanoramaflat.html

Flights Booked... Bring on Ventoux

2009-05-31T16:47:00.003-04:00

Tour de France Spectating 2009 is ready to roll. Well, at least we'll be one step closer as we now have our flights.

Who is that guy in the background?

2008-08-02T16:26:00.002-04:00

Who is that guy in the blue polo shirt, khakis and a black hat that walks into the background around 48"?

8 Seconds of Absolute Excitement (NEW - High Res Video)

2008-07-28T10:15:00.001-04:00

[I've added more videos to the site (see below), but bumped this one to the top because I just think it's the best as it shows the action of the peloton and team car caravan.]

Experience the Tour with this video was shot on stage 13. It's one of the flat stages we caught, and the guys were absolutely flying past us -- eight seconds for the entire peloton to pass us to be precise (although the video compression sped up the video just slightly.

Finish Line - Jausiers

2008-07-28T10:03:00.002-04:00

This is from our position at 100m to go at the finish line in Jausiers. There is a special sponsor caravan (on foot/rollerblade) that covers this portion of the course, distributing items that can only be found at the finish lines.

Finish Line Prep - Jausiers

2008-07-28T09:57:00.003-04:00

This video is from the finish line in Jausiers as the crew continues to set up before the riders and caravan roll into town.

Cat 4 - Hunting for a Spot

2008-07-28T09:50:00.004-04:00

Angel shot and narrated this video while we were hunting for a location. It's from the slopes of only a fourth category climb.

Rain "Delay"

2008-07-28T09:09:00.002-04:00

Shot from our mobile TdF "command center" on the slopes of Col d'Agnel.

Le Caravan

2008-07-27T13:06:00.002-04:00

This video shows a little of the very beginning of the sponsor caravan. The caravan comes through about an hour to an hour and a half before the riders and can last upwards of 45 minutes. Most of the really good swag comes from the groups with earlier positions -- LCL (the sponsor of the TdF), Champion (the sponsor of the polka dot jersey), etc. Towards the end, you get things like a pen, or flyer for an upcoming movie. Experience a little of the fun.

Serious Supporter

2008-07-27T12:54:00.002-04:00

While we were in France, Doug and his family showed their support for the Argyle Armada (a.k.a. Team Garmin/Chipotle) by traveling from New Hampshire to the original Chipotle location in Colorado for Le Burrito. Thanks, Doug, the team really appreciated the support -- we could see it in their eyes. (FYI, the original location serves Dr. Pepper instead of Mr. Pibb.)

Belgian Alpine Satellite Television

2008-07-27T12:29:00.000-04:00

Stage 17 - The Straggler

2008-07-27T11:30:00.002-04:00

This video was shot from our location on the mountain in stage 17. It's of the very last rider to pass our position... Jimmy Casper, who was nearly 40 minutes back and missed the time cut on the day, thus ending his TdF. You also can see someone push him up the backside of the mountain.

Breakfast Nook - The Video

2008-07-27T09:47:00.000-04:00

Col de L'Izoard - Driving on the Edge

2008-07-26T08:15:00.003-04:00

Couple of questions

2008-07-25T22:13:00.002-04:00

Our friend Ed asked a couple of questions about a typical day at the Tour. I'll try to answer them here...

How long do the cyclists typically spend on their bikes each day? ... The cyclists spend anywhere from four and a half to seven hours on their bikes each day. It depends on the length of the stage (discounting the time trial stages where they ride individually all-out for 30-60 minutes), the difficulty of the terrain, and the speed of the peloton (the main group of cyclists). If I remember correctly, the longest stage this year was around 230km, but it was mainly over flat(ish) terrain and for the most part they completed it together. The stage ending at d'Huez saw the cyclists spread over 45 minutes from the first to the last (the last guy that day was outside of the time limit and cut from the Tour even though he completed the stage). Once the riders start going they can't stop except if they wreck, have a mechanical issue (i.e., flat tire) or need to take a "natural break". If they stop riding, it usually means that they are about to drop out of the race.

How do you follow the race since you can't drive along with the cyclists? ... The official Tour de France website posts the information for each stage (you can find the link to their site in the sidebar). For each stage, they show the topography of the stage, where the feedzones, sprints and climbs are located. They also provide a detailed descriptions of the towns (and roundabouts or carrefours) covered by the race. At each point, they list the time when the caravan will be passing by (it typically starts an hour and a half before the first riders) and three different times for when the riders are expected to arrive at each location (something like if they average 40km, 42km or 44km). The roads care closed to the public anywhere from two to eight hours prior to the cyclists rolling by.

For each stage, we look at this information to find what we think would be most interesting place (usually the mountains since the riders typically are going slower and towards the end of the stage are probably spread out -- this is why these locations are often some of the most crowded). Other good points, and also usually crowded, are the feedzones. The cyclists pick up the bulk of their food for the day in these locations and discard waterbottles and musets to the fans (read souvenirs).

The gendarme shut down the roads in relation to how many people will typically be attending in a given area and how many access points there are to the area. For d'Huez, the roads closed at around 8:30AM, depending where you were on the route. The last stage we caught, the roads didn't close until 1:30PM, even though prime locations (shade, steep part of climb towards the end) still went early.

Typical Day at the Tour

2008-07-25T19:59:00.002-04:00

A typical day at the Tour for us usually began the night before. However, first we started by packing some essentials... we brought along a special picnic blanket with us from the States as well as the soft-sided cooler we acquired last TdF, sunscreen, a cowbell (a true spectator's must) and a wine bottle opener.

When we first arrived in France, we visited a supermarché to buy two folding lawn chairs, a plastic bucket for ice and our drinks, two metal forks, a spoon and butter knife, two sturdy plastic plates, plastic wine glasses, and napkins. These items provided the base for each day's picnic. We also bought a big pack of Perrier and a big pack of Orangina.

The night before each stage (by at least 7PM when they closed), we would stop at a market to buy our supplies for the following day (we typically would be on the road before the markets opened each day and in areas where they were already scarce, so it was better to stop when we had the chance). Most evenings we would buy: two bags of ice for our bucket, a few tomatoes, lettuce, a cheese or two, bottle of wine and chips. Each night we would also take a look at the Tour map to pinpoint the area we thought would provide the best spectating.

The following morning, we would wake up anytime between 5:30AM and 8:00AM, depending on how far we needed to travel and when the roads would close. After a quick breakfast provided by our chambre d'hôte (usually consisting of coffee, juice, pain with jams, and sometimes yogurt), we would be off to the local Boulangerie to buy our daily bread -- a baguette or two and a few pain au chocolats. After that it was off to scout our location.

Traveling to find a spot took us anywhere from one to three hours. In most cases this year (as you might have read already), we were able to drive most of the Tour stage en route to our location. This proved incredibly helpful if we decided to change up our plan for the day and backtrack to a better, less crowded, shadier location with something in the area that would serve as a suitable place for "natural breaks" that we already passed. Once we settled on a spot (sometimes driving past it three or four times), we staked out our location with the lawn chairs and picnic blanket (what seems like an ideal spot at 9AM can turn into a zoo by the time they shut down the roads).

Our three- to eight-hour picnic included reading, eating, drinking, taking photos and writing entries for our blog. We would sometimes walk a kilometer to two in either direction to see what kind of place we were surrounded by.

Once the caravan started to roll by the excitement mounted quite quickly. The entire length of the caravan was 45 minutes or so, with the better swag up front and the smaller sponsors bringing up the rear. After the caravan finished, there was really only time to collect the picnic goods and repack the car (making it faster to jump in the car and drive the other was once the Fin de Course truck passed. When you heard helicopters, it meant the riders were near. The details of this will be clear if you watch the soon-to-be-posted video.

Once everything rolled by our location, we jumped in the car, turned on the A/C and began the slow roll out of there. Rinse and repeat.

Stage 19 - Amsterdam

2008-07-25T09:45:00.001-04:00

We were fortunate to find a bar at the Amsterdam airport during our four-hour layover with TdF coverage. Ironically, it's the same station we were able to pick up on the side of the mountain in the Alpes.

Co-Pilot

2008-07-25T08:18:00.001-04:00

Angel did a wonderful job navigating our way around France -- all 2,000km that we covered -- and got us right back to where we started.

As in years past, before we left NYC we went to Barnes & Noble to buy the maps for each section of the country we would cover (about $10 each). When we first arrived in France this time, we ran across the complete and spiral-bound maps for the entire country (for about $20) at one of their super rest areas (or Aires) along the Auto Route. It was one of those things we said, "Oh, we'll buy that later at another rest area." Well, the next rest area we stopped at was on our way back to the airport today. Better late than never I guess as it has been fun to have it on the plane allowing us to retrace our travels. And, we're all set for the 2009 TdF!

Au revoir, Chipotle

2008-07-25T08:17:00.000-04:00

A few last shots from the Alpes, and a wave from the Chipotle team car. With all this talk of Chipotle burritos the past couple of weeks, I sure am looking forward to having one when we get back to NYC. Perhaps it'll have to be a double burrito day on Saturday.

Really that close...

2008-07-25T08:14:00.000-04:00

I'm not using zoom on any of these photos... we were literally that close to the action!

Belgian TV

2008-07-25T08:13:00.000-04:00

Our Belgian friends gathered quite a crowd on the mountain side. Here are a few more photos and the URL for their TdF blog.. www.bloggen.be/polkovnik (we haven't been able to check it out yet so who knows what's on it). Polkovnik, if I remember correctly means "colonel" in Russian. There were four of them, including one guy's father-in-law who was a retired colonel.

White, Yellow, Polka Dots (and blurry)

2008-07-25T08:12:00.000-04:00

This shot is from our final day at the Tour. You can see the white jersey wearer (top young rider -- Andy Schleck), the maillot jaune (yellow leader's jersey -- Carlos Sastre) and the King of the Mountains (we are totally clueless who is wearing that right now). Unfortunately, such a great shot came out blurry. Perhaps since it's so small on the blog it will appear in focus.

More from Jausiers

2008-07-25T08:11:00.001-04:00

It's Tim's turn on the winner's podium and Angel rides for AG2R.

Versus TV Follow-Up

2008-07-25T01:29:00.000-04:00

From the stage ending in Jausiers... meeting up with Robbie Ventura at the end of the stage (he's interviewing Augustyn who lost his bike down the mountain) and our sighting of Versus commentator, Bob Roll.

Stage 18 - Le Finale (for us anyways)

2008-07-24T09:47:00.000-04:00

(Wow, I hope the computer recorded yesterday's stage -- sounds like d'Huez was amazing! Because we wanted to avoid the huge traffic jam, we didn't stick around to watch the rest of the coverage.)

It's unfortunately here... our last day following the Tour de France this year. Don't dismay though, we will be posting some great video on the site when we get home and have our high-speed Internet connection again -- some that will literally put you right in the action! -- and a few more follow-up posts when we have a bit more time and don't need to type everything on the tiny phone keyboard.

Today, we find ourselves in the Loire region on the lower slopes of Croix de Montvieux, right before the town of Pelussin. Gone are the high Alpes, skinny roads with no shoulders and shear cliffs (and the sound of a generator bringing us live television coverage of the Tour). It's all lush hillsides around these mountains, the sounds of birds, people picnicking, and from where we're positioned... plenty of shade! We thought that we put plenty of sunscreen on yesterday, but we were pretty red by the time we finally found a mirror at our gites last night.

Last night, it took us three hours to drive from our spot on the mountain. We rolled in around 9PM, just in time to interrupt the big dinner set up in the courtyard of our place. Even "luckier" for us, the door to our room was located directly off the courtyard, so we had to lug our bags past everyone and then head back out afterwards to try and find some food at 10PM -- not an easy feat in these small towns. Our first stop was at a truck stop. When we said "manger" the lady looked at the clock and then at us like we were crazy. As we were driving out of the parking lot she actually turned off the light to the place (even though the place was packed). After rolling down the road another kilometer or so we found the Ibis hotel and caught their kitchen before it closed. We both ordered the tasty gratin de macaroni with a Grinbergen Blonde biere for me and a bottle of red house wine for Angel (something got messed up in translation on that one, but we finished everything they gave us -- I helped out on the wine).

After waking up around 5:30AM the past few mornings in order to drive two or more hours into the mountains before they shut down the road, we enjoyed a leisurely morning sleeping in late, going to the supermarché, and eating breakfast at our gites. We struck up a conversation with a nice Dutch family over breakfast who we convinced to catch the Tour, since it literally will be rolling by down the street.

We had a decent outing during the caravan today. Our one goal was to get a while Skoda fisherman's cap. Unlike in year's past, this year they are silk-screened with the stage information, so they're a bit more of a collector's item. Unfortunately, they're still pretty small hats so you would rarely wear it besides at the Tour with everyone else wearing white hats that are too small for their head.

Hope you've enjoyed the somewhat "live" coverage from our spectating adventures. We certainly had an amazing time and have thought of you all often -- Jason would so be the guy on the side of the mountain setting up a satellite TV, Robert would love driving these roads, our parents would hate that we're driving these roads, Jen needs to know we walked to Italy, Jude and Lily are going to love these hats, Amie is going to love the laundry detergent, finally Miles can replace the Disney newspaper from three years ago, Jake would rack up the sponsor booty, and Doug, contrary to what we had hoped, the Chipotle team cars do not pass out burritos. If you're not mentioned here it's just because my fingers can only type so much, not that we don't love you and haven't thought and spoken of you.

Au revoir,
Angel and Tim.

P.S. I caught a Bouyeres Telecom water bottle yesterday.

Stage 16 - Wow, too much excitement to relay

2008-07-23T11:21:00.000-04:00

Today is the first time we've ever been at the finish line (a.k.a. Arriveé). It's crazy here as everything (i.e., press trucks, cars and commentators; team cars, trucks & buses) ends up in this place (a tiny skiing village in the middle of the Alpes).

We left super early this morning (6AM) in order to get through the mountain passes before they shut them down. Because of this, we arrived in Jausiers around 8AM and had our run of the place before they put up all of the security fences (see Angel's photo on the winner's podium). We watched as they painted the logos on the street t the finish line and then used a flame thrower to dry it. We arrived earlier enough to have morning coffee and pain with all of the techies who had been there are night setting up the media village and were having some breakfast before heading to the bars in the village. And then, we walked the the kilometer from the finish to the flame rouge (1km to go banner).

As if this wasn't enough, we wandered past the Versus TV truck and sure enough, Phil and Paul were having their morning coffee before starting the broadcast. We had a nice chat with them and grabbed a few photos. (We're actual sitting along side a river with their broadcast truck in the background.) For those unfamiliar with Phil and Paul, they are the voice of the TdF in the English-speaking world. Phil has commentated for upwards of the past 40 years of the Tour. Then, on our way back to the car, we ran into Johann Bruyneel, Lance Armstrong's Director Sportif for all seven of his TdF victories (both on US Postal and later with the Discovery Channel). His current team, Astana, wasn't invited to this year's Tour.

Later in the day we saw Bob Roll, a colorful commentator for Versus, former professional cyclist, and author of perhaps one of the funniest books I've ever read. (We also caught Robbie Ventura interviewing Augustyn after the race (the cyclist who lost his bike down the side of the mountain -- I think that I actually was in the background of the shot) while watching for Chipotle riders to roll past.

In our early scouting, we discovered a secret back pathway that allowed us to get around most of the security even when it was fully employed. This also enabled us to be in the fenced-in area that all of the cyclist rolls through after the stage... We were right their in the press scrums, every single rider, team car, etc. As the riders came through, they were all pretty tired looking but were laughing and talking with each other, even with members of the the other teams.

A bonus about positioning ourselves 100m to the finish was the super swag they hand out at the end. Wow, stuff we've only seen on TV. When about half of the riders were through, we ran to our car to get a jump on the rush that would clog one of only two ways out of town and over the mountains. I'm not sure we could ever recreate today (sorry friends who want to join us next year -- it certainly was one of our all-time best TdF experiences!

Stage 17 - L'Alpe-d'Huez, satellite TV and friendly Belgians

2008-07-23T11:19:00.000-04:00

Our friend Michele, was thinking about coming over and riding a few stages of the Tour this summer. Today's stage would have been the crown jewel of her trip... Col du Galibier, Col du Télégraphe, and the highlight of them all... L'Alpe-d'Huez. If you watch just one stage this year, make it this one!

We were at the base of d'Huez this morning around 8AM (the riders will be there around 5PM) long enough to buy a jersey that bears the name of the epic mountain climb and hop back into the car -- watch the stage today to see how crazy it is at the end (think "sea of people").

We're positioned near Le Rivier-d'Allemont (between Col de la Croix de Fer and Alpe-d'Huez) in a nasty section that kicks up to a 12% gradient (and on a bike, that's steep). From where we are parked alongside the road, we'll be able to see the riders three times today (see our car at the apex of the turn ). A real bonus, the four guys (from Bruges, Belgium) across the road have been ferrying up the pieces to create a satellite TV. We'll be able to watch the race live for as long as their battery and generator hold out.

Toady's stage is incredible for reasons completely different from yesterday. These are the days you hope for when spectating. The sky doesn't have a cloud in the sky, it's not too hot (yet), and never have we been positioned so well on a major mountain pass -- relatively no one is around us as they're all crowded on to d'Huez.

And, about five riders from the Chipotle squad, who aren't riding in the Tour, have biked past already -- some struggling a bit more than others to make it up the climb.

Oops... Col d'Izard = Col de l'Izoard

2008-07-22T02:32:00.001-04:00

Even so, we drove over both it and Col d'Agnel and have the commemorative road markers to prove it. Well, we bought the commemorative road markers at a shop in Embrun, so I guess they're more momentos of our travels.

Old meets new

2008-07-22T02:21:00.002-04:00

Yesterday on our day off from the Tour, we visited a castle dating back to the 1300s. You can imagine our surprise to see that the restroom was newly outfitted. Or, perhaps the original builders were at the forefront of modern day plumbing.

Lunch room

2008-07-22T02:21:00.001-04:00

Our rest day lunch spot near the summit of the Col d'Agnel looking out at France. (We decided to drive up the col on the rest day to see what we couldn't see the previous day because they had already closed the road -- it was amazing and must have been quite the location to watch the cyclists, et al, ascend the mountain.) The col straddles France and Italy, sort of the same way that stateline road run along the border of Indiana and Ohio, minus the Alpine views and cliff-hanger of a drive.

Spoke too soon... Results edition

2008-07-21T08:40:00.000-04:00

Boy, do our friends and family have some good stuff, or just stuff, coming to them from the roads of France... key chains, hats, bottle openers, pens, laundry detergent and more -- just exactly what you had hoped we'd bring back, I'm sure. The fruits of two days (I guess three if you count our first totally unsuccessful day) during the sponsor caravan. I promise we haven't taken anything from little kids -- if fact we've been doing so well, we've been able to make new friends by regifting extras on the road.

Col d'Izard

2008-07-21T08:39:00.000-04:00

The last time we were at the Tour and had some time to kill, we drove over the Col d'Aspin (a pass included earlier in this year's Tour). It was a harrowing experience but amazing all the same. I didn't grow up driving in the mountains, so there's something a little crazy about going up and over one on a one-lane road without any guard rails and nothing but air and thousands of feet of nothing below.

After today's stage finished, we again thought it would be fun to try summiting a climb in our car. Well, nearly every bike, car and RV had the same thought when it came to the Col d'Izard. It's a beautifully paved road but only about twelve feet wide and without a shoulder or guard railing in the most trecherous points. Wow... try passing an RV on that! Angel couldn't watch at certain points, and neither could I; however, when we finally made it to the summit, it was incredible. Who knows, maybe we'll try another one tomorrow.

Stage 15 -- Les Alpes, Rain, the Devil & Elvis

2008-07-21T08:38:00.000-04:00

A few highlights right off the top... First, we met "Didi the Devil," that mythic character of European cycling who comes out to run alongside the cyclists dressed as the devil with his pitchfork in hand (he actually has an RV complete with photos of his exploits painted on the sides and a website, which I believe you can find by looking him up on Wikipedia page). Second, we saw Elvis alongside the same roadside. Third, Jonathan Vaughters (Director Sportif of the Chipotle team looked straight at me and waved (as did everyone else in the Chipotle team car. And fourth, I looked straight into the eyes of Alejandro Valverde (one of the favorites to win the overall race). For those of you who follow the Tour, you'll remember that Lance had his infamous "look" with Jan Ullrich a few years back (see an earlier post about the top 30 highlights of the TdF). I think Alejandro's look was less of him sizing me up than telling me I was in the road and he wanted me to step to the side. All the same, Alejandro and I shared what could have been an infamous moment on the slopes of the Col d'Agnel... had I not moved out of the way.

Today's post comes straight to you from the front seat of our Renault. We're parked along the road on the early slopes of Col d'Agnel (near Pierre-Grosse), and while I say "early slopes" I certainly wouldn't want to imply that it isn't still steep. It's ones of those places along the road where one side drops away to nowhere and the other is a near 90 degree wall of earth. We're parked so close to the dirt that we both have to climb out of the car on the driver's side.

Our drive this morning was relatively easy. We had breakfast at our chambre d'hôte, stopped at the Boulangerie in town to grab our daily bread and then made for the nearest supermarché to pick up some ice and still water for our pastis. The market opened at 9AM and being the only one anywhere within 20km, it looked like Wal-Mart the day after Thanksgiving when everyone lines up at the crack of dawn to race inside and buy GPS units for $1. I've never seen so many people run into a store to buy fruits and vegetables before!

Once again today, we drove the actual route that the cyclists will bike. (Only once we got home did we find out that the beginning of the route was changed slightly due to road slides -- wish they would have told the rest of us who drove through that area twice.) The traffic signs said that the road was to close at 10AM and sure enough, wherever we were at 10AM the Gendarmerie asked us to stop and turn around. Seeing as how they all have guns, we turned around and headed for the nearest "parking spot " we could find.

It's isn't too crowded where we're parked (well, right now it's because most people are still inside their cars) but compared with our times in the Pyrennes, this is pretty sedate. We walked up the mountain for 2km through a few Alpine villages. Along the way (exactly mid-point between the two, and what one would usually consider the middle of nowhere) it started to rain (did I mention it's sort of cold today?). Fortunately, the race has people selling TdF merchandise from vans, so we picked up an official race umbrella for 10 Euros.

On our way back to the car, we picked up a warm café au lait-type beverage some of the Tour sponsors were passing out of the sides of a truck. When we finally made if to the car it had started to rain again, so we set up our mobile TdF command center inside of the car (only leaving long enough to score some great stuff from the caravan). All in all, the rain stopped long enough for us to catch the caravan and all of the riders, before starting to pour again... not bad timing.

This stage was amazing. The riders were going slow enough that you could really get a good look, and they had time to look at you when you cheered for them. From reading the minute-by-minutes online when we got back to our place, it sounds like the stage was just as exciting from home. Oh, I did feel sorry for the person who wrote "Go Cavendish" up the roadside only to find that he withdrew from the race this morning.

We had a great day even considering the weather. Since we are staying at the same place this evening, we were able to take our time coming home -- did a little picnicking, drove over another storied mountain pass (see Col d'Izard post) and generally enjoyed our leisurely afternoon driving through the Alpes checking out the scenery, both natural and man-made.

Wrong Turn

2008-07-19T20:58:00.000-04:00

So yeah, driving the two-plus hours from where we were for today's stage to our hotel for the evening brought us here -- the edge of a mountain in the Alps, looking at more mountains.

The car ride was harrowing, one that neither of our moms would prefer. A shout-out to all of our friends either living in the mountains or currently visiting them on vacation.

Spoke too soon...

2008-07-19T15:37:00.001-04:00

Uh, yeah, spoke too soon... We made out like bandits during today's sponsor caravan.

Book Tray?

2008-07-19T14:39:00.000-04:00

Great use for this book I bought. Only time will tell if I actually read it this trip.

Stage 14 - It's gonna be a hot one

2008-07-19T14:17:00.001-04:00

Bonjour, people we know and love...

Today, we find ourselves sitting alongside the road about 1 km from Mezet. We awoke tres early to begin our drive from Roussillion, a quaint little village in the heart of Provence, to a point anywhere along the route. (For those die-hard cycling enthusiasts reading this (that's at least you Hoyt and Jason), the village of Roussillion had an incredible view of none other than the epic Mont Ventoux (if you don't know about Ventoux, take a moment to look it up on Google/Wikipedia see photos of this storied mountain that make it look like the surface of the moon -- the photo that is included here was taken with my phone, so I'm sure it doesn't do it justice).

To get to our spot today, we drove nearly the entire length of the stage. It's pretty straightforward since the route is lined with RVs and those florescent yellow TdF arrows. It's going to be a great ride today, but probably pretty hot for the riders and a few spectators as well. We've parked in the shade right now, but Angel estimates by about 1PM we will find little shelter. (And speaking of shelter, the restroom situation is going to be a much more challenging proposition today -- more people, less vegetation. Oh, again, I should have paid more attention in science class so that I could remember what poison ivy/oak/et al looks like.)

Yesterday's stage was a great start to our spectating extravaganza -- wait until we upload the video! Once we aren't driving two hours each morning and night, we'll have a bit more time to locate a Wi-Fi connection. Thus far, I've been doing all of our photos and posts you see from my phone. Angel hasn't even seen/read them and is a bit curious to see what I've been saying. She has her our journaling going on as well, just in "vintage" format (i.e., pen and actual journal). The race was amazing yesterday, the sponsor caravan not so much. In all our time at the Tour, never have we left a stage without a single piece of merchandise from the caravan -- key chain, hat, newspaper, non-alcoholic Buckler beer, but yesterday, not a single thing! Not even the kids scored anything. (An aside, it's 1:20PM and there is a rooster crowing across the street.)

It wasn't until we were at the café this morning that I was able to check yesterday's stage results -- wow, Cavendish and Team Columbia are on fire! We still love you Chipotle.

Time for lunch -- a little vin de rosé, baguette with cheese, tomatoes and lettuce, and some melon. (We should have picked up a little pastis to go along with our picnic but there is a guy up the street with a full bottle we might be able to bum some off of.)

Au revoir for now, friends and family.
Angel & Tim.

Road art

2008-07-19T14:17:00.000-04:00

"No EPO" -- This sentiment isn't unique to the Tour (especially after yet another high-profile rider and team were kicked out of the race the other day for doping), or what fans paint on the roads that the Tour travels. However, what is less ordinary is that while we were sitting at the café this morning drinking "trois and quatre" someone from the little town was using black paint to cover up this message that had been scrawled in the middle of the night.

Trois café, quatre café...

2008-07-19T14:16:00.000-04:00

Breakfast nook

2008-07-19T14:15:00.001-04:00

This is the view from our breakfast "nook" this morning. We're still in Provence, and we we're surrounded by lavender, sunflowers, wheat and mountains (see "Fields a plenty" post). We have a video as well that will be posted at some point.

Which way again?

2008-07-19T14:15:00.000-04:00

We scored a TdF direction arrow on our first stage, and will do our best to keep the riders informed of the route each day.

Fields a plenty

2008-07-19T14:13:00.000-04:00

Angel amongst the sunflowers, lavender and wheat we drove by this morning.

For our friend, Ed (you know who you are)

2008-07-19T14:12:00.000-04:00

Don't feel left out everyone else, we're on the lookout for grocery stores in France named for each one of our friends and family... Keep your fingers crossed Amie!

Stage 13 - All Set & Ready to Spectate

2008-07-18T12:50:00.000-04:00

Bonjour Friends & Family,

It's a beautiful day, clear blue skies, nice breeze and temperatures that must be in the 70s. We have set up at our "camp" for stage 13 and are ready to watch some bikes (in about four hours times). While we had hoped to position ourselves on the final 4th category climb of the day, but it wasn't very appealing after we drove over it, so we decided to keep going and find something a little less crowded and more comfortable. Our choice, somewhere on the road to Nimes in the middle of a few vineyards.

It took us about two hours or so to get to our location. For one, we were trying to find a spot not on many maps (well, at least not on ours) and second, we stopped for café, groceries and gazole (a.k.a. diesel).

At the supermarché this morning we picked up food for lunch, a bucket, and some ice to cool the Orangina (and cans of Leffe and bottle of rosé ). Unfortunately, we lost a can of Leffe in the grocery store parking lot when it tipped over and exploded. So for now, our Perrier is chilling' and so is our camembert to the sounds of the Provencial cicadas.

Locating the ideal spectating spot is part art and part science. You need to find a place where the cyclists won't just fly by (after sitting alongside the road for five hours you want to at least see them for a minute), while at the same time shade, a secluded place to use the restroom and someplace not overrun with other spectators -- unless you plan to catch the race in the mountains or feed station there should be about 100km from which to choose -- are a few other factors to consider. We found a great spot, but you never know if your exclusive find will draw others to your space. And for today, it has. We're keeping our fingers crossed that they'll close down the road soon so people will stop showing up. One bonus of having neighbors though, the sponsor caravan often slows when more people are on the roadside together.

From where we are sitting (hopefully we'll be able to upload the video soon), I'm looking at vineyards with mountains in the background. There are itchy weeds around our car and I'm sure some type of poison something. If we were in the States this would just be called parking your car in a farm field and sitting alongside the country road. In France, it's called picnicking at the Tour de France, one of the most exciting spectacles in all of Sport!

Un café, deux café...

2008-07-18T09:30:00.000-04:00

Enjoying the morning café (a.k.a. espresso) in the little town of Prades en route to le Tour.

Out of the Loop

2008-07-17T23:44:00.000-04:00

When you hear French commentators report on the Tour de France everything sounds like it's really important, and this probably has a little to do with me not knowing French fluently. Well, today came one of those times when you wish you either were watching Phil, Paul and Bob on Versus TV or had a high-speed Internet connection handy.

Between our stops at Roman ruins today I poked my head in a bar we were walking past and saw the Tour on the television. All I saw were the riders from Team Saunier-Duval standing around and then picture of the team bus and truck surrounded by press. Even without knowing the language I knew essentially what was happening, just not the specifics. Well, neither of the two guys in the bar spoke English so I was out of luck.

When we got home from dinner I finally had time to get online with my phone to read the specifics (VeloNews has the best round up). In essence, one of the phenoms from this year's race isn't so phenomenal, just a doper. Now there will continue to be dopers in the sport but it makes me appreciate even more the strict new outside anti-doping program the American teams have signed up to be a part of (yes, it's not just burritos).