Monthly Archives: August 2009
July 26 – Cols du Telegraphe, Galibier and beautiful Chamonix
We drove to St Michel de Maurienne and then headed straight up the Col du Telegraphe, which is a really tough little climb up to I think 1570m. There is good coffee at the top. Continue reading
July 25 – Transfer to St Jean de Maurienne via Glandon and Croix de Fer
After a very tough drive down, we arrived in St Jean de Maurienne, which is the base of the start of the climbs of all the Grands Cols (Galibier, Croix de Fer, Iseran etc), see below. It’s not though, a very nice town. Very industrial, stuff shuts early. It’s probably worth staying up the road at St Michel de Maurienne, or even better, Bourg d’Oisons and attacking Glandon+Croix de Fer, Alpe D’Huez and Galibier from that side. I’ll get a google map mashup done which shows the best places to attack climbs from.
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July 24 – Alpe D’Huez
After an horrible sleep – humid, mosquitos – we woke again without pressure to get up a hill for Le Tour – a CRACKING Hautes Alpes day – no wind and stinging hot sun at 8AM – a nice change from the gale force winds experienced over the last 3 days. We spun into Le Bourg d’Oisons for coffee and a croissant avec confiture. For a really solid coffee check out the cafe opposite the Hotel de Milan. Continue reading
July 23 – High French Alps transit to Bourg d’Oisans
We headed off toward the Col d’Iseran (see below) as we were planning on getting to Bourg d’Oisans to attach the Alpe D’Huez and the only way to do that was over the cols in the wind (d’Iseran @ ~2600m or Telegraphe @ 1570m). Given the wind we could go all the way around into Italy near Bardonecchia or via Grenoble, both via very expensive tollways. We ended going via Italy which included an ~AUD$80 (€44) trip via the Tunnel de Frejus which passes for I think 31km under the Alps. It was hardly worth it as the traffic was horrendous at the toll booths. Most of the paying lanes were closed which pissed me off. What a waste. As it turns out, passing over the 1570m Col du Telegraphe would have been quicker and way more economical. Continue reading
July 22 – Stage 17 Tour de France
Woke after a big sleep still very, very fatigued. The 3 Ventoux climbs, L’Etape, Col du Petite St Bernard and poor dietary profile (no protein) had created a serious kilojoule deficit and leg muscles was suffering badly. All the Heineken in the world couldn’t mask the damage I was doing (it appears multiple Heinekens is actually counterproductive – who’d have thunk-ed?!). Continue reading
July 21 – Stage 16 Tour de France
Today I woke VERY sore after L’Etape. We had (what I thought was) a piffling little 12k climb (oops – 32km) up to the final Col of Stage 16 – the Cat 1 Col du Petite St Bernard. I decided to drag my full camera kit up – DSLR body, 1 L telephoto lense, wide angle, flash, change of clothes….see below for how ridiculous I am. Continue reading
July 20, 2009 – L’Etape du Tour and Bourg St Maurice
We eventually hit the first climb which broke everyone up. People cracked almost immediately – why they headed out so hard was beyond me. 170km in the southern France heat is a long, long way. The ride had some decent climbs including a tough one into Sault. I took off on that one just to test the legs. Sault is a nice little village and everyone was out. I stopped for water but some dudes charged through (clearly serious about their time). Continue reading
July 19 – L’Etape Reg, Ventoux Recce 2
After having camped up at free parking-only camping at the main camp ground in Bedoin, we headed for breakfast at the Hotel de Relais in the main drag in Bedoin and had very good coffee. We started off trying cafe au lait, trying to get all latte-like, but the French don’t have a bar of that. It’s noisettes (espressos), or cafe (black) or I ask for cafe with creme. Continue reading
July 18 – Swiss Alps to Bedoin, Mont Ventoux Recce
We awoke this morning to SNOW!! That’s right it had snowed. We got cracking early and found an awesome cafe for … Continue reading
Stage 13 Colmar Vittel, 2009 Tour de France
We awoke to very humid and pre-storm conditions after heavy rain (subsequently cleared) that night. Heading out of town on the tour route, we found a coffee bar, having now find out that they don’t do lattes (particularly soy lattes) in France. We worked out that we had to have espressos with a dash of cream – I took to short blacks very, very quickly. Continue reading