Tour de France

 

This is the route of the race that we rode.  Plenty of mountains to climb. 

The blog is not cooperating and I can't get the pictures and text to line up where I want them.  Oh well. It is what it is.  Where to start this post?  Probably with a big thanks to Jen.  She is awesome.  The past two weeks I've done things that have previously just been a dream.  A big thanks to her for letting me come and fulfill this dream.  There have been a few nightmares along the way in this trip but you have to take the good with the bad.  There really is no way to do a proper blog post for this trip but I'll try to give some highlights.  

I've been in France for two weeks.  My Aussie cycling buddy Gus and I decided last year that we really wanted to go watch the Tour de France.  Something I've always wanted to do.  It turned out that I had meetings for work in France starting the day after the Tour so it worked out perfectly to come before and follow the race.  

One of our main objective was to ride in the Etape du Tour race.  This is where they let amateurs race one of the stages that the pros will ride a few days later.  The route that we did is nicknamed the "circle of death" by the pros - for good reason.  It is 201km (130ish miles) with about 15,000 vertical feet of climbing over four mountain passes.  over 8,000 riders set out to tackle the stage.  Shortly after starting the rain started coming down and as we climbed up the mountains the temp dropped and we entered the clouds.  At the top of the first mountain pass it was 45 degrees, we were socking wet and the fog was so thick you could hardly see.  With the rain and wet roads and the cliffs on the side of the road it made the descents very scary - especially since the decent was so cold it was unreal. I've never been so cold and miserable.  The shivering was uncontrollable and the temptation to stop was great.  Many did.  Of the 8,000 + riders that went to France to race only about 3,800 finished!  It was the hardest day I've had on a bike.  After every climb we were dreading the descents.  We finished in 9 hours and then after warming up reflected on what we had accomplished.  A blog post is not sufficient to describe the day and the experience.  As miserable as it was it was an epic and unforgettable day.  

The following week it was one bad hotel after another, and one night of sleeping in the car - long story!, as we traveled around Southern France through the Pyrenees mountains following the Tour.  On the race rest day we drove down to the beach in Spain which was awesome.  We then headed up to Paris and toured around the city for a day or so and then watched the final stage. The whole experience was just awesome.  

While Gus and I were riding our bikes around France Jen was touring Beijing with her sister and her mom.  They came over to China while I was gone.  Her mom stayed for several days and her sister stayed for 11 days.  They had a great time and Jen really enjoyed spending time with her mom and sister.      

 The Col du Tourmalet was the biggest and most famous climb that we did during our race.  A few days after our race the pros came through the same route and we rode our bikes up before them and took some pics. 

 This is on the top of the Tourmalet.  Amazing scenery and a very blue sky.

 Eiffel Tower - after seeing all of the buildings in Asia this was a bit of a let down.  But considering when this was built it is a very impressive structure.  Gus is a builder so he explained to me just how incredible of a project it would have been to build it.

 The Louvre.  Didn't go in.  Biggest museum in the world.  I'll go inside next time with Jen.

 This is the beach in San Sebastian, Spain.  Really beautiful with great water.  I went for a mile swim while Gus did 2.5 miles!  He's getting ready for the Ironman in Canada next month.

For the final stage of the Tour we had some VIP passes, courtesy of my company's partnership with the Tour organizer, so we got to so to a very nice lunch on the Champs Elyesee and then one of the Tour hostess girls held up this sign and guided us to the VIP grandstands at the finish line.  It was about a 20 min walk where she held up the sign the whole time as we followed.  There were surprisingly very few grandstands for spectators, just a few hundred seats.  The rest of the fans lined the course on the side of the road.

Now I'm really excited to get back to China.  Most days I skype with Jen and the kids.  Will is a handful and June is getting more and more vocal and is no longer a little baby but is a full blown toddler now.  They are so fun to skype with.  It's very late, off to bed.