Ze last days in France!

Ok so we were so busy the last few days.. I barely had time to eat and sleep, let alone blog! On Friday we left beautiful Annecy early and drove to L’Alp D’Huez for a nice ride in the ALPS. I finally felt recovered from the etape and stoked to ride! Its a 8 mile climb, with 21 switchbacks all the way up. It was so steep at first, but I put on my Ipod and just cruised up… for about an hour and 10 mins. It was a beautiful day! The area is so incredible too… the mountains are stunning. It was a good distraction from a hard ride! Just having watched the tour when I was little, I always remembered the Alp d’Huez stage and it was really cool to do it. It actually felt really easy just because Mont Ventoux was so hard… I might be tainted now.

Just the 18th switchback…a few more to go!

At the top!

We had lunch at the top over-looking the mountains, as well as what we had just accomplished and then rode back down. I found it harder biking down then up! So technical! Back in town at the bottom we watched the end of the tour that day, got some ice cream bars, and a french public toilet exploded on me.. it was seriously awful.

The town at the bottom.. do not ever use a public toilet in this village!!!

We got in late to our hotel in Privas, had a great dinner with the group Velo Echappe, and then bed! We had to get up early for ventoux… again!

On Saturday the pros did the exact stage that we had done Monday. Montelimar to Mont Ventoux… considerably the hardest stage of the tour. I had been so excited ever since we did it, to watch the pros do it. It was insanity when we got there in the morning. They were projecting 700,000 people to be on Mont Ventoux that day, so we left super early to make it to Chalet Reynard before the masses, but it was already too late at 9 AM. They had closed the main road up Ventoux, so we made an alternate plan with some friends, and decided to ride up the climb before ventoux, the Col des Abeilles. We knew the course well, as we spent 10 hours on it, and did it in reverse. We stopped at a store in town before climbing to get some food and water and then left. Chaos in bedoin

Refueling

The top of Col des Abeilles

When we got up there, we were there for 3 hours. Its funny how you can wait so long to watch them for less than a minute! But its always a scene… there were tons of people up there and we got a great spot to watch them climb the final 1km. The absurd parade went by again, and we got lots of goodies! Gummy bears, sausages, laundry detergent, and hats of course! so happy they were throwing out sausages and balloons

When all the gendarmes cars are in the distance, and then you see the first riders coming, you get shivers. Its so cool to see them. They are going so damn fast. It’s so hard to describe, but its great! A forest fire broke out right above where we were too! It was super smoky at the top!

As soon as the riders went by, we had to get down to a bar to watch the rest of the race! There was still the killer ventoux!

The team cars and gendarmes… with the smoke in the back!

Saxo Bank up front! YEAH!

Peloton

The road closed as they were putting out the fire. There were many water bomber planes flying above!

Grahamer with gendarmes chicks

Once they opened the rode, we had a 10 mile descent. We flew down… I only touched my brake once. It was actually terrifying, but we needed to make it! We went to the first place we saw with a TV and it was perfect. There was already a big crowd gathered around the TV, and they had obviously been there for a while. One woman in particular had a few too many drinks and was singing “ALLEZ LA FRANCE” every 30 seconds, and “CONTADOR! CONTADOR!” It was ridiculous… she was wrecked. Other than her, everyone was cheering, we all had some beers and watched them climb. They make it look so easy!!! They go up there no problem, and when we were doing it, most everyone, fit dudes were walking up their bikes, puking, passing out on the side. Carnage. It was crazy to see the pros hammer up. It was exciting! I don’t know how they do it… I really don’t!

The bar.. and the hammered french babe

After a great day of watching, I was exhausted. We rode about 40 miles that day, and mostly uphill. I was over biking..  taking a break for a while!

PARIS! Woke up early that sunday morning and went straight to the valence train station to TGV it up to Paris. Slept on the train, the most rest I got all week! We were in Paris by 12 and then went to the Hotel Crillon to meet up with the Cervelo guys. Even at 12, Paris was a madhouse. So many people everywhere!!! We had a great lunch at the Hotel, and then headed over to the VIP stands at the finish on the champs. We were sitting with the cervelo guys, and I was trying to convince them to make a women’s pink bike.. hope they listen! I also learned that “vroomen.white design,” does not mean “fast (vroomen) and white (colour) design… ha! We watched the race on the Jumbo-tron and the riders were finally doing laps around us on the champs. It was awesome! It would be terrifying to be in the middle of the peloton going as fast as they are, plus on cobblestone. But it was sweet! There were so many people watching the race and the tour is such a production.. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Shutting down the Place Concord for a bike race!

Lance up front.. with the pink wheels! yes!

The Stands

Watching… thor on screen!

My dad and I

Cavendish won, and then the awards ceremony was right after! They got everything set up so fast! It was amazing! A great tour!

Andy, Contador, and Lance

All the winners- Pelozotti (Mountains), Thor (Sprinting), Contador, and Andy Schleck (Youngest)

It was such an awesome trip… Never, ever boring! I’m slightly obsessed with the tour now, and I have to go back next year! Velo Echappe was such an awesome group to go with, I would highly recommend Brian and all his staff. Paris was a great end to the trip. That night we went to dinner with Georg, the organizer of the European Ironman races, John Duke from Triathlete Magazine, and Laurent from Active.com. I’m so sad the tour is over.. it’s like the day after christmas. At least there’s next year! It was so fun!