TDF100 - Annency Riding and Paris Transfer

Today's stage of the TDF is yet another brutal day of climbing in the Alpes, with the stage start in beautiful Annency.  We were shuttled to Annency to start what would be a delightfully FLAT ride back down the valley to Albertville.  Let Froome and Quintana battle it out in the hills, they get paid for it!

Here are our gal pals Cathy and Pam getting ready in Annency

The lake was incredible.  We would definitely come back to spend more time chillin in this beautiful area

You see that bike path?  Nice right?  It goes for 40k!!!

Here is the map of the bikeways

Beautiful crossing

Can you see Mont Blanc?

Stopped by a little town along the way

And once in Albertville, we went antiquing!  John found a vintage weather station and a gnarly old corkscrew for Janes collection.

When we got back to the hotel, we enjoyed the view from our room - pretty village and the maelstrom of the guys trying to fit all of our stuff and the bikes into the van

Then we waited in the lobby to go ... This is Lance with Hotel poodle Austin.

Eric, Phil and Rick show off their colorful leg wear 

FINALLY at the Lyon TGV station.  Beautiful architecture

And on our way to PARIS for the last stage if the TDF

Ahhhh Paris.  So happy as we pulled up to the Sofitel.  We shared some good cheer with our new friends before returning to our room for some air conditioned rest.

Here is a sneak preview of the next Blog - the view in the AM from our hotel room window.  There is just nothing like waking up in Paris.

Ai Revoir for now,

JnJ

TDF100 - A "Rest "Day" means no HC climbs

Today the Tour will pass through our base camp in Albertville so we will need to be back from riding to see it.  We got to sleep in (if you consider being down for breakfast by 830).  Here is our crew getting ready to roll.  The guy in the middle pointing is Chris Gutowski who put this amazing trip together for us.  Chris is pointing to where we are headed today ( yea, he is pointing  UP).

This morning we ride from the hotel through part of the Tour route that heads from Albertville up to the Col de Tamie.  This is a cat 2 climb of about 8 k.  Again, the route was lined with boisterous fans cheering us on.  One if the highlights was  a Belgian corner with 5 or so vintage VW vans with matching caravans in pristine conditions.  The raucous Belgians spoke perfect English fueled by Stella Arrois, and gave Jane a nice push up some steeps.  Thanks guys!

At the top of the Col de Tamie we stopped to regroup

 

And then we headed on to a gorgeous down hill through Alpine meadows and villages awaiting the Tour

Sometimes we stopped just to chitchat and take photos

At the bottom we turned on to a bike path.  A REALLY long and perfect Nike path.  Rodolfe lead us along.  

Here is Lance

And Pam

And Eric (Pam and Eric are from Toronto and this is their third trip with Velosport), 

And John!

The ride lead us back to Albertville.  We arrived just in time for the Tour publicity caravan.  This is So Crazy!

We got to the sprint line just in time to get a great spot and some swag!

We cheered on Canada's Ryder Hejsdal who took the intermediate sprint

And we cheered for anyone riding a Giant or a Cannondale

Fun!  Time for a break.  Lunch was a delightful picnic of local meats and cheeses, and dinner was such a delight as it was shared with friends, old and new.

What will tomorrow bring?  More movement, more adventures.  Au revoir for now.

JnJ

TDF 100 - Alpe d'Huez Part 2 - Bike Racing Action on the Alpe

OK Where were we?  Oh yeah, about halfway up THE ALPE when camera 1 loses battery.  Onward.

You will be happy to see that we are still having FUN:

This photo was taken at TURN 1 (see that tiny sign over our heads?  It says 1!)  That means that we don't have too far to get to the top.  We are gonna make it!  We made it through Dutch Corner, through people falling over on us, through cheers of GO SUFFERLANDRIANS (Yes, we chose today to wear our Sufferfest jerseys.  Good call because we got a ton of shout-outs on them).

 

Let's also take a look at the view from UP here - @ around 4,500 feet of elevation gain over 7.5 miles with an average grade of 8.6%. YAY.  Nice views.

Crazy up in the village.  Cars, people, bikes.  Same old Same old on the Alpe I guess.  Soooo nice to have a place to go to stow our gear and change into dry clothes.  John Gatch, Rodolfe and Bertrand were there to take our bikes so we could go have some lunch and some "biers", and then go watch some racing action!  Here we are with our buddies Lance and Cathy.  Then we took a walk and saw the podium and finishing area.  These pics give you a good view of what it is like in the Ski village on top of Alpe d'Huez.

Then it was time for the riders to come in!  It was very exciting watching the last few K in our cafe, as it seemed like our own Teejay Van Garderen was going to pull out a win on the Alpe.  Heartbreaking to see him overtaken in the final K by a Frenchman, but it is what it is.  We ran out side to cheer on Teejay:

Bauke Mollema rode a brave tour (on an awesome bike :-)

 I'll take a dozen OK.  Delivery instructions to follow.

Peter Sagan was really hurting.  He is such a champion though, not back with the sprinters, not up with the climbers, but solidly in the middle.

Yay Team Cannondale!  

We will take a couple of these Cannondale EVOs too.  We have room.

Race is over for today can we please go home now?



Need to find transportation down the mountain.  Can't ride our bikes down, and traffic is to heavy to get in the cars - that would take hours and we are tired.  Oh!  Ok let's go down the easy way:

Now that was a classic JnJ Adventure!  

Au revoir for now from le Tour de France 100.