WebCyclery Blog

Riding again

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 01:53:00 +0000

Well, after my back went out a few weeks ago, I decided that I should just stay off the bike and wait for the snow to fall to get back into an exercise regiment - but I just couldn't do it. I had to get back on the bike last weekend and see if my back could hack it. MeanTodd and I rode with SuperDave (Footzone). He hadn't been riding for a few weeks too, so we were both pretty slow, which was good for me. We just did a basic loop around Phil's, 20 miles altogether, nice and sloooooow. It was great, and more importantly, I'm still walking 4 days later. So that means that tis weekend I can really go for a couple of rides (the dirt here in Bend is about perfect right now).

My girlfriend is doing a lot better as well. She's walking with just a cane now,and will probably get rid of that pretty soon. She's pretty fed up with sitting around my house, but it could have been a lot worse, and she's a lot happier now that she can get out and about a little bit. She won't be riding her bike for a couple more months, but she should be able to ski a little in January.

Time to go to Costco....

-Kevin

Bad crash

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 02:13:00 +0000

So a couple of weeks ago I got a call on from my girlfriend while I was at work. The connection sucked, but I could make out that she had crashed on Phil's Trail and needed me and needed help. Shit! I grabbed a demo bike and threw it in my car and flew out to Phil's Trail. I called 911 on the way and pedaled up the canyon. I found her laying on the ground with a couple of guys hanging out making sure she was okay. She had gotten thrown off her line and smacked a big tree - hard. After a few hours of waiting for the search and rescue, she finally got ATVed out of there. We spent the next few days in the hospital. Seems she had 3 transverse process fractures (vertebrae) and a few non-displaced fractures in her pelvis. Ouch. Her shoulder is pretty screwed up too. Overall, she's good. She can get around and finally left the house yesterday with the help of some friends.

In the process of caring for her (lifting her around the hospital, sleeping in chairs and on couches) I subsequently threw my back out again. It had been a year or so, which is pretty good for me. Had I stretched and slept better, I probably would have been okay. Oh well, lesson learned. A week later and I am almost back to normal. Still a little tight, but should be able to exercise by the weekend.

Angela is getting a lot better. She is very bummed out, and very sore, but in the big scheme of things, she got very lucky that she didn't need surgery and didn't have any spinal damage or head injuries.

She deeply appreciates all of the love and support that all of our friends and families have shown. You are all great.

Gotta run.

-Kevin

Riding in the Ochocos

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 02:09:00 +0000

This weekend I finally had the chance to ride my bike in the Ochocos Mountains which are located about 15 miles outside of Prineville, OR. Bend's Big Fat Tour featured a ride up Round and Lookout Mountains on Friday. Unfortunately, Henry and Ed already had the day off so they could ride it. Instead, I went on Saturday with a couple of other Bendites who didn't make it on Saturday. The drive sucks - about an hour or so out to the ranger station. From there, you climb about 1200 ft on a 7 mile paved road, and then the real climb begins. The climb up to Round mountain is pretty steep and just keeps going and going and going. I think it tops out around 6500ft (2600+ft of climbing in the first 11 miles) after a couple of hours of climbing. There is a quick descent (just a few miles) and then the climb up to Lookout Mtn begins. This is another 2500ft or so, topping out close to 7000ft. The views from the top are awesome (I forgot my camera). Then, the fun begins. The descent rips for about 10 miles or so with just a few little climbs on the way. The ride ends up being around 29miles with about 5600+ ft of climbing. That's a whole lot of climbing.

The ride definitely hurt. I've only been riding about once a week for the last month and a half, so this was my biggest effort since I was climbing the Croix de Fer in July. I'm just thankful that Gary and John took it easy on me.

IHopefully I get to ride again tomorrow! Woohoo!

-Kevin

Night Ride?

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:38:00 +0000

I MIGHT actually be going for a night ride tonight. I found a few of my old lights - the old NiteRiders (pre-HID and LED). Hopefully the batteries hold their charges. Now I just need to find my light mounts!

Pray for rain, we have another cross race on Thursday.

Vega$ was fun. For the first time, I went to a Vega$ show - I went to see 'O' (Cirque du Soleil). It was awesome. If you are heading to Vega$, it is well worth the money (and it is a lot of money).

Cool new stuff from the show? The new RIP9 is awesome. The new Salsas look pretty hot, and Ellsworth has decided to import the Glimpse - which will be a 5.25" complete SLX bike for about $3300. Belt drive bikes were definitely hot - Co-Motion is using the belts on their tandems (for the timing chain), but other than that, only Spot and small builders have them. We've got one of our team riders trying a couple out. We'll hopefully be bring in some parts for them once we get a feel for how well they are working.

Later,

Kevin

Back...in the US of A

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 14:54:00 +0000

So I've been back in the US for a month now, and haven't really posted to this blog at all. I've been busy. As soon as I got back, MeanTodd went on vacation for 10 days, so I got thrown into his job, which is a bitch (he does a great job at a very hard job). Luckily, all the guys at work had helped to clean up the mess I created when I decided that we should reorganize the store a week before I left. We still have a few things to finish up, but the store is looking really good.

I haven't been back on the road bike since I left France. I've only been on the MTB. My back has been feeling pretty darn great, and riding all spring and then July in France has got me into okay shape, which makes riding in the dirt a lot more fun. I'm only getting about 3 rides a week, but that's not too bad.

On Saturday, MeanTodd and I got to ride around Mt. Bachelor for the first time in about 8 or 9 years. We rode with 7 others from the Nordic Center down to Lava Lakes, then over Kwol Butte to Edison Snow Park. The trail is AWESOME! It's pretty damn technical for Bend, has some great descents, and a bitch of a climb up Kwol. I can't believe that I haven't ridden this trail more (Of course, I've barely ridden my MTB the last few years because my back has been for shit).

One thing that I learned on the ride is that EVERYONE should carry a Wheels Manufacturing Emergency Derailleur Hanger in their Camelbak. Yes, it is nice to have your own hanger, but the Emergency Hanger will fit just about anyone's bike, which means that you could be the hero if your friend has a problem.

On Sunday we had a little WebCyclery Team Party. We all met at Rob's house. I brought the bus, and everyone loaded their MTBs. Then, everyone rode their road bikes up to Mt B., where I was waiting with the bus. They all swapped bikes, and headed down the to town offroad. When they all got back to Bend, we had a little BBQ and pool party. Woohoo! That was fun.

Well, back to work today. Hopefully I will get to do some more MTBing in the next day or two.

-Kevin

Jour 16

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 10:27:00 +0000

The Vaujany - that was the ride for the last day in the Alpes. We decided that after the Croix de Fer, we really didn't need another big day - so we decided to ride the "flat section" down to Vaujany, and do the short climb to the ski resort. Short climb meant about 8km and 3000ft. This thing was a pretty steady 10% grade for almost the whole climb. Yikes. The knees and quads were definitely starting to hurt a little bit. It's been a couple of hard weeks.

The climb was really pretty nice, ad we went a few km past the ski area until the road started turning to gravel. I'm always up for riding off road, but since it was just an out and back, I didn't really see the need to proceed any further.

After we got back and showered, we decided it was time to go back up the Les Deux Alpes and check in to going paragliding. Yup, we had heard it was only 45 Euros or so, so we took the Gondola up to the resort and had some lunch, then tried to find the paragliding. Turned out that it was actually 70 Euros, and I was also realizing that I am pretty scared of heights, so I was glad when everyone else said that the price was a little to steep.

SO instead of paragliding, we headed over to the luge carts and did that about 4 times - racing each other and trying to catch one another cruising down the slide. After walking around a bit more, we found the Deval Karts! Holy Crap these were awesome. Basically go karts without motors - like soapbox derby cars, but with big fat tires. We all hopped in the karts and took the Poma lift up the mountain. All you really do with these things is cruise down the open slope, wherever you want. The karts turned for shit, and the grassy slopes were anything but smooth. We bought 6 rides for 10 Euros. There were 5 of us, so the first one down got to take the 6th ride. We lined up at the top of the slope side-by-side. I couldn't stop laughing, thinking how stupid and dangerous these things were. Kevin yelled go, and off he went. We all went. Kevin was far out front, bouncing all over the place, as were the rest of us. The steering wheel barely did anything at all, and the slope was filled with bumps and rocks and divots. I hadn't laughed that hard in a while. I could barely control the kart. I saw Kevin hit a dirt road that crossed the field and watched him pop up into the air. I am amazed that none of us got hurt. Kevin ended up winning, but gave Larry the last ticket to ride. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera this day, hopefully Toby or Gary will send me a picture of the Devil Karts. (The picture of the luge was from our first visit to Les Deux Alpes).

So this was our last day as a group. The next day we were heading to Grenoble, where Gary and I had a hotel for a night, then to Lyon for our flights. Kevin, Toby, and Larry were all driving to Paris to catch their flights.

The trip is practically over. The only well known Cols in the Alpes that we missed were the Glandon (which ends up at the top of the Croix de Fer - and I hear has a 13% final few km), and the climb to Les Deux Alpes. Both look pretty fun, and someday I'll come back and do those, but I think we hit about as much as we could in the time that we had (without killing ourselves).

Vaujany's ride stats - 62km/38mi

1005m/3300ft of climbing

Jour 15

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:46:00 +0000

After watching the sufferfest that was the final mountain stage, we decided that we needed to go back up the Galibier from the other side - the way the tour went up it, then over the Telegraph, and up the Croix de Fer. Well, we got to the top of the Col de Lauteret (we drove up it because it is a 40km Highway - with shitloads of traffic) and found out that the Galibier climb was actually closed to traffic - just bikes were allowed - woohoo!

The Galibier was rather easy from the top of the Lauteret - only 8km, then we had a 17km descent, followed by a few km up the Telegraph and then another 8-10km descent. Riding the highway to the Croix de Fer sort of sucked, but it was only 10-15km. Once we got off the highway and went through town, the climb began. This Croix de Fer is a bitch. 30km long. It started out at about 10% grade for the first hour or so, then a short reprieve here and there, then another hour or so at 10%. It was also getting pretty warm, which made this one of the harder days of the trip. The road at the top was awesome - single lane, lots of switchbacks, great views - but I could have done without all the flies.

After getting to the top, it was a super sweet descent for quite a while. Having the GPS was cool because I could see what the road looked like 500m in front of me, so I knew if there was going to be a switchback coming, or if I could just let it go around a blind corner. Thumbs up on the Garmin 705!

Toby and I stopped in Bourg d'Oisan for a sandwich and some fluids on the way back. It was definitely one of the 2 hardest days that I had done.

Ride stats - About 132 km/82mi

2752m/9026ft of climbing

Jour14

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:33:00 +0000

After the Izoard yesterday, we decided to do an easy ride today, and then head into town to see the Alpe d'Huez stage. We decided to ride straight up the road that our hotel is on, which was one of he most beautiful rides yet. It ended up being about 22km to the end of the road, and climbed about 3000ft. It is a dead end road, but for some reason, the French just repaved most of it. The first 10-12km were a pretty big climb, and then it was a nice fairly flat ride the rest of the way. There were waterfalls all over the place, and a super blue/green river running all the way down the valley. I have pictures on my camera, but my camera is upstairs at the moment, so no photos yet.

After the 44km ride, Kevin and I put on some real clothes and hopped back on the bikes and rode down into Bourg d'Oisans to watch the tour stage. We sat in a bar for a few hours, watching the riders go up the Lauteret & the Col du Galibier & the Telegraph, up the Croix de Fer, and then hum into Bourg. When they we're about 2km from town, Kevin and I ran outside to the street and waited for a minute for them to cruise past, and then we ran back inside to watch them fly up l'Alpe d'Huez. I was an impressive ride by CSC - Cancellara was amazing on the front of the Peleton. After Sastre won and the the Yellow Jersey group cam through, Kevin and I hopped back on our bikes and rode back up to the hotel, so I ended up with about 60km for the day, and 3500ft.

More later.

Jour13

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:05:00 +0000

After doing the Col du Mort and the Col d'Ornon yesterday, we were hungry. We had actually gotten out pretty early, and didn't stop much, so the whole ride only took about 5 hours. Well, we were way too early for the pasta feed, so we decided to hop into the van and cruise up to Les Deux Alpes. Les Deux Alpes is this super huge resort just over the mountain behind us - about 15 miles by driving around (and up). The village is huge and the mountain is even bigger. There is so much stuff to do there that a kid would have an awesome summer hanging out there the whole time. People were still skiing up on the glaciers, there was tons of downhill mountain biking, those cement luge things, ATVs, tennis, soccer, basketball, dirt jumping, skateboarding, and a whole lot more. The line was too long for us to do the luges, but we are going to try to come back up on Wednesday - hope the line is shorter.

Today we decided it was a good day to hop in the car and hit the Col d'Izoard. We drove over to Briancon right after breakfast. We dropped Toby and Larry off in Briancon, and they rode the Col from the North end, which consisted of a pretty nice steady climb for 20km, with most of it in the 6-8% range. Gary, Kevin, and I drove 30km down the highway and parked the car at the other end of the Col d'Izoard and climbed from there. From the South, we had 31km climb. The start was a relatively easy 3-6% for the first 20km or so, then it kicked up, with a couple of the kilometers averaging 11%. We climbed all the way up to 2360m - which I think is about 7740ft. I think this was probably one of the steepest climbs we've done (with the exception of going up to La Garde). Unfortunately my body wasn't really into it. I couldn't get my heart to go at all - I felt like I was working, but just couldn't go fast at all. My heart never rose above 170bpm, and it was rarely that high. I think my body is starting to get tired.

Once at the top, we flew down and the rollercoaster top section had nice pavement and a ton of hairpins. It was a lot of fun. We had a huge headwind on the way down, which was probably good because it kept me from going too fast, I was still riding at 60kph.

Today's ride - 5566ft/1666m

35miles/56km

I'm having trouble adding photos again today - but I have some from today. Hopefully this thing will work better tomorrow.

Jour 12

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:18:00 +0000

So Day 11 was a day off, and probably a good thing. I think I needed the break, as did everyone else. Last night at the dinner table, Leon, one of the owners of the hotel, gave his nightly speech and said that there could be winds up to 60-70kph. I didn't really want to be anywhere to exposed for that sort of thing. We decided to take off shortly after breakfast - Gary and I rolled out at 9:12, about 10 minutes after Larry, Toby, and Kevin. The first 20-30km was flat to slightly downhill, so we caught up before we turned off the main road an onto the first climb of the day - the Col du Mort. This was a pretty big climb, but we started from such a low elevation that it din't hurt as much as some of the other climbs. I think the climb was about 3500ft or so. After we dropped down, we climbed up the Col d'Ornon, which seemed really easy. I think the first half or more was 5% or less, so a lot of big ring. Even when the grade reached 7 or8%, it didn't seem too bad because instead of going through switchbacks we were rolling through fields of wild flowers. We hit the top and had one of the best downhills yet, super fun, some tight and twisty stuff, nice roads.....yay! The ride was one of our longest yet, maybe 115-117km or so, with 7000ft of climbing. A good day once again. I didn't take too many pictures today, as it was slightly overcast and I wasn't in the mood. I will try to add the few I took later today.

Hotel Au Bon Accueil

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 08:31:00 +0000

It's raining a little bit this morning. Luckily we're not in a rush to get going. The hotel we are staying is called the Hotel Au Bon Accueil. It caters to cyclists, especially the Dutch. I just thought I'd through in a few photos of the place so you can see how plush we're living over here. We're outside of Bourg d'Oisans by about 10km (Bourg d'Oisans is near the bottom of L'Alpe d'Huez) - near a little commune called Venosc. From the hotel, we can ride a whole bunch of rides - Alpe d'Huez, Col de Sarene, Les Deux Alpes, Col d'Ornon, Col de la Croix de Fer, Col de Telegraph, Col de Galibier, and a few more that aren't quite as well known. We are also a short drive from a bunch of others. I think tomorrow we will drive to Briancon and hit the Col d'Izoard.

Here's a picture of downtown Bourg d'Oisans. Seems like the place is goi

ng to be going crazy these nxt few days, with the tour ending on Alpe d'Huez on Tuesday, and leaving from town on Wednesday. I'd bet that some of these places make a good chunk of their annual revenue in this one week of the year.

Here is the view from my window - I couldn't get both mountains in one shot, so this one is to the left...

And here is the view to the right..

Here is the viewing room for the tour - more of a big 3-sided shed outside with a big screen tv. It has chairs, couches, and all sorts of tour memorabilia - unfortunately it is all in Dutch,

so I can't read any of it.

Here is Gary getting another plate of pasta.

That's all for today - I'm hoping the thunderstorm will pass and we can ride, but then again, a forced day off might be a good thing. I probably won't take one by choice, but I'm sure my body could use it. I think I've climbed about 33,000+ ft in the last 6 days - and only ridden about 290 miles. I think I might be close to 50,000ft for the first 10 days - that's the equivalent of climbing to Mt Bachelor about 20 times. A demain!

Jour 10 - another good day

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:38:00 +0000

Kevin E. and I decided to ride on our own today. Kevin didn't get to do the Galibier yesterday, and he wanted to get a good amount of climbing. So we started off the day by cruising up Alpe d'Huez - probably the most famous of the big climbs. That was a bitch. It started off steep - and by the time it eased up just a bit, I was too tired to "go easy". I still went slow, but it hurt. Alpe d'Huez has 21 switchbacks

all the way up, and they are all marked -which can be a little discouraging now and then. I stopped once or twice for some pictures. The Tour de France is climbing this on Wednesday, and people have already been setting up camp for the last few days on the side of the road, which can make for some great entertainment. Today, about half way up, some guy was jamming on his electric guitar just encouraging riders as they climbed. There had to be thousands of riders that road up it today. It is pretty crazy.

When we got to the top, we decided to sit down and have some lunch - jambon buerre & Coke! It was good, then, instead of heading down, we decided to keep on climbing and ride the Col de Sarenne. This was a really beautiful climb, but the road was definitely rough (which I really like). Lots of gravel, rocks, pot holes, etc. This thing climbed another 1000ft or so, past the goats pictured below. When we got to the top, we had a rough, yet very fun descent for about 6-8km, then the rad turned to fresh pavement and was super sweet for the rest of the way down.

We then decided that we would climb a little more, so after dropping down, we took a right which was going to take us to La Garde, about a third of the way up Alpe d'huez. Well, this little climb was steep, almost all oer 10% - mostly 11, 12, and 13% - I would guess it took about 30-35 minutes. Once we got up that, we ran into Larry, Gary, and Toby heading the other way. They told us we were in for a treat as they had just come up the ridge road, which we were about to descend. The ridge road hugs the side of the mountain and is super exposed. It is only about 10-12ft wide or so, so passing cars was tough. How cars passed each other is mind boggling.

We finally made our way down that, and then down the bottom part of Alpe d'Huez, and back to Au Bon Accueil for a shower and some pasta and an Amstel.

Great day of climbing once again, and the weather was once again superb.

Ride Stats

About 75km/48mi

ROughly 7000ft/2200m of climbing.

Jour 9

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:37:00 +0000

Ooof! Today we decided to drive over the Croix de Fer, and then ride from there over the Col deTelegraphe and the Col du Galibier. Wow! Big climbs.

The drive took us 2 hours, and when we got there, Kevin realized that he had forgotten his shoes - so he had to drive back and do a different ride (Alpe d'Huez). Our ride started by cruising down a big highway which sucked ass for about 10k or so, but then we finally hit the town at the bottom of the Telegraph, and up it went, right out of town. The first part of the climb was pretty damn steep. I have been trying to take it very easy on these things, hoping to save myself and be able to ride through the whole trip without taking a rest day (we'll see if that is a good idea).

Larry and I let Gary and Toby rocket off the

front, and we casually climbed the 9km or so to the top of the Telegraph. The climb was pretty consistent, staying around 8% for most of the way, for about 3000 ft. We had a short descent into Vallois, and then the big climb started - another 4000 ft up to the top of the Galibier. This thing was big and exposed. Very cool. Some of th

e kilometers were averaging 8.5-9.5%. I snapped a bunch of photos - as I was in no rush. We got 1km from the top and had a coke at the little cafe before the tunnel. Then we put on our arm warmers and vests, and got back on our bikes. After climbing the last km (which punched up to 12+%) we began the long drop down with almost 30miles of descent. The first 10k or so was tight and twisty, down the Galibier, then we hopped on the highway down from col de Lauderet - which was a bigger road, wider turns, and a shitload of long tunnels. These tunnels freak me out. They can be over a km in length, are dark as night (except for a few small lights here and there, it is super loud, and some of them are pretty damn narrow to boot). I make sure I've got a clear shot, and then gun it. So far I've only been past a couple times in the tunnels.

We just kept following the signs to Bourg d'Oisans, and then made our final turn up to Venosc. The last 5 or 6km are all up hill, gaining about 500 ft - nice way to end the ride.

As soon as I got in, I hosed down my bike, took a shower, then headed down to the pasta feed. The hotel we are staying in is called Hotel Au Bon Accueil. It is run by a Dutch couple, and just about everyone here is Dutch or Belgian. They show the tour out in this covered room on a big screen TV, and put out a buffet of Pasta. I had some spaghetti and Ravioli and a beer - and watched as Cavendish sprinted to stage #4.

Staying here is much different than the last place. They definitely cater to the Dutch, so everything is in Dutch - including the Tour, which sort of makes it feel like we aren't really in France anymore, but it is still awesome.

I'm rooming with Gary at this hotel. We have a sink and a shower, but no shitter - but it is just 15ft down the creaky-floored hallway. I'm glad our room isn't in front of the bathroom!

Today's ride - 58mi/94km

8300ft/2500+m of climbing

Jour 8

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:34:00 +0000

Today was an easy day. We don't really fit too well in the car with all of our stuff, so Gary and Toby drove everything up to Venosc, while Kevin, Larry, and I rode down from Villard-de-Lans towards Grenoble, then Toby came back for us and drove us up to the hotel - short ride - maybe 25 miles, 1000ft of climbing, 2500 ft descent - woohoo!

La Tiaga & Dominic

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:01:00 +0000

For this first week in Villard-de-Lans, we have been staying at a place called La Tiaga. It is right outside of Villard-de-Lans, and we can take the walking path 15min to the center of town. The owner of La Tiaga is Dominic. He has been an incredible host. He is a cyclist himself, and knows all the routes around. We tell him that we want an 85km route with some climbing, and he gives it to us.

I have been plotting courses on Bikeroutetoaster.com - with his help, and then we just download them to my Garmin 705 and follow the course. It has been great, because Dominic knows all the back roads, and has been taking us places we would never find on our own - definitely "local" rides.

The hotel costs about 41-48 Euros a night (depending on how many in a room) and includes breakfast (typical French breakfast - Coffee or Hot Chocolate, OJ, cereal, croissant, bread, butter, jam). It also includes dinners, which have been great. Each night Dominic starts us out with an appetizer - a combination of slices of meat, fruits, salad, cheeses, etc., then brings out the main course, which is some other king of meat and some starch. This week we had things like Chicken, Pig, and Sausage, with rice, au gratin potatoes, and couscous. It was always delicious.

And after that, it was always time for dessert. I had Creme Brulee each night, because it was so damn good, but there were some other things available, like blueberry tart, pecan pie, ice cream, etc.

I would highly recommend La Tiaga and the Vercors area to anyone who wants a great place to ride (or ski, or nordic ski, or hike, or base jump...)

Jour 7

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:11:00 +0000

Well, after much deliberation we decided that Ventoux wasn't in the cards for today. We all want to do it, but it would have a been a 3 hour drive, for a 40mile ride, followed by a 3 hour drive. As much as I have thought about doing it, I figure it gives me a good reason to come back. Plus, the riding here in the Vercors is so incredible that we didn't really see the point to such a long drive.

So today, we did hop in the car, but only for 20k or so. We drove down to St Martin en Vercors, and rode down the Grand Goulet and the Petite Goulet - which is this super sweet gorge. Unfortunately, avalanches caused the French to close part of the road and they dug a tunnel for about 2km. It was rippin' fast and the pavement was smooth. It was a little bit cold in there, but that was fine. As soon as we came out the other side the Gorge opened up and the views were tremendous, and the pavement was super smooth all the way down.

Once at the bottom, the climbing began. This time we were climbing the Col de Pionnier and Chaud Calipier, then dropped and climbed the Col de Rousset. When we got to the Rousset, we dropped through another tunnel - maybe .5km or so, and came out above this awesome switchback road. Unfortunately, we couldn't go down it as there wasn't a good way around (other than straight back up, which at this point of the ride wasn't an option).

We climbed back up through the tunnel, and then cruised down hill for most of the wat back to St Martin, with only a 2km climb at the end.

When we got to town, Gary, Toby, Kevin and I sat down at a cafe, had a Jambon Beure and a Coca, and waited for Larry. Larry had taken the day off and was driving around a little bit. After about 30 minutes, he showed up much to our relief.

Today's stats -

90km/57mi

1615m/5300ft of climbing

Here's Gary thinking about dropping down the switchbacks.
Here's Kevin at the Col de la Rousset

More pictures from Jour 6

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:28:00 +0000

Here are a few more pictures that I took on Day 6 - which was to Presles and Col de Mont Noir. I will hopefully be able to add some descriptions tomorrow morning.

Jour 6

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:07:00 +0000

Il fait beau aujourd'hui. Kevin and I slept in a little bit today, waking up at 6:40 or so. Kevin felt like shit yesterday and did a short ride instead of the bigger ride that the rest of us did, and since he seemed to be sleeping, I didn't want too wake him up.

We walked into town this morning, which is a 15 minute walk. We went to our favorite cafe and I had my Chocolate, and Kevin had his Cafe au Lait.

The sun was shining all over the valley and the surrounding mountains and plateaus. We walked back and the temperature was starting to rise. After breakfast, we decided the ride would start at 9:00-9:15, and it actually did. Kevin decided to take it easy again so as not to ruin himself for the bigger days to come.

Today, we started out down the Gorge de la Bourne again. This is such a fun descent. We twisted our way down to Coranches which was about 20km

away. We then headed up to Presles from there. When we

made the turn to Presles, we stopped to strip down(the climb was about to start). After shedding the vest and arms, I snapped a few photos and remounted the Moots. Just

before we took off, Toby heard a loud noise and said "Look".

He thou

ght a rock had fallen from one of the cliffs high above. But then we saw this big shadow. It was actually 2 base jumpers that had jumped off the cliff maybe

1000 ft above us. It was pretty cool.

The first climb to Presles was about 10km with 700m of climbing (2300 ft). The road was about 8 or 9 ft wide. When we got to the top, we got on to an even more remote road for the descent. It was a little sketchy in some spots, but overall I loved it. Our friend Dominic (the proprietor of La Taiga)

gave us a great route, following back roads wherever possible. We cruised through a couple towns taking strawberry shortcuts all over the place, knowing that had we planned the route ourselves, we would have been on the main road and never seen some of this stuff. My Garmin told me to take a sharp right, and all of a sudden we were climbing at 17%. That hurt a little bit and spiked my heart into the 180s for a few minutes. That only lasted for a little while, and got us up about 300ft pretty quickly.

Then we stopped for lunch in a little town before the big climb. As soon as we finished our Jambon sandwiches, we remounted and headed up the Col de Mont Noir. This was another beauty. In about 16km, we climbed about 1150m or roughly 3800ft - yikes.

This climb was also pretty narrow (2.8m) but we only got passed by 2 or 3 cars altogether. The climb had more of the huge tunnels carved into the rock walls, big drops, lots of switchbacks, it was awesome. Again, my pictures don't do it justice.

Once to the top, we had a rough descent to the Col de Romyere, which meant that there were some patches of gravel and dirt, but in the big picture, it was fine. Then we dropped back down to La Bourne, where we had to climb back up for the last 12km or so.

This was our biggest ride so far -

92km /57mi

2318m/7600ft

Jour 5

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:55:00 +0000

After much deliberation and w

aiting and waiting, we finally headed out for a ride around 14:00 (they use the 24 hour clock here). We drove down the Bourne Gorge (which we had ridden a couple days ago) and parked the van in Pont de Rayons. From there, we r

ode past the col de la Machine (which we did on Saturday), and then into this small town that had this huge aquaduct. It was Bastille day, and it seemed like the locals had a big party going on in the local lake. They had these little boats covered the bodies of cars - cruising around. They were slow as crap, but they looked funny, and people were having fun.

After we cruised through the town, we hit some flats and rollers, then up the Col des Limouches which was a good climb up to about 1086m (3500+ft) which is about the altitude of Bend. The weather was pretty good. The sun had come out and it was partly cloudy.You can sort of see part of the road that we climbed in the picture to the right. The climb itself was about 3000ft, so it took us a while. I've been trying to go easier and easier on the climbs, because I know that we are going to have some big days at Ventoux and then in the high mountains of the Alps.

Larry and I rode together most of the way up the climb. Just 1 month ago, Larry hit a dog riding at full speed and broke 3 ribs and his scapula. It is a minor miracle that he is even here on this trip, but he is, and he's riding pretty darn well. The picture here is of Larry at the top of

the col. When we got up the climb though, it got really windy and I was pretty glad I had my jacket and vest. The downhill was awesome. We had a headwind, which kept me in my comfort zone on the descent and I was able to hang with the Gary the speed demon - le diable de vitesse. Hopefully tomorrow the storm system will pass, and we can actually get out for a ride in the AM.

Ride Stats - about 85km/53miles

Total Ascent - about 4000 ft

(I'm still figuring out all the functions of my new Garmin 705 - the thing is pretty awesome, but I reset things now and then by accident)

A demain!

Jour 4

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:05:00 +0000

Well, our internet connection still sucks. Our hotel has a computer that is hooked up, but it has a zerty keyboard, so it is very difficult to try to email or type anything. So we keep driving into town and using the crappy wifi at the tourism office. Oh well.

It's raining again! Merde! Kevin and I woke up early again and headed into town for our morning cafe au lait (I just have hot chocolate). Then I quickly did some laundry at 7AM, and hopped online for a few minutes. It was raining a little bit, and wasn't looking real good. We got back to the hotel and had breakfast, then went back to town to finish my laundry. When we got back, the rain really started to come down. We all cleaned our bikes a little bit (we got pretty muddy yesterday) and then got dressed. Then it rained some more. We all sat there in the dining room talking about bagging the ride, but I wasn't really interested in a rest day already. Larry, Toby, Kevin and I decided to at the very least get an hour or two on the bikes. Gary decided to take the day off and watch the Tour, but as I told Kevin, Notre Tour de France et plus importante que Le Tour de France! We rode out when the rain subsided. The roads were wet, but then a mile into the ride the roads were dry again. We decided to ride up to Autrans, which is where the Masters Cross Country World Championships will be next winter. They've got over 900km of groomed trails in the area. That's a whole lot of trails.

We climbed up to Autrans and there was a little bit of rain, but not enough to really get us soaked. Within a few minutes of descending we were dry again. Autrans was a nice little town tucked away in a beautiful valley. Everything is very green here.

We cruised down to Meaudre, and then back up part of the gorge that we went down yesterday (just for a km or two.)

The ride was a nice little spin - and hopefully the weather will improve a little bit, although quite honestly, I thought the weather was quite nice - we just need to dress properly. I don't mind getting wet if I have enough clothing to keep me warm.

Ride stats:

Distance: 36km/22.41mi

elevation gain: 414m/1358ft

Jour 3

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:58:00 +0000

We got to Villard-de-Lans last night, had dinner, and went to sleep. When I woke up in the middle of the night there was a ton of thunder and lightening. Luckily I slept fine. Kevin & I woke up at 6AM. We knew that

breakfast wouldn't be served until 7:45, so we hopped in the car and cruised around town. We first headed up to the ski area, then down a goat road back into town, where we found a cafe open. We came back for breakfast and the rain was coming down, but by 9:30 or so, it had stopped. We all went outside and and built our bikes. This time mine took me about 30 minutes to get it from the box to a test ride - so I am getting better.

We finally took off around 11AM. We headed down a HUGE gorge with all sorts of tunnels and gigantic rock walls over 600m tall. It was beautiful. We cruised down to a town called St Jean en Rayonne where we had lunch - actually, we just had crepes with Nutella and cokes - Yummy!, and then we headed toward the Col de la Machine.

La Machine rises from about 800ft up o 3900ft in about 10miles. The Col de la Machine was AW

ESOME! Huge drops into a beautiful gorge, with giant tunnels carved into the rock and gorgeous views. The weather was pretty nice, rain was threatening, and we were climbing in the clouds, but we could still get good views of the sun trodden valley below. The cooler weather also helped me keep cool on the climbs, which was good.

After the Col de la Machine, we climbed a little more to the Col de Carri. We then dropped down again through a couple of small towns like St Martin en Vercors, and with about 25km to go, we took a sharp right and started climbing again - this time up to a ski area called Herbouilly. Another climb of about 10k, this one topped out close to 4400ft (started around 2200). This climb was featured in the 2004 Tour (when Lance proclaimed "no more gifts and attacked Kloden at the end for the victory in Villard de Lans). About 3km up the climb, the rain started to come down. We pulled over and hid in the trees for about 15 minutes hoping it would stop - and remarkably, it did. It was a good little rest.

After we topped out, the final 10k was mostly downhill, but on a mountain road that was under construction. So it was a very rough, muddy mountain road. I had a blast, but I think my new Schwalbe Ultremo tires might be trash already. We'll see.

I think tomorrow we are going to take it a little easier.

Ride stats:

Distance - about 100km/62 miles

Climbing - over 2100m/over 6700 ft

This shows meters, not feet, but you get the idea.

Whew!

A Plus Tard!

Jour 2

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 06:44:00 +0000

Jour 2 - Mont St Martin

I woke up around 6Am today so I could hop on my computer and Skype Angela. My computer was running out of juice, so we kept the call pretty short. I quickly ate my breakfast - yummy bread with Nutella, some cereal, hot chocolate, and some OJ, then I hopped on my bike. I decided to ride through town and head up Mont St Martin, which is also called the mini Alpe d'Huez. After finding my way through town on the bike paths, I finally got to the base of the climb. It is only a 5 or 6km climb, but it stays above 10% grade most of the way. I think I saw it drop to 9% on a switchback or two, and I saw as high as 14%. It had a ton of switchbacks and the views were pretty awesome. It had rained there before I got there, so the roads were wet, but I was able to stay dry (well, with the humidity as high as it was, I was pretty wet). The descent was pretty slow, as the road was narrow, twisty, and wet. Overall, the ride was only about 46 or 47k. I had to get back to the hotel so I could shower and re-box my bike before the 12 o'clock check out. I don't have any really good pictures from today - it was a really great climb with a lot of switchbacks, but not many views, and it was cloudy as well.

After getting everything set, I went and had lunch and then sat there waiting for the rest of the guys to meet me at 4:30. They had all flown in on different flights and were driving the rental van. Unfortunately they didn't realize that today was the Friday before the Bastille Day weekend, so traffic sucked (and it was pouring rain). They finally found my hotel at about 7:30. The only plus was that I was able to finish "Under the Banner of Heaven" which I had started on the plane coming over here.

After they picked me up we drove up one of the gorges to Villard-de-Lans. We got to the hotel around 20:30, and they were nice enough to stay open and serve us dinner. It was great.

Tomorrow, Gary is going to take us on a ride that sounds like "La Machine". I haven't researched it yet. More tomorrow.

A demain!

Ride stats: 45km/26 miles or so

673m/2200ft of climbing

Jour 1

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:39:00 +0000

After finally getting my bike at 11AM, I quickly took it up to my room to put it together. It was my first time assembling the S&S bike, and it took about 45 minutes. That should get quicker after a couple more tries.

I somehow forgot my pump, which is strange as I remember putting it my bag...but, whatever. I bought a new one at Veloland just around the corner from my hotel. They also told me to ride up to Chamrouse - a ski area directly above Grenoble. Well, after about 15 miles I had climbed close to 5000 ft - holy crap! That was a bitch.

I got up top and stopped at a cafe and enjoyed a coke, filled my water bottles, and then cruised down a different route down the mountain. I actually went the opposite way that I had been told to go, but after riding it, I think I went the better way. It was steeper the way that I went, and it had a bike lane the whole way up the mountain. The way down didn't, but I was staying with traffic pretty good as the speed limit was 50-70 km.

Here's a cool picture going up the climb with the moon above the road.

Ride Stats: 1500+ meters/5100+ft of climbing

Just under 60km/35 miles

Au revoir! Time to eat!

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:06:00 +0000

Bonjour!

I finally took off yesterday around 3PM. My flights were pretty uneventful, which is good. My flight from Seattle to Heathrow was awesome. I spent a buttload of airmiles because the only ticket available was Premium Business Class, and let me tell you, it was worth it! I have never been so comfortable on a plane before. I had my own little compartment thingy that had its own tv w/remote control, foot rest and fully reclining chair, etc. Even at 6'2", I could completely stretch out. And the food was pretty decadent as well. I started with some smoked Marlin and Salmon Caviar, then had a little fillet, and finished off with some lemon cheese cake and some chocolate. I ate after I watched a little TV and a movie or two, and then I fell asleep watching a movie dubbed into french. When I awoke, I got another hot towel and a nice little breakfast & orange juice. It was by far the best flight I ever took, and I am excited that I get to end my trip the same way (I'm not excited about ending my trip...but I do understand that it has to come to an end sometime...unless someone wants to buy WebCyclery from me, and I can just bike in the Alps for a year or three...).

When I arrived in Lyon, I found that my luggage hadn't made the connection in London. Shit! My BIKE! and my STUFF! They said it was coming in at 11PM, and they could deliver it this morning to my hotel in Grenoble. If this is actually true, and it arrive this morning, that will be great because it saves me from hauling my bike ad my big bag around. I've got my fingers crossed.

After dealing with my luggage, I hopped a bus to Grenoble (1 hour) and then a cab to my hotel. My friend and one of the guys I'm joining here recommended that I stay at a chain called Formule1. These are cool little hotels with self-check-in kiosks outside. I just punch in my confirmation code and viola! I have a room. Very simple room for 3 people. It has a sink and a TV. The bathroom and showers are down the hall. The room is clean and quiet, and only 33 Euros a night - which is pretty cheap.

I haven't yet been outside, but as I eat my french bread and hot chocolate, I can see some big ass mountains right outside my window. Looks like the base is just a mile away, and it shoots straight up to the sky. I will go take a picture, and hopefully my luggage will show up so I can transfer the pictures to my computer!

A Plus Tard!

Au Revoir

noreply@blogger.com (WebCyclery Blog) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:02:00 +0000

I have been a little frazzled trying to tie up some loose ends here at work. My flight to France leaves at 3PM. Yeehaw!

I am hoping to keep writing to the blog during my trip - hopefully I will be taking some pictures and adding that as well.

My riding definitely suffered this last week or so. I was able to get out on a couple of rides with my girlfriend , including the 9th annual Firecracker - which was great! The weather was awesome and we raised a couple thousand dollars for Central Oregon Home Health & Hospice (they helped a lot too).

I gotta run and pack.

Au Revoir!