The Bend cycling community is awesome. Last night we threw a little party/fundraiser for our friend and co-worker Andrey Yarbrough. He was hit by a truck 4 weeks ago and will be out of work for quite a while, so we figured he could use a little help getting through the next few months while he is rehabbing and not able to work.

Well, at least 150 people showed up and enjoyed great beers from Cascade Lakes Brewing Company (Thanks Chris) and great music by the Sweet Harlots (Thanks Laurel & Amy). Many who didn't even know Andrey, but just wanted to help a fellow cyclist. It's good to see the community come together like that. I saw owners and employees from Bend Bike 'n' Sport, Sunnyside Sports, and Sagebrush Cycles (and possibly other shops, I just don't know everyone from every shop).

We raffled off a bunch or door prizes from a whole lot of different companies-unfortunately I don't have a list of all of them because I was out getting more beer when we gave them away, but I know we had some stuff from Broken Top, Wade@Vulture Cycles, Edge Composites bars from Beverly @ BBNS, a helmet from Sunnyside, a cool handmade bowl from Andrey's friend Ryan, a massage from Cinda @ Recharge Massage Therapy, Cog Wild swag, race entries from Central Oregon Racing, and a weekend @ the Lara House from Lay It Out Promotions. Thanks to the Source & the Bulletin for helping us get the word out.

We also sold a butt load of raffle tickets for the big frame giveaway - we'll be raffling off a Niner EMD frame AND a custom hardtail from Warren Rice @ Realm Cycles. That raffle will take place @ the next WebCyclery Movie Night @ Mcmennamins. You DO NOT need to be present to win one of the frames.

So I'd like to thank everyone for coming out last night. The cycling community in Bend is a very special group of people and I am proud to be a part of it. It definitely makes me appreciate Bend even more than I already do.

Andrey has only been working here for about 7 or 8 months, but he has become a huge asset to our business. We miss his sense of humor and quality work that he does @ the shop. Hopefully he will be back soon.

Well, 8 days after getting struck by a car at 50mph, our boy Andrey is getting better and better. He is currently in Inpatient Rehab @ St Charles, where Kevin's girlfriend Angela works. He is in Room 703 in case you want to go visit and say 'hi'. He's in good spirits, and he is starting to walk a bit, although he said it was more like a 'six pack stumble'. Hopefully we will get him out of there before the weekend. His road rash is getting better, and he didn't seem to be in much pain. His short term memory is getting better every time I see him.

We have set up a fun @ the downtown Wells Fargo - the acct is under WebCyclery-Benefit Fund for Andrey Yarbrough. We are also accepting donations at the shop. He'll probably be out of work for a while, unfortunately. We miss him.

Crit series starts tonight. We've got a couple of heavy hitters in the 1-2 race - Go Brian & Eric! We probably have another 5-10 team guys doing the race, just not sure who. Go Team!

I went to the Memorial Service for Steve Larsen this weekend. It was a really nice event. It was amazing seeing all of the familiar faces from Bend. He had a really big impact on this community and will be missed.

On a happier note, MeanT and I finally finished our movie about the PPP - I think they are going to show it this weekend at the Tower Theater during the Bend Bicycle Film Festival. It's our first attempt at making a movie - so it's not as good as we wanted it to be, but we still think it is pretty good. You be the judge - come on in and get your tickets!

Speaking of movies - don't forget that tomorrow night is WebCyclery Movie Night @ McMenamins. We're showing a DH movie in 3-freakin'-D - wahwho! Should be fun, if for no other reason than to see everyone in those funny glasses.

I've been able to ride my bike with a little consistency for the last couple of weeks, which is nice. This weekend Angela and I rode up to Mt.B and MeanT and I rode GS and Storm King and COD and ELV and all that stuff. It was a fun weekend of riding for me.

Angela and I are still trying to figure out our plans for Italy - if anyone has good suggestions for places/rides in Northern Italy - let me know.

-Kevin

Last night Bend lost one of it's heroes.

the chainbreaker went off pretty well. We had a record number of entrants - i think 316 or so, plus another 30+ kids in the kid race...so close to 350 if you count them. The weeks of rain leading upto the race really kept the dust down, making for about perfect trail conditions. 

no - I won't be racing, but I think we might take the WebCyclery Bus up to the Bear Springs race this weekend if we can find enough teammates who want a ride. I know Angela is racing, and I think at least 4-5 more WebCyclery riders are going....so hopefully we can. 

Dammit! I've finally succumbed to all the pleas - I started to tweet - so follow my twitter - http://twitter.com/webcyclery - and I also set up a stupid facebook page. I've been postponing this because I think this is going to potentially be a huge time suck, and I already have too much crap that I need to do - but I'm told it is fun, and my sister-in-law is going to love it!

Spring Classic ride is this Sunday - we leave at 9AM - no charge - no frills - no bitching. If you don't like the gravel & dirt, just go a different way. That's the beauty of it!

Angela just called me from Sea Otter - she got 5th in her XC race today - woohoo!

Thank God It's April! The weather is finally starting to get nice. Yesterday, MeanT and I headed out for my first real ride of the year. Nothing hard or long, just a couple of hours on the road bike. Everything went pretty well and I made it home without having a heart attack, so I guess that is a good thing. 

Labels: Thank God It

We've been working pretty hard down at the shop these past few weeks and have changed things up a bit. We're still organizing things a little bit, but we hope you'll come in and check out the changes. We've increased the size of the showroom a bit so we can fit a lot more bikes on the floor. 

I've really gotten back into playing guitars in the last 6 months. I played a little bit as a kid, took a year of lessons, but never really got into it. The, during the next 20 some years or so I would pick it up for a week or two every few years. Never getting any good. Well, this time is definitely different. A few of my friends have also started getting into it, and we're having a great time. I'm trying to learn some theory and all that shit, which is tough, but I am getting better. I went out and bought myself a nice new Breedlove Atlas Stage D25/SR a few months ago and I am loving it.

Now it is time for me to start thinking about more guitars....(I have an addictive personality, and just like bikes, you can't have just one guitar). I think I want a nice Gretsch, maybe a Les Paul or a Strat, or possibly a Paul Reed Smith. And I'm going to need some amps....hmmm, starting to get expensive. But not that bad....For the price of 1 nice bike, I can get a few guitars and amps, and be set for a while (do you like how I can justify this?). So one of my thoughts is that I need to sell one of my extra bikes, or at least some stuff, and put that towards my guitar fund. Anyone looking for a 51cm (XL) Salsa Primero? Great shape. Or even better, are there any guitar shop owners out there that like to ride bikes and want to trade? If any of you have a friend that owns a music shop and rides bikes, please let me know, or let them know that I want to meet them!

I had a good ski on Sunday. Well, I didn't really ski well - but it was fun. I've taken too much time off in the last month with Inventory and being sick and then my back was sore and blah blah blah....Time to start skiing again - Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat & Sun - woohoo!

Later

Kevin

Well, if you haven't already read about it or heard about it, we are in the middle of our 11th Anniversary Sale. 11 whole years. 2 years in my garage, 3 years in the small shop, and now 6 years in our current digs. It has been a long time, and I like to think we keep on getting better. I really do love what I do, and I am pretty happy that I can honestly say that we have the best staff we have ever had. I feel really lucky.

We also have great customers, which are a huge part of why I like my job so much. Without our customers, we wouldn't be in business. Period. So if you are reading this, thank you. Thanks for coming in and giving us a chance to serve you. Thanks for checking out and reading through our website. Thanks for trusting us with your bikes and skis. If you are local, please come in and visit us during our sale. We are blowing a bunch of stuff out (good stuff, but for some reason we haven't been able to sell it), including all sorts of ski stuff, even though the ski season isn't even half over (since we started around Dec. 15 and will ski through April 15th or later....).

Come in this week and join us for a beer compliments of our friends over at Cascade Lakes Brewing Company

On a more personal note, MeanT and Bert and I went up for a great ski this morning. We (by we I am referring to nordic skiers in Bend) have it really good here. Some people bitch and moan about the grooming at Mt Bachelor, but it really is quite good. For those who bitch, they need to get out of town a little more often and see how most places groom. Sure, there are a few exceptions that might have better grooming, but not many. We pay $230 or so for a ski pass, and we get really good grooming on a whole lot of trails every day. Not every other day, or 3 days a week, but every day. I like to go early, and I ski on fresh corduroy all the time. Here's a hint - the earlier you go, the better it is (usually). If you go skiing at 4 o'clock every day, after hundreds of peoplee have skied, yes, the trails will be chopped up a bit. Go figure. But that's not Mt B's fault. They work their butts off to make sure that no matter how much or how little snow there is, we have good skiing, everyday.

Gotta run.

-Kevin

Thursday night we are going to be having a little party here at WebCyclery to celebrate the fact that Bend has been picked to host the Cyclocross Nationals for the next 2 years. Woohoo! If you are a local, stop on by between 5 and 8 and join us for some Deschutes beer and food from the Taco Stand. We'll also have a band playing as well. Should be fun.

acjNot much biking going on this last month. The snow finally arrived a couple of weeks ago, which is good for ski business. I think Mt Bachelor got another 4 ft in the last 3 days or so. The nordic skiing has been decent, but not great yet. I've been sticking to the classic skis so far. We've had so much snow that I figure it is going to be pretty soft each day I go. That, and the fact that I'm not in any kind of ski shape right now. I'll hopefully start skating this week and doing intervals and all that shit. At least that's the plan. 

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

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

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. 

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

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. 

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. 

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! 

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 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.

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. 

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.

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!

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...)

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

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 

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!

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.