Spent yesterday in Bordeaux watching almost all of Stage 17 in an english pub down by the river. Unfortunately they didn't have EuroSport in english on the TV but we were able to follow comentary with free internet access. The stage wasn't nearly as exciting as I expected it to be but at least Schleck tried. It was i ...
It has finally cooled down here with a thunderstorm. We watched Stage 16 yesterday about 30km from the finish. Exciting to see Armstrong in the lead group but too bad he didn't get the stage win. Today we're headed north along the west coast to Arcachon just west of Bordeaux. Hoping it'll be sunny by the time we get th ...
On July 17th we climbed Mount Ventoux. This was a bonus climb. Unplanned but the stars aligned and we were lucky enough to make it happen. The most difficult climb so far with one section of 9% grade for about 9km. This was the first time we saw anyone walking their bike and there were lots of people walking! The top ...
On July 16th we left Grenoble after a light breakfast at the hotel. Putting all our faith in the GPS we set out for Malaucene which is a small town near Mount Ventoux. We had to pay over 16 euro in tolls to use the autoroutes or "A" roads. On the way we saw signs for Chateau Neuf du Pape, which is a famous wine r ...
This was the most epic day of cycling, ever. We concurred two of the most famous HC climbs of the Tour de France: Col de Galbier and L'Alpe D'Huez. The heat did not make it easy either. We started with a mellow flat warm up of about 8 miles before beginning the 20 mile climb to the top of Galbier. Galbier was absolut ...
On the morning of July 13 we climbed the Signal de Bisanne. One of two climbs in France classified by the ASO as "Epic" which is like a HHC. 8.6 miles at avg grade of 8.5% with 4018 feet of climbing. Translation: insanely hard climb. I used all my gears today. No shame in that, right? After the ride we set ...
On July 12 we road two of the climbs of stage 9 in Le Tour: Col des Aravis and Col des Saisies. Both climbs were fairly mellow at 4.6% and 5% average grade respectively so it was kinda like a rest day. The country side was absolutely beautiful and the small towns we passed through were all decked out in preparati ...
We could taste the excitement in the air on our morning decent from Avoriaz to Morzine. People were continuing to line the road side in preparation for the tour coming through later in the afternoon. From Morzine we climbed the Col de Joux Plane which had a few steep pitches. At the top there was a lake and w ...
Today we departed Geneva and headed into the French Alps. Our tour company, Velo Echappe dropped us off in Bonne, gave us a route card, and sent us on our way. Mike and I stuck to the first pack until the tempo got too high and we decided to back off to save some energy for the climbs ahead. There were two climbs tod ...
Running on about three hours of sleep today I managed to get a short "shake down" ride in. A shake down ride is where you take a bike on a quick ride to make sure it's set up and working properly. The mechanics setup our rentals this morning. A big thanks to Brad for writing down all my bike measurements which help ...
jenglert sent only position
jenglert sent only position
jenglert sent only position
Made it to our Hotel in Geneva just fine. Barely made our connecting flight in London. We were warned about Terminal 5 in Heathrow airport making connections difficult. BA had us exit from the 747 onto the tarmac, It's a long walk down BTW. They hearded onto a bus to Terminal 5. Security check point. Ran to the gate as ...
jenglert sent only position
Granny took me to see the progress on the house in Woodside. Impressive. So much has been done since my last visit. There's a whole army of people working there.
Had a nice dinner with Granny and Uncle Leo last night at Vino Santos. Meeting up with Mike at at SFO around 3:30. Flight leaves at 6:55.
Off to France to follow Le Tour with Mike Watts. First up is 5 days of riding in the French Alps. Catching stages 8 & 9 live on the road. Finishing up in Paris for the finale.