Author: Greg Pezoldt

Since getting back from my trip to the Pyrenees, I have been on a few rides. I was eager to do some longer rides and see some more of the local area. Everyone has told me to go to Annecy. They said it was nice and had a beautiful lake. So on Friday, I headed out for an 80 mile ride to Annecy to see what it was all about. I was able to get there, but did not see the lake. Annecy was a bigger city than I had thought so I got caught up in the urbanized area before turning around to go back. I will study the map and see where I need to turn, and try again this week to actually see the lake.

Then it was the weekend. A while ago, when I was first contemplating this trip to France, I pondered which town I was going to try to live in. My first thought was Saint Etienne since I had been there before. Well, sort of. I had taken the train to Chamonix on occasion and had changed trains in Saint Etienne on the way there. It was relatively close to the Alps and I thought it might be a good place to stay. Of course, things took a different turn and I ended up in Chambery.

That doesn’t mean that I wasn’t curious about Saint Etienne though. So I decided I needed to go see what it was that I might have missed. And oh yeah…. there was this other thing going on in Saint Etienne……

Saint Etienne was going to be hosting Stage 8 and 9 of the Tour de France and I wanted to go experience the Tour just once. Stage 8 was going to end in town and stage 9 was going to begin there the next day. I chose to see stage 8 since the finish is more exciting than the start, at least the way I figured it.

I began Saturday by going down to the stain station to get my tickets for the journey. I got to St. Etienne around 2:00 PM and then took the local light rail down to where the tour was going to be ending for the day. It was a festive mood when I finally got there. The crown was already forming, but I wanted to see all of the sights. There were lots of booths of people selling things and showing off their cycling products. Sponsors were giving away lots of stuff, most of which was either food samples or trinkets that the crowd would go crazy over trying to snatch something as the companies would toss it into the crowd. I got some candy samples and an LCL hat (A bank sponsor) but mostly ignored the “junk” the was being tossed about. I did, however, find the “official” TDF van that was selling souvenirs and bought a “t-Shirt.

Next came the “caravan”! The caravan was a parade of sponsor’s floats and such that was pretty crazy. They start each day about two hours before the beginning of each stage and precede the race to the finish for that day. The floats and vehicles were pretty silly looking, but entertaining. And entertainment was GOOD since by that time everyone was just standing around in their staked out location to see the race. For hours! I had found a place about 10 meters beyond the finish line about 3 people deep from the barrier. It would be alright since I was taller than almost anyone there (the French are not to be confused with the Dutch who are tall generally).

We could keep track of the progress of the race by watching one of several large screens which showed the race in progress and listening to the commentary by the Emcee (all in French as you might have guessed). And finally, after standing around for hours, the race arrived in town around 5:20 PM. Things got very exciting as the Belgium racerThomas De Gendt streaked across the finish line ahead of the rest of the pack in a solo finish.

The french were not to be denied however. Two frenchmen finished 2nd and 3rd on the day, with Thibaut Pinot leading Julian Alaphillipe to the finish. Alaphillipe was ahead of the pack just enough so he was able to claim the Maillot Jaune, the Yellow Jersey that is worn by the race leader with the fastest aggregate time of the race.

Not everyone was happy though. There were two Slovakian people with flags who were standing next to me at the finish line. They were routing for their countryman Peter Sagan who could only mange a fifth place finish on the day. The USA had its moments today as well. Ben King was in a breakaway for most of the day, but could not manage to stay with the group on the last minor climbs and fell back into the pack. TJ Van Garderen did not start the day due to a broken hand he suffered the day before. Tj was born in Tacoma, but raised in Bozeman, Montana, (my home town as most of you know by now).

Well, I got to see the Tour de France. It was quite a thrill, all several seconds of the race that I got to actually see. But the experience was something to behold. Something that I will not forget. And I got a T-Shirt to prove it!

The road trip continues! After a nice breakfast at the hotel in Orange, I headed for the Pyrenees mountains on the France-Spain border.

On the way there, I was going to be very close to Millau, France. Millau is where the incredible Millau Viaduct Bridge is located. I have heard of this bridge ever since it was under construction and I am going to see it first hand. It is supposed to be the highest bridge in the world, so high that there are photos of the bridge deck above the clouds. Not so today. There isn’t a cloud in the sky.

After seeing it, I was not disappointed. It really is a true engineering marvel. There is a visitor center for the bridge which I stopped at. The seven towers are amazing and cannot be adequately photographed to show how really tall they are. But when you drive across it and see the valley floor so far below you, then you truly get the sense of scale and how high it is. Wow.

Continuing, I drove through some more nice french countryside going through Nimes, Mende, Rodez, enjoying rush hour traffic in Toulouse, and finally to St. Gaudens where I found a hotel to stay at.

I ate a big breakfast since it was going to be another day of cycling in the mountains. Today, I would drive through Tarbes and Lourdres on the way to Luz St. Sauveur and the base of the Col du Tourmalet.

The Col du Tourmalet is a common climb in the Tour de France and will again be climbed in this years tour. This year, it is a summit finish so there will be lots of action for the 100,000’s of spectators who will line the roadway to watch. People will be camping for days to get a good spot.

I was a little nervous about the ride today. Normally, I have tried to ride these famous climbs during the week to avoid weekend traffic, but today is a Saturday. Driving up the valley, there were a lot of cyclists, but there was an awful lot of car traffic on the narrow winding road to Luz St. Sauveur. Luckily, I found that most of the traffic stopped in town and the road to the Col was pretty lightly traveled, unless that is that you are on a bicycle! There were lots of people riding today!

I parked in the parking lot for the Carrefour market and started from there. It was 11:30 and starting to warm up, but at least it wasn’t the absolute hottest part of the day. The ride is 19km and climbs 4,605 feet to the summit. The gradient is in the 8-9% range with a few easier portions mixed in, but then with the final kilometers pitching up to 10-11%. Hey, after Mont Ventoux, this sounds pretty easy, haha.

The ride actually went pretty good today. I seemed to have recovered from Mont Ventoux and I passed a lot of riders, some of whom had no business being there. Lots of people walking their bikes who were wearing tennis shoes. One of these groups of riders were wearing jerseys that said “Lead From The Back”. They really took that to heart!

The beginning of the ride had some forest and some shade if you hugged the shoulder of the road, but after just a few kilometers, the road opened into high meadows and fully exposed to the sun. Unlike some of the other climbs, you could not see the summit as you climbed. At some point I knew that I was getting near the top, or I hoped I was because the gradient was getting steeper. After an hour and 45 minutes, I made the summit. I actually felt pretty good! And what a party going on at the top. Riders from all nations were there and lots of them. French, Swiss, Spanish, British, and at least one American!

I didn’t stay very long at the top. Just long enough to talk to some British guys (Nice to talk some english for a change) and take a few photos of the summit and the valley below.

The descent was pretty fun. It had some long straight stretches so you could let the bike go and see where you were going, not worrying about hairpin curves. But there was one part of the descent that got my attention.

I was able to successfully negotiate my way through this group of cattle without incident, but mindful of Matt C’s bad experience where he got his bike “stomped” on by a mean cow! French cows seem nice….

Once down in Luz St. Sauveur again, I got some lunch and decide to do some exploring. I kind of had it in the back of my mind to ride some more, but wasn’t really sold on the idea. There are lots of climbs in the area. The Hautacam, Col de Aspin, Col de Plat d”Edat. I saw a sign for the Luz Ardiden. It started right in Luz St. Sauveur so I drove to the top to scout it out.

At the top and seeing the “classic” switchback road I decided I had to try it. Plus, it wasn’t like I was going to be coming back anytime soon. It would be a “short” 13km and 3264 feet of climbing. The road gradient had lots of 9%, but some 6-7% too that would give my legs a little bit of a break. And they needed it too.

The bottom part of the climb had some shade which was good since it was 4:00 and it was now pretty hot. I did not climb it very fast, but steady enough to get to the top, although it took an hour and twenty minutes. The switchbacks were great since it gave you something to look forward to in the mist of suffering up the climb.

On the descent, I counted the switchbacks. They make a big deal of the 21 hairpin turns on the Alps d”Huez, but this had no less than 30 hairpin corners and 14 in the last 4 km before the summit alone. A pretty fun ride, although I continued to descend like the “married man” (which always strikes me as ironic).

It was a great trip to the Pyrenees and to see more of the great climbs of the Tour de France. With the Col du Tourmalet and Luz Ardiden accomplished, I am now headed back to Chambery. These are the last of the climbs that I really had my heart set on. I am sure that there will more , but after this, they will just be icing on the cake as they say.

Note: This post has been a work in progress for a few days now. I had some technical issues with the photos I took on this ride. I have now have everything worked out. I apologize for the delay.

I mentioned before that I am going on a road trip. I picked up my rental car Thursday morning, loaded up my bicycle and the bare necessities and took off to see more of France and to take my chances on a few more famous climbs in the French mountains.

Today, I have two over-riding themes to work on. First, today is the Fourth of July and I might be the only one in France who cares about this. Their big day is 10 days later, Bastille Day. For my 4th celebration, there will be fireworks. I promise!

As for the second theme, I need to mention that 50 years ago this month, man first stepped on the moon. Besides celebrating the 4th of july, I will also celebrate the epic feat of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. I have decided that I am going to visit the moon too. I can only recall one mountain that evokes images of a moonscape. The famous Mont Ventoux located in the central massif of France. It is another beast of a bicycle ride to get to the top and realistically, probably the hardest ride I will attempt on this trip. And that is saying a lot considering the rides I have already completed.

I drove to the city of Orange and decided to get a hotel there. since it the closest city of any real size to the start of the ride in Malaucene. It was around 2;00 in the afternoon so when I got out of my air conditioned car, I realized that the major heat wave might have ended, but it was still pretty hot. At least in the 90’s, but I was not sure of the exact temperature.

My original plan was to get the hotel room early on so I could ride Mont Ventoux in the afternoon and not have to worry about finding a room in the evening after the ride and not knowing when that might be. But with the hot temperatures, I thought that I needed a Plan B that would involve doing the ride in the morning on Friday just in case the temperature was going to be too much to ride in. I drove up to Malaucene to go see which plan it would be!

Once in Malaucene, it was still hot at 3:00. Looking up at the mountain, it looked like the early portion of the ride would be in the shade of the forest and maybe by the time I got above the tree line, the temperatures might start to cool down with the higher elevation and the later time in the afternoon. I decided to give Plan A a go! Plus, I saw another rider head up the road just before I was ready to head out. If someone else could do it, so could I. I started up the road right at 3:30.

No warm up for this ride. It points upward right from the beginning. Somewhere in the 5-8% range. Not super steep, but steep enough to get your attention and understanding that this is going to be a long, hard ride for all 21km that entail the distance to the top. I also found out that there wasn’t any shade along the route at all. The trees were not dense enough or overhanging the road to offer any respite from the glaring sun.

At around the 7km point, the ride started getting VERY serious. This is also where I caught up to the rider who had started before me earlier. As we rode up gradients that were 9-10%, the other rider began to fade and I passed him up. He hooked onto my back wheel and stayed with me for a while, but eventually fell off the pace. But then, the road pitched up even higher! I began to see the gradient was fluctuating between 11-12% and even higher for short periods of time on the roadside markers which are located every kilometer. The roadside markers are a cruel reminder of the agony that awaits and how far you still need to ride to the top.

After a while, the gradient and the temperature began to take its toll on me. You know its steep when you start wishing for a 9% gradient to the road! And then here came the other rider that I had passed earlier. Went right by me since I had slowed to a snails pace. I was beginning to think that all my friends with compact gearing might actually be onto something. Lower gears would have been really nice right about that point! So at the 11km mark, I made a strategic decision to take a quick break and take on some needed food to try to recharge my rapidly depleting energy stores.

It sort of worked! I felt better after the 4 minute break off the bike, but the road was still really steep. Luckily, it eased up a bit after the 12km mark and I was able to regroup and spin up some more moderate 5-8% grades for a bit. It really didn’t last very long but it was enough. The road would tilt upwards again to the 10-12% range, but not for really long stretches anymore. Steep portions, but with moderate places to recover after. A good recipe at that point. And then you can start to see the summit and see that it is still a LONG way away. The massive tower that dominates the summit of the mountain can be seen from the valley floor as a matter of fact.

The tower was still very high above me and you can see all of the switchbacks still to be climbed. But just like the Col de la Croix de Fer, seeing the end gives you an almost endless supply of motivation.

The last few kilometers went by with the summit getting closer and closer. Then finally, there were no more turns. I made it, but the top came just in time. I said that there would be fireworks today. No one could see them: They were going off inside of my legs!

At the top, I met the other rider who had passed me up at the end. He was a young pup with almost no body fat. That is just not fair. Then he told me the he had already rode up the mountain from a different route earlier in the day. THAT WAS IMPRESSIVE. I anointed him “Le Roi Des Montagnes”, the King of the Mountains!

It was a hard ride for sure. Easily the hardest ride I have ridden in France and pretty sure it is the hardest ride I have ever ridden. I have ridden some tough ones, but the total elevation gain and gradients are hard to match anywhere. Two hours and 10 minutes of extreme effort over 21km and 5,192 feet of elevation gain.

Normally after a hard ride like this one, I would usually have a big plate of pasta. Not today! For the Fourth of July, I enjoyed a hamburger and fries, thank you very much!

It has been a long week here in Chambery. With the record setting heat wave and my bicycle needing a repair, it hasn’t been the most exciting week. I tried to pass the time by doing some exploring locally and getting caught up with some reading, but mostly I just sweated an awful lot. While it has not been the most exciting week, I did feel the need to check in with everyone since it has been awhile.

I have also been doing some logistical work.. I am now in my last month here in France so I was trying to do some planning for my departure. I inquired at Europcar about a rental car for returning Paris, but wow!. It seems that the rental rates for rental cars go up a lot in the summer! It was going to cost about $400 to rent a car for two days to drive to Paris. That alone is bad enough, but then you have to add in the toll fees that you pay to use the Major Highways and the cost gets really expensive. I decided to attempt the train. The only drawback to the train is that the risk of having my bike stolen off the train is a factor, but it is a lot cheaper. Around $40. An added benefit is that I get to Paris a day early so I can go visit the Musee d”Orsay so I can go see one of my favorite paintings: Van Gogh’s “Starry Night Over The Rhone Arles” before I get on the plane for Iceland. And I get to ride on the TGV, the French “Bullit Train”. WooHoo!

So with the plan now being to take the train, I needed to see about taking the train. On Monday, I “practiced” by taking the train to Lyon. I wanted to buy some new books to read and Lyon was the closest place i could find with english books. Plus, it will help in traveling to St. Etienne later this month to see the Tour de France which finishes one of the stages there on July 13th. It is my plan to be there to see it. I thought about going to see the Women’s World Cup Soccer match between the US and England in Lyon on Tuesday, but the matches are played so late that there are no more trains to Chambery at that time. It was an intriguing thought though., even if it was just for an instant.

The other big news was that the heat wave ended!. Well, the 100F days are over for a while anyway, but it is still warm. The heat wave officially ended with some thunder storms that rolled through on Sunday night. It rained pretty hard so I went outside to just stand in the rain, for no other reason than it felt really good! And I wasn’t the only one either. I think everyone in Chambery was ready for it to cool off.

The biggest news is that today, I got my bike fixed. Just needed some new bearings in the bottom bracket and all is now good. And with the epic heat wave now abating, it is time to think about doing some more riding! And believe, I miss riding my bike.

So now it is time for a road trip! I went to the CarGo! rental car place and was actually able to rent a car for a reasonable price for 4 days which surprised me a lot after seeing how much it was going to cost at Europcar. I will leave the destinations for your imagination for now, but it does involve some epic bicycle riding. I also get to see some more of France and drive across (and hopefully photograph) the Millau Viaduct Bridge, the highest span in the world and quite a stunning engineering feat if I do say so myself. What can I say. Once an engineer, always an engineer!

It is going to be an exciting week coming up, but unfortunately not so much for this last week. I would have included some photos, but I don’t think anyone would be interesting in seeing me simply sweating which is about all i did last week. I will have photos for this coming week and I think they will be worth the wait.

After resting up for a few days, I was looking for a ride this weekend. The weather Saturday was not looking very good so I decided Sunday would be a better choice.

The realtor who helped me with the apartment mentioned that there is a Regional Park nearby and that I should consider riding there. That sounded like a good choice to me since I was curious about it anyway. You can see these very steep rock formations in the nearby mountains from town and I think they are part of the park.

The full name of the park is Parc Naturel Regional du Massif des Bauges. There are several ways to get to the park so I took the way that I was most familiar with. I rode the Voie Vert National Bike Path 63 to Aix les Bains and then headed north and followed the signs (and all of the other bicycle riders). It apparently is a popular ride for the locals. After Aix les Bains, the road started to rise up at a moderate grade that lasted for about 16km, then crested over a hill and dropped into the main valley of the park for a short 6km. From there, it was an up and down ride for the last 4km to Lescheraines and the small chain of lakes that occupy the valley.

It is a regional park., so it is more like a State Park in the US. There are trails, swimming, picnicking and such. I did not get to the actual lakes since you had to pay to get in and I didn’t feel the need to do that. But it was nice there.

I had a lunch at one of the sidewalk cafes just out of town before heading back to Chambery. Before I actually headed to Chambery, I rode up valley for another few kilometers to see more of the valley and see if I could get a photo of the lakes. I rode as far as Le Chatelard when I figured that I was going to be foiled in my attempt to photograph the lakes. The ride up to the head of the valley was not bad and the short climb was easy enough to spin up without too much effort. Then it was a nice downhill ride to Aix les Bains and then the pathway back to Chambery.

On the way back, my bicycle started making this obnoxious noise somewhere in the drivetrain and most likely in the bottom bracket. For all of the non-bike-techies out there, the bottom bracket is the axle and bearings that the pedals spin on. It started making this click-click-click noise that was embarrassing. Every time I came across another cyclist, I stopped pedaling and coasted by so they did not have to hear the noise coming off my bike.

Even though the ride ended on a sour note, the ride in total was really nice. It was right around 100km or 62 miles, just enough gradient to get a good sweat going, the weather was perfect if not a little on the hot side, and no wind to speak of. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Around here, and like a lot of shops back home, the bike shops are closed on Mondays, so I waited until Tuesday to go the the MondoVelo shop that I found a few weeks ago. Also like many bike shops back home, they are really busy in the summer and backlogged for a week! But the repair guy did look at my bike just enough to verify that the bottom bracket was the culprit making the noise in my bike. I am at their mercy since I don’t have a vast array of tools with me to even attempt to fix it myself.

So, I am taking a short break from any serious riding for the next week. I can still ride, but with earplugs (haha)! The techie said that if I ride it won’t really hurt the bike, just my self esteem! But there is another reason to take a break. If you have been following the world news, a heat wave has hit Europe. It is not “Africa” hot as my friend Greg C would describe it, but it is over 100F. It is hot enough that I won’t be missing the long, suffering rides in the alps that much, for this week anyway. But it won’t keep me from planning new challenging rides coming up soon.

It’s been almost a week since my ride up Alpe d”Huez and the Col du Galibier. It’s time for another foray into the high country.

My attempt at another ride up one of the historic climbs in the French Alps almost did not get off the launchpad. I went to rent a car at Europcar, and then at Avis, but both were all out of vehicles for the next day. I quickly came up with a plan “B” to ride a local ride up to one of the National Parks in the area. But on my walk back to my flat, I walked past a car rental place I had not heard of. CarGo!. I walked in and voila!, they had cars for the next day. So plan “A” was back on track all of a sudden.

I also have solved another problem I had. With all due respect to my great friend Greg C and his helpful suggestions for nutrition while on the bike, I found a large sporting goods “box store” called Decathlon and look what I found!

Also at the Decathlon, I became aware of something else. While traveling, I have always enjoyed comparing cultural and technical aspects of countries that are both similar and different than ours in the good ole USA. At the Decathlon store, at the check out counter, I expected to have my items scanned per the usual. The lady at the register instructed me (by saying in French, but mostly pointing) to place ALL of my items into this box at the register at the same time. The box was some kind of complex scanner that scanned ALL of the items at once. Maybe this technology exists at home in LA or NYC, but I have never seen it in Wenatchee, or even Seattle before. I was impressed.

Stocked up on PowerBars and other nutritional items and equipped with a rental car, off I headed for the mountains again Wednesday morning. Today, I would attempt the Col de La Croix de Fer. It is another famous climb that is often included in the Tour de France. It is a long 31km (about 20 miles) route of almost continuous climbing. It does have two areas where you actually descend for a brief period, but it is still a real challenge.

The day is sunny and going to get a little on the warm side. Lots of sun screen today for sure. The start of the ride is in Rochetailee and is only 6km from Bourg d’Oisans, the start of the Alpe d’Huez climb. The ride started easy enough. There is a 6km ride to the Powerhouse Museum by the dam that exists at the beginning of the ride. This part is pretty flat except for the zig zag road that climbs up the face of the earthen dam to the top. It was a nice warm up for the rest for the rest of the ride. After that, the route gets serious for the next 25km. It ascends quickly after that through the forested portion of the route. I climbed up to Rivier de Allemont on roads that were between 8-10%. Then there was a nice flat section before a short, steep descent to the river. Then a short, but back breaking climb out the river bottom (where a few other riders were actually walking the 13.6% gradient) before some more “routine” steep grades resumed. The roadway continued up the valley until I crested briefly at another lake. I thought mistakenly it turned out, that this was the beginning of the easy part of the ride where you pass the turn to the Col du Glandon and continue up to the Col de la Croix de Fer at an easier gradient. Well, I was wrong. The climbing continued for many more kilometers before that point, the point where I knew the I was involved in a true sufferfest!

Finally at the turnoff to the Col du Glandon, the gradient did moderate. Just 5-6% for the final 4km, but they were still hard since my thighs and quads were getting pretty fatigued at this point. Luckily, you can see the summit for the entire last 4km and that is enough inspiration to get anyone to the top. And then at last…. the top. A simple two and a half hour, 5,130 foot climb to the Col de la Croix de Fer.

I find it interesting looking at the relationship between French and English words. Croix means Cross which has some connection to the english language since both Croix and Cross start with “Cro…”. But Fer means Iron. And Iron is a ferrous metal! So I see part of the word origin for that word too. But I digress.

I spent a lot of time at the top, mostly trying to stop sweating, rehydrate, and have one of my PowerBars that I hauled up the mountain for just such a purpose! Eventually, I felt recovered enough to take a few photos of the top and the surrounding mountain peaks. Then it was time to begin the long descent to my car. When I first got back on my bicycle, I couldn’t feel my legs as they tried to turn the pedals. I was thinking I was going to pay the price for those two short descents on the way up today by having to climb back up them. Eventually, I began to feel a rhythm again in my pedal stroke. About that time, these two guys went flying past me on the initial descent. My riding friends know that I am NOT known as a fast descender. Top tier pro racers would refer to me as person who “descends like a married man”, meaning that I fear the potential consequences of going fast downhill, and they are correct! Anyway, I digress again. On the first little climb on the return ride, I caught these two young hammerheads and passed them like they were virtually standing still. Then on the downhill, here they came again. Whoosh!. Again, on that last short steep climb out of the river bottom, I passed them again. I knew that I would get passed up by them again soon, but I felt good that I was still climbing a lot faster than they were. They finely caught me just as we got to the dam above the town of Allemond. Since the major descending was now over, I was able to ride with them the remaining 4 km to my vehicle. It was kind of fun playing cat and mouse with them.

So I made it to the summit of the Col de la Croix de Fer! It was only a 62km ride, but it took a little over 4 hours including my rest at the top. It was a pretty hard climb and a lot of vertical. Now I am looking forward to a day of rest. And lots of food and recovery.

After my big ride on last Thursday, I intentionally rested on Friday for some recovery. Plus, I really didn’t feel like riding anyway. Plus, it rained so that was that. I got some additional rest on Saturday as well since it was moving day.

Saturday was the day to finally leave the Ibis Budget Hotel and move across the city to my studio apartment. I can’t say enough about the Ibis. The room was affordable, clean, the room service was good, and the staff were helpful and above all else, very friendly to me. They made my first few weeks in France as easy and undramatic as possible.

With nice weather and these two days away from my bike, I was ready for a nice long ride on Sunday. I decided that I would go back to Grenoble since I now know the route fairly well and I know that I would not have to deal with weekend traffic. The 80 mile distance seemed about the right length for what I was looking for. Plus, I took some more photos of the Isere River Valley and I know that everyone looks forward to the photos. So off I went.

The ride was uneventful which is always good. I made much better time this time around since I did not have to search for the route. The only real issue was that I wanted to get some food in Grenoble. My designated turn-around point is at a park along the trail, so I ventured into Grenoble in search of a market or cafe. The park where I stopped at is adjacent to the University in Grenoble and it appears to be somewhat isolated from the rest of town. Needless to say, I struck out on the food so I rode about 10 miles back toward Chambery and got some food at a store in Crolles. The market perhaps gave me a glimpse into the future. This market did not take ANY cash. Credit or Debit cards only for any transaction. That is the first time I can say that ever happed to me.

I did discover 2 important things on this ride. This being my second ride to Grenoble, I was able to notice a lot more than just looking for route markers. The valley is a large agricultural area with lots of different crops growing. Most of the crops I had no idea what they were since it is early in the growing season, but I did notice some fields of corn. After riding through Nebraska, Iowa, and Wisconsin last year, I admit that I got a little traumatized by corn after a while, so I was a little fearful of this development. Lets just say that I am a recovering corn-phobic. I think it will be OK .

The second thing I discovered was that the wind does indeed blow in France. I haven’t really had to deal with headwinds so far until today. And of course, it was on the return portion of the ride when I was more tired. But it was OK. I made it back home just fine, ready to ride again soon.

After my ride to Grenoble last Saturday, it rained for three days straight. I did not even look at my bike during those 3 days.

On Wednesday, the sun finally reappeared. Not just me, but I think the entire city of Chambery was happy to see the return of some nice weather. So I got out for a leisurely 2 hour ride just to knock the rust off and get limbered up a bit. With the weather on Thursday expected to be even nicer, I decided that tomorrow would be the day to try some serious bicycle riding. After finishing the ride, I got some lunch and then went down to the rental car office to line up a vehicle for tomorrow.

I slept pretty good despite the anxiety of this big day of riding coming up and I was very pleased to see that the day was going to be perfect for riding. The sun was out and the wind was very calm. But first things first. I needed to run an errand this morning. With the use of the rental car, I took the box I packed my bike in for the the plane flight over to the real estate office to store for me. If not for the rental car, I was going to have to carry it to my new apartment all the way across town later this week. By storing it at the real estate office, I will only have to carry it about three blocks when the big move occurs Saturday afternoon. After completing this task, it was off toward Grenoble and beyond. I was a little nervous about getting through Grenoble. The last time I tried it, I had a GPS unit in the car with me. This time, no such luck. At least I had my bearings about me this time, so I figured that with a good old fashion map and some dead reckoning abilities I would have a pretty good chance of not getting too lost. And that is the way it worked out. Once past Grenoble, it was on to Bourg d’Oisans and the classic beginning of the Climb to the top of the Alpe d”Huez.

The Alpe d’Huez might be the most iconic bike ride in the world. It is famous for being ridden in the Tour de France many times and won by the most famous bicycle racers in the history of the Tour. It is not that long of a ride, although the riders of the Tour usually have ridden about 90-120 miles prior to the climb of the Alpe d’Huez and usually over several HC (Beyond Category) climbs before they even get to the base of the climb itself. The climb of the Alpe d’Huez is only 14 km or about 8.8 miles long, but it goes straight up hill. 1279 meters or about 4,195 feet straight up. It has 21 famous switchbacks and I am determined to ride each and every one of them.

From my parking spot, there is about a one km warm up of level road before the road turns left and goes skyward. From this vantage point, it seems almost impossible to think about getting to the top, but I have an advantage. I know that the hardest portion of the ride is the lower portion, so all I have to do is survive the first few kilometers and it should be a piece of cake, right? And I also know that the road flattens around most of the hairpin curves so there is a brief opportunity to rest for a few seconds during the ascent. So off I went. The first km went very nice, but making that first left turn, I went anaerobic immediately. The thought had always been there, but now I confirmed in my mind that this was going to be a very hard ride.

The 21 switchbacks are numbered at each hairpin curve so you have a pretty good idea where you are at all times during the climb. They were not really going by very fast for some strange reason. 21, 20, 19…. You just have to think about this like eating an elephant. One turn at a time. 18, 17, 16. I was riding at a pretty even pace, but I wasn’t even half way to the top and I could feel the fatigue already. Luckily, there are a lot of people riding the road today so there is always someone to try to catch and take your mind off the muscle fatigue in my legs.

Onward it went until 4,3,2, 1! The top! Well, not exactly. Once you get into the ski village of Alpe d’Huez, there is a “Finish Line” marker. But anyone who knows the route from watching the Tour knows that this in not the finish. I think it was put there by the local businesses and cafes to get people to stop, celebrate, and buy stuff. But I know that you have to keep going through the tunnel and up to the actual ski station to ride the entire route. Thankfully, the gradient of the road moderates quite a bit for this last km and I could kind of relax and begin to revel in the conquest of the Alpe.

To say that I brought the Alpe d’Huez to its knees would be a gross mistake. Marco Pantani’s record of 37 minutes is still safe after my attempt. It took me about an hour and 10 minutes. To make a point I suppose, I rode it in a 39-24 gear, saving my 26 rear cog just to say that I did not need all of the gears at my disposal. And also, I did not dope or use EPO. Take that Marco, Lance, and everyone who cheated.

I lingered at the top just long enough to take a few photos and then headed back down. There was still more riding to be accomplished today. Once again in the car, I headed up valley to the village of La Grave to get a quick lunch. I have heard of La Grave. There was a famous skier, Doug Coombs who set up a ski business here for extreme skiers. I know of Doug Coombs because he went to Montana State University around the same time as I went there. Looking up at the mountains from the sidewalk cafe I had lunch at, I can see why the skiing would be “extreme”.

After lunch, I drove up to the top of the Col de Lautaret and then down the back side to the town of Le Monetier. I parked there and rode back up to the Col de Lautaret. This was planned out during my earlier recon the area. Riding up to the Col from La Grave required riding through some real narrow tunnels and I really did not want to do that. The ride up to the Col de Lautaret is pretty easy. From where I parked, it was about 13 km to the top and I think the max gradient is only about 5%. You can spin up it pretty easily. If you are going over the top or turning around, it is a true summit of a climb, but for others it just a place on the map. From the Col de Lautaret, you can continue climbing to the Col du Galibier and that was what I was going to attempt. I say attempt because I can really feel the fatigue in my legs at this point and i wasn’t certain that I was going to make it.

The Col du Galibier is fairly steep and high. It was only 8 km long from the Col de Lautaret, but it is generally the highest point of theTour de France in the years when it is included in the route. I did not mess around with this climb. I used the lowest gear I had from the beginning and hoped it was going to be low enough. The climb began with a series of switchbacks that ascended from the Col de Lautaret and rose fast. From there it made a series of long traverses up into the surrounding snow fields and then up into the high peaks. Although the fatigue has there, I was able to keep turning the pedals over fairly comfortably. I kept looking for clues as to where the top was, but every time I thought I knew where it was, I could see more roadway way above meaning a lot more climbing still ahead. Finally, I came top the Cafe du Galibier so I knew that I was getting close. This was good news and bad news. Good because I was getting close to the top and bad because i knew the steepest part of the climb was the last km. I was going to make the summit at this point no matter what though. And then, magically, I could see the parked cars and the people up ahead and knew that I was there. A 1162 meter climb from Le Monetier up to 2642 Meters in altitude.

Now the really good news. I could coast back to the car without a single revolution of the pedals if I wanted (or needed) to. It was ALL downhill from the Col. I did actually pedal down the Col De Lautaret because it was a straight road and not crazy fast, so I made it to the car in really good time.

So all in all, it was a really exciting day of riding. I only rode around 72 km today, only about 45 miles long, but about 2440 meters of climbing or around 7,560 feet. The Alpe d’Huez and the Col du Galibier in a single day. I will remember this day forever. A real dream come true for me.

After my ride up the Col de L’Epine the other day, I did a shorter ride just to kind of recover. It was just a ride to Aix-Les Bain again and to Lac Bourget. There are some steep climbs from there that I wanted to check out for future reference. Mostly, I wanted to make sure I knew how to access them. It was only a two hour ride at the end of the day for me.

The next day, I had to do a lot of errands and was planning to take a days rest. First off, I had to got to the real estate office to sign all of the documents for my apartment that I will be living in for the remaining weeks of my stay in Chambery. I move in on the 15th. To say the apartment is small might be giving it too much credit. It is a single room with a REALLY SMALL bathroom, and a kitchen “area” that is even smaller. But it does have a range and microwave oven along with a small refrigerator. Now I can do a bit of cooking and save some money since I have been eating out a lot.

Next, I needed to get to a bike shop. I had found one the other day where I bought some cycling stuff so I headed back to it again. My bike had not been quite right since I reassembled it after the plane flight over. There was a lot of noise coming from the drive train. I knew the rear derailleur had been bent a little bit, biu I had straightened it out by reefing on it with my hands, but it did not solve all of the issues. The guy at the bike shop checked it out and determined that the derailleur was still a little out of alignment. He had a tool that I had never seen before that put the derailleur into perfect alignment and now my bike is running like a champ again. Now, I was ready for a longer ride.

On Saturday, I decided to ride to Grenoble. Grenoble is a town famous in my mind because it hosted the 1968 Winter Olympic games. Jean Claude Killy showed the entire world how to ski by winning all 3 races offered at the time and Peggy Fleming won the USA’s only gold medal in figure skating. It was the first Olympics that I really remember so it is special to me.

The weather for this ride was absolutely perfect. Sunny, no wind, and moderate temperatures. I would follow the National Bike Route 63 south to Grenoble. The route is mostly on exclusive bike trails so I would not be worried about any cars today. The biggest challenge is route finding since the trail has lots of turns and not exactly a straight line. Needless to say, I expected to make a lot of wrong turns, but hopefully not get really lost; only inconveniently mis-directed.

So off I began. The ride would be around 40 miles to Grenoble and then the same coming back for an 80 mid total ride. Another thing about France that I like is that they are on the metric system. So an 80 mile ride is 130 km. Most long rides will be “century” rides (with the asterisk that they are metric century rides)!

The ride offered spectacular views along the entire route. The Alps were visible from the beginning and as I turned west I was treated to views of the Massif de Chartreuse. It reminded me of the epic day last year of riding through Glacier Park along the river with the Rockies surrounding me at every turn.

The route went past Lac de St Andre which is just a small local lake that people go to swim and picnic. From there it winds through the countryside and goes through several small towns, eventually following the Isere River into Grenoble.

Just on the outskirts of Grenoble, I turned around. I was starting feel a little fatigued and I was thinking my fate today would be running out of energy and Bonking. One small problem with France I have so far is that I cannot seem to find anything like a Power Bar so I haven’t been riding with any food. I was starting to feel the gas gauge getting close to empty so getting to some kind of restaurant/cafe was getting to be a priority now! I had previously noticed that there was a cafe in the town of Bernin that looked like a good stopping point so I made that my immediate goal. So after about 50 miles into the ride, I finally stopped for food and immediately felt a lot better. I was able to finish the ride fairly strong after all.

The last treat from this ride was to go eat at my favorite restaurant, Bistrot du Verger where I had Linguine aux Legumes, pasta with vegetables. Did I mention a few beers also!

All and all, I think I am starting find some pretty good riding form. I guess riding 4-5 times a week will do that so I think I will be venturing into the Alps next week for a real test. Weather permitting, Alpe d”Huez is beckoning and must be obeyed!

Things in France are really starting to come together! I have my living situation pretty much dialed in to the point where I actually got my bicycle out of the box and reassembled. I have been on a few rides at this point, starting out just getting my bearings and trying to find some form after sitting on the plane, driving a rental car, and generally doing everything except riding a bike for the last week.

I have collected a series of maps that show rides and bike routes around the area. I am quite pleasantly surprised at how many bike lanes, bike paths, and bike routes exist around here. It is pretty easy to get where you want to go without getting into too much traffic. And since France has a pretty dense major highway network, once you get onto the secondary and local roads, you find little traffic to scare the *%#@ out of you.

I started out riding Bike Route 63 which is a bike path separated from any car traffic that heads northwest to the town of Aix-Les-Bains and Lake Bourget, the largest natural lake in france. It is deadpan flat except there is an optional route to Aix-Les-Bains once you get to the lake that goes up a hill for about 6 minutes of riding. I usually try to do this mini climb a couple times just to mix things up, plus, I need the uphill training for the task at hand.

Once I figured out how to get where i was trying to get to (because I get lost riding a bike pretty easy which my friends will attest to), my next ride extended the ride onto the “Tour of the Bauges Massif by Bicycle” route.. This route really gets into the French countryside which is quite picturesque! Rolling green hills and lightly traveled country roads.

After two days of these rides, I took a day to rest since I am trying to push some larger gears and ride faster than I normally do back home. Now with some fresher legs, I attempted my first “Col” today (Wednesday). The Col de L’epine will not show up on any list of Tour De France routes, but it is right out of town here in Chambery. It is about a 715 meter climb (so everyone, let’s work on our metric conversions here…. ) about 2,350 feet of climbing.

Then it was down to Lac d’Aiguebelette. Then after wading into the lake for a moment, it was back up 600 meters to the Col again and back to my hotel. It was a very nice and scenic ride, and tiring too. Plus two signifiicant climbs under my belt!

So now that I have been here for over a week and got some rides in, I am feeling pretty happy with my choice of Chambery as a home base. The local riding seems to be pretty good with lots of variability, the weather is generally nice (so far), it is close enough to many of the famous climbs of the Alpes, and I just really like the city itself.