Author: Greg Pezoldt

Before I get started with the trip to France, I need to give some background leading up to everything. This trip was going to be somewhat different than my last trip, in a variety of ways. I had some very exciting and challenging goals for this trip. Lots of serious mountains to cycle, some new ones and some old with different routes to the top. And I was going to have some friends join me along the way.

As they say, the best laid plans….. In order to accomplish any real cycling goals, the first thing in to get into some form of fitness. That is not generally an issue, but does take some effort to get to a point where you fell “ready”. So I rode my bike a lot this last fall while I was in Arizona and things were going pretty good down there. And ski season went well during the winter too. I took a trip to Southern California in March to really start doing some more serious riding with friends in the challenging Santa Monica mountains and that was going well, making some real strides. But I had to return to Washington for cataract surgery which I discovered back in November. The thing about eye surgery is that while you recover, you cannot raise your blood pressure very much because it can damage your eye. So I had to basically do nothing for over a month, losing a lot of my recent fitness. But once I made it through the eye healing process, it was time to get back on the bike to resume training. After one particular ride, and not an extremely difficult one at that, I was just not feeling very great, not recovering as I should have. After a couple of hours of discomfort, I decided I needed to seek some medical attention since I really had never experienced anything like this before. So off to the ER at the hospital in Wenatchee. I explained that I was having some chest discomfort so they ran me through some tests to see what was going on. I ended up staying in the hospital for 4 days! Everyone suspected some form of mild heart attack which seemed pretty crazy to me, but I couldn’t deny the symptoms I was having. I had some elevated levels of an enzyme called Troponin which is released by the heart when it is under stress. A typical level is 0.00 -0.03. Mine reached a level close to 7.0 so something was definitely going on. So I was put on nitroglycerin and other medications to try to resolve the symptoms. The nitro gave me headaches, so then I was put on a small morphine dosage for that. They did a quick x-ray to see if that revealed anything, but it didn’t. Next was a CAT scan of my heart with a catheter that injected a dye to get a good look for any artery blockage. I think everyone was shocked when that came back negative. My arteries were pretty much spic and span clean. So next, it was to wait for a spot for the MRI to really get a good look at anything else that might have been causing my discomfort (which had resolved itself during the first day mind you). That took 2 days to get a spot and I could not leave the hospital or risk losing my turn in line so to speak. Finally, I got the MRI and it revealed that I had incurred some inflammation of my heart, most likely due to some infection. So the bottom line was that, aside from the inflammation, there was nothing really wrong structurally with my heart. No one really had any answers as to why this happened, but the only real cure was rest! Up to three months of rest! This was going to cause a problem with the trip to France!

After talking to all of the doctors, we agreed that I should still go on the trip, just not to do any real difficult rides during this recovery time. Flat rides were OK, hard mountain passes were not. Well, I might have considered just canceling the entire trip, but I had these friends coming and it was still going to be a fun trip none the less. So it was decided. France it is!

Hello everyone, if anyone is out there! Greg On The Go is back on-line for new adventures. I am back in France for more cycling and tourism for 2023. I had to over come some technical issues with the Blog site, but my friend Carl helped me get it all straightened out. So here we go!

But first, before we get to France, my conscience is bothering me at lot since I said 4 years ago that I was going to share my trip to Iceland on my way home from France in 2019. Unfortunately, I did not do that for a variety of reasons. To ease my conscience I wanted to at least give a run down of that trip and share some photos since I know that is what everyone really wants to see anyway.

The trip to Iceland started from Paris on August first. I did not get into Keflavik ( the airport) until very late. By the time I secured my baggage and the rental car, it was after 2 AM before I got settled into my motel room. It was the Base Hotel, since it used to be a part of the military base in Keflavik.

My plan for Iceland is to drive the “Ring Road” which is the main hwy that circles the island, thus the name. I got a pretty late start to things the next morning due to the late hour I got in. I decided to make a “practice round” with the car and the roads by driving out to the coast before settling out on the ring road. The coast in that area was very volcanic with lots of lava floes right down to the waters edge

I hiked around and at one point must have gotten too close to an Arctic Tern’s nest since she sort of was dive bombing me as a sign to stay away.

During my “practice round” I also wanted to find out where the famous Blue Lagoon was since I was going to end up my trip there before going to to the airport in about a week.

So it was on the the Ring Road. To get there, I did not want to back track all the way to Reykjavik so I followed a gravel road to where I met the main road. From there it was pretty straightforward about where to go. There are not very many paved roads in Iceland to choose from aside from the Ring Road! I chose a counter clock wise path and set out. Along the way, there are lots of waterfalls and glaciers to see.

This waterfall was named Seljalandfoss. If you look closely, you can see people hiking beside the falls. (I did not do this since they all looked like they were getting pretty wet).

Next, it was on to Skogafoss. This one of the most famous water falls in Iceland and has been featured in many car commercials that I recognized. One thing about Iceland that I noticed is how many more tourists there were. I had been to iceland many years ago and when I visited Skogafoss then, I was about the only one there and I recall that we were able to drive our car along the river bank right up to the falls. Not any more! There were hundreds of people there and a paid parking area that was full.

I planned to stay the night in Vik. It turns out the all of the hotel rooms in Vik were full. Another big change from the last visit! But one thing about Icelandic people… they are nice and helpful. They helped me line up a place out of town in a boarding house where I was able to get a bed and a blanket. I found a good place to eat in Vik. Good homemade soup and some Icelandic craft beer. One good thing about the increased tourism was that the food and beverage situation was a lot better than before.

The next day, I explored the beach just outside of Vik. It was a black sand beach, which might be similar to some found in Hawaii (never been there) except for the sun, surfers, and bikinis. But is was beautiful in its own right. There were lots of shore birds flying around including puffins, but I was not able to get close enough for a picture.

Next, it was on to Svartifoss. This was a interesting waterfall because of all the basalt columns that surrounded the fall. There was a nice campground and park at this waterfall as well.

From Svartifoss, it was on to Hofn. There were more waterfalls and Glaciers to see on the way there. I learned my lesson about hiking on Icelandic glaciers before. It was easy going up, but I thought I was going to toboggan down and break my neck, so no glacier hiking without proper equipment this time.

Hofn was another adventure trying to find a place to lodge for the night. Hofn is a fishing harbor, but this weekend it turned out that they were hosting a Soccer tournament for teams from the entire country. No rooms in the motels at all. But there was a hostel that had vacancies. I ended up sleeping in a room with five other people, some french, aussies, and me. Coed, but it is not a big deal, for them or me.

The next day, I would make my way toward Lake Myvatn. Several water falls are along the way there as you would expect. They were big and powerful. And no rails or warning signs. You could walk right to the edge of the fall and peer over the side. I guess Iceland doesn’t have too many lawyers (yet).

There was an entire sequence of waterfalls that I visited, each impressive in its own way. The top photo is of Selfoss and the lower photo is Dettifoss, just downriver. Next is was onto Myvatn Lake.

Myvatn means Lake of the Midges and is aptly named. A midge is a small mosquito like insect, which fortunately does’t bite like a mosquito, thank goodness. The sky was filled with them!

So guess what! I couldn’t find a motel room in Reykahlid, the largest town along Lake Myvatn! I guess there is a theme here somewhere. I was able to find a place out of town about half an hour around the lake that even had a restaurant for dinner too. I don’t recall that it was outrageously expensive either, and that can also been a theme of Iceland. It can tend to be on the expensive side of things.

The next morning, I drove back to Reykahlid to go hike the volcano that is right there. Luckily, this one is extinct, not like many on the island that are still active as you might have seen in the news over the last many years.

Next stop, Godafoss. Another one of the more famous waterfalls of Iceland and the last one I visited in the northeast portion of the island.

Now, I am traveling in the north part of the island. There are some interesting features of the drive. Like long tunnels. 3, 4, 7 mile long tunnels… that are one lane! There are pullouts at close intervals, but it is still a game of chicken at times as oncoming cars approach and you have to figure out if you can make it to the next pullout or use the closest one. I didn’t encounter any wrecks so I guess the systems works. Driving along this part of Iceland is interesting. When you see the ocean, it is the North Sea and the next land that you would find to the north would be the Arctic polar cap. It really does feel like the end of the world.

That night, I found a motel on the first try! it was in Varmahlid. Nothing really interesting about the town except that it wasn’t overrun with tourists I guess. The next day, I would be heading back toward Reykjavik. There were some options here. I decided that if the weather looked promising, I would head toward Gullfoss, the most famous waterfall in Iceland. I had been there before, but it had been raining so my photos of it were not very good. As luck would have it, the weather was pretty good so that is what I did. This is part of what is known in Iceland as the “Golden Circle”, as opposed to the Ring Road. The Golden Circle is a shorter tourist circuit closest to Reykjavik and has the most tourist activity. But what the heck, right? Gullfoss is impressive. It is a multilevel waterfall that cascades into a chasm at the bottom, then flows parallel to the fall.

Finally, there is Geysir, a thermal basin right near Gullfoss. It is only a fraction of the size of Yellowstone, but pretty cool anyway. The main geyser erupts about every ten minutes so there is not much standing around waiting for it and it doesn’t erupt as high as many others either, but it is always fun to see geysers, right?

Tomorrow will be the last day. I headed back to Keflavik and the Base Motel. I was able to avoid Reykjavik entirely this trip, not that there is anything wrong with Reykjavik. It’s just that I have been there and seen most all of the sites there.

The only thing left to do is visit the famous Blue Lagoon. I will do that tomorrow before heading to the airport. It should set me up for a nice relaxing ride home after a few hours soaking in the hot waters of the resort. The Blue Lagoon is not natural. It is a body of water that was formed from the outfall of the nearby thermal power station. Almost all of Iceland’s electrical power comes from geothermal plants. Nice! And the Blue Lagoon is a nice byproduct of that power source.

The Blue Lagoon isn’t really cheap. It was about $100, but did include a towel and a free drink at the in-pool bar. But it was worth the experience because you would always regret not going, at least that is the way I looked at it.

Just a few notes on Iceland to wrap things up. As you probably know, I like to cycle and tend to look at things from a riders perspective. There were quite a few bicycle tourists I saw on the road. The Ring Road did not have a very wide shoulder so I thought that was a real negative aspect of bicycle touring in Iceland. But the biggest thing was the weather. I enjoyed very nice weather while I was there (by Icelandic standards). Having said that, almost every cyclist I saw was wearing every bit of clothing they owned it looked to me that they were not very happy in the process. August is the warmest month in Iceland and the average daily high temperature is 59F.

[My thanks to Rupert for sending me this just today. He and his wife are currently cycling in Iceland and by all accounts are having a wonderful trip. So there are exceptions to all rules] So that was Iceland, 2019. On to France 2023!

Today is July 30th and I am leaving Chambery. It is kinda sad since I really enjoyed my stay here, but I also miss home too. So, it’s time to go. Sort of. There are a few steps to this process.

The day started off with walking down to the train station. I have always noticed there are lots of taxis there and I needed one this morning. I was not going to haul my heavy back pack AND my bike box down to the train station. No way. So, I hired a taxi to come back to my apartment and haul it for me.

Then, it was on to the train. Not just any train though. The GTV. The Bullet train! Non stop to Paris Lyon Train Station in the heart of downtown Paris. In three hours at speeds that were as fast as 180 mph. Wow, that’s fast. And to go that fast, the ride needs to be really smooth, and it was!

Arriving in Paris around 1:30 in the afternoon, I needed to get to my hotel out by the Charles DeGaulle Airport. That was pretty easy since the Paris Metro, their really nice subway system, has a line the goes there. it took some time to figure it all out, and then haul my baggage including my bike box to the right place, but I made it. By then, it was around 4:00 in the afternoon and I really didn’t feel like going back into Paris in the evening to sightsee, so I just hung out in my room and later had some dinner.

My flight the next day did not leave until 10:35 AT NIGHT. What was I thinking? I wouldn’t get into Keflavik in Iceland until midnight! But it did allow me plenty of time to go see some of Paris during the day, so I guess there was a silver lining with the late flight.

So, Tuesday the 31st, I went back to the airport, first to make sure that I knew where my check-in for IcelandAir was located. Then I hopped the Metro and headed for Paris. My primary objective was to go to the Musee d’Orsay (the Orsay Museum) where Van Gogh’s Starry Night Over the Rhone (in Arles) is located and I wanted to see it again.

But first, I went to the Eiffel Tower, because you cannot go to Paris and not see it. No matter how many times you have been there. I thought about climbing the stairs to the top this time, but that notion went away quickly once I saw the line (and the cost!) to go.

Then it was on to the Museum. I expected a long wait to get in, but the line went quick. I methodically worked my way through the museum until I got to the Van Gogh wing. And the Starry Night Over The Rhone was not there! Somehow, I missed it in my methodical way. So I went to the information counter and inquired where it was located. They informed me that it was currently on loan to a museum in London. WHAT!!! Oh well. The Orsay is still worth the effort since it is first rate, and if nothing else, the building itself is such a masterpiece on its own merits.

Next, it was to go by Notre Dame. You can’t get very close to it these days due to the fire, but it is still impressive, even from a distance. The front of the cathedral was un-affected by the fire and looked as amazing as ever.

By this time, It was getting close to 6:00 PM so I needed to get back to the hotel and collect my baggage and bike box and get over to the airport. That part went well and my pre-planning from the morning was well worth the effort.

I got checked in but had to pay extra for my bike box. 77 Euros or $116 USD. This was not unexpected, but they didn’t bother to charge me when I flew over from Seattle so I was hoping for the same again this time. No such luck this time. But they did switch my middle seat to a window seat, not that there is much to see at night. But it was the thought that counted, right?

So I was waiting in the gate area for the flight and decided to get a sandwich and a small bottle of wine for a dinner from the little store in the airport. Iceland Air makes you pay for a meal in the economy class which of course is my class, and I decided not to pay for the meal. Then, I heard the words you NEVER want to hear at the airport. “Gregory Pezoldt, report to the gate counter”. Oh no, that can’t be good. So I went to see what happened. Hopefully, I wasn’t getting bumped. They switched my seat for heavens sake! I told the person at the counter who I was, and this is what he said. “The flight is full, so we decided to upgrade you to Business Class to make some more room”. Seat 1C. The very first row in the plane!

This is the second big surprise from this trip with regards to the flight. Flying over from Seattle to Europe, at check-in, I was told that I was Pre-TSA approved and I could bypass the screening process. That was nice, but I never, ever applied for that status. I have no idea how that happened. Now this upgrade to Business Class. I have to say that I had real mixed emotions about this. On one hand, I have never flown anything except economy before so it was exciting. But on the other hand, I always figured that I would never miss what I never knew with Business or First Class. Well, it turns out, I was missing A LOT! The fancy meal, the fancy wine. More fancy wine. Even more fancy wine. And no cost. Well, I did have to pay the extra 77 euros to ship my bike box this time. Funny how that worked out.

After all of this, I got to Iceland at midnight, collected my bags and bike, got a rental car and got checked into the hotel around 2AM (4 AM France Time). I was pretty wiped out, but here. Stay tuned for “Heading Home- Part Two: Iceland”

Well, all good things come to an end. And the same is with cycling in France. I have made my last rides in the french countryside.

The second to last ride was a three hour ride toward Grenoble on the Voie Vert 63 route which I have ridden a few times before. This ride was during the most recent heat wave to hit Europe. The high temp only rose to 99F as far as I could figure, but it felt a lot hotter than that. Of course, I rode in the hottest part of the day. I just seem to have a knack for that, or rather a curse! Despite the hot weather, it rained in the evening to cool things off somewhat. This rain may have been nice in Chambery, but it reeked HAVOC for the Tour de France. Foul weather caused hail, flooding, and mudslides on the course to Val D’Isere and resulted in a shortened course for the riders. And again the next day as well.

My very last ride was on Saturday. It covered the same route as the previous ride, but the weather was MUCH cooler. Thank goodness for that. Rain was in the forecast, so I made sure I was finished around 1PM. It turned out to be conservative since the rain held off until around 7:30 in the evening. These last rides served no real greater purpose other than to go out and enjoy the french countryside a few more times. Well, and that I was getting antsy for riding in general.

So now, my bike is safely picked away in the box ready to start heading back to the good ole USA. But I wanted to share a little bit of what riding in France, and even more specifically in the Savoie Region of France is like.

Riding around this area seemed very safe to me. Without a doubt, the safest place I have ever ridden. There are just so many dedicated cycling routes to choose from. These routes are either separated, dedicated paved pathways for cycling only, or the most remote of back roads that exist here in France.

When you do encounter a vehicle, they are very courteous toward cyclists. I think this stems from the fact that the french seem to embrace cycling as a viable alternative to driving. I think it is part of their culture, but also has something to due with the absurd price of gasoline!

Everyone in France rides a bike. Maybe not quite as universal as the Dutch, but they are very avid. There are a lot of very serious riders too, at least they looked serous with their fancy riding kits and top end racing machines (A “kit” is the outfit that a cyclist wears) And there are lots of non-serious riders with bikes that come in all sorts of flavors. Lots of nice bikes, all the way to old “beater” bike ridden by the poor students that are going to the university here. And every kind of bike in between. Commuters ride bikes, shoppers ride bikes, families ride bikes, retired people ride bikes. There are road bikes, mountain bikes, cross bikes, cruiser bikes, and actually, an awful to of e-bikes (Bikes assisted with electric motors) that pass me up with the easiest of efforts that drive me kind of crazy. E-bikes are the bikes of choice by the French Postal Service, and food curriers like Uber Eats!

When I come to an intersection, the default is to let the bikes pass first. Being an American cyclist, I DO NOT TRUST the driver of cars at intersections. This has caused some minor problems though. At intersections, I usually stop and wave cars through the intersection first. Well, they try to wave me through. And then we sort of have a stand off arguing with hand gestures about who is going to give in first….. But the take away and my point is this: French drivers recognize bicycles and are serious about yielding the right of way.

Of course, I did find places where I would not ride my bike. The winding canyon roads that wind through the valley floors (as opposed to the roads going over the passes) seemed unsafe to me, especially between Grenoble and the village of La Grave. But there were lots of people who did not think twice about it and rode them anyway. Cars drove pretty fast on these roads and in general, they have little to no shoulder to ride on. And the center line on the road seems to only be a suggestion of where to drive. The sports cars and motorcycles go over the center line OFTEN! And then there were the tunnels! There are a lot of tunnels. Long tunnels…. and I really did not feel comfortable riding through them at all. For all of the above reasons, plus the fact that there was no bail out option for a cyclist. Just solid rock walls on the road edge. And sometimes, the lighting is pretty dim.

If cycling in the rural areas of France is safe, then cycling in the city of Chambery is even safer. There is almost no reason to ride on a street that is not either a separated bike path , a bike lane that is delineated by curbs, bollards, or other barriers, or another cases, just plain old bike lanes. You almost never have to mix in with traffic unless you needed to make a left turn on the street.

The most intriguing thing about cycling in Chambery though is the fact that aliens must live here in large numbers. They have pictures of them on all of the bike lanes which they must frequent at some time or another, but I have yet to see one in real life. But I keep looking.

After returning from St. Etienne and the Tour de France, I wanted to do some more riding of course. Who wouldn’t be motivated by that experience?

One thing everyone has told me from the area is to go see Annecy. There is a town, and a lake and they are both supposed to be nice. So that is exactly what I set off to do. Thus, The Road To Annecy, although it sounds a bit like an old Bob Hope and Bing Crosby movie.

The ride to Annecy I estimated to be around 120-130 km, about 75 or 80 miles. Not a bad ride at all. I have already made a couple of exploratory rides to see about the roads getting there and how to negotiate the towns along the way. Today I felt pretty confident about getting there and back. So off went on a really nice day for riding. Sunny, moderate temperatures, and little to no wind. I rode through Aix Les Bains, Gresy Sur Aix, St. Girod, St. Felix, and into Rumilly. I was making pretty good time until i got to Rumilly. The signs for the bike route got a little hard to find after while and I had to do a lot of back and forth trying to stay on the route. Finally, I sort of gave up and found a Tourist Information Office and decided to inquire with them about the local bike route system. Plus, the people at the Tourist Information Offices always speak English! Great plan, except they were closed until 2PM and it was 1PM. So lunch it was! I wasn’t planning on having a formal lunch, just bike forod but hey, what is wrong with another meal at a French cafe? NOTHING!

The people at the Tourist Office and I got the route all straightened out They were not completely familiar with the official Bike Route, but then we figured it out. The signs may have disappeared, but the route was still a good one to travel on. So on to Marcellaz and then to Seynod and the outskirts of Annecy. My ultimate goal was to see the lake, and I knew I was really close to it, but i just couldn’t find it….. and it was a BIG lake too. I ended up in Downtown Annecy at the big train station. It was getting late and I had made a lot twists and turns through town to get to the train station, so I was getting worried about finding my way back to the bike route back to Chambery (since the signs were not very good, remember?)

I managed to find my way back to the route, but never did see the dang lake! So I knew I would have to try again later.

So, later in the week, I went on several shorter rides that I enjoy in the area, but needed to get back to Annecy and see the Lake, even if it killed me! Plus I felt confident since I now knew how to get through Rumilly without taking two hours and studied the map on where I needed to turn to avoid the main urbanized areas of Annecy and find the lake, Ha….

So Friday I was off again. One thing that was different about this attempt. It was MUCH hotter today. Like around 95F hot and I would be riding through the hottest part of the day to make matters worse. But still, 95 degrees isn’t anything that I haven’t done before so nothing to really worry about.

I made it through Rumilly without any issues today. One really interesting thing that I noticed. There were brand new bike route symbols on the shoulder of the roadway. They were not there last week, so I mean BRAND NEW. The symbols went all the way to Seynod. This is where I needed to make some better decisions to avoid Downtown Annecy this time. And I did figure it out, but not without some trial and error on the exact route to get there. Finally, there were some signs for “Le Lac” (Lac is french for Lake!). So I followed them and, Voila… I found the lake.

And it was nice, just like everyone said it would be. It was this “tropical” green color in the shallow areas, but a much darker brilliant blue in the deeper, center part of the lake. I rode along the designated bike path the follows the entire circumference of the lake for a few miles just to see more of the lake, but knowing that I was adding more miles onto my return ride. Finally I decided to turn round, but not before I stopped and dipped my bare feet into the lake and boy, did it feel nice. It was really starting to get hot now and I would have gone swimming, but riding home in wet riding shorts would have been really miserable! And cause for some severe friction and saddle soreness.

Riding back toward Annecy, I rode through the older portion of the city which was right on the lake and it was really nice. Quiet, narrow streets with lots of cafes and tourists wandering around. There were tourist pedal boat rentals and tourist shops, and tourist buses, and well, you get the idea….There was also the public beach which was really crowded.

So, now in the old Annecy City Centre, I needed to find my way back to Seynod and the route back to Rumilly and eventually Chambery. So of course, I got lost, or rather couldn’t exactly retrace the my route I had taken to get back to the bike route. Annecy is a much larger city than I thought it was. Finally, I saw a sign for Rumilly and I followed those road signs. The only problem was that this road turned out to be the highway route, which DID have a lot of traffic on it, and DID NOT have much shoulder width to ride on. And it was 10 miles to Rumilly where I knew I could get back onto the bike route. Luckily, I saw a sign for Chavanod which is a town that I had ridden through which WAS on the bike route. It turned out to only be a few kilometers of a detour and I was back on familiar ground. Whew!

So the rest of the ride went smoothly except for the hot weather. I stopped for a cold drink every so often, but made it back to Chambery safe and sound although I did start to cramp up about 5 miles from Chambery.

So now, I have only one more week in Chambery and France. The weather is going to keep getting hotter and hotter this week, so I am not sure how much more riding I will get in for this trip, Hopelully a few more rides, but probably nothing too crazy.

I do plan some future blogs about riding in France in general and another about living in Chambery just for some added perspective. Those should be fun to write and hopefully to read about.

And then it will be on to Iceland for a week of exploring the Land of Fire and Ice! And more pictures.

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.