Author: Greg Pezoldt

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.

If you are wondering what the city of Chambery is like, well it is pretty nice. It is settled up against the foothills of the alps with mountains on two sides. There is an old part of town in the center that is closed to traffic. There must be 200 sidewalk style cafes there. And shops of all kinds to peruse. Being Saturday today, I found out the major square in the city center has a huge public market. That will be fun once I get my own kitchen in a couple weeks!

I have also been looking for an apartment to rent for the summer while I am here. I think I have finally found one. It is a very small studio that is currently occupied by a student. He is leaving in two weeks and I plan to move in on June 15 (although I need to finalize the paperwork still). That will be a huge burden off my mind and shoulders. Until then, I will continue to stay at the Ibis Budget Hotel. it is nice and clean, the staff very helpful, and close to the city center. Since I am going to be staying here for a couple more weeks, they gave me a huge discounted rate and free breakfast in the morning. Like I said, the staff has been very helpful to me.

I mentioned that I was going to recon the area earlier. I did that and it was enlightening. I drove over to Grenoble (about 60km or 35 miles from here. There is a bike path there that I will be checking out soon as well). From there, I drove to Le Bourg d’Oisans which is the starting point for the epic Alpe d’Huez bicycle climb of Tour de France fame. Driving up to Le Bourg D’Oisans was good to have done. It was a very narrow road with little to no shoulder. I decided automatically that I did NOT want to ride a bike there. I would need to drive up to Le Bourg d’Oisans and ride from there.

I drove up to the top of the Alpe d’Huez to make sure the I would know the route in the future and it is looks to be a nice challenge. 21 switch backs before you get to the top. There were lots of people making there own attempts of the Alpe that day.

Next, I continued up the valley past the village of La Grave. This is the way up to the Col de Lautaret and the Col de Galibier. It would not be too bad of a bike ride but there were lots of tunnels, one of which was nerve racking in a car let alone a bike. When and if I try the Galibier, I will go from the other side of the Col de Lautaret (where there are NO tunnels to traverse). As of right now, the Col de Galibier is still closed due to snow, but I think it will open soon. Oh, a quick note. “Col” is the french word for pass. Hope that clears some confusion.

Then it was down valley again past Le Bourg d”Oisans again to the start of the Col de Croix de Fer (or Pass of the Iron Cross). It is a long climb, over 30 km (or about 20 miles) and a bit cruel. You go up, but then down a few times before the summit. Along the way, you pass the summit of the Col de Glandon which goes up from a different direction (and a possible ride of the future too).

So I have some plans for big rides now. As I mentioned before, I now know that I will need to rent a car on those days since I do not want to navigate the narrow shoulder-less roads between Grenoble and Le Bourg d’Oisans, and the fact that it is just too far to ride from Chambery. It is also worth noting that I had forgotten the majesty of the alps. They are beautiful, steep and awe inspiring.

Back in Chambery, I have scouted out some local rides. There is a nice bike path that goes to Grenoble as I mentioned. It also goes the opposite direction to Lake Bourget and I think it will be a staple of my local riding .

So…….. , so far everything is going pretty well here. There have been some close calls now and then. Like yesterday. The rental car company e-mailed me and said that they couldn’t find where I dropped the car off on Thursday. It was a holiday and I had to drop it and leave the key at a hotel reception desk. So I was hoping no-one stole the car. That would have been a major problem. luckily, it was just where I had left it, albeit in the Avis car area, not the Europcar parking area (who I rented the car from). Then there was the problem of fueling the car up. first, I could not figure out how to open the fuel door for the car. Once I got that figured out (by looking at pictures in the owners manual written in french!), then I had to figure out which nozzle was for diesel (which is not called diesel in france, duh!), then my credit card was rejected at the pump! That would be bad!!! Luckily, it worked at the next gas station I tried and has worked ever since.

Lastly, I know everyone likes pictures. I promise to start including them in the next postings. I promise.

Again, Au Rrevoir

Greg is on the go again. It seems like my amazing ride across the country was just over with but it has been an entire year since I started that journey.

After watching the Tour de France for so many years and seeing the incredible mountains they have ridden over, I decided that I wanted to give them a try myself. I am actually writing this from the town of Chambéry France located on the western edge of the French Alps.

Getting here was “half the fun”! I left Wenatchee on Sunday morning the 26th of May. My good Nick Covey drove me down to the transit center where I took the Wenatchee Valley Shuttle to SeaTac airport. That went very smooth and was about the only element of this trip I did not worry about. I had to wait about 6 hours before my flight but the time went by pretty quickly if You can imagine that. I had to wait for about 2 of those hours waiting for Icelandair to open their ticket window. I needed to complete some business with them concerning the flight to Paris. My bicycle was considered an extra piece of baggage and I needed to pay for that. I tried to do it on-line but was not able to figure how to do it. The website said I could do it at the time of check in so that is what I did. That went pretty smooth and I am not exactly sure if they even charged me the extra $116 that I was supposed to pay. I guess I will have to wait until I can review my credit card statement. That will be interesting since I seem to be hemorrhaging money right now.

Next, I needed to secure a plastic bag from the airline to put my backpack in. It has so many straps dangling off of it that it always gets hung up in the baggage sorting mechanism and never seems to get to my destination at the same time as I do. Of course, Icelandair did not have any bags so I had to hunt one down at the Alaska Air counter (at the other end of the airport I might add). So that got accomplished as well.

Next was reserving a Rental car at Charles DeGualle airport in Paris. I had thought about taking the train from Paris, but after consulting with Ed Farrar I decided to go the rental car route. Ed would know since his son Tyler was a pro cyclist and raced in the Tour for a few years even winning a stage! Ed said the train was tough and people have had their bikes stolen off the train before. Plus, renting the car saved me from having to haul the bike box all over Paris for who knows how long. Feel good about the rental car!

Now the next thing is to actually get on the the plane for a brief flight of 11 hours (with a brief reprieve in Iceland of 1.5 hours). You would think that getting on the plane would be easy. Well Icelandair found a way to put drama into that! For some bizarre reason, they have two flights from SeaTac to Iceland that leave within 5 minutes of each other. You read that correctly. 5 minutes. And the flight numbers are 582 and 584. And from gates S9 and S11. Just to make it even more interesting, they decided to flip the gates around so people were running back and forth. My original booking was on flight 582, but they managed to put 584 on my boarding pass so I was a little stressed out about that. But after going to both gates, I was finally confident that everything was alright. And it was, thank goodness.

Once in the air, a minor miracle occurred. The flight was not booked full and I shared my aisle with one other person. I had the window and he had the aisle. As soon as the captain turned off the fasten seatbelt sign the other guy left! I don’t know where he went but he did not come back to his seat until 30 minutes before landing. So I took full advantage and slept lying across all 3 seats during the short night we had. I say short because we flew a semi polar route and flying toward the sun so the night was only a few hours long since the days are longer the further north you go and then the massive time change as well. But I did sleep a little bit. But it was better than the normal lousy attempt that I usually make while flying.

So leaving at 7pm on Sunday, I got to Paris at 4:30 pm on Monday. Got the bags and bike, got the rental car and was out the door by 6 to negotiate my way through metro Paris. My only goal for Monday was to get out of the Paris suburbs and find a Motel to sleep at. Oh, and to get some food. Icelandair doesn’t feed you unless you pre-purchase a meal which I declined. So I only had 2 sports bars and a sandwich that I ate in Seattle before the flight. So yes, i was more hungry than tired.

But I was tired so I slept good. And woke up only a little early so knock on wood, I haven’t really had any jet lag to be bothered with.

Today, Tuesday, I finished the drive to Chambéry, France. This is the town I think I am going to call home base for this trip. It is close to many great climbs in the Alps. The Alpe d’Huez, the Col de Galibier, the Col de Criox de Fer, the Col de Magdeleine, and others. Once in Chambéry, I found a motel for a few nights and started doing research on bike routes and other important things like trying to find my car after I parked it and got lost in town, etc.

Tomorrow, I am going to recon some rides and see about logistics for some of these epic rides. They are not all accessible from Chambéry without having to ride 100 miles or more round trip. That generally is too much for a ride of that nature, but we shall see. I am going to check the bus and train situation tomorrow or the next day as well to see if I can take a few miles off the total ride distance.

So in the mean time, I am just enjoying the French restaurants and sampling some of there wines as well.

Just some final notes. I am not planning on riding every day like last year so I will not be posting everyday either. Lastly, my cell phone doesn’t work over here without costing a small fortune so please e-mail me instead if you want to contact me. You can still comment on the blog page too. My e-mail is pezoldt@flymail.net.

Au Revoir….. for now.

I arrived in Wenatchee early this morning and it feels good to be home. My trip on Amtrak was nice and relaxing and without drama although a long trip (but not 121 days long)!

Now that I am home, my friends Maureen and Carl are also glad I am home and are hosting an Oktoberfest style get together at their house this weekend. They want to invite and encourage all of their fellow blog followers to come over too. Of course it goes without question that I would love to see everyone too. You know what I have been up to this summer, but I would like to catch up on what you have been up to also.

If you are interested in coming over, contact me through e-mail or text and I will give you more details. My contact information is also on the blog site if you open the menu and choose contact. I am looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible.

For those of you who are living in California and cannot make it to Wenatchee, don’t despair. I am planning on making a trip south this Spring and I plan to get together with everyone down there at that time.

It’s good to be home. Now it is time to get ready for ski season. Let it snow!

Here are the estimates of the final statistics from my ride.

Total Miles: 5,826 miles

Days Riding: 106

Total Days: 121

Number of States: 16

Beginning Point: La Push, WA

Ending Point: Bar Harbor, ME

Northern Most Point: Eureka, MT

Southern Most Point: Delta, CO

Highest Point: 12,187 Ft ASL w/o Gear

12,095 Ft ASL w Gear

Lowest Point: Sea Level

Crossed Continental Divide: 7 Times

Named Mountain Passes: 18

National Parks: 7

National Monuments: 4

Days Camping (in Tent) : 74

Estimated Pedal Revolutions: 3,893,833

These are mostly estimates. I know that some of you want to know the total elevation climbed and I really couldn’t even figure a way to make any kind of estimate. Miles and miles though.

The number of pedal revolutions was based on an average gear of 38/17. Feel free to check my math. I also assumed a wheel radius of 13.5 inches, not 350 cm.

I have very mixed feelings about today. On one hand I am excited that this will be my last day of riding. After 105 days of riding, I will turn the pedals for the last time on this odyssey. On the other hand, I am a tad bit sad because the trip has been so wonderfully amazing and it is ending. But there is one more day of riding, even if it is going to be a short ride.

This morning when I woke up, I immediately looked toward the sky. The sky was broken clouds tending toward mostly cloudy. I was wondering if this was going to present a problem with THE PLAN. It was not my plan, but my cousin Steve’s plan. The plan was that I would ride back towards Ellsworth to the Bar Harbor airport and Steve would fly in and pick me up in his private plane. If the weather was not clear enough, he would have to scrub his flight and I would be in a state of limbo either waiting for the weather to clear or maybe having to ride another 150 miles to Portland , ME.

Well, first things first. I had to tear down my camp and ride into Bar Harbor just to check for any text message that Steve might have sent because there was no cell service in the campground. Riding back to town I was pretty sure the weather was clearing so I was gaining optimism by the mile. In Town I got lunch and also received a text from Steve saying he was leaving and his ETA was around 1:45. That was fantastic news.

I needed to leave Bar Harbor pretty quickly at that point since I still had to ride about 13 miles to the airport. I thought I would get there about the same as Steve.

The ride today was now almost certain to be my last of the trip and the weather was now actually getting better by the minute. I felt pretty strong today too. Maybe I was riding on Adrenalin, but the hills were all pretty easy to tackle.

I got to the airport with time to spare so I changed clothes into something fairly clean, got out of my cycling shoes and donned my tennis shoes. I thought I might as well be as comfortable as possible on the flight. It would be about 90 minutes.

Steve arrived pretty close to his estimated time. It had been an easy flight in with nearly perfect flying conditions.

My bike fit into the rear seat of the plane, but only after taking the wheels off along with the panniers. And then just like that, we were airborne.

The view of coastal Maine was amazing with all of the bays and islands.

The one thing about the view from the air was that everything looked so flat. Could all of those hills have been imagined? No, they had to have been real. My legs told me so every day. Flat or hilly, the view was awesome!

We landed near Sterling, Mass (not too far from Boston) where Steve and his wife Sue lived. I planned on staying through Saturday afternoon so I could visit with my cousin plus get some necessary errands out of the way. Then I would be catching the Amtrak Saturday to Chicago, change trains and ride to Whitefish, MT, visit with my friend Joe for a day, and finally arrive home in Wenatchee around 5:30 AM on Wednesday on the last leg of the Amtrak trip.

I am almost home. Home sweet home, here I come.