Today is our first day following the Tour on the road. Our route for today is riding from Lourdes up to the Col du Soulor where we will watch the tour come through. After the Tour comes through, then we will bike down the other side back to Lourdes.
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| Bike trail in Lourdes |
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| Nike Chalk block |
The group's start time was 9 am, but I chose to leave early as I am packing a heavy camera. When I have done other tours in the past, I am always pressed for time to get to our viewing spot before the Tour comes through.
This would also allow me to get a nice warm up. Our guides put together great maps and in some cases, they needed to be creative to identify certain turns. We got on a bike trail and there was a turn to get off the bike trail by going through "11 Boulders". If I rode under an overpass, then I have gone too far. Well the cue sheet was slightly off on the mileage and there were 2 places where there were underpasses. I kept looking for the 11 boulders and couldn't find them.
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| Enjoying the climb |
I did what was best...wait for one of the Trek Travel groups to come through. Jake from one of the other groups came by and I got behind his wheel. (Jake was one of my guides on a previous Trek Travel trip in California.) So....the 11 boulders was between 2 sections where there were underpasses. 
Now I am back on track, but I lost my 30 minute head start. That was fine.
As I started on the main rode to climb the Col du Soulor, I ran into one of my guides, Jeff. Jeff became my riding partner for the day. He would not let me get dropped even though, he could ride a much faster pace. As we are riding today, the weather is perfect for me. It is in the mid-80's. The views are spectacular and Jeff didn't have any problem stopping whenever I wanted to stop to take pictures.
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| The last 7 km to the top |
When I am taking pictures of scenery, I am using my point and shoot camera instead of pulling the big camera out of my big black bag. It is easier and quicker to take those pictures on and off the bike for scenery. Jeff and I kept riding. We came up the the Nike chalk block along the road and it went for several kilometers.
We stopped several times for pictures. Our goal is to get to the lunch spot by 12:00 noon, even though the Tour's Caravan wouldn't be coming through until around 1:30 pm.
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| Didi |
On the way up, I saw Didi the Devil. I had to stop and get my picture taken with Didi. Didi has been following the Tour for over 15 years. He is from Eastern Germany and for the last several years, he has people sponsoring him for the Tour. 
As we continue the climb, the views continue to be better and better.
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| With Jeff our guide |
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| Near the summit |
We finally got to the top right at about 12:00 noon. Trek Travel had a very nice viewing spot at the top of the Col du Soulor.
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| Our viewing spot |
There were tents set up and we had access to our day bag. We were able to get out of our cycling clothes for a few hours and enjoy a great pasta lunch at their restaurant. I heard a rumor that a couple of the people serving us lunch were the owners of Trek Travel. (Wow!) The food was great. I'm not sure how many of the Trek Travel groups were at this viewing as I know others were at the Col du Ausbisque for viewing as well. We also had some riders in our group also ride the Col du Ausbisque which was about another 7 km climb.
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| The Party scene at the top |
After lunch, I decided to stake out my spot for taking pictures. I tend to leave the most populated area in order to try to get the best pictures as possible without people standing next to me leaning their heads into my camera lense.
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| These guys were funny |
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| In my Allez Radioschack Teeshirt |
I walked about 1 km down from the top and found a good spot. I was enjoying the atmosphere of people partying at the top of the climb and some of that can be seen in the pictures and the video below.
Then around 1:30, the Tour's Caravan came through. This is a parade of all of the sponsors. Many of them giving out "swag".
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| The Caravan coming through |
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| Helicoptors the tour is near |
The swag can be sausages, newspapers, candy, Tour hats, team shirts, and detergent, etc. I only got detergent, candy and some other trinket. They should have warning signs when the Caravan comes through.
People start running everywhere to "catch" the swag and if you aren't careful, you can get hit by a sponsor's vehicle. After the Caravan came through, I decided to go back up to the top just to see if I could find a better spot. In our Trek Travel area, it was very crowded. I decided to head back down to the original spot. It should be noted, in the Trek Travel tent, there was a big screen TV for people to watch the stage while waiting for it to cross our paths.
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| Lance leading the breakaway |
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| Chris Horner in second breakaway |
At that point, I heard Lance was leading a breakaway group. I knew at that point, I should be able to get several pictures of Lance. I went back to my other spot, but I was torn between which side of the street to take pictures. Too much sun in the pictures, can leave shadows on the faces. I know Lance tends to ride on the right side of the rode, but that wasn't the side I wanted to take pictures as I would be taking pictures into the sun. Since Lance was in a breakaway, I knew it would be easy to spot Lance. It was just a matter of time when we heard the helicoptors. We knew the Tour was coming. When we got first sight of the helicoptors, the fans looked down the mountain at the switchbacks to see the Tour. When the breakaway came around the turn, it was all Lance leading the breakaway.
Chris Horner also with Radioshack would be in the second breakaway just a few minutes behind Lance.
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| Schleck ...you took my jersey |
When you watch a stage come through on a mountain, you are able to see riders coming through for the better part of 15 to 20 minutes as the sprinters will typically be in the "gruppetto" (back of the group) and they are not strong mountain climbers.
For sprinting stages, you see the Tour come through in about 1 minute and then it's over. Watching the Tour on the climb is always one of my favorite spots to see the Tour. After the Tour came through, I headed back to the Trek Travel tent and put the cycling clothes back on and watched most of the remaining part of the race on the big screen TV.
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| Pain on the climb |
Then I rode the descent down the Col du Soulor back to Lourdes. On the descent, it attempted to rain with a few sprinkles, but fortunately, it stopped. Towards the last 10 miles of the ride, I met up with a few people from one of the other Trek groups and rode with them to the finish back to our hotel. Our dinner tonight was on our own. Since our hotel has an Italian restaurant, I decided to eat there to load up on pasta for the next day of climbing. I ate with the 3 Amigos from our group. Overall, another good day in France. Total climbing today was 4950 feet. I biked 54 miles. Below are the 2 links to the GPS data. One for the climb up and one for the climb down to Lourdes.
Now I am back on track, but I lost my 30 minute head start. That was fine. 
We finally got to the top right at about 12:00 noon. Trek Travel had a very nice viewing spot at the top of the Col du Soulor. 
At that point, I heard Lance was leading a breakaway group. I knew at that point, I should be able to get several pictures of Lance. I went back to my other spot, but I was torn between which side of the street to take pictures. Too much sun in the pictures, can leave shadows on the faces. I know Lance tends to ride on the right side of the rode, but that wasn't the side I wanted to take pictures as I would be taking pictures into the sun. Since Lance was in a breakaway, I knew it would be easy to spot Lance. It was just a matter of time when we heard the helicoptors. We knew the Tour was coming. When we got first sight of the helicoptors, the fans looked down the mountain at the switchbacks to see the Tour. When the breakaway came around the turn, it was all Lance leading the breakaway. 
For sprinting stages, you see the Tour come through in about 1 minute and then it's over. Watching the Tour on the climb is always one of my favorite spots to see the Tour. After the Tour came through, I headed back to the Trek Travel tent and put the cycling clothes back on and watched most of the remaining part of the race on the big screen TV.
Then I rode the descent down the Col du Soulor back to Lourdes. On the descent, it attempted to rain with a few sprinkles, but fortunately, it stopped. Towards the last 10 miles of the ride, I met up with a few people from one of the other Trek groups and rode with them to the finish back to our hotel. Our dinner tonight was on our own. Since our hotel has an Italian restaurant, I decided to eat there to load up on pasta for the next day of climbing. I ate with the 3 Amigos from our group. Overall, another good day in France. Total climbing today was 4950 feet. I biked 54 miles. Below are the 2 links to the GPS data. One for the climb up and one for the climb down to Lourdes.
Monica
ReplyDeleteI am glad you took the time to document this. You did a great job conveying the essence of the tour.
Thanks for sharing.