Tour de France 2010: July 24, 2010 Bordeaux to Chateau Pichon Longueville (Time Trial Viewing)

David Zabriski & David Millar

Today is our last day of riding and I'm glad it's a flat course as I woke up sick today. I know that by riding today, I will only get sicker and that held true. Our route today starts from our hotel and we will ride out to a Chateau near Pauillac.

Watching the Caravan on our ride

Our viewing spot will be just a few kilometers from the finish of the time trial. As we were all gathering by our bikes this morning just outside of our hotel, we heard someone yell down to us from the floor above. It was David Zabriskie and David Millar from Garmin.

We chatted with Dave Z for a moment or two and as people in our group were asking a couple questions, he joked and said...."you already owe me $10 for opening the window". We then wished him good luck in the TT today. As we started our ride, the group rode a very strong pace on the flats. I finally had to back off when the pace was reaching 20 mph as I knew it would be a long day not feeling well.

I rode about 10 miles with the group and then Renee stayed back with me and I paced behind her wheel at about 17 to 18 mph. I appreciate Renee staying back with me as it made it easier for me to stay focused on cycling and not worrying about the route directions. It was the quickest way for me to get to the TT viewing if I didn't have to stop and read directions. Our group did miss a turn early on and Renee did a great job getting us all back on the route.

Chateau Pichon Longueville

As I have mentioned throughout the week how much I appreciate the guides riding with me, that has been a unique experience. I am self-sufficient where I don't need to have someone riding with me all of the time. I've lead over 700 bike rides for the local club and I'm used to being the one to watch out for riders who get dropped! (Thank you Stefan, Jeff and Renee!)

Viewing spot in background

Anyways, the scenery today was great as we rode out to the viewing spot. It was a 40 mile route to the viewing spot and my average speed on the flats was my fastest average speed this year on a flat route. If I wasn't sick, I would have ridden a strong flat ride.

Inside the winery

In fact, before I got sick, I was planning on making this day a hard effort. In the end, it was still a good strong effort. When we got to the viewing spot, Trek had reserved the Chateau Pichon Longueville specific for all Trek groups that converged to this viewing spot.

Cancellara smoked the TT & Won it

We had our day bag and it was nice to get out of the cycling clothes. We had wine tasting as well as a wonderful lunch. The grounds of the Chateau were picture perfect. See the reflection pool in the picture. As with any Tour stage, I did find a spot just off of the grounds to take pictures away from the crowds.

View of TT course

I took some pictures in our viewing spot, but I noticed immediately, that I didn't want the campers across the street in my pictures or a couple street signs in the pictures. I walked about a block away and took most of my pictures at that spot.

The spot just crested a little hill and on the other side was a nice view of the vineyards and you could see the riders coming a few blocks away. I lost track of how many pictures I took on this day, but I selected just a handful for this blog.

I have been on 3 other TDFs trips with another tour company and I can say our viewing spot and the surroundings were the most scenic of any time trial viewing spot I have experienced in the past.

David Zabriskie

The weather was mostly sunny and warm and it made for a pleasant day as much as possible given that I wasn't feeling 100%.

My viewing spot with Chateau in background

After all the riders came through, we had a group photo taken at the Chateau and then we got on our bikes to go for what was suppose to be an 8 km ride, but ended up being an 8 mile ride to drop our bikes off and get on a bus back to Bourdeaux.

We also needed to grab our day pack and take it with us. I had a camelback full of water, my heavy camera in my bike bag and now a heavy day back over my camelback. As soon as we headed out on the ride, I was dropped immediately.

George Hincapie

My heart rate went to 170 when I was only doing 12 mph. (Again, I was carrying a lot more extra weight than the others, which didn't help either.) I knew I was in trouble, but I thought, I would just ride my pace and follow the que sheet. The group missed a couple turns and so they kept meeting back up with me when they turned around two times.

Finally, on my third attempt to stay with the group, I mentioned to David G. that I was getting dropped, and he stayed back with me and "reeled" me back into the group. (David - Thank you for doing that for me!).

Navarro

We then got to the place to drop off the bikes then we got on a bus. I cannot remember what time we got back to the hotel, but I think we ended up having dinner around 9 pm. Although, I was not feeling well that day, I still enjoyed the day.

LANCE!

The route we rode was a beautiful route. The Chateau was spectacular and watching the time trial made it all worth while. Overall cycling distance today was 48 miles with 500 feet of climbing.

I finished the week of cycling with about 265 miles of biking and 16,000 feet of climbing. If it weren't for the rain on the Tourmalet, it would have been 20,000 feet of climbing. Overall, good riding all week with a great group of people.