Hawaii IM 07' swim bike

I'm back in CT now and the weather here is beautiful. My mind is still whirling from the trip so I will fill in the space over the next few days as I sort things out.

Spectating at the race was very educational. I learned a bit more about how to race an Ironman - mainly, once again, pace right on the bike. I witnessed quite a few impressive bike rides followed by long, walk/jog marathons. But let's not beat a dead horse here.

Race day started early as our crew headed over to see the swim start at 5:45 am. We wouldn't return back to the house til' close to 1am on Sunday. The morning was really nice with not a cloud in the sky (which meant that it was going to be a scorcher that day), and we found a spot on a sea wall that offered a great view of the swim. Right before the swim start, a bunch of navy seals parachuted into the water which was cool to see, then Laird Hamilton, the big wave married to gabby reese surf stud, surf paddled the lead swimmers through the whole swim. The pro's went off at 6:45am and their wave, which consisted of maybe 200, seemed minuscule compared with the pirahna-like frenzy of the amateur wave. As the cannon fired announcing the start, I got the first of many chicken-skin goose bumps. There were many times throughout the day where I wished I was racing, and actually many times were I was glad I wasn't.

After breakfast, we headed out to the Kuakini highway where there is an out and back section of the bike early on before heading out onto the Queen K. The first pro through was Tom Evans from Canada, but he was followed closely by a large group including all the big guns. I never saw Faris and I soon learned that he didn't even start due to illness. Stadler was close by and I thought he set himself up perfectly for a solid repeat, but he soon would drop out from being ill, as well as Michellie Jones, Cameron Brown, and a few more top names. This was interesting to me since I have been there before. Most people assume that IM triathletes are extremely healthy people, yet we are constantly on the fine line of illness due to training so hard and compromising our immune systems. Usually, if you place close attention to recovery including adequate sleep, you can stay on the positive side. The talk was that there must have been something going around, but I think it was more due to stress from repeating, or from wishing for a great day, or from squeezing in one last hard session.

After watching the front 1/3rd hit this out and back section, we jumped in the car and took the mountain road out to Kawaihai to catch the riders at corner before they climbed up to Hawi and back. I drove as john and Eric, the MyAthlete technician, tracked the four athletes racing that were prototyping the devices. Man, this is such a cool way to watch the race. We knew exactly when they'd be coming through Kawaihai. Many of the spectators there were coming over asking for info on the race and were curious to learn about what was going on. I suggested to John that he put a tent at this corner next year. There was nothing out there. It would be great to have a tent there playing music and with three or four screens and technicians there checking up on any athletes racing with the g-units. Spectators could come up to the booth and ask to track their athlete who was racing out on the course.

The sun was out with no cloud coverage, which meant it was very hot, although the wind was light once again, the third time in three years. I heard some after the race mentioning the wind was strong, but that was a fast Hawaii bike day, trust me. It was blowing a bit up near Hawi, but it always does up there. The Queen K was very calm, and even provided a tail wind back into town. Chris Lieto was the first to come through Kawaihai on the return trip from Hawai and he looked strong. I really respect the way he raced. He went for it on the bike, knowing that for him to win, he would need a lead off the bike. He took a gamble, where he probably could have sat in the pack and ran 10 minutes faster. Same for Torborn Sindballe who came through next chasing Chris. Tim Deboom led the pack of ten through next and to say they were riding 10 meters apart was bullshit. Spectating gives you an even better view of what goes on. Out at Kawaihai, things begin to spread out, yet there was still quite a bit of drafting so those that say they couldn't avoid it are full of shit. I saw this first hand and it could have easily been avoided.

We waited for the Myathlete racers to come through and then headed back to Kailua to catch the run. I'll post more about the run and afterthoughts tomorrow, but some observations:

The top ten pro's were riding steep (78 degrees or more with maybe the exception of Luc VanLierde and Luke Bell). They were all riding in road cycling shoes, not tri cycling shoes - something I've advocated in IM tri racing for a long time. And many of them were using Jet Streams or Profile handlebar mount bottles - something I'm not a huge fan of but makes sense in Hawaii. Lieto had a Jet stream, two bottles on his frame and one behind the saddle which told me that he didn't want to have to slow and speed up at all the aid stations grabbing fuel. Most of the top guys and girls were wearing white or lighter colors which again to me, makes total sense considering that darker colors, and black in particular, attract heat. All the top contenders were wearing aero helmets.

More to follow...

Cheers,

EH

Interesting Race

Short update - I'm stil at the race! It was good conditions here today. Light winds on the bike. The sun was out all day though. It was really interesting being a spectator here today. There were times when I wished I was racing, and to be honest, there were times when I was glad I wasn't. I thnk it has to do with the fact that I never mentally committed to an IM this year. I hope that's the case anyway.

Good to see Tim Deboom and Luc Vanlierde in the top ten again. Rutgere Beke showed a lot of heart. Look out for Craig Alexander - that guy is the real deal! So is Sam Macglone. The womans winner was the race of the day - she must be the real deal.

It's an incredible, incredible event!

I'll give a full report on my thoughts of the day tomorrow, if anyone's interested.

Cheers,

EH

Thursday at the Ironman is when the athletes take that reality check that they will be racing in two days and begin to lay low. A lot less athletes training on the course today. I think it's Thursday. You seem to lose track of the days when here and not racing.

Today started again as another very tough day in Hawaii. Bright sun, the ocean sitting there calling out. It's quite tough! John and I ran from the house down to the pier at 6:30am. The annual underpants run was taking place at 8:00am and there was a huge crowd getting ready for it. I still can't figure out how I feel about this event. Usually I'm very decisive on my feelings. Yeah, it was kind of funny 10 yrs ago when it began. Maybe I'm a dud here but it seems like a joke thats been played 8 times too many. People seem to love it though, so what do I know.

I went for a swim following my run - man, I love swimming here. It's just buoyant and salty and clean and with incredible visiblity - it's therapeutic. I do love that swim up espresso bar at the 1/2 mile buoy also. After the swim, we grabbed a quick bite then opened up the booth. Shortly after that, Peter (the great chef), Eric (the MyAthlete tech guy), and myself drove up the Queen K to Kawaihai. I got on the bike here and took a g-unit and headed up to Hawi. I felt strong on the climb to hawi, and pushed hard into the serious headwind the last 5 miles before turning around and heading back. I got in a solid 2 hr 30 min ride and the device worked great. John was able to show the live data from my ride at the expo. Peter and Eric picked me up at Waikoloa and we grabbed a smoothie for the drive back to Kailua. The traffic here gets worse every year and from the airport back it was congested, so I hopped out impatiently and rode my bike back.

The expo was winding down around 3:30pm and I went over to the Cannondale booth. Faris Alsultan was signing autographs and one of his sponsors, Edinger (?) beer, was there with a keg. So I brought the MyAthlete boys over and the German guys kept feeding us beer.

So let's see - I ran, than swam in the pacific, than rode on the course for awhile, then drank beer at the expo - that's what I call a great day.

This trip is different though. I'm used to having Lisa out here with me. Her and I have had such a great time here and when I ride by some of the places where we have stayed, it reminds of these times.

It's time to get some sleep. Tomorrow is another busy day and first priority is finding a souvenir, preferably some kind of dress, for my daughter Kate. Now that's pressure! These pro athletes think they are dealing with pressure but they have know idea.

Cheers,

EH

Today, the expo was open from 9am until 4pm and John was presenting MyAthlete on center stage at 10:30am. The idea was for me to head out and ride the Hawaii bike course, tagged with one of the g-units (that's the name I gave to the MyAthlete device). Then, those coming through the expo could see on the big screens set up at the MyAthlete tent exactly how the devices work in real time. The unit worked great and recorded my ride in 1 minute intervals.

I headed out into a mild wind and for the first hour I was flying. In fact, I went 25 miles in the first hour. Kona is very interesting though and things can change on a dime. Up near the big resorts on the queen K, the wind picked up. There also wasn't a clooud in the sky. I stopped in Kawahai to refuel and Laurent Jalabert, the famous french cyclist, was hanging out, just having finished up a ride of his own. After a quick can of coke and a refill of gatorade in my bottles, I soldiered on. The 20 mile climb up to Hawi was brutal. the wind was gusting to the point were I was almost knocked off my bike a few times. That combined with the intense heat of the day made things more than challenging. The conditions closely resembled 97', which I feel was the toughest year I raced in Hawaii. The locals in Kawahai even were discussing how hot it was. On the climb to Hawi, there was some fresh road kill - a wild boar, with it's intestines strung out across the road. the smell combined with the heat almost made me vomit. As I descended from Hawi, I flatted on some glass on my front tire. I changed it quickly, then stopped at the convienient store there for some more fluids and a chipwhich. I called up John and said "where am I?" the devices were working great since he knew exactly where I was. My ride ended a bit early due to another flat on the queen K on the return trip. I brought out a brand new tire that I should have put on! It was a good solid ride though, and John said that those coming through the expo loved seeing the live info.

There were a lot of athletes training out on the course. A lot that were racing! They should be resting. It's funny how you never see the pros out there. It was also funny how some people yelled at me to save it for race day.

As we were cleaning up the expo site at 4pm, John mentioned that Sister Madonna Buder was close by and I told him I was going to approach her about wearing a device on race day. She was very interested although she is feeling quite a bit of pressure from HBO, who are doing a special on her, and because of the fact that last year she just barely made the finish cut-off and the conditions were very favorable. She was really sweet though and mentioned she would stop back tomorrow because she wanted to find out more information on MyAthlete.

Tonight we had a dinner at the house for the athletes who will be wearing the devices on race day and John's friend Peter, who came out to cook, made an unbelievable dinner. He bought fresh Tuna right off the dock here in kona from a fisherman and served it with a spicy mango salsa and sticky coconut rice. For desert, he made a chocolate mousse infused with fresh Kona coffee. It was better than most restaurants by far. The athletes seemed excited to be a part of this initial soft launch. The more I see the excitement from everyone about this business, the more excited I get about being part of this initial launch.

Tomorrow, I am going to run early down to the pier and then do a swim. After some breakfast, I plan on riding back up near Hawi with one of the units again. There was a small section where the unit lost contact for a bit and we want to see if it will happen again. Once it kicked back on, all the info was there. So it should be another busy, fun day! If that boar is still there, I'm bringing it back to see what Peter the chef can do with it.

Cheers,

EH

MyAthlete

Man, it's been busy here, especially considering I'm not racing. I mean, when I'm racing, I'm usually very busy race week, registering, picking up last minute bike things, getting in some light training, and just keeping busy so I'm not overly focused on the race itself.

Yesterday started with a trip to Lava Java which has amazing coffee and great breakfast food. It's become the place to hang out in the past few years which usually sends me elsewhere, but the coffee and food are so good, as well as the food. John and I both forgot our goggles so we waited until 9am when the tri shop here opened and picked some up and then headed to the pier to swim. Last year, the earthquake really stirred the pacific up and visibility was very limited (fo Hawaii - if it were LI sound, it'd be incredible). But this year, the ocean is back and the water was amazing. Most here swim between 7 and 8:30 am so it was a bit empty at 9:30. Desiree Ficker was getting in at the same time as me though and we swam out to the 1/2 mile buoy together. She turned back and I went just a bit farther before turning. The first swim here always seems to relax me a bit and put me in a good mood. After this we ran a bunch of errands to get ready for the expo - one of the errands was hitting Jamba Juice, which will be a daily fixture while here. Before dinner, John and I headed out for a run. I ran from the house down to Alii Drive and I mean down. The first 15 minutes of the run were all down hill, which meant the last 15 minutes were all up hill.

Today, we awoke and ran from the house to the pier which was about a 50 minute run for me. Then we swam for 40 minutes. Albert Boyce has a coffee business and he set up a catamaran at the 1/2 mile buoy with a swim up ice espresso bar. How cool is that! I took some pictures of John with my waterproof camera that are pasted above.

We set up for the expo which began this evening at 5pm. I headed out for a 2 hr bike ride on the queen K. The wind was very low. I did a few tempo efforts and felt really good.

The expo went really well. It was quite exciting being involved in the start up of this amazing business. The people coming through the expo were really fascinated by the concept - most wanted to rent or buy it for this Saturday! This is a soft launch though and units will officially be available in 2008. There is no heavy sale needed for this project though. The enthusiasm of those that came through the booth showed how much potential this business has. I told John that I don't think even he realizes how big this business he started is going to be.

We finished the day with a late meal at Huggo's, one of my favorite restaurants and I'm pretty whooped right now and I'll be riding the bike course tomorrow - the 112 miles, with a MyAthlete tracking device on me so that those coming through the expo can see how the unit works. My ride will be uploaded onto a big plasma TV set up in the MyAthlete expo booth. So my apologies if this post was a bit boring or mundane - I'll make up for it tomorrow.

Until then, later.

Cheers,

EH

Going back to Kona

I’m on a flight at the moment to Hawaii. I’m heading back to the Big Island for the Ironman, although I won’t be racing this year. I’m going over to assist John Brennan in the launch of his MyAthlete business. Yes, this will be a tough business trip, but hey, I’m willing to make the sacrifice – I’m that kind of guy.

It will be strange though, being over there during race week and not being a participant in the race. This is my eighth trip to Kona, and my first as a spectator. I was much more relaxed packing for this trip than in the past when racing. I won’t feel any of that usual pre-race pressure over the next 5 days either. I won’t overanalyze every little cough, twitch, ache, or sniffle, like I usually do in the week leading up to Ironman. I won’t think about every nutrient I place in my mouth this week. I know Brennan likes to down a few beers so I’m looking forward to that! I won’t awake each morning thinking about how well I did or didn’t sleep. I won’t second guess my training and my taper and wonder if my dead legs will come around for race day. I won’t worry about being in the sun too much, or about staying off my feet, or expending too much energy body-surfing in the pacific.

Writing this, it’s almost easy to question why I race in the first place. And then I think about the last ½ mile. The few minutes where I want time to stand still. Where my emotions are so raw and uncontrolled, and all the training and effort put towards this Ironman goal become minute. I can picture it clear as day now – the right hand turn to the slight downhill where at the base is the hot corner onto Alii Drive. Running down that hill, all the pain from the day goes away. All the questions of doubt are erased. Spectators are cheering you on and at the hot corner; you can hear Mike Reilly calling your name. Then you turn right onto Alii and you see the green carpet soon enough. Spectators hold their hands out wishing you congratulations and grabbing a small piece of your overwhelming energy. You become hyper with the fact that you are about to complete the Ironman. All the hard work has paid off and it’s more than worth it.

Damn. I wish I were racing!

I will be blogging each day from Kona so please stay tuned in!

Cheers,

EH

Ride For Rick

Tomorrow is the fourth annual Ride For Rick. I can't believe it's been four years already.

This event has grown into a really cool Saturday morning, including a 5, 10, 25 and 50 mile ride and a 5K run race. There is a huge raffle with some amazing prizes, massages, food, and even a jumping house for the kids. We have raised quite a bit of cash for Cancer research, scholarship and hospice. It's become a really fun family event, and I'll, in between making sure that everything goes smoothly, ride the 5 mile route with my family.

I sent out a mass email trying to recruit athlete volunteers to ride the route and assist the less experienced or just to be present along the way. I was very disheartened by the lack of response this year. I guess everyone must be very busy. Some people stepped up along with some of the Shoreline Sharks group, people I don't even really know, so thank you to those who are coming to help out at this charitable event and even to those who replied back saying that they couldn't make it. It's a nice thing you are doing and it means a lot to me considering my heart is tied in very closely with this event.

I hope to see a lot of you out there riding or running tomorrow, it's suppopsed to be a beautiful day!

www.rideforrick.com

Cheers,

EH

Bike Technology?!

Man I love this weather! This is the best time of the year here in New England.

I started a contest on my message board about picking the Hawaii IM 07' winners and their times. Whoever is closest wins some great Hammer product including a huge jug of Recoverite, Perpeteum, and endurolytes. Hopefully we'll get some players!

In the general discussion section of my message board, Frank Salvo was asking for some advice. He's purchasing a new bike and wanted to know if he should get 650c wheels or 700c wheels. I mentioned that if I were fitting Frank, I wouldn't even think about putting him on 650 wheels. But then I thought about my own experience. My fastest Hawaii IM bike split was on 650 wheels. It was also on a full aluminum bike - yes, even the fork was aluminum. I had standard zipp 404 wheels. No dimples or zedtech. No ceramic bearings. I used a jetstream up front! And, sit down for this one, there wasn't one piece of carbon on the whole bike! I'm as big a bike tech geek as there is. Well, I don't come close to Scott Forster - he's got his finger on the pulse! But I love the tech side of the sport. However IM bike times aren't really getting that much faster with all this bike technology. Sure, Norman set a new bike record last year in Kona, but I think that has more to do with the conditions and the newer bike course rather than his bike itself. I still feel that 700c wheels are the way to go for Frank, and I'm not switching back to 650's anytime soon. The point is that it's all about the legs. It all comes down to how well you trained and that's the bottom line. Put Norman back on my 96' cannondale 650'c aluminum rig at last years race and he still would have set the bike record. So get out the door and ride, damn it!

Some great new music I've been listening to during training:
Bleed it out by Linkin Park - man this one just get's me goin! If it doesn't for you, then check and make sure you have a pulse.
The Pretender by The Foo Fighters - anotther great song from a great band.
Timebomb by Beck - I always liked Beck. This one reminds of some of his earlier stuff that got me interested in his music in the first place.

Cheers,

EH

Vermont Ride

Princess Di died in 1997. Lisa was a huge fan of Di and planned on staying in with her friend Amy to view the televised funeral services during a late August weekend. I called up Farber (The Mexican) and told him to pack a small backpack - we were heading on a destination ride. Right away, he suggested McNiells Pub in Brattleboro, VT. So I left from my house, which at the time was in Shelton, and he left from his house in Northford and we met up on rt. 10 in Hamden by Sleeping Giant State Park. We then rode north on 10, which turns into 5, through CT, MA, and into VT. From my garage door, it was a 140 mile trip. I remember that somwhere between Greenfield, MA and the Vermont line, we were chased by a big pig, just as a dog would give chase. Tired and hungry, we found a hotel, showered up and headed over to McNiells. We ordered a pizza to be delivered there and man the beer tasted good that night! The next morning, we put on the same ripe bike clothes from the previous day and rode home. Thus was born the Vermont Ride.

Baker joined Farber and I the next year, and he hasn't missed the ride since. He used to do it from his house in Torrington, but I put the kebosh on that soon enough, telling him that it wasn't official since he lived in northern CT. So he drives down to my house each year only to pass by where we used to meet up with him 60 miles into the ride. He never complains though - he wants to get the most from the ride even though on Sunday, when you are beat and want off the bike, it'd be nice to finish in Torrington. Plus he knows that I'd rag him to much.

We have done it every year, and even twice in 98' and 00'. We have had every type of weather. I remember one early year, it was raining, cold and into a headwind the whole ride up. I came up on Farber and Baker somewhere near the CT/MA line and we said maybe two words to each other and just forged ahead. Word about the VT ride got out and in 99' I began getting calls and emails about it. Some asked how to get on the invite list! I started inviting a group of people to tag along for the pain each year - my criteria for the invite was based on attituide. Ability didn't matter. Those that were fun, positive, and independant, fun, and fun were invited. I remember one particuliar year where the return trip was around 100 degrees out. Jeff Molson lied comotose on my front lawn for awhile when he finished the ride. I think there is still a chalk outline of him there. We began an innitiation for the rookies. One year it was custom liscence plates made for each rookies bike. Then there was the orange flags, and the wool knee high socks. I still can't believe that rookies would subject themselves to this ride AND go along with the initiation!



Each year something memorable would occur that we would laugh about or take away from the ride. We eventually wisened up and began shipping our clothes up to the hotel. Riding back the next day in clean clothes was a luxury! Recieving the box from ups later that week with the clothes you rode up in was not.

The ride usually would take place in August since I would selfishly use it for Hawaii training and this worked great timing wise. However, this August was filled up. It looked as though it wasn't going to happen this year until Baker and I decided that it had to - we couldn't break the annual. So we cleared the calendar for this past weekend. We kept the group very small this year since it was very last minute and in fact, only Kenny O., Baker, and myself went.

We started at 6:45am from my house on Saturday morning and it was steamy already. Baker and I were tagged with prototype MyAthlete GPS units and we handed out the web site to a few friends and family to track us if the were bored this weekend. Soon into the ride, I was by myself. Ken and Baker are great to ride with because they are fine doing there own thing. My legs felt great Saturday and I was clipping along at a good rate. Baker found a new route that twisted and turned through Thomaston, Bristol, Burlington, Farmington and Avon and I didn't know it well so we regrouped before beginning this section. In Simsbury, we pick up rt. 10 and then it's just head north. We hit our first Starbucks in Granby. It was hot and humid and a frappacino works really well in these conditions. Then, after a brief stop in Southwick, MA at a bike shop to get a part for Bakers bike to stop the noise coming from his rear wheel, we aimed for our next Starbucks in Northhampton, MA.



I was by myself again and carrying pretty good speed into a right turn in Westfield, MA at a busy intersection. Through the corner was fairly new tar patching the road and the heat and humidity melted it down to an oily, slick patch. My wheels, in an instant, went out from under me and I came down quite hard on my right hip and elbow. After thumpping the pavement hard, I then skidded out into the intersection a bit. This happened so unbelievably quick. It was as though something grabbed my wheels and yanked them out from right under me. This was a busy intersection and all the cars stopped - yet not one stopped to help or even ask if I was ok! I grabbed my bike and hobbled over to the curb to assess the damage. My left elbow had a nice open wound and some road rash and my right hip already had a golf ball size hematoma bulging out. My rear dereilleur on my bike took a beating and the cable was out, but soon Ken came rolling up and helped me in getting it functional. While Ken helped me with my bike, Baker went and got me some ice packs. I took one and put it on the hematoma between my bike shorts and the skin and headed onward. Abouot 10 miles in I started to stiffen up a bit but soon found myself back in a groove.

95 miles into the ride I rolled into Northhampton and ordered three more Venti Coffee Frappaccinos and sat outside and people-watched. Northhampton is one of the best people- watching places. One woman was having a nice conversation with herself. Ken at first thought she was using a bluetooth headset!

The rest of the ride up was uneventful. It was very, very hot and humid, but my legs still felt good. I rolled into the hotel around 3:15pm. John Brennan, amongst a few others, were tracking us throughout the day on the MyAthlete website and it was extremely cool! He called me at one point when we were stopped at the bike shop tending to Bakers bike and said "why are you stopping in Southwick? Get moving!" Very big brotherish! On the ride back home Sunday, we roll through the center of Woodbury where my sister lives. At the exact time I was riding by, she came walking down to the street with a big jug of ice water. She told me that dad just called her and told her I was about to ride by. I would call up Lisa to get an idea of where Baker and Ken were on the route. How cool is that! Then, upon return, I could review the history of my ride and even print out a topical route map. It was unbelievably cool!

After showering and scrubbing, I made my way over to the supermarket and purchased some peroxide and bandages to clean up my wounds. We headed out for a lousy dinner (restaurants in Brattleboro are very undesirable) but some fun conversation and some great beer. In fact, the three of us were a bit looped when we left the pub. The numbing helped a bit though since I was quite sore and my right hip was getting very stiff. It was a fun night though.

We awoke at 5:30am, wolfed down some breakfast, and by 6:20am we were on the road. The return trip from VT is way different than the previous day. It's certainly not as fun, or even fun at all, but it's a solid day of training. The focus is usually on just getting home. There is usually no conversation on the climb out of brattleboro, and I knew that the three of us needed to do our own thing this day. At the top of the climb, I was alone and solo for the rest of the day. It was still very humid, and drizzling slightly which was a nice relief. Very strange in Deerfield, MA was the amount of dead frogs on the road. I was keeping a steady effort although my right side felt as though I had no power and my back was hurting from the fall. I find on these days that you can't overthink it, you just have to put on some good tunes and pedal. About 50 miles into the return trip, the sun came out which wasn't that welcomed. It made the return climbs through Burlington, Bristol, Thomaston and Watertown a bitch.

I rolled back into my driveway around 1:30pm, glad to be getting off the bike. Kenny came rolling in later and said that we all split up on that first climb right out of Brattleboro and he and Baker rode solo all day as well. Kenny headed home to see his wife and daughter, and then Baker came in. A nice custom of this trip is that we go get some big greasy cheese burgers and fries upon the completion and that's just what we did. We have a Five Guys burger place close by in Newtown and these burgers are amazing - especially after a nice 280 mile weekend ride.

2007 VT ride in the books!

Timberman

I love racing 1/2 Ironmans. The distance is very challenging yet you can still have a busy life outside of the training for it. I have raced most of the big 1/2 IM races in the nation throughout the past 10 years, and one that still was on my to do list was Timberman in New Hampshire. I had heard nothing but great things about this race and mid July I was fortunate enough to weasel my way in (race registration had filled in February due to the popularity of this race). I left Monroe at 3:30pm on Friday evening so that I could volunteer at the sprint race on Saturday morning. Leaving at this time was a big mistake! I first hit traffic in Waterbury, then in Hartford, then on the Mass Pike, then the worst of it was from Mass up into NH on rt. 93. It took me over 6 hours to get there. Lisa and the kids stayed home and Mars (or Baker) couldn't make the trip, so I was riding solo.



When I was 5 or 6 years old, my father took a position with a company that relocated us up in Amherst, NH. We were there for less than a year, and I had been back to NH once since, at a race on Lake Sunapee in the mid 90's. Timberman takes place on the huge Lake Winnapasakee, which is beautiful and surrounded by hills. It's a shame that they had to taint this beauty with every fast food joint you could think of along with Walmart, Home Depot, and little strip malls. I, at the last minute, was able to get vacancy at the Landmark Inn in Laconia and upon arrival, I was glad that Lisa, although she's no prima-donna, opted to stay home.



My preparation for this race was less than adequate. I like to keep myself fit enough to jump into races when possible, but this isn't always a good thing. I had swam once since Lake Placid camp in June and my running was not up to par. I had not run while in France and then I didn't do enough specific bricks before or after France and it showed on race day. On top of that, I was feeling run down during the week leading into this race and didn't do any training on Wed, Thu, or Fri. Saturday, I awoke early and did body marking and then worked the bike mount and dismount line at the sprint race. It was cold Saturday! The wind was blowing and there were white caps on the lake. After the sprint race, I did all the day before stuff like cleaning and setting up my bike, picking up registration packet, going for an easy 30 minute ride and an easy 20 minute run... Dinner that night was my traditional pizza and a pint of Guinness and I was in bed early.



Despite being nervous (this was my first race since Hawaii last year and I felt less than prepared), I slept well. The drive up to the race site was long with a traffic jam from all the other racers, and this just sucked. I have mentioned before about how the worst part of race day for me is the 90 minutes before the race begins. I just want to get started and get moving and the anticipation and nerves can hang on you. Sitting in traffic during this just makes it that much worse. It was cold out, in the low 50's, but the sun was up.



The Swim: bottom line - I sucked. I had no feel for the water and just envisioned a rope running parallel to my torso that I'd grab and pull myself forward on with each stroke. I counted 100 strokes with my left arm, then 100 strokes with my right. I estimated that this was equal to 500 meters (the 200 strokes), and repeated this counting drill for four cycles and I was close to the swim finish. I swore during this swim that I'd quite the bullshit and making up excuses and get myself to the pool at least once or twice a week, every week throughout the year. I was depressed as I exited the water and saw that the swim took me 30 minutes and 30 seconds. Typically, I swim 1.2 miles in a race in 27 minutes so I was angry with myself and my laziness in swim training. The positives from this swim were that I found open water immediately. I was in the second wave, behind the pro men and women wave. I was in a new "Elite Amateurs" division and there were maybe only 30 of us in this wave, so it meant very little contact during the swim and the bike would be very clean. Also, I loved my new Nineteen wetsuit. I know - they sponsor me so I'm supposed to say that but here's the deal: Anyone that knows me knows that I don't plug things shamelessly. The neck line is wiiiiiiide and I had no chafing issues whatsoever. I usually hate full sleeve wetsuits and this one did bother me a bit but the least of any I have worn. I still don't know if I'm a huge fan of sleeves on wetsuits (or sleeves in general), but these were the least restricting. Finally, Nineteen and QR are the only two companies that use 5mm thick neoprene in there legs and it shows - the lower body buoyancy is amazing!



The Bike: I exited the transition area to see Chris Thomas right in front of me. I yelled some words of encouragement or profanity or something at him and forged ahead. The first 12 miles of this out and back course roll up hill. I had a wattage game plan to ride the hills at 350 and the flats at 300 and at any speed above 30 mph, I'd coast or soft pedal and save my legs. I felt pretty good and stayed controlled. There were a couple of young guys who I went by early on and they didn't like that so they would blast by me soon afterwards. I kept to my game plan and would recatch them and we played this cat and mouse game for 10 miles. Usually I'd get them at the top of a hill since they'd blast the lower part of the hill and then run out of gas, only to repeat this at the next hill. At the 20 mile mark, they fell off pace. I saw Bjorn Anderson coming back on his return trip with a huge lead over Simon Lessing who was in second. There was a strong head wind on the return trip and I still felt strong although I felt as though I was lacking that extra punch that you get after racing a few times in the season. That oomph that you only get from racing. The nice thing about this smaller wave that I was in was that it made for a very clean race. I carried two bottles with me on the bike - one with calories and one with electrolyte drink. This carried me to the two hour mark and I grabbed a gatorade at the last aid station, but that was the only aid station I grabbed something at on the bike. I rolled into T2 feeling pretty good about the time I had made up on the bike from my poor swim.



The Run: What was interesting was that I didn't feel that cold on the bike except for my feet. In hindsight, I should have put socks on for the ride. As I left T2, my toes were numb and especially on my left foot. My low back was tight as well and I was running, yet felt sluggish. I tried to keep my stride shorter and quicker and not force things, hoping that I'd loosen up by mile three or four. Well, mile six came and went and I was getting ready to begin my second run loop and I still had numb left toes and felt stiff. Right at this time, another elite male, Desiree Ficker, and Kate Major came up on me. Desiree and Kate were having quite the battle for first place on this day. The elite male and Desiree moved by quickly and I locked onto Kate. I stayed focused on her back through mile 7 and started to loosen up. By 7.5 miles, I was finally running and feeling good. I moved by Kate and told her to stay on me and that we were going to reel in Desiree. At mile 8, I could hear Kate breathing hard and told her to hang in there, we were making up time. I was running strong now and was excited yet questioning why it took 6.5 miles to loosen up. Kate fell off pace and i soldiered onwards. I caught the elite male who had passed me earlier at the 11 mile mark and ran right off his shoulder until the last 1/4 mile, where I made my move and surged to the finish line. I had negative split the run by almost 5 minutes.

At the finish line, I felt good. I used primarily coke, gatorade and water on the run and one gel packet and this worked well. Kate Major finished up and we ended up talking for 30 minutes or so. She is a really interesting and genuinely nice person. I'll have to root for her now at Hawaii this year.

It was great seeing a lot of familiar faces out on the course, including some of the athletes I coach. This was definitely one of the best triathlons I have ever raced. The organization was second to none. Keith Jordan and his crew do an amazing job, and all the positives that I have heard about this race were dead on. The course is terrific. It's an honest course with a diversity of good hills, scenery, shade and sun. I will come back to this race again, even if it is a big pain in the ass to get to. I'm encouraged now to get my swimming and running up to where they should be and even further by November.

Cheers,

EH

That's a wrap.

I feel that I've experienced some pretty cool things in my 40 years on this planet thus far. I try to put myself out there - in situations that are fulfilling and satisfying so that I don't have the "what if's" and "coulda shoulda's". Lisa realizes this and gave me such an unbelievable gift in this Tour trip. The fact that she enjoyed it as much as I did made it even that much better. I knew she would enjoy France and that her main concern was that I was happy with the trip. I'm not really into guided tour-type trips and this was a concern of hers. I think the perma-grin on my face out there was enough to give her confidence that I was more than pleased with the trip. Lisa loved France - the countryside, the villages, the shopping, the food and wine! But she also really got into the race! As Scooter put it, Lisa is definitely up for wife of the year.

France was really interesting. I always loved the little bike race there, and was fond of the food and wine myself, but was never really fond of France as a country before visiting. I was on a different page with them politically, and had heard that the French were snobby and rude. However Lisa and I found just the opposite with the people. The French in the south of France and Bordeaux could not have been more friendly. Not just the ones receiving gratuity but every French person we encountered seemed up, positive, and friendly. One of many occasions I remember quite well was the day I did the three big climbs solo. The staff had me nervous that I may get lost. I could understand knowing a lot of peoples sense of direction including some on my camp staff!!! Yet the route was very easy. In any case, I was rolling through some small village and there was a runner on the road. Nervous that I may be off route, I slowed up and began the conversation with what I always began my French conversations with; "Bonjour, Parlee vous English?" The man replied "non", so I just shouted "Col D'Aspin?" and pointed straight ahead to which he emphatically responded "OUI, OUI, OUI!!!" as he jabbed both hands forward pointing the way. He then yelled back "Tourmalet?", and I said "Oui!" which made him more genuinely excited and he shouted out a lot of French after this which seemed nice and encouraging. He could have also called me a dumb ass, but it sounded cool.

My parents came by our house the week after we returned to see pictures and hear some stories. They are interested in planning a trip to Italy and maybe France. My mother was asking Lisa how I did with the tour aspect of it (not The Tour De France, but the tour group). My father said that like me, he's not a big fan of guided tours and would plan his own itinerary. However, I have to say that if you find the right tour, this is the way to go. The places we stayed were incredible and had we tried to do this ourselves, we would have stayed probably in places that the Tour directly passes through. Nothing wrong with this but they weren't nearly as great as the places we visited and stayed at. If experts know the cool places to go, and provide you a bit of freedom to explore on your own, than you'll see and learn much more about the visiting area.

I will definitely do this trip again someday. I promised Ryan that when he turns 13, I'll take him on it and we can ride together. He holds me to this promise every day.

Thanks Lisa!

Cheers,

EH

Paris

Leaving St. Emillion was tough. That place, the town, the whole atmosphere there was really something. We'll get back there someday.

Saturday was going to be another very busy day, and we weren't even riding. We left on the bus around 8am and headed towards Angoulame and the start village for Saturdays stage, the time trial. I was particularly excited about this since I love the time trials, and we had special access to the riders area before the start. The access we had was incredible. We were able to walk right up to all the team buses where the mechanics were setting up the riders bikes, and where the riders were warming up on turbotrainers. I had my picture taken with Thor Hushovd who is the big sprinter in the peloton. He looks quite big when watching the tour on TV, yet he came up to maybe my nose, and his shoulders were narrow. I was really amazed at how small all these guys are. George Hincapie, who they call Big George is tall at maybe 6'2" but is a stick. Levi Leipheimer is maybe 5'5" - maybe! Alberto Contador weighs probably about 125 lbs. Even Rasmussen who is incredibly skinny, yet looks tall on camera, is only about 5'10".

Being a bike tech geek, it was very cool seeing all the TT bikes up close. For all those triathletes out there that think that a slack seat tube angle gives you more power, The majority of the tour riders were set up steep. They have a UCI rule stating that if you drop a plumb line from the tip of the front of the saddle, the line must fall at least 5cm behind the center of the bottom bracket. How these guys get around this so that they can ride steeper is that many of them including probably the whole CSC team cut the nose of there saddles off! I have a picture on my camera that I'll try to post once I find the chord that allows me to download the pictures to my computer (it's MIA). I checked out Tom Boonen's new Specialized Transition. That bike, in my opinion, is very ugly aesthetically. It's a combo of a P3C and a Felt DA w/ a sloping top tube which I'm not a fan of. The new Orbea TT bike that the Euskatel Euskadi team was riding was a work of art however. I was excited to check out the new systemsix TT Cannondale that some of the Liquigas team were riding, and it didn't disappoint.

They had a section set up at the start center for sponsors where many of the tours past were wandering around like Bernard Hinault and Richard Virenque. They were serving coffee, mimosas, croissants and even making omelets.Once a few riders left, we made our way back to the bus to head over to a restaurant situated near the finish of the time trial. On the way to the bus, I ran over to a shed where there was a big yellow sign that read "Tour De France" with an arrow giving directions to the start village that is now hanging on Ryan's bedroom door. Hopefully, not too many got lost trying to find the start village! It would have been very difficult considering the noise and mass of people in site.

The restaurant where we were to view the TT riders coming through was situated in a perfect spot, at the bottom of a small hill with 4K left to go. It was right on the course and they served a nice buffet and also had a large flat screen inside showing the race. We'd watch the riders on TV, and then step outside to see them come flying by - how cool is that? The stage was an exciting one given the closeness of the first three riders in time. The contrasting styles of the riders was interesting. There were many, including Contador, who kept a very high cadence a la Lance. Then there were some like Levi, the stage winner, who were pushing a bigger gear at a lower cadence. It just shows that there is no one perfect technique. Right after the last rider (Contador) came through, we dashed across the street to the train station where we caught the Bullet train up to Paris, a 2.5 hr trip.

We arrived in Paris around 8pm where we hopped on the metro, there subway system, for a short stint to the street our hotel was situated on. As we ascended the metro stairs, the first thing that came into view was the Arch D'Triumph. Being our first time in Paris, this was quite impressive. It was much bigger than I expected, situated in the middle of a rotary. Our Paris hotel viewed the Arch. It was now 9pm and Lisa and I headed out to get some dinner. We ate at a cool open restaurant near the Champs D'Eleysees and were seated in the non smoking section which was indoors but right next to the open outdoor patio. Two feet away from us outdoors sat two women smoking one cigarette after another. We had a nice meal (We have fun deciphering the French menu's and guessing at what we haveordered), then made our way over to the Arch to see if we could take the elevator to the top of it. It was after 10:30pm now though and the elevator was closed. As we stood at the Arch, we could see the Eiffel tower lit up in the distance. It had a series of strobe lights on it that were flashing rapidly at the moment. Now, we have had a long, busy day up to this point and were quite tired but we decided to walk over to the tower. Lisa was excited about going and I said let's do it, we're in Paris. We can sleep anytime, and besides, it was a gorgeous night. The tower was much further than it appeared while standing at the Arch. It took us about 45 minutes to walk there. It gave us a chance to see some more of Paris. It's really a beautiful city. The architecture is amazing and Lisa and I loved the rounded edges of the buildings at the ends of streets and the detail on these old buildings. Everything sits quite low in Paris. There is one section of the city with some skyscrapers, but very few and I'd guess that most buildings don't go over six stories. The city is quite large, area wise.

The Eiffel Tower is a tourist thing to do, but a must do. Lisa and I arrived there sometime around midnight and the elevator and stairs up it were closed, but viewing it from the ground was quite impressive. It was crowded there with tourists and vendors trying to sell you crap. We hung out for a bit and took some pictures than made the walk back to our hotel.

The next morning, we had a quick breakfast and then made our way back down to the Tower. We didn't want to leave Paris without making it to the top of the Eiffel Tower. The Tower opened at 9am and we were there by 8:50am and there was already a long waiting line. The elevator ride up was like an international convention. There were maybe 20 people piled into our elevator and maybe 6 different languages going on. Lisa is scared of heights, so this was going to be interesting. Again, going to the top of the tower is a must do. You get an amazing view of the whole city and they have a map that circumnavigates the observation deck and notifies what you are viewing. We spotted Notre Dame and The Louvre, two other places we wanted to check out before we flew home the next day (Yes, we were hitting all the tourist spots on this first trip to Paris). It was incredibly windy at the top of the tour. In fact, we later learned that they closed down the top deck around 10am because of the wind! Lisa did great though.

In the afternoon, we were to view the final stage of the Tour on the Champs D'Elysees. The riders do eight 5K laps around the champs at the end of the days stage. The Champs is a beautiful, busy cobblestoned street and they had set up guard rails blocking all access to the street. The riders weren't due to come through on their first lap until around 3pm, yet by 10am, there were fans lining the road. By 2pm, the sidewalks were stacked probably 10 people deep from the guardrails. The Custom Getaways group arranged two side by side suites situated in the middle of the Champs, six floors up. This was where we viewed the final stage from. They served hor d'ouerves and champagne and wine and had the race showing on TV's inside the suites. The balconies of the suites hung out over the Champs. We watched as the riders approached on television, then headed out on the balcony to see them race by heading up towards the Arch then making a u turn and coming back down on the first of their eight laps. Again, how cool?! The thrill and exhiliration of being at the final stage of the tour was mixed in with the sadness that this was coming to an end. It's been quite an amazing ride thus far.

When the Tour stage ended, we fought our way through huge crowds trying to get back to the hotel. The amount of people pushing and moving on the sidewalks were scary. My main concern was that Lisa didn't get trampled. We made it back and had a short time to get ready for our last dinner.

Again, it was another beautiful evening, and we all walked down to the Seine river where we boarded a large boat with tables set up for our dinner cruise! We had yet another fantastic meal. Lisa and I sat with John and Erika, two Australians that we really enjoyed getting to know on this trip, and with my boy Eric. As we ate, we floated past the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, a smaller replica of the Statue of Liberty. It was a very memorable dinner.

The boat docked and we said our goodbyes to the staff and most of the new friends we met on this experience. We met some very interesting and fun people who contributed to our incredible experience.

Our flight out on Monday wasn't until 5pm, so our focus that morning was on getting to the Louvre. After breakfast, we took a short metro ride there and waited for it to open. The Louvre is massive and the buildings are incredibly impressive. Again, there were long lines waiting to get in and I would guesstimate that 70% of those waiting were Asian. As soon as everyone enters, they make a b-line for the Mona Lisa. We did as well, but checked out a few other famous sculptures along the way. I like viewing the sculptures, but I'm not a huge fan of the era of art displayed at the Louvre.

Our flight home was uneventful, and we were both looking forward to seeing the kids and sleeping in our own bed. It was the best trip that we have been on though, without a doubt. I will write a final summary soon of my thoughts on the whole thing if anyone still reading isn't bored to death, but again, I'm journaling this trip for my own memory so I don't forget it.

Bordeaux

After regrouping at the top of the Tourmalet, we took the sag vans down the other side to Luz A'rdidan (an amazing drive with spectacular views) for lunch, then made the long drive to Cahors. I was a bit sad leaving the Pyrenees, but was excited at the same time to see what's next. Just outside of Cahors is a small village called Mercues where our next hotel was located. Again, this hotel was a very old castle with the rooms being modernized. It was an amazing place.


Wednesday morning, we headed out on a destination ride to the town of Sellat (sp?). It was a rolling ride through very scenic country. The roads were great for riding and it was another beautiful day. About 10K in, there was a longer climb (not compared to what we climbed in the Pyrenees, but about 5 minutes) and at the top, I turned to see just Michele and one of the Florida boys, Mike. We had a fun, fast downhill then zipped along at about 40K/hr for the next 40 minutes before realizing we were lost, but Michele figured it out and took us on some cool back roads and soon we were back on course. the rest of the ride remained at a pretty good tempo.


We had Foi Gras and ducks legs for lunch, then walked around town before viewing the rest of the days stage from a small pub in the town. This was the mountain stage that Rasmussen won, only to be kicked out of the tour later in the evening by his team.


Dinner was to be on our own this evening, with a bus dropping everyone off in Cahors, but after a long, busy day, and week thus far, Lisa and I were pretty wiped and decided to stay at the hotel. In fact, we grabbed a baguette and some cheese in the town after leaving the pub, and picked up a bottle of wine from the hotels wine cellar/vineyard, and that was dinner!


Thursday was another destination ride leaving from Mercues and through rolling countryside. We were all grouped in the parking lot ready to roll out, but I was having some shifting issues with my front derailleur, so Michele stayed back with me and everyone else moved on. 15 minutes later, Michele and I headed out to try and bridge the gap up to the group. About 10 minutes in, we descended a small hill that took us onto a bridge over the river. the bridge was about 100 meters long and was made up of metal planks about 8 inches wide with a 1 inch gap between each plank. I hit the bridge first at about 35 mph and my tires popped into the small 1 inch groove and I started fishtailing all over. I regained control only to fall back into the groove again and start fishtailing some more. I still don't know how I stayed up.


We caught the group about 10K and on a long winding climb, Eric and I took off. The rest of the ride was a lot of fun - we had one descent that was a series of big s-bends - like 12 of them, and you could keep your speed up on these without breaking too much. There were sunflower fields everywhere on this ride. At the top of one climb, I turned around and the land below looked like a sea of yellow.

After the ride, we changed at the bus, had some lunch, then made our way to the finish of the days stage. We had a private viewing booth set up at the 50 meters to go mark, perfect for viewing the sprint. It was a hot day, and the booth had air conditioning down below, plus coverage up top. They also had screens to watch the race as it approached the finish. They provided us drinks and snacks including ice cream. Not a bad way to watch the tour! Lisa and I did some more shopping while waiting for the riders to come in. We picked up Ryan a full Predictor Lotto team kit, a yellow jersey and a polka dot jersey.

The sprint was great - there was a 4 man breakaway that included Jens Voight, or as the French announcer yells his name "Jensaa Voightaa!". Also in this group was Daniello Bennati who took the sprint.

We headed from here to our next host hotel in St. Emillion. St. Emillion, and the hotel there, was Lisa's favorite place. The hotel sat in the middle of the vineyards. We were still in the Bordeaux region and there were vineyards everywhere! Every vineyard was perfectly manicured, with the rows evenly parallelled and each plant looking exactly like the next. We had a great room with a balcony overlooking these vineyards.

Friday morning was our last ride of the trip. Saturday was a busy day of viewing the time trial then catching the bullet train to Paris, and then Sunday was the finish in Paris, so there was no riding scheduled over the weekend.

It was yet another perfect weather day - high 70's to low 80's and sunny. The first 40K of this ride took us through once again some beautiful country side with rolling hills, vineyards and more sunflower fields everywhere. We then rode a bike path for the next 25k that went through the vineyards. It was great - paved nicely and no cars! I was stung by a bee on my thigh, but I'm not allergic. In the final 8K, we rode through the town of St. Emillion which is all cobbled road. I don't know how the pro riders do a race like Paris Roubaix and ride cobbles for a good portion of it. After 1K on it, I could feel the shattering in my teeth!

We went into St. Emillion after the ride to get some lunch and then we went on a tour of a vineyard and did some wine tasting - good stuff! Then I packed up the bike and floated in the pool for a bit, before heading back into town for a great dinner. We entered the restaurant and were escorted through it to a courtyard in the rear that was gorgeous. The food and company were nice and Lisa and I were getting quite relaxed in St. Emillion. Tomorrow though, we were headed to Paris.

The Pyrenees

After finishing up the first ride of this trip, Lisa and I packed up. We were to go down to the intermediate sprint location and view the race come through, before boarding the nice coach bus and traveling a few hours to our next host destination, a small town in the Pyrenees Mountains called Luchon.

Luchon was one of my favorite places. It’s a ski town sitting in a small valley between many mountains. It’s about 10k from the Spanish border. In fact, there was an optional second ride planned for Sunday that was a short but steep 10K climb from Luchon up a famous mountain to the Spanish border, and then descending back to Luchon. Only three of us plus Eric and Michele took this option. We arrived in Luchon around 6:30pm and headed out for the climb around 7:30pm. It was a steep climb and took me about 40 minutes to reach the peak. Michele rolled up next and took some photos of me standing with one foot in Spain and one in France. The ride back to Luchon was a blast and took only 15 minutes. The switchbacks while descending seemed much steeper than when ascending. Believe me, they were steep when climbing, but your back is turned to the drop offs and views. This climb that we just did was in many previous Tour De France races and it was cool thinking about the great cyclists who had ascended this climb in race battle. I rolled back into Luchon to find Lisa with some of the group enjoying a glass of wine on the patio of a nice restaurant. I showered quick and then joined her for dinner.

Monday’s agenda was quite busy. There were two rides planned, one longer, leaving at 8:15am and going over the new Tour climb, the Hors Category Port de Bales, then going over the Col De Pesourdes, before descending to the actual finish of the stage that day. The shorter ride was skipping the Port de Bales climb. After another late dinner and lots of vin d’rouge, I did something I don’t do that well – I slept! I awoke in our room to look at my watch and see 8am. I flew out of bed and dressed quickly and grabbed my bike, skipping breakfast, and headed down to the lobby to meet the long ride group. It was just myself and Erika, a fun Australian, along with Michele. Erika was very nervous about the long ride and was going to skip it and I said to her “Erika, what are you here for? Take your time but go experience these climbs. It’ll make your dinner taste that much better tonight.” So she headed out with us. The first 30K rolled through a valley, and after 15K, we were on the official tour route for the day, which is marked with yellow arrows. Michele stopped us and pointed at the arrows and then at me and said “you follow jaune ayrow, oui?”

I headed onward and soon turned onto a road with a sign that read “Port de Bales, summit 20km”. This was one bitch of a climb. The hardest climb I road on this trip. Until last year, it was a dirt access road that they paved specifically for this years Tour. It starts out gradual, winding through forest. The road was closed off to traffic since the previous day yet it was crowded with spectators. There were tents set up all over the countryside, and rv’s parked wherever they could fit. There were families with tables set up, having lunch feasts and anticipating the action they would soon encounter when the Tour roared through. There were tons of cyclists ascending the climb. I witnessed lots of kids dressed in full cycling kit, some bungeed to their dad’s bike, pedaling away. There were men in their 70’s dressed in team kits, no helmets, and big backpacks, some with huge baguettes strapped to their back. As I ascended, mostly all of them clapped for me and yelled “allez, allez!”. The energy was infectious.

This is a long ass climb and with around 8 k to go, it gets steep. The last 5 k really kicked up. With 3 k to go, I see James, one of the staff who is driving sag, pulled over talking to a bunch of Frenchman. James is from France, but speaks great English – very proper, and lives in Venezuela where he teaches language at a university. He is extremely generous and helpful and funny. I called him welchy since he had an uncanny resemblance to Greg Welch. James refilled my water bottles and then gave me a push and a pat on the back as I restarted on the climb. I felt for a second like a Tour rider!

The descent off the Port de Bales was crazy! Steep with switchbacks and no guardrails. After dropping for what seemed like an hour, I merged right into the next climb, the 14 km Col de Peyresourde. This is another famous tour stage and it doesn’t disappoint in views. As you reach the 5k to go sign, you look ahead and can see your road in front of you, zig zagging across the mountain in a series of dramatic switchbacks. The Peyresourdes was way more crowded than even the Port de Bales with fans, riders, press, … Many fans were painting there favorite riders name in the road as I climbed. I reached the summit in slight drizzle, the only rain of our week really, besides a little bit in Paris. Lisa was waiting at the summit outside a sag vehicle, with a huge smile on her face. She said to me “this is unbelievable!” I knew I would have a blast on this trip since this is my passion, but I was excited to see Lisa so caught up in the action. She was having a great time.

We descended and all regrouped with 3 k to go. From there, the sun came out, and we had an official tour escort as we rode the final 3 k of Monday’s stage, crossing the official finish line. This was a big deal since the last 3k of road in the stages are closed to riders, walkers, and spectators. The road is barricaded off and lined with fans. I raised my arms when crossing as though I had just won the stage. We were all standing with our bikes at the finish line when Giil said that we could go up on the podium if we wished. The group stood there, a bit hesitant at first, wondering if this would be goofy with all the spectators watching. I didn’t hesitate and jumped up there and raised my arms again like a goofball. Everyone from the group soon joined me.

We were given special access bracelets that got us behind the scenes at the finish area and also given access to a spa that was within walking distance to shower up, or use the spa services. Typical Europe – the spa only allows men to wear Speedos in the pools, no “trunks”. We roamed around the finish area, watching Phil Ligget and Paul Sherwin broadcast and purchasing some souvenirs. They had a roped off section for our group directly at the finish line and we watched the race come through. Vino one the stage – this was the day before he was kicked out. After the riders came through, we caught many of the riders at their team buses. I’m a bike geek and loved checking out all the rides on top of the team vehicles. I snapped Lisa’s photo with Jens Voight and Johan Bruneel. We then boarded our bus and headed back to Luchon for a great meal. What a day!!!

At dinner that night, Giil was discussing the agenda for the next day. The Tour was having a rest day, so we were going to pack up, then take the bus to the bottom of the Tourmalet and ride up the Tourmalet through La Mongie to the summit, where we’d reboard the bus’s and head to our next destination in Mercues. I knew that there was a route from Luchon that took you over two major climbs, the Col de Peyresourdes once again, then the Col D’Aspin, before reaching and ascending the Tourmalet, and if I could do this. After some discussion, they decided they were cool with this. I told them Giil that I knew he had to keep things organized and tight and on schedule, and that I am quite independent and would be fine and not hold them up. I told him that I came on this trip to experience everything I possibly could and needed to do this ride. Their main concern was me getting lost so they gave me a bunch of maps, co2’s, bars, and electrolyte drink and wished me luck.

The next morning, I awoke at 6am, downed 2 cliff bars, prepped my bike, packed up my suit case, and by 6:45am I was riding. I put my Ipod on for this since I was alone. As you leave Luchon, you begin ascending the 14k Col de Peyresourdes right away. The clouds were sitting low in the mountains, framed in by the blue sky and The Foo Fighters “best of you” was playing in my headphones. I thought to myself “how cool is this!”.

What a contrast from the day before on the Peyresourde. All the rv’s were still there yet everyone was sleeping. The road was empty of people and cars. It was as if I had the road all to myself. What was amazing is that there was no litter on the road at all – remarkable considering the chaos that took place there 15 hours earlier. My legs felt pretty good, especially considering the amount of climbing I did the previous two days. Next up was the Col D’Aspin. This is another famous climb of the tour and the fainted painted names still on the road proved it. There was “Go Lance” painted in a few spots and many “Virenque Allez”. This climb winds around the mountain up through the clouds. Its gradient wasn’t bad at all and I was in a nice tempo. One side of the mountain would be bright and sunny and the other would be thick with clouds. Huge cows wandered the roads as I ascended. The descent of the Col D’Aspin was one of my favorites. It went through pine forests and switchbacked and the views were fantastic. I didn’t have to break too much and hit 60 mph in a few spots.

Two climbs down, one to go – the infamous Tourmalet.

The Tourmalet is a 20K climb that goes through the ski town La Mongie and it has quite the history in the tour. The switchbacks between La Mongie and the top were tough, due to not only the gradient but the high altitude and wind. The group was to meet on top at 12:30pm and I reached the summit much quicker than I anticipated, getting there at 10:45am and quite cold since I only had my “eh” vest. (Funny, I wore my “eh” uniform all week (no, not the same one) and received some great compliments. On top of the Tourmalet, one French guy asked me “Vat iz dis “ehhh”?”.) There is a small restaurant on top of the Tourmalet and I ducked in there to get out of the wind and cold (it was in the 40’s on the top of the mountain) and had a double espresso. As I sipped my coffee, I took in the pictures framed across one of the walls of the restaurant. There were pictures of Eddy Mercx, Greg Lemond, Miguel Indurain, Lance, to name a few, all ascending the Tourmalet. Again, it was another surreal moment. I thought I’d head out and ride down a bit and climb back up with some of the group but when the wind and cold hit me, I headed back in for another double espresso. Between the time I arrived and noon, there must have been 1000 cyclists that came up both sides of the mountains – no exaggeration. It was cycling mayhem. After my third double espresso, I started to descend to see if I could ride up with the group. I was shaking so bad the first 2 K, a combination of the coldness and the caffeine. Thankfully James came rolling up in the sag! Lisa was there as well.

Pretty cool that in 36 hrs, I did some great rides with over 80 k of climbing. We were leaving the Pyrenees for the Bordeaux region of France later this day so I had to take advantage of my time in the Pyrenees…

European Vacation

(I am blogging this as a self journal to remember my experience. It will be in a few parts. My apologies if someone visits to read some somewhat interesting tri stuff and instead ends up with boring vacation stories.)

In 1994, I made a list of 5 "must do's" before I die, one being to follow some of the Tour De France and ride parts of the course as well. Lisa helped me check this one off by giving me this trip for my recent birthday. She planned our trip though a company called Custom Getaways - they specialize in planning vacation packages around the Tour, and now the Giro as well.

The itinerary was to fly out to Toulouse on Friday, July 20th, arriving on the 21st, where we were to be picked up by someone from Custom Getaways and driven to Carsacomme to begin our adventure. We left our house on Friday afternoon around 1pm for Kennedy airport, only to sit in traffic for an extra 90 minutes. Three hours later, we were dropped off at the terminal and scurried through to make our first flight to Brussels. They began boarding the plane, only to pull everyone off about 45 minutes later because there was a mechanical issue. 4 hrs later, they reborded, and then we sat on the tarmac for 2 hrs. We knew we would miss our connecting flight to Toulouse, and they only have one Toulouse flight per day leaving out of Brussels. We reworked it so that we would go to Frankfurt from Brussels, and then on to Toulouse getting there 5 hrs late, but getting there. the issue was that our bags and my bike were checked to go to Toulouse from Brussels on the flight the following day.

We were not off to a good start and Lisa was really upset. We somehow managed to get them to pull our bags in Brussels and reissue them on our new flights. We finally arrived in France AND with all our luggage! Aline picked us up at the airport. She is a young, cute French woman who is part of the Custom Getaway staff. She races bikes and is very feminine, yet tough as nails. I rode with her the next day and she is elegant as a rider, yet unafraid to spit if necessary or mix it up with the boys in a sprint. I like that.

Carsacomme was to be our first destination, hotel wise, in France. The place is unbelievable! It's a medieval city built around 1 AD and resembles a huge castle. There is a huge wall built around the whole small town and as we pulled up, I joked to Lisa that I forgot my grappling hook. The hotel was inside the castle and was amazing - modernized inside, yet keeping the oldness and history of the place. We were wiped out from the two days of travel, yet went to meet the rest of the group at dinner. There were 20 people participating in this tour, 16 Americans including Lisa and I and 4 aussies. There was a young couple (ok, young, being relative - they were close to our age) from the DC/Virginia area that we met on our drive from the airport. The poor couple waited with Aline for 4.5 hrs at the airport for us to arrive. There were three guys, from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida who worked together for a marketing company. There were six from the Philly/New Jersey area, a couple from Chicago, and a couple from California. Everyone was in there forties or fifties for the most part. A few in there late thirties.

After a late dinner (which set the tone for this trip - most dinners began around 8:30pm and ended around 11+pm.) that was excellent, with lots of red wine (another tone set for this trip!), two staff members, Eric and Michele, assisted me in putting my bike together. Eric and Michele were from France. Eric was a super nice guy from Cannes in his early forties with a ton of cycling experience. His French mannerisms and broken American language cracked me up. Michele was a serious cyclist who lived in the French Alps. This guy was a climbing goat and looked more comfortable on a bike than off one in everyday life. He spoke very little English, but tried hard, and he also was a super nice guy. In fact, all the staff was. I referred to Eric and Michele as "my boys", as in " Lis, I'm going to ride ride with my boys now", or "Let's sit with my boys at dinner tonight". As we unpacked my bike, Eric whistled, cooed, even letting out an "oohh, la, la!". "You are too strong to ride with us" he mentioned. I replied back " you've never even seen me ride yet Eric! I could be a total poser.". It was now well after midnight, and we were riding 50K in the morning. By the way, I'm digging kilometers! When I am climbing and climbing up a Pyrenees mountain and I see a sign out there that says something like "Tourmalet 10" and it refers to kilometers and not miles - that is a cool thing! Plus the math conversion gave me something to do brain wise while climbing.

The morning ride agenda was to ride through rolling French countryside, much of the ride being on the actual tour course for that day. There was an intermediate sprint in town that day and we would get to ride through it some 3 hours before the Tour riders attacked it. The ride was beautiful, as was the weather. In fact, the weather all week was perfect. About 30 minutes into the ride, the group split up into 5 of us up front - the three Florida boys, Aline, and myself. I was keeping things very easy, staying mostly in my small chainring, anticipating some big climbing days ahead. The Florida boys were having some fun attacking and sprinting. The streets were beginning to get crowded with fans preparing for the Tour entourage that would soon be coming through. Most of them would cheer for us as we rode which was silly, yet fun. As we rolled back into Carsacomme, Cliff, one of the Floida guys, says to me "wait until your wife sees the grin on your face!" It's true, I was smiling ear to ear. I was realizing that I was in Southern France, riding my bike, on the actual tour course that they'd be riding later that day! It was very surreal...