Les Francais, On My Way

Not since Monsieur Bruneau had me memorize Les Marseillaise and gave me punishment over my daily mis-use of the subjunctive, plu-perfect, verb-conjugating mess (4 years of this no-less) that was my high-school french classes (Go Oly Trojans!) have I dreamed of being in France.

Now I'm a few days away from the dream vacation of any cyclist. This time I punish myself in Les'alpes, expending half the calories as the pros, while consuming twice the calories (in wine alone) at night.

My riding partner (shown below after kicking my butt all over Yosemite) is out of commission, but will be passing water bottles out the window as I'm working away. Good thing I'm in better shape now than in this photo!

Here is a preview:

Day 1 (I'm excluding the two days of travel here): Grenoble

The hills in the distance will be the warm up climb. 1,000 meters of climbing should get the airplane out of the legs.

Day 2: Grenoble - L'Alpe D'Huez

Hello switch-backs. Around 10,500 feet of climbing today, finishing on top of one of the most famous climbs in cycling.



























Day 3: D'Huez - Valloire

An "easy" day with "only" 8,000 feet of climbing . . . including the Col du Telegraphe.






Day 4: Valloire - Bartavelles

Around 7,500 feet of climbing today. But we say "hello" to the Galibier and the L'Izoard.



















Day 5: Bartavelles - Les Ceans

A nice rolling day. Priority one is to get some feeling back in the legs after the last four days! (not many photos floating around for this day's route, but we are starting to skirt down into La Provence and I'm sure we will roll by something like this)





Day 6: Les Ceans - Mont Ventoux

The Giant of Provence. One of the most storied climbs in cycling. The one that got away from Lance and took Tom Simpon's life. Behold pain, Ventoux is thy name . . . .

Day 7: Les Cingles du Ventoux

The tour we are on doesn't have this on the itinerary. I'm doing this one on my stupid-self-own. "Les Cingles" is French for "The Crazies". This is essentially, "The Crazies of Ventoux". The mad-men (and women), who are just crazy enough to do one of the hardest climbs in Europe not once, not twice, but three times in one day. For what? I think you get a 'fridge magnet. No kidding. Take a look at the photos above. Three times.


Day 8: Lyon

Just chillin' today. Nice.