Bonjour, mes amis! Howdy y’all!
This post comes to you from the Haute Savoie region of France. Last night we stayed in Le Grand Bornand, nestled high up in the Alps near Switzerland and Italy. In addition to our usual group dinner, we also had a 1-1/2 hour wine, cheese and sausage tasting. Yum!
So far we’ve done two official rides, although I did a 30 mile warm-up ride on the day before the official start of the tour. We’ve climbed three Cols: Col de la Forclaz, Col de Marais, and Col de la Croix Fry.
Forclaz was a killer, Marais was relatively easy, and Croix Fry was a long grind with a couple of very difficult sections. The scenery in the Alps is absolutely spectacular; almost unbelievably so. The scenery is what keeps me pedaling up the mountains.
Today we head toward Albertville, a recent host of the Winter Olympics, and end the day in Moutiers. Along the way we’ll climb Col de Aravis and Col de Saissys. Later in the week, we’ll do Col de la Madeleine, Col du Telegraph, Col due Galibier, and Alpe d’Huez. Makes my legs hurt just thinking about it.
Although I’ve captured some great video and photos, I won’t be able to bring you any podcasts (audio or or video) until I return home. For one thing, upload speeds here have been atrocious. For another, I’m quite tired every night (!) and need to conserve my energy for the following day’s climbing. I know you’ll understand.
By the way, I am the only one on the trip who brought a bike to Europe. Everyone else rented bikes through our tour operator. They are alloy road bikes and are well-equipped with Shimano 105 components, including a triple ring in the front and a 25-tooth cog in the rear. I’m jealous (so are my knees) because although I changed to 11/27 in the back for this trip, I still have my 53/39 in the front. As I said, long grinding climbs.
That’s about it for now. More later including some photos (again VERY slow upload speeds). Au revoir!
