Pit Stop

After talking with a few of the guys from the Garmin-Slipstream team,
we left the start town of Montelimar.

We're on our way to Beaune, France. On the way we stopped in a town
called Vienne to watch the Tour stage at a bar. It'll be interesting
to watch as the pro peloton ascends the same slopes that we climbed
yesterday.

Next stop...Beaune...then Paris in the morning.

At the Startline

Montelimar, France...hoping to get some autographs...French people are
very pushy and have NO respect for "personal space"

Bikes are Packed

We've completed our last ride in Europe. Mont Ventoux was incredable.

Now we're at a nice patio cafe in Bedoin at the base of the mountain.
When we're done here we'll head over to our hotel in Avignon.

What I See

Prevonce, France from the top of Mont Ventoux.

3:00pm, Friday, July 24, 2009

Laverie

We've been hunting for a laundromat for a couple of days now. We got
close yesterday in Chambery, a nice French kid gave us directions to a
Laverie, but the language barrier was proving too much to overcome so
he had us follow him in our car as he drove us to one...it was closed!
Good try though, and we did our part to keep up foreign relations.

Here we are back in Grenoble and the front desk girl at the hotel gave
us a map to the laundromat pictured here. We arrived at 8:00pm and it
was closing at 8:00 pm...nobody is here to lock up, so we're still
washing.

Tomorrow, we climb Mont Vontoux!

Made it

Made it to the top of the Galibier and back. Windy? That would be an
understatement! I was getting blown sideways near the top, and there
aren't any gaurd rails (and the drops are HUGE!

Stopped in Valloir for a beer on the way back.

By far our biggest single day if climbing so far.

Galibier

It's 11:00am here in St. Michel Maurienne, France. We're heading out
to climb the Col du Telegraph and the Col du Galibier...we'll be
riding to almost 10,000 feet and it doesn't look like the nicest
day...major wind gusts here in town so I can only imagine what the top
will be like.

I've packed everything I think I'll need, so I should be ready for
anything.

Fingers crossed...

Riccola Dudes

They were on the top of the mountain blowin' their horns...pretty cool.

Right now I'm...

FREEZING!!!

In a liitle village, standing in a doorway out of the wind.

Just climbed a STEEP 8.8 K to today's stage's 2nd to last catagory 1
climb.

Stage 16 Climb

This is a view of the climb where we were watching from. The peak of
the Col du Petite St. Bernard is the border of France and Italy...we
were on the Italian side.

Stage 16 - Petit Saint Bernard

Greetings! Out of touch again, my iphone data plan has proven to be incredibly inadaquate. Internet at the hotel is sllllloooooowwwwww as well, so this'll have to be breif.

We rode to the top of the finishing climb of yesterday's stage, Le Petite St. Bernard. We purchased some sliced proccuito, cheese, a loaf of bread, some sausage and a bottle of wine and then made our way to a good spot about 500 meters from the top of the climb.

The race caravan came through tossing out all sorts of cheap goodies for the spectators on the side of the road. Thirty minutes later the race rolled through in bits and pieces and we had great views of the whole thing.

We got stuck on the top in a traffic jam for a few hours (due to Jens Voigt's crash that took him out of tour. Finally made it back to the hotel about a quarter after 11:00 pm.

We're off again this morning...I'll try to chieck back in soon

Luxury Suite

We've made it to our Hotel in Chambery. It's basically a small box
with bunkbeds, a 13" TV (that only shows ten channels in French) and a
bathroom that is about half the size of one that you'd find in an RV.

Early day tomorrow, we're climbing either the Petite Saint Bernard or
the Gran Saint Bernard depending on the timing of the Tour stage that
climbs both of those. We'll be roadside to watch the race come
through, keep an eye out for my Gator flag.

Dinner al Fresco

Stuck around in Bourg D'Oisans for a great dinner. A couple of beers,
great pasta and outdoor dining in the city- central...great finish to
a great day.

Now, back to the car, load everything up and head to Chambry, France.
We'll be at that hotel for the next 3 nights...I'm very much looking
forward to that.

Paninis are on the way

We're pretending we're Europeans.

Here's a shocker...my drink was served with ICE!!! Only 2 pieces, but
I'll take it. Hot paninis just arrived, I'll post again after we
plumet down this mountain.

On Top of the World

Just finished climbing Alp D'Huez..beautiful weather! I'm taking the
scenery in while I wait for Rodrigo then we're going to relax at a
cafe for some lunch.