Day 8 - I skipped the Mont Ventoux

Today I did a casual ride, some where around 30 miles. The navigation on my Garmin didn't seem to be tracking me properly, so I stopped it and restarted. When I restarted the Garmin wasn't recording.

So take a look - very easy day - https://www.strava.com/activities/698699665

And the continuation - https://www.strava.com/activities/698699863

Looks like the grapes are getting ready for the harvest.

I get a kick out of how they tell you that you are leaving a town.

I stoppped in Bedouin and bought a jersey.

The Giant of Provance

After removing my equipment from the bike and showering I had lunch. A cheese tart, which I would call a Quiche, followed by duck, shown below, and a chocolate thing (cupcake with warm chocolate sauce inside. I had a carafe of red wine and a Cafe at Lait. Delicous!!!

Tomorrow we drive back to Karlsruhre.

Day 7 my fourth ride

Check out my Strave data - https://www.strava.com/activities/698199202

Unfortunately my Garmin stopped recording at the coffee break

Below are a couple of picture of the coffee break in Collioure. A beautiful beach on the Metiterranean.

Ingoff had a beer, Martin had a banana milk shake, everyone else had some form of coffee. Of course we had to have something to go with it (who's counting calories). 

After our break we heade along the shore to our finishing point for the Randomee portion the the ride.

We got our final stamp and Andrew presenter our diplomas and medals.

I was surprised to get them, I guess they felt sorry for the old guy.

I've got to tell you these climbs are nothing like I've done in the USA. Grade and distance are brutal.

After a little champagne, we loaded up and to the vicinity of the "Giant of Provance" - Mont Ventoux.

It is a 21 km climb with an average over 8% with many sections at 9,10, 11, and 12%. I've decided to ride near the hotel and recover. I'm a whinney.

Day 6 - My third ride

It's 10:30 and I'm beat. I will update the blog tomorrow - updated now

We had two climbs yesterday - Col du Port, and Col du Pailherer. It has been harm and humid. Temperatures 30-35C, and the humidity has been in the mud 70's. I'm doing fine until I start climbing, then I sweat profusely, I down about 2 liters on  15 km climb. I refill at the top and loos it all again.

I finished the first climb (12 km 6.5% average grade), I got to the top and I couldn't open my iPhone because I was sweating so much, So I took the picture with my camera. Check the picture below of our lunch. The breads are to die for, every day Andrew buys fresh bread to use for lunch. We have water, sodas, fruits. And we are eating as much as we can.

Check out my Strava data - https://www.strava.com/activities/697136487 the entry is flagged because I had abnormally fast time to the top of Col de Pailheres, brutal climb. 

We have all seen the graffiti on the roads for the TDF, a different type of graffiti is showing up "non ours" French for "non bears". The French government is repopulating the area with brown bears and is causing a big concern of the citizens. Some sheep have been killed, but the government is reimbursing the farmers. I'm not sure how big a concern it is, I haven't seen a single bear, let along "scat".

As we ride in the mountains we are coriander by what sounds like wind chimes. Bells are placed around the necks of cattle (cows, sheep, goats, and horse) many different tones are heard providing a very mesmerizing melody.

The second climb was up Col Du Pailheres. The one was 19 km at 7.5% average. Unfortunately they got rid of the easy grades at the bottom. My Garmin was showing 10-12% about 8 km from the top. I tried calling for help, but no coverage. I stopped a car, but no English. At 6 km to go I got cell coverage and called Andrew. He picked me up about 5.5 km from the top. Strava is complaining about the car ride to the top, but I'm having trouble using my tablet to skip the car ride. So until I fix that Strava is blocking my data.

Here is the picture at the top, as I was taking this picture the horse on the left let out the longest fart I have aver heard.

PC and Ingun made it to the top, took a short break and we headed downhill.

The switch backs were so tight and frequent, I wondered how professional races could take this downhill at race speed. I noticed there was a lot more graffiti on this side, so I guess this is the way they came up.

We had one more climb (I don't remember the name). I tried callin PC because my Garmin was showing me off course. I only had one bar and I kept loosing the. I left a voice message. I continued on and finally got back on course. I reached the top and PC was talking to Andrew. Andrew suggested a shortcut to save 8 km (not much, but I will take anything).

We finished up at 7:30 with 108 miles (174 km) which was a lot more than the 166 km he told us.

Tomorrow is an easy day, aout 88 km mostly down hill. I can handle that.

Day 5 - my second day of riding

Actually, this is the third day of cycling, but my second. Just to keelp things straight.

Yesterday I made my post before dinner, We did not have "mountain" food as promised, I was disappointed. We ordered off the menu.

Check out my Strave data - https://www.strava.com/activities/696052064 I've never had a suffer score so high.

We started riding at 9 after breakfast and packing the trailer. I rode with PC and Ingun, we stayed together except for the climbs, PC is very strong, and Ingun climbs faster than me.

Our first climb is to Col d'Aspin 1490m, The climb started 12km from the summit with and average grade of 7%, some less, some more. After my crash I felt fairly good, but my right calf is still tender.

Our second climb was shortly after a nice descent. The sign below are on the major TDF climbs. They have an initial sign showing the beginning, average grade, distance, and updates every kilometer.

This was our second climb only 9km, but the average grade was 7.5%. As you can see we had several  kilometers that were higher than the average, Including the final two kilometers.

Our third climb was a short one, only 4km, 797m, at 4-5%. This one is not a major TDF climb, so it didn't have the signs.

On the final climb (Col de Portet d'Aspet 1969m for 9km, average grade 7.5%) there was a dedication to Fabio Casastelli who was a teammate of Lance Armstrong's and died on the descent in 1992. We were climbing up the side he went down. At the area he crashed, the grade was 17% downhill, he went over the barrier and died.

This was a brutal climb, there were a couple of 17% sections that I ended up walking, this bike isn't geared as low as my cross country bike, and it hit me hard.

At the top (6PM) we took quick picture, filled up our water and texted Andrew. Then we headed downhill. We made a quick stop at a butcher shop to stamp our checkpoint cards and continued on to the hotel. We arrived at 8PM, they gave us 15minutes to shower and get down to dinner.

Dinner tonight wasn't "mountain" food again. We had a fixed menu with a local flair. Delicious 

Tomorrow has similar climbs and and 170 km. PC, Ingun and I are starting at 8:30, a half hour before the stronger German riders. PC could probably hang with them, but he committed to ride with his wife. Nice guy.

Day 4 - No Riding For me

Welllll, I didn't sleep well and my legs were very sore, so I decided to skip today.

This day was going to be an epic day, it is currently 1930 and PC and Ingun still haven't finished, all the German riders are in. Today would have been another 150 km and 3,900 meters of elevation gain. My legs would n or be able to handle it. 

The disqualifies me for the Raid Pyrenees Randomee, but I still saw some beautiful scenery, and worked with Andrew to get the bike road worthy.c

We started the day with a visit to a bike shop to get handle as and a new stem. I France, this isn't' taste easy as it sounds. The shop should of opened at 9:00, we were there, but the manager didn't open until 9:30. Then they spend 20 minutes moving bike outside for display. Finally we were invited in to look around. We waited while they had their coffee. Finally we got someone's attention. Andrew explained what we needed, he went in the back and came back with aluminum handle bars as we requested. When we asked the price he disappeared for about 15 minutes. Got the price and asked for a stem. Finally got the price for the parts (100 euros), paid and we were on our way. Andrew explained that this was the French way.

Today I rode with Andrew to support the riders. About 30 km into the ride they reached the peak of Col de Marie Blanque, this was probably the steepest climb for the day, peaking at 13%, but was much shorter than the others.

The next climb started "up" after 47 km to Col d'Aubisque at an altitude of 1,709 meters, this has goes uphill for 25 km.

We met the riders at the top of each climb and had two lunch breaks between the climbs (they burned a lot of calories).

The final climb was to Col de Tourmalet (2,115 m). The climb started at about 100 km and went up for 35km. After the two prior climbs everyone said their legs felt like lead on the last 2 km of this climb. Fortunately the final 20 km were down hill.

This is called the "giant" a larger than life size cyclists.

Tomorrow I plan on riding 163 km with 2,700 vertical meters of climbing, should be a piece of cake.

Day 3 - First day riding

We started riding about 9:30 to get to Hendaye (pronounced - On Day). We hit the tourist bureau to get our initial checkpoint stamp, To my surprise they used the sea shell of the pilgrimage - El Camino de Santagio - This pilgrimage has been in place since the 1500's and terminated at the Cathedral in Santagio Spain.

Check out my Strava link - https://www.strava.com/activities/693342037

The ride was 150 km, but I was slow at pressing go on my Garmin.

Shortly after starting PC (my friend from Norway) had a flat tire, and a little later he had another. But this time we found two sources for the flats.

We got back underway. The entire tour group stayed together today. And about 30 mile in we made a wrong turn, the group started to stop and I was not quick enough and crashed into Martin. We went down. I think I got the brunt of the damage, not only did I get abrasions on both elbows and my right knee, but I had bruised muscled (right calf, and left upper hamstring), these eased up as we rode. I also damaged the rental bike, bent the handlebar, tore up the handle bar tape, and abused the shift levers. Our tour guide is trying to find replacements.

We made it to the hotel around 6 PM and I soaked in a bath to ease my aches. It helped a little.

Andrew, our tour guide told us to expect "mountain" food, not typical France cuisine. I was presently surprised. We started with a chicken vegetable soup (very hearty), followed by a lamb stew over pasta and/or rice. Everything is served family style. And they brought more as we emptied a dish. For desert I chose a Basque cake, which was very tasty. 

I'm looking forward to more "mountain" food

I also noticed the cities/town are shown in two different languages, French and Basque.

Sorry, no pictures I had trouble connecting my cell phone to the Internet. Maybe tomorrow is will be able to add some pictures.

From Left to right - Martin, Volker, PC, Marcel, Ingun, me, and Ingoff

This is my loaner bike, before the crash.

Just outside the town where we had lunch, where one of the pilgrimages for the El Camino de Santiago starts.

Day 2 - Clermont France to Urdanibia Spian

Another driving day we departed Clermont and drove to Urdanibia Spain. As we got closer we were talking about doing a short ride of 40-50 km (multilpy by .62 to get miles), but as we were getting our bikes ready it started raining. So we went into town. 

We enjoyed some Tapas (they call them Pintxo in the Basque area of Spain).

We had dinner and Andrew reviewed the plans for tomorrow. We received our "checkpoint" cards a frame number for our bikes.

Above are pictures of these items. 

Since this is a French event, it doesn't start until we enter France (Henday about 5 km). 

Checkpoints are at any business in the town. 

Tomorrow we will meet after breakfast at 9:00 to load our gear and have a final route review. 

Tomorrow we well ride 150 km and climb 1,100 vertical meters (multiply by 3.3 to get feet). This will be an easy day. 

Watch for tomorrow's actual ride. 

Day 1 - Karlsruhe Germany to Clermont France

No pictures yet. Sorry

Last night I sent Andrew, our tour leader, a text - "Help us, we are eating too much and need to start riding". He was worried that there was a problem. I explained that I was just kidding.

This morning we met at the Bus station, next to the train station at 9:30.

This was out first opportunity to meet the other cyclists. We loaded the trailer and the van, hopped in at 9:40 and started driving, about 650 km. We drove for a couple of hours before taking a break. I tried to double check the names of my new acquaintances, I did fairly well.

Back in the van until a lunch break, I checked the last person and had gotten his name wrong, but now I got it.

We have Ingoff from Reichenbach, PC and Ingun from Asker, Marcel from Weissenhorn, Martin from Illertissen, and Volker from Colone. Volker is about my age, the rest are in their 40's and 50's.  They all look very fit. We are talking about doing a warm up ride tomorrow when we arrive in Henday.

A couple more stops before we arrived in Clermont at 6:30ish, we agreed to meet for dinner at 7.

At Dinner, Andrew, our tour leader, gave us a rundown of what would be happening the next couple of days. In the morning we agreed to a 6:30 breakfast to avoid a conflict with a tour group. We will start driving at 7:30.

After a nice dinner we sat around and got to know each other a little better.

We are getting closer to our first day of cycling.

Planes, buses, and trains

I got to DFW around 8, waited for my 11:55 plane to Charlotte, grabbed the next flight to Frankfurt took a bus to another terminal to get on a high speed train to Freiburg. Got to my hotel about 12:30 (7 hours difference fro Dallas).

The Pyrenees Randonee

Late last year I was communicating with Udo (my roommate from the Cross Country Challenge) and he told me about riding the Pyrenees with PC and Ingun. Udo has passed away, but I am looking forward to doing this challenging ride. This ride is a Randonee (ultra-marathon events governed by a French organization). In my early cycling days I would dream about doing one of these like Paris - Brest - Paris, a 1,200 km event, but as the years passed, I let that dream fade away. I guess I've lucked into trying one of these events.

I will be riding with a German tour group - http://www.velotravel.de/velotravel/Reiseziele/Pyreneen/body_pyreneen.html

I hope you enjoy following my adventure. - Russ

The following is a Google translation from their website. 

The "Raid Pyreneen" is a 714 km long "Randonée" over the main ridge of the Pyrenees. It connects the cities of Hendaye, on antlantic and Cerbere on the Mediterranean. The route passes through many famous passes that many times were at the Tour de France program. Col de Aubisque, Tourmalet and Col de Aspin are some of the best known.He also goes beyond fantastic and mostly traffic-free routes, and through the beautiful landscapes of the French Pyrenees. The aim of this Randonee is to cover the entire distance in less than 100 hours. A control card must be stamped at several places. As proof of performance to get the official diploma of Cyclo Club Bernais who supports this route since the 1950s.

Our tour is designed so that the bike every day with a journey time of about 6-7 hours, and an average speed of about 20 km / h can be well laid back. The last day is mostly flat, and has a journey time of just 3 hours. Overall, it is about 730 km, to overcome 18 passes and 11,900 vertical meters.
Each participant will receive a detailed route description. The meeting point is in each case the nearest hotel. Thus, driving each his own kick. While the tour is always our support vehicle nearby, which transports the luggage. This is, of course, can also be reached by phone, if the move should give greater problems once. You may go to change clothes, spare parts and tools, as well as drinks, fruit and energy bars. If you want to, or do not care for the "100 hours diploma", you can also climb, and a part of the distance to travel on the bus.

ITINERARY . 1 Day (SA): bus Karlsruhe- Hendaye We drive morning at Karlsruhe main station from. You have the option of your vehicle in the car park of the station turn off. Furthermore, there is also free parking near the station. Your bike is transported in our bike trailer, the special shots for racing bikes has (fork and rear wheel). In the area of Tours (or after about 850-900km route) we insert a overnight regroup. . 

2 Day (SO): Arrival Hendaye morning drive towards the Pyrenees; In the afternoon we arrive in Hendaye. We have the late afternoon and evening, in order to recover some of the trip, by watching the bike again, to stroll through the city and prepare for tomorrow. The hotel stands us upon arrival of our bus available. Dinner at the hotel. . 

3 Day (Mon): Hendaye - Gurmencon from 09:00 to 10:00 we leave the hotel and start to our first stage. The slightly later start, remains for us on Saturday until 14:00, to achieve the goal in Cerbere. A few kilometers after leaving the Hendaye route the Atlantic coast and heads inland. After the first small pass, the Col St. Ignace (169 m) we reach shortly the Spanish border. Next on the Col Pinodeila (176 m), we come to the small streets for the first control point in Espelette. Then there is still the Col d'Osquich (500 m, max. 8%) to overcome before we arrive in Gurmencon late afternoon. Dinner at the hotel. Length of about 175 km, 1.700HM, driving time 6-7 hours. . 

4 Day (DI): Gurmencon - St. Marie-de-Campan After we could einradeln us yesterday, it's up early today. The famous passes of the Pyrenees are on the program. First, it is approximately 15 km quite moderate uphill to the Col de Marie Blanque (1035m). In a departure and a flat road to the checkpoint in Laruns we can recover before the ascent to the Col d'Aubisque (1709 m) begins, the partially has a gradient of 13%. After the Col de Soulor (1464 m) is reached quickly, and it goes downhill to Argeles. Another piece, and the feet of the next pass is reached. The Col de Tourmalet (2115 m), the king of the Pyrenees, still stands on the program. Another 18 km by initially moderate slope of 6-10% to be overcome. The last three hundred meters to the highest pass of the tour will have to be brought forward and fought for. Here, the pitch increases to about 18%. After a breather at the pass, and a descent of 17 kilometers, our next overnight point is reached. Length approximately 153km, 4.050HM, takes about 6.5 - 7.5 hours.


Day 5 (MI) St.Marie-de-Campan- Massat
Two large increases are to go back today. First, it is 13 km uphill to the Col d'Aspin (1489 m), after a steep descent continues up to the Col de Peyresourde (1569 m).Another long and fast descent and we reach Bagneres de Luchon and a longer flat track where we can recover. The Col des Arres (797 m) is made ​​quickly and we reach the foot of the Col de Portet d'Aspet (1069 m). Here is the monument of Fabio Carsatelli, the Olympic champion from 1992, in 1995 was killed here during the Tour de France. This pass it again in itself!With a slope of partially nearly 20% we must again give everything before we can tackle the deserved descent to the next checkpoint, in St. Giront.Still further 25 km flat course and we reach our current endpoint and our hotel in Massat.
Length of about 175 km, 3.050HM, driving time approx. 7 - 8 hours . 

6 Day (DO) Massat - Prades The Col de Caougnous (947 m) and the Col de Port (1249 m) are two smaller passes us not cause major problems, and leading a small lonely road. A beautiful descent leads to Tarascon where we reach for the first time a major road, which we follow the farther than 30 km to Ax-les-Thermes. After the 27 km long ascent to the Col de Puymorens (1915 m), another infamous passport of the Tour de France begins. We cycling past the border of Andorra and reach this windy exposed passport. Until Puiggcerda it goes down to about 1200m altitude. Now follow closely spaced Col de Lious (1345 m), Col de Rigat (1488 m) Col de la Perche (1507 m) and Mt Louis (1585 m). With the knowledge that we have the whole Pyrenees crossed here, and that now are facing a descent of nearly 60 kilometers, we can up here are excited about our achievements of the past days. Length of about 170 km, 3.100HM, takes about 6 - 7.5 hours . 

7 Day (FR) Prades - Cerbere The next track is completely flat, and after some 30 km we reach in Argeles sur Mer Mediterranean. Along the coast to Port Vendres and Banyules s. Mer again over a few short ascents until we finally reach our destination Cerbere shortly before the Spanish border. We have the Pyenees crosses in less than 100 hours., can take a dip in the Mediterranean. After a brief stay in Cerbere, we go in the afternoon with the accompanying bus next to Carpentras (about 320 km) to the foot of the Ventoux. Length 88 km, 500HM, takes 2.5 - 3 hours.

8 Day (SA) Mont Ventoux We have the whole day to the Ventoux, the climb "King of Provence". From Carpentras from, it's approximately 15 km mostly flat to Bédoin. Here the heavy ascent begins to Ventoux. It is 1,640 meters up a good 20 kilometers to deal with. After the summit, with 1.912m we reach about Malaucène again our starting point and our hotel in Carpentras. Length approx 85km, 2.000HM, takes about 5 hours. . 

9 Day (SO) Return Carpentras Karlsruhe Early in the morning we start our return trip home. Around 19:00 we reach Karlsruhe (Track length 800 km).