CROSSROADS CRIT SERIES

Next week is the Crossroads Classic series starting Tuesday night in Mocksville. I am racing every race including Hanes Park on Sunday and hoping to bring home the bacon for the big green! Oh, every race but Friday night's race in Statesville.

Hungover in Paris

At last we have arrived in Paris, where we depart tomorrow morning at 4 am EST. As frustrating and mad as the tour became, we met some wonderful people on it and after we left. Two dudes from TN stayed at our hotel in Le Thor. They have been to Le Grand Boucle 5 of the last 6 years. The UK couple that hiked up Ventoux has already emailed to check back in with us. Amy ran into one of our tour group folks at their hotel in Paris yesterday. Needless to say, its as much about the people you meet along the way as the destination itself. That being said and fully aware that a picture is worth a lot more than I can say about it, here are a few additional photos from the last couple of days. The picture at the bottom may be the most interesting.







This photo of the lead pack coming up Ventoux on a 10% grade.




































This is the first room that we had to find "on our own." Its in Megeve, which would have been a great first town to stay in. We could've ridden the Col de la Columbiere and down to Annency for the TTT.

Check out my newest bike. We bought it because there were no rentals available and for the price we paid for the the tour, we could have purchased bikes. This is a TIME Speeder, carbon fiber with Fulcrum wheels (they make a nice clicking sound when freewheeling). It has a full 105 gruppo and compact cranks. Amy got a LaPierre The bikes are expensive over here because Boygues Telecom and Ag2R are so poplular they drive up the demand.

Spectacle of Ventoux

Probably the most photographed peloton of the day were these individuals walking around flirting with everyone.


Cheering wildly for Big George despite the fiasco ordering the kits last year.






We love french meals, especially the pizza truck!




























What a spectacle atop Mt Ventoux! Huge throngs of people speaking one common language. Some camper vans had been there for 6 days. We rode up from Sault, about 20k to the top and then rode back down to 6k from the top, near Chalet Reynard. The camper vans have satellite dishes and so I watched a lot of the race through the windshield. We were on the mountain before noon and stayed out there all day. I planned to run alongside Vdv or Hincapie but the crowds made only a narrow opening for the riders. We snagged a lot of free swag from the caravan and made friends with other insane fans. It took forever to get down even though we had our bikes, we couldn't make progress because of cars, pedestrians, etc. Here are a few other pictures from the day.

Some other pictures

See if you like any of these photos. If you want to see some better ones, check out Graham Watson's website. That is me at the top of the Col de Croix de Fer, meaning Col of Iron Cross (in background). The next 2 are silly pics of Lance attacking on the big screen and me in an Ag2r kit.

There were 4 of these dudes in homemade t-shirts with mugs of the Schleck bros walking around at the finish of in Le Grand Bornand. These freak-o's were also carrying tall flags with Frank and Andy's faces plastered on there.

There is also a live action shot of Hincapie's group coming into the finish line.

This last photo is of my new Garmin mount. I got it from the team.

Big Day on Big Sandcastle

Good Morning! Today you should see me on Mont Ventoux chasing Lance as he makes his way up. The crowds are HUGE and cycling fans come in all shapes and sizes and usually in campers. They are also usually stinking cause its f-ing hot and they ain't had a shower due to aforementioned camper. I'm reminded that european hot is a whole new level of discomfort. They don't have freon or something so the A/C can cool a 2 cubic foot space from 84 deg to 78 deg but no further. I've slept on top of the sheets for the last 2 nights. At any rate, we're headed over to make a full day of it. Yesterday, Amy checked in our tour group. She was hoping to retrieve my saddle, seatpost, our pedals and a few other random things. Things have gotten worse over there for them. Its better for us. :) We met a couple of dudes from TN who are going to today's stage. There's also a couple from the UK that are hiking to the top of Ventoux. At the base of Alpe d'Huez, we met 3 guys from Alaska. One of them was roommates with Chuck Ambrose (prz of Pfeiffer) who we race against and ride with at Orr Rd.

cole in breakaway

Well, the short story is that the tour director was a complete liar. Delusion was rampant. He was attempting to do all that he said but came nowhere close. So, we abandoned, or broke away as I like to think of it. We were at the finish in Le Grand Bornand. Rode Alpe d' Huez and the Croix de Fer (much prettier and harder in some ways) and the time trial course in Annency (Cat 3 Col de Bluffy not much more than the three pitch climb on Dixie ride). Today I'm off to snag some musettes and get a ride in the countryside of Provence before the big ride and tifosi experience on Ventoux. More updates later.

Blogging on the edge

Here are come really boring photos of us killing time in Newark. Amy's expression gives new dimension to the term "on the edge" as she is clearly stressed at not being able to find the toyota-united cowbell. Alas, we will have to go to the farm and feed store in the Alps and get a real one.