Rest day shenanigans, and TdF Stage 10 Tarbes to La Pierre St Martin

Rest day...Woo Hoo!

It couldn't have come at a better time, I was knackered and needing rest. A lazy breakfast was followed by a trip to the bike shop to replace bits that had broken on the cobbled stage a few days before...im now wearing a new sporty pair of sunglasses and no longer looking like the blues brothers (thanks for lending me yours spare pair Si, I am grateful...really!).

The view from the room, those big lumps in the distance are where we are heading for the next few days.

Then it was admin time, washing kit and the bike...look after your kit, and its supposed to look after you, right?




Welcome to "the Bombsite" as it is affectionately known

The closest I will ever get to wearing the official climbers "Polka dot" Jersey

Lunch was had in Tarbes town square, steak avec frites - c'est magnifique! then followed by a few beers whilst we watched the Pro's ride up the Mur de Huy on the TV - just as we had done a week earlier (although they seemed to make it much easier). Cue 5 blokes watching the TV of Pro's riding along the road saying "I remember that bit".

Peter washing his bike in an unorthodox way in Tarbes town centre

 

I was gonna take a piccie of the statue (no idea who died, or how important he was), but the fine specs that you can see in the picture are actually a parachute team practicing ahead of their moment when the tour comes to town next week...they looked much more impressive in real life - you sort of had to be there!

And so onto Stage 10 Each night we get a briefing from Phil the lead rider and he gives a summary of what to expect the next day. There were a few noticeable lumps along the way today, but due to the scale of the last climb they don't really show up on the map as being significant - but my legs are telling me they were! Here is his version of events, and the official TdF version!

Pretty similar right?

  
Lunch stop was at the Eddy Merckx Velodrome - a nice touch by the organisers!

Some nice scenery along the way today - tres picturesque!

Todays big climb was right at the end of the stage, and we had been told how pretty the views were and we would love it...Hmm, low cloud and drizzle soon put paid to that, but as we continued to climb we ended up above the clouds and the views improved - the sun even came out

Pretty bleak at the top

 

Say hi to "Daisy" - Daisy and her friends "own" the mountain road, and if she decides she is gonna sit in the road, or cross it - she bloody well will! and cars, vans and especially bikes, will have to wait. 

The locals have already been out writing the names of their favourite riders on the road, at least that's what I think they were saying about Froome?

The prize for the best decorated shed in the middle of nowhere goes to..... this one - Good effort!

 

As its a big day tomorrow, with lots of Pyrenean Lumps to get over...its an early(ish) night for me!

 

Stats du Jour

 

 

TdF Stage 9 Vannes to Plumelec

Stage 9 was just a short 28kms Team Time Trial (for the pro's) - which meant we just needed to pedal for just under an hour and the cycling day was done. Then it was just the small matter of a 10 hour coach transfer all the way down south to the Pyrenees and a rest day tomorrow, yes that's right a REST DAY!!!!

 

It was an undulating course, with a cheeky little climb at the end, not what you need after having gone eyeballs  out for the 1st 26kms!

A short Time trial (TT) stage, which Simon set off on his own determined to get a good start. Tim and I said we should give it a go and set off after him, we caught him after a few miles and were then joined by Fixie Chris...nicknamed Fixie, cos he never changes gear EVER! - he makes my low cadence grinding look like im spinning aka Chris Froome. Anyway, we arrived at the end 1st in a team of 4, a good effort considering how tired our legs were from the previous days.

A nice start to the stage

Enjoying a well deserved ice cream on the 1st break of the coach trip...what we didn't realise was that we were trying out for the next Magnum advert, as Chris is in advertising

...speak to my agent Chris!

Listening to some tunes and looking at the profile of the stages ahead...I don't think it was a good idea, they are full of speed bumps of the Pyrenean and Alp variety!

Bill managed to find some extra leg room on the coach and dozed off on the floor...Good thinking - Damn, I wish id thought of that 1st!

Recovery drink for the coach journey after the restaurant ie: Lager

Todays stats, not as far as usual

A proper rest day tomorrow, no transfer, no early brekkie etc etc - just a lazy day to sort out some admin ie. Eat, clean bike, Eat some more, do some shopping for bike bits, Eat again, then watch le tour on TV and then Eat again...and maybe a couple of cheeky beers as well - so no blog tomorrow, i'll add it into the next day...til then, t'ra

TdF Stage 8 Rennes to Mur de Bretagne

It was so hot in the hotel last night, so hot! I don't think anyone got any decent kip - there certainly wasn't much chat on the coach to the start line this morning, someone was 15mins late for the coach as well, which made him really popular as everyone else had managed to get there on time.

 

Todays route took us from Rennes to Mur de Bretagne, 117 miles all in, and over 7000ft of climbing (there is no such thing as a flat stage in the TdF...well, once we got out of The Netherlands)

 

 

They will put pictures of the TdF on anything...a decorated watertower anyone? 

The Fresh Prince's "alternative" Bel Air residence?

Simon wearing the colours on American independence day

This part of France was liberated by the Americans on 6th Aug 1944...seemed kinda apt to post this for our colonial cousins

 

 Todays route, and the topography of the Mur de Bretagne...Hmm, it says 10.1% is the steepest - I beg to differ, my Garmin was registering 15-16% for a while...after riding over 110miles before we got to this, it was a real sting in the tail! Its a straight road, so you can see the good news right ahead in front of you, the "wall" is well named! The only bonus was that to get to our hotel, we had to go back down the same way that we had just come up - cue a top speed today of 52mph

 

Todays stats du jour

Tomorrows stage is a relatively short stage, that the Pro's will complete as a team time trial, its only 28km, so will feel like a rest day for us! then comes a long transfer by coach and a REAL rest day, my knees and ar$e are thankful for that!

TdF Stage 7 Livarot to Fougeres

We started the day with another coach transfer which has become our usual routine. 5:30am alarm, 6am brekkie, 6:30am on the coach and then start pedalling between 7:30-8am.

On the coach at ridiculous o'clock

 

We started with coffee and croissants in a little bar, all decked out in pictures of previous Tour winners

Todays route took us from Livarot to Fougeres

 

 

The start town have really got Tour fever, and have made a real effort to show off their town to the watching masses.

 

We were joined by 25 new "Tour tasters" today, these are people who cant get the time off to complete the whole event, or just want to try out a few stages. It was nice to mingle with the new faces and make them feel welcome. You could tell they were nervous and excited, just as I was a week ago when I started the TdF.

One of the "lifers" Chris, had a mate (Tim) joining him for a couple of days, Chris wanted an easier day and Tim wanted to smash it up, so asked if he could ride with me and Simon - Mai Oui, but of course!

Tim and Chris, leading the peleton

 

Moi, messing around

Tim had a fresh set of legs and ours had already done 600+miles, so we were happy to let him take some big turns on the front in the morning, and he was keen to show what he could do. (Chapeau Tim - Top man!)

There were plenty of "rollers" today, the road hardly ever seemed flat, Here's a rare picture of Simon leading us up a hill :-) and the view from the other side

Plenty of sights similar to this today, lots of very nicely presented property

 

At one of the early stops Simon and I had a picture taken next to this sign, which roughly translated to Danger of Death...little did we know what was to come!

I have never, repeat never, ridden as fast as we did over the next 100miles. Each section between feed stops (23-25miles) turned into a 3 man team time trial. The wind gods were looking favourably on us, and we had a tailwind, which makes a change! We even caught and passed some French Triathletes keeping low on their on their TT Bars, the look on theirs faces was brilliant as 3 "Charity" bike riders went whizzing past them at 30mph..ha ha

Tim making new friends with the Frenchie Triathletes

 

The final stats of the day, I've never had so much gold on my strava segments!

 

Team Lanterne Rouge with our guest Tim (or filmstar Gary Busey) i'll let you decide

 

 

Click here for the best strava stats im ever likely to have!

 

TdF Stage 6 Abbeville to Le Havre

Health warning: Boring blog Alert!

(yeah yeah, I know, tell me something new Andy)

 

Todays stage was a similar distance to yesterday at c191kms (118miles), but yesterday we had 40c heat, so everyone was hoping for a cooler day - we had been warned that thunderstorms were around and we might get wet...they weren't wrong!! Hence the boring blog, cos my camera stayed tucked away in my back pocket safe and dry, whilst I got soaked.

 

 

To try and show you the progress we are making, we started 6 days ago, and have now ridden over 600miles (and that includes a short Prologue stage|) and are now on the Brittany coastline in Le  Havre

 

One thing I have started to notice now that its getting nearer to the proper TdF starting, the locals seem to be making an extra special effort to make their town or village pretty for the TV camera's. Everyone is putting colourful bikes by the side of the road, and all the hedgerows are being trimmed back to make everything look all neat n tidy.

 

 Theres also been a noticeable increase in the amount of "Tour Tarmac" which is basically where they go round and either fill in all the potholes, or resurface the road, so its nice and smooth for the event...trust me, after 6 days sitting in the saddle, its a right bonus, and my ar$e is grateful for that!

 

 

The only piccy of the day I'm afraid, the view of the coastline just outside of Dieppe, the cliffs don't scrub up quite as well as Dovers' do they?

Click here for the stats du jour