Well, I've not long been back from our whistle-stop tour of the Alps. John drove Me and Jenn down to his dads place near Morzine where we got to watch stage 17 of Le Tour de France. Superbe! We cycled up to the top of the Col de Joux Plane in the morning, actually not that steep but pretty long (about 12k) 'course it's one thing to ride up up it as we did, enjoying the viewand trying to chat with the locals in pigeon French, quite another to finish a 200k stage by racing up it (not forgetting the previous 16 stages). Once at the top we staked a place and waited for the real riders to come through.
Now I've never seen the tour live before and what you don't see on TV is the huge, mad and frankly quite surreal procession that come before the racers. Giant coffee pots, dancing animals, mobile raves, all advertising some sponsor or others tat and flinging handfuls of sweets, hats and leaflets to the slavering horders. We sat higher up the slopes maintaining a more dignified British decorum. ;o)
So, the Race streaked through, Landis well ahead of the others - as we later found out he'd made his race winning move earlier that day and managed to stay ahead until the end. Awesome...
Day 2 John and I went out to get a taste of the off road riding with a local guide (Martial). Sound fella who showed as some nice rocky and rooty singletrack and some spectacular views. John was having a clumsy day and took the odd tumble, but luckily had plenty of time to catch up due to repeated punctures from myself and our guide (Gavin:4 Martial:2). Note to self, fatter tyres for the Alps next time!
A few piccies here.
