Author: Christine Cogger

We decided to pull the pin on the Ventoux and take everyone to Avignon instead.The clients enjoyed a free day while Ryan and I raced through town shopping for the train ride, returning rental vehicles and generally feeling like we were starring in our own version of the Amazing Race.

True Story: before the bus left, I announced to everyone that a good spot to find a screen to watch the Tour on could be found in Place Pie/Les Halles, and open air plaza surrounded by bars, cafes and restaurants.A client complained to me that I had “promised open air but this place was full of people and establishments and thus I misled her”.I didn’t even have a comeback for that one.

Eventually we got everyone to the TGV and we were off to Paris.Ryan and I wisely loaded up on beer and wine and that made everything a little easier for us.We spent the ride playing bartender/waiter and it went by very quickly.

Once in Paris we split the group between our 2 hotels which overlooked the course, Le Regina and Le Crillon (where Lance and the OLN crew stay, including Phil and Paul).Another few hours of ironing wrinkles out of our plans, sorting out guests and generally putting out fires meant that it was a while longer before we could sneak off to our fantastic suite and pass out.

Night view from our room

On our first morning in Paris, we planned an early morning cruiser bike ride through the streets of Paris, including up and down the Champs Elysee. This was definitely a highlight for me, it was super fun and a great way to see the city before the mayhem really got underway.

Self portrait, Champs Elysee, 8am.

Les Champs

We rode till about 11, and then Ryan and I snuck off to the “Breakfast in America” for a greasy pile of food.We made it back to our hotel, sorted everyone out with balconies and viewing points and watched the final stage of the Tour de France 2009 roll by our window.It was incredible!

Caravan

Peloton

We capped off the day with a dinner at the restaurant on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower.What should have been a great send-off was marred by the fact that the restaurant RAN OUT OF FOOD but really?At that point, it just seemed fitting…

I spent my final day in Europe wandering the streets of Paris, visiting the Louvre and the Opera House, walking the Champs Elysée and sneaking down as many side streets as I could find to take it all in.The best part?I was all by myself.

All in all, it was a pretty surreal week.At times it felt like it would never end, at other times it felt like it flew by.I missed my boys terribly.I didn’t get to do as much riding as I had hoped but the rides I did do were fantastic.The stress of managing 110 people in VERY logistically-challenging conditions was hard on us.The fact that we were doing it on no sleep and less food made it all the more difficult.I lost 7 pounds (IN FRANCE.How is that possible?!)

I kept my cool throughout (despite 1 or 2 meltdowns…)I was even polite to everyone until the bitter end (except maybe when someone snatched a dinner ticket out of my hand and the Eiffel Tower without even looking at me and I was compelled to snap “you’re welcome!” and then mutter obscenities under my breath at him.)

Tour guiding may not be for me, but I am keen to go back and tackle all the routes again in better conditions.Anyone want to come?I can drive you around and almost guarantee I won’t get lost!

The morning we were to go up to the Ventoux began perfectly for me despite on getting a few hours of sleep: all alone in the Château courtyard with a croissant and some good coffee.Let’s just say that the next 4 hours after that were particularly trying and leave it at that.

Once Ryan finally met me with the bikes in the parking lot of La Route du Ventoux (a bike shop with the loveliest staff who took wonderful care of me), we opened the back of the moving van… a one ton truck that held no less than 110 bikes.People were stopping to take pictures!It took about 2 hours to unload every bike.Thankfully that would be the last time we’d have to do it.Even the owner of the bike shop chuckled when he saw all his rental bikes crammed in.

I ended up spending 12 hours in the parking lot wrenching bikes, filling water bottles, getting filthy and generally making sure clients made it safely up and down the mountain.I am sad that I didn’t get to ride it myself but really, that just means I’ll have to go back another time.

The town itself, Bedoin, felt like a huge street party.Camper vans and trailers had been arriving for over 10 days to secure a spot on the mountain to watch the tour come through.There were hundreds of cyclists making their way up the mountain and through town.We realized that our plan to take clients up the mountain the following day to watch the stage would have been an exercise in futility, especially since we were meant to catch the TGV back to Paris from Avignon that night.It took people all night to get down!

Thankfully, all of our riders who chose to go up enjoyed their experience of riding through hundreds of thousands of people and everyone made it down safely, in time to enjoy cocktails and a dinner at the Château.

The funniest part of the day for me was when the taxis arrived to take some clients back, I asked if I could follow since I didn’t have my GPS.The driver said no problem, he’d go slowly and wait for me.The fact that he was driving a 600 series Mercedes might have tipped me off that our ideas of slowly would differ.I ended up driving a moving van at 120 kph through the back roads of Provence.Good times!(Sorry, mum!)

I got home in time to clean up, eat dinner and *surprise*!More planning.All I wanted to do was collapse on my lovely ironed sheets in my lovely ironed PJs, but it was not to be.Clients wanted to leave earlier/later/go elsewhere/needed translation/hand holding/someone to yell at, etc.So of course, I obliged, hahaha.Eventually I did make it to my ironed sheets and enjoyed every last minute…

After another late night of planning, organizing and generally trying to dig this tour out of the hole we seem to have collapsed in, we had an early morning departure planned.The goal was to load up the buses and vans with everyone’s luggage and cycle the group from Megeve to Annecy via Albertville.It was only about a 45K ride and the first 2/3 of it were downhill on a narrow, twisty mountain road.The dark tunnels made it interesting, that’s for sure!The road is so narrow that when a bigger vehicle meets another, they stop to inch by each other.Once we go to the flats near Annecy we merged onto the bike lane and I had to tuck in behind a client because 1) there was a ridiculous headwind and 2) I was completely shattered.

The crowds in Annecy were amazing.The road circling the lake was closed for the Time Trial and the halfway mark clock was a few hundred meters up the road from our viewing point, Chappet House, a quaint hotel on the lake.

TT Half way point

The crowd

The clients all eventually arrived at the house and although it took several hours, lots of scrambling, some money spent and some calming down of people, everyone eventually was fed and nicely liquored up and they enjoyed watching the racers come by at blistering paces.It was incredible to see just how teeny tiny the riders had gotten after 2 weeks of racing.

Skinny fast dudes

When Armstrong went through the Americans in the crowd went bananas (embarrassingly so…) but I will admit that it was impressive to see the caravan.I got to see George Hincapie and a few of the Italians I really like so it was worth it.

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Armstrong coming by, can you tell?

A few more hours of relaxing for the guests meant it was time for us to scramble to get clients back to the buses parked 2K away (in, of course, a last minute torrential downpour).We also had to pack 110 bikes, luggage, clean the hotel and then drive 4 hours down to Provence.All in a day’s work, HAHAHA.

I drove our trusty 9 passenger with Crystèle, another coordinator.She was lovely but, holy hell, the woman is a TERRIBLE driver.Unfortunately for me, she had to drive while I scrambled to coordinate buses, driver schedules, 5 separate hotel drop offs/pick ups for the next morning.Long live blackberries, that’s all I’ll say.I have never before experienced the feeling of completely running out of hours in a day to get things done and I hope to never again!

We finally arrived in Provence at the MOST spectacular Château I have ever had the privilege to stay in, Château de Rochegude.Thankfully we managed to arrive about 30 minutes before the bus so I had a few moments to take it all in, chat with the concierge and his dog and prepare.Of course, as was de rigueur for this trip, the guests arrived at 1:30AM and everything went completely sideways for about an hour until they were all in bed…I finally fell into bed at about 3, knowing that Ryan was somewhere on the road with all the bikes and having promised 3 riders that I would take them to the Mt. Ventoux the next morning to meet the bikes and send them on their way before awaiting the arrival of all the other riders a few hours later.I wanted everyone to enjoy the Château for a few hours in the morning!

http://www.chateauderochegude.com/

It’s hard to believe that less than a week ago we were in the Savoie, riding up the (in)famous Col de la Croix de Fer and l’Alpe d’Huez. I’ve decided to spare the details of all the bad stuff that happened because in retrospect it doesn’t seem like such a big deal (or maybe my sleep-deprived brain just doesn’t want to think about it anymore).

I can say that riding on that first day was QUITE an experience… Our bus dropped all the riders just outside of St-Jean-de-Maurienne ON the climb (no warm up here!) It was a ridiculous way to start but everyone was antsy to get going, so they did… right passed the turn off for the Col de La Croiz de Fer. I tried to catch the lead group which had gone up about 30 minutes before me (I didn’t know they missed the turn and in fact at that point, *I* didn’t know I had missed the turn). After about 2 hours of climbing the lead group turned and caught me as they were descending: a local had told them that they were not headed to the Croix de Fer, that in fact we were riding the Col de la Toussuire. Evidently there is a way to link the Toussuire to the Croix de Fer but the road had recently crumbled… So back down to our starting point we went. At least the descent was fun!

It was now about 1pm and it was HOT. People were getting hungry and they were quite pissed off at having gone 2 hours in the wrong direction – uphill! It was definitely our “bad call” to not have tested the ability of the riders before hand because this became an EPIC day.

The sign in St-Jean-de-Maurienne said that the next town was a mere 5K away, in the direction of the Croix de Fer. A very long story short: the sag wagon had disappeared with all our water/food (he was waiting at the top… kind of defeats the purpose), riders were walking, the bus was trying to get to us… Turns out the town ended up being 15k up the road. And I mean
UP.

self portrait up the road…

Seems pretty obvious.

Personally, I was having a lovely ride (despite being yelled at, cursed, etc). I like to climb! Unfortunately, the stress of trying to find people, vehicles, etc fried my brain and I forgot to eat. By the time I got to the last town before the Croix de Fer I was desperate for something — anything. I met up with a really nice group and we stopped at a little café for some nice cold Cokes. When I asked the owner how far to the top he said “15K”. I almost punched him. Turns out he was joking!

We were 5K to the top and they were pretty damn spectacular! I was SO happy to get to the top and grab… a coke. It was all that was left! Damn! After a quick photo op we hopped back on for the 25K descent into Bourg-d’Oisan which is the base of Alpe d’Huez.

Done! I was STOKED!

When we finally got to Bourg-d’Oisan, we were still hoping to be able to ride l’Alpe d’Huez, or at the very least catch a bus to the top. However, the very strict transportation laws prevented our driver from being able to go anywhere but back to Mégeve (this particular AMAZINGLY talented drive drove a 63-person bus up and over the Col de La Croix de Fer. It’s kind of like driving a bus , well, I have no comparison. Suffice to say he said he’ll never do it again). This transportation restriction led to me sitting in a parking lot (waiting for Ryan), with 30 bikes, for 2.5 hours in the dark. Oh yeah, in my chamois. Gross.

I still can’t believe the bus went up this – the image doesn’t do it justice.

At the end of the day, my heart rate monitor/computer showed that I had ridden for a total of about 6.5 hours, fueled by 4 water bottles, 2 cokes and 1/2 a powerbar. Not exactly ideal. Didn’t bonk though, which I am still trying to understand.

Day 2 led us back to l’Alpe d’Huez on 2 hours of sleep, but that’s a whole other story! Time for me to get some much needed sleep!

To say that this week in France has been stressful would be a rather gigantic understatement. Details to follow but cole’s notes involve 110 clients, 3 guides, hotels/vehicles/buses scattered throughout France, missing bikes, missing people, no sleep, no food… I could go on (and eventually, I will).
We are on our way to Paris tonight to catch the final stage before flying out Monday.
Photos to follow!
I did get to ride l’Alpe d’Huez and the Col de la Croix de Fer, which were both equally incredible.
Time to go drive to Avignon, hope the road signs are good!

I am sitting in the Charles de Gaulle airport, killing the 3 hours I have to wait for my TGV train to Annecy. It’s 1:25AM Whistler time, 10:25AM here. I am fighting the good fight trying to stay awake! People watching is definitely helping my cause: French women wear some crazy footwear to trave!
As soon as I boarded my plane in Montreal, I found myself thinking in French. Hopefully this continues throughout my trip since part of my job is to act as a translator!
Off to watch more people cruise around, prop my eyes open and seek out some coffee. Bonjour!