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!
Category: Travel
Travel days
30 hours of being awake is not my cup of tea, that’s for sure. Ryan, the owner of Spyns and my longtime friend picked me up at the train station in Annecy. I felt like my eyelids were lined with sandpaper! Luckily, we had lots of errands to run before heading up to Megeve so I had no choice but to keep plugging along.
Once in Megeve we picked up another guide, Paul, and headed off to drive the first day’s ride (which will be Monday, a mere 30 minutes after the guides arrive in their hotel!) We will do a short one (about 30K) but with a big climb up to the ski resort of St-Gervais. It will trick the riders into a fall sense of strength since the first 10K are fast and downhill.
Dinner last night was, of all things, dim sum! In the Haute-Savoie! I was out cold by 9pm…
Flying into Montreal
Flying over the countryside near Paris
Ryan, nearing nervous breakdown state…
Chalet St-Antoine, our home for the first 3 days
Today was our free day, so we got up early and re-drove the course we are riding tomorrow. I then met up with Alex for a lovely lunch and catch up. After recovering from lunch I headed out for a little run to fight off the jet-lag, then walked around the streets of Megeve before an early dinner. Tonight it’s bed early before a day of building bikes, shopping, organizing and riding tomorrow!
“light lunch”
christine & Alex
Made it to Paris!
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!
Sunshine Coast
Starting the weekend off right!
I confess: I did ZERO training this weekend. On the contrary, I ate too much, slept too little, but very much enjoyed my weekend.
Training resumes Monday – I am going to do the sprint in Vancouver in a few weeks then it will be time to head to France!!
Thanks to AA, we spent the weekend aboard “Classique” and headed up to Smuggler’s Cove on the Sunshine Coast. Will loved every minute (as did Rory) and then PROMPTLY hit the wall the instant we came back to the yacht club at the end of our trip.
It was fun and as much as I like being away, I like coming home. Although at this point, I’ve been home for 2 hours and I’m still swaying…
Taking a break from… himself.
Pre-dinner pose.
AC and Will row-row-row yer boat
Buccaneer Bay Beach
“The waaaater is maaaaaaking the belllllll riiiiiing”. Will sang this about 2103984987 times. Can you tell AC is STOKED to hear it again?
View from below deck.
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