Scratch Paper

Paul led us up here Thursday over lunchtime. The pond-sized lac, at 1137 m, has a couple of restaurants nearby. Matt was seriously considering sitting down at a table, although it was about 1:40 pm. Colette said she’d be sick if she ate anything, however, so we coasted back down.

Beautiful scenery and a nice lunchtime ride.

The plastic wheel assemblies on the other three corners of the bottom of the chair hold rivets that clip into the chair and clip into the plastic.

When the fourth one broke, I had trouble finding a replacement that didn’t come with its own, permanent rivet already attached… until I realized that I don’t actually want the chair to roll.

Everyone got out of the house this afternoon to go for a walk near St. Vincent de Mercuze.

Seems like it used to take longer when the children were small. Even with a stop for a snack and a very leisurely pace, it took 26 minutes to get to the falls shown in the picture. I could get more exercise washing dishes.

We returned from the gite near Villedieu today, driving through the mountains instead of trying to take the autoroute. Tim complained he was getting a backache from having to sit with his feet propped up on boxes of wine bottles. Notice there are no pictures of wine bottles here. Not sure why. Maybe I was too busy sipping to think of taking a picture. We didn’t visit that many wine cellars, though. Didn’t have enough space in the car. Nath declined my offer to let her drive, and to take the bike home instead. Good thing, too, because there were too many cars and trucks for it to have been an enjoyable ride.

The Monday after we arrived I rode up the Ventoux from the Malaucene side. That was sort of an accident. We were on the Malaucene side, north of Vaison-la-Romaine, rather than south on the Bedoin side, or east on the Sault side. I took the first road up. Starting from Bedoin would’ve made it longer.

Later last week I rode through Bedoin on the way over to Sault so I could come back through the gorges de la Nesque. There’s a low col de la Madeleine (448 m) on the road from Malaucene, then a bigger col Notre Dame des Abeilles on the way to Sault. It would’ve been tiring to do the first just to get to the bottom of the Ventoux. Plus the Malaucene side is protected from too much sun. That Monday it was chilly. I was shivering when I got to the top.

The gorges de la Nesque are beautiful. So is the ride — no pictures there, either — back from Gordes to Vaison-la-Romaine, though some of the road’s not in good condition. Also try the ride from Baumes-les-Venise to Malaucene through the hills to see the Dentelles de Montmirail from the back.

In addition to the wine and the riding, that area has lots of little towns to visit, and a few rocks to climb. In the summertime when the wind stops blowing out of the north it feels like it could just keep getting hotter and drier until everything there would desiccate and perish. Glad we weren’t there last month when it was really hot.

Colette and Michel enjoyed participating in the Choralies, a gathering of choral musicians lasting 10 days every 3 years in Vaison-la-Romaine. Seemed like the population of Vaison doubled. Traffic snarled through town from 10 am to 6 pm every day. But if you like choral music, it was the place to be.

Nath and the children mainly took it easy, did a little shopping, a bit of hiking. The children spent lots of time in the pool. They are all scrapped up from jumping in cannonball style and hitting the bottom, or diving too enthusiastically to pick something up and rubbing off skin. They were disappointed to leave though.

Cool this morning when I set out towards La Rochette and then Aiguebelle. Decided to wear long sleeves.

The ride over to Aiguebelle is about an hour for me, 34 km to the start of the climb. The road on that side of the mountain seemed in better shape near the top, with the Vallee des Huiles side being both abused probably from last winter and dirty from yesterday’s rain.

Saw a bunch of riders coming up while descending. I guess it’s a popular col.

From my house the round trip was 81.95 km, less time than I thought. There are a couple more cols to do nearby — one near Champ-Laurent and another small one across on the other side of the valley out between La Rochette and Bourgneuf. I would’ve taken the time but Nathalie and the children have things they want to do this morning.

It was a windy day, but both Diane and I needed to ride. My ride was before they riders hit the big climbs today in the tour, so I caught the last 50 km. I’d been out running this morning, still building up but falling back this week to a bit over 25 km in 2 hours. Going to Chambéry right after lunch into a gusty headwind was rough. Parts of the way back were rough, too, bouncing over bumpy country roads at 40-45 kph.

After the stage finish we went up to the stade, where Diane went back and forth, back and forth. She rode for about 45 minutes. More than usual. I guess it’s easier when your big brother and sister are not there to comment on your riding. It’s also easier when your dad takes your bike up in the trunk. (Feels like her little bike weighs more than mine.)

On my way up to Revel late this lunch hour, I ran into the mother lode of chip seal road repairs, several hundred meters where the road was nothing but tar with a thin layer of pebbles. Ended up not only with ruined tires, wheel wells full of tar, and pebbles stuck to my legs, but also broke the derailleur.

It would’ve been nicer of the guys doing the work simply to close the road temporarily, rather than leave it open just in case.

I should have been more alert to what was happening, but was fully focused on avoiding a spill into the hot tar. Until my back wheel stop turning around, that is.

Thanks to Matt Swift for driving my car up to get me and my broken bike.

It was quite a bit cooler on the Chartreuse side today. 4 cols as shown. (Sorry about the focus, my phone was soaked with sweat.)

It took me quite a while to make it all the way around. There aren’t too many flat bits. The descent from Col du Coq into the Chartreuse is not a nice road either. Kept having to push my water bottles back into their cages. And to keep my butt off the seat for fear of being suddenly emasculated by potholes.

For the last stage of the Criterium du Dauphine, the riders started out just after 1 pm from Allevard. So I rode up to Allevard to have a look.

Most of these guys eat a lot of sugar on the way round.

But they’re not fat. Their upper bodies make me look like the Incredible Hulk. Of course from the waist down several of them make me look wimpy.

More people in Allevard than I’ve ever seen there at once.

The mayor was trying to convince the organizers to finish at Collet d’Allevard, claiming the ride up there is even tougher than Alpe d’Huez.

Other than that, I can confirm that Alberto Contador has nice teeth. Brajkovic wasn’t smiling enough to tell.

Matt has observed that veins showing is a sign that you’re probably not overly fat.

I take this as an indication that it will be hard for me to drop another 8-9% body fat to get down to an ideal marathoning weight. Looks like some of the loss would be muscle.