Thursday, August 23, 2012

1000 Things to do Before you Die: Complete my own Tour de France

Completed: August 16th, 2012

You get full credit no matter what. Extra credit for going through any mountains

We've been back in the US of A for several days now - sorry it took me so long to finish this! After we left Geneva, we were in the Jura mountains for 2 days before we had a steep descent and then suddenly we were in Bourgogne. Not that there weren't any more hills after that...
We took a little more time to do some sight-seeing in Bourgogne and saw many impressive churches, towns, cities, and of course beautiful scenery and lots of vineyards!
A couple days before we reached Paris we were able to stay with a family Dave stayed with when he was in college in Montargis. Jacques, Josée and their granddaughter Emma fed us lots of delicious food, wine, and showed us the city of Montargis.
Once we got close to Paris, we were able to visit Judy in Montévrain (right next to Euro Disney!) and stay in a campground that was about an hour away from her. It was better for disassembling our bikes than the place we had stayed when we first arrived. And no stolen tents - just lots of stolen bungee cords! The day of our flight home, we woke up at 3am so we could make our 3 trips to the airport. And we all made it home with our bikes! Except Judy, whose new release date right now is September 30th.


Chardonnay!
Here's the rest of our itinerary:

  • Col de la Faucille
  • St. Claude
  • Moirans-en-Montagne
  • Lons-le-Saunier
  • Louhans
  • Tournus


Hôtel Dieu in Beaune

  • Chardonnay
  • Cluny
  • Taizé
  • Cormatin
  • Chalon-sur-Saône
  • Beaune

lunch on the Route des Grands Crus between Beaune and Dijon

  • Clos de Vougeot
  • Fixin
  • Dijon
  • Sombernon - we ate lunch on the continental divide!
  • Montbard
  • Abbaye de Fontenay
  • Montréal
  • Avallon
  • St. Père
  • Vézeley

view of Vézeley

  • Auxerre
  • La Ferté-Loupière
  • Montargis

Auxerre in the morning

Jacques, Josée, Emma and their neighbors

  • Montigny-sur-Loing
  • Fontainebleau
  • Pontcarré
  • Montévrain
  • Annet-sur-Marne
  • the airport!

visiting Judy!

some new friends



EDIT:
Odometer stats:
My wheel size was set wrong, so multiply everything by 1.234. The end result was about 1807km, or 1130 miles. Plus ~130km, according to google maps, for the first two days when I didn't have the odometer set up.

starting when we left our campground near Nice:

Day 1: ? (est. 30km)

Day 2: ? (est.100km)

Day 3:
Time: 3:57:10
Avs: 6.4 km/h
Max: 23.2
Dist: 25.42

Day 4: 
Time: 5:19:17
Avs: 10.0 km/h
Max: 43.1 km/h
Dist: 53.24 km


Day 5:
Time: 4:15:05
Avs: 11.3
Max: 47.3
Dist: 48.15


Day 6:
Time: 5:57:36
Avs: 10
Max: 47.0
Dist: 59.79


Day 7:
Time: 3:34:57
Avs: 10.6
Max: 44.7
Dist: 38.27


Day 8 (unloaded climb):
Time: 4:25:04
Avs: 9.6
Max: 46.0
Dist: 42.71

Day 9:
Time: 6:20:06
Avs: 9.1
Max: 49.2
Dist: 58.12


Day 10:
Time: 4:21:11
Avs: 10.2
Max:31.2
Dist: 44.81


Day 11:
Time: 6:20:34
Avs: 10.5
Max: 47.3
Dist: 67.23


Day 12 (unloaded climb):
Time: 2:37:31
Avs:10.7
Max: 41
Dist: 28.10

Day 13:
Time: 7:25:05
Avs: 8.1
Max: 45.6
Dist: 60.23


Day 14:
Time: 5:03:15
Avs: 11.0
Max: 39.9
Dist: 55.82


Day 15 (Chamonix):
Time: 0:56:11
Avs: 8.9
Max: 26.9
Dist: 8.36

Day 16:
Time: 3:29:40
Avs: 10.7
Max: 50.2
Dist: 37.52


Day 17:
Time: 6:29.32
Avs: 13.0 (13.9 before we ate raclette for dinner....)
Max: 39.6
Dist: 84.58


Day 18:
Time: 2:37:17
Avs: 13.3
Max: 34.8
Dist: 35.08


Day 19:
Time: 5:43:48
Avs: 10.5
Max: 40.5
Dist: 60.72


Day 20:
Time: 5:40:34
Avs: 14.5
Max: 58.6
Dist: 82.31


Day 21:
Time: 4:23:51
Avs: 11
Max: 36.2
Dist: 48.46


Day 22:
Time: 5:13:54
Avs: 13.3
Max: 36.1
Dist: 69.61


Day 23:
Time: 4:00:40
Avs: 11.3
Max: 36.9
Dist: 45.60


Day 24 (Dijon):
Time: 0:41:59
Avs: 11.1
Max: 24.4
Dist: 7.82

Day 25:
Time: 5:11:13
Avs: 13.4
Max: 32.5
Dist: 69.56


Day 26:
Time: 4:13:33
Avs: 13.6
Max: 49.6
Dist: 57.83


Day 27:
Time: 5:08:21
Avs: 12.2
Max: 40.4
Dist: 63.11


Day 28:
Time: 4:40:03
Avs: 14.3
Max: 36.6
Dist: 67.17



Day 29:
Time: 2:30:48
Avs: 14.1
MAx: 38.0
Dist: 35.67


Day 30:
Time: 7:27:59
Avs: 14.6
Max: 39.5
Dist: 109.03

Friday, August 3, 2012

Detour through Switzerland

As we left Bourg D'Oisans, we saw them doing a triathlon - 2k swim,
115k bike, 22k run. There was a short one and a long one, and lots of
foreign athletes were there for it. We've had some pretty steep climbs
over passes and have passed our highest point of the trip! 2770m - so
I guess it's all downhill from there! Although we might have wasted it
in the 50km of downhill we had to our next campsite, Bourg St Maurice.
We had 2 unlaoded climbs planned there, but it stormed so Matt and I went to an internet cafe in the morning and joined Dave for the 2nd climb. Of course it still poured on us. But other than that, we've had pretty good weather!

Here's where we've been since the last post:
on the way to Charmonix
Switzerland!
  • Bourg d'Oisans
  • Le Rivier-d'Allemont
  • Col du Glandon
  • Col de la Croix de Fer - we watched the Tour de France go over this
  • when we were in a cafe on our way to Paris the first day!
  • St Jean-de-Maurienne
  • Modane
  • Bramans
  • Sollières-Sardières
  • Lanslebourg
  • Bessans
  • Bonneval-sur-Arc
  • Col de L'Iserans - our highest climb! 14km, up to 10% grade for the
  • last couple km. We got to the top, and the temperature dropped 25° and
  • it started pouring, so we put on our rain gear and made our way down
  • Val-d'Isère
  • Bourg St Maurice
  • Les Arcs (unloaded climb)
  • Cormet de Roselend (19km climb)
  • Beaufort
  • Les Saisies
  • Col de Saisies (15km climb)
  • Notre Dame de Bellecombe
  • Praz-sur-Arly
  • Megève
  • Servoz - We met an Italian man named Joseph who lives here who showed us the way to get to Chamonix by bicycle, and then he made us spaghetti and let us use his internet and left us alone in his house while he went to the dentist!
  • Saint Gervais les Bains
  • Les Houches
  • Chomonix Mont Blanc - we spent 2 nights here and hiked up to the Glacier and some ice caves with our day off
  • Col des Montets
  • and then we crossed into Switzerland!
  • Col de Forclaz
  • Martigny - we met 2 Americans who we happened to camp net to who were going from Amsterdam to Nice, and one of them graduated from Colby! The other one was 16, and they were both named Brian. We ate Swiss chocolate with them and watched all the fireworks going off for the Fête Nationale de Suisse. Then it turned into a real thunderstorm
  • Èvian les Bains - where the original spring for Evian water is
  • Excenevex
  • Yvoire - we ate Raclette in the old medieval city
  • Geneva
And now we're right outside Geneva, back in France, stayin with Dave and Judy's friend Veronique for the night! I'm not gonna lie, I'm excited to sleep inside for a night. We're going to go see some modern yodeling in a few minutes!

Its hard to believe we only have 2 weeks left!