Tour de France 2021 Archives

Tour de France 2021 – Stage 12

February 27, 2023August 12, 2021

Col de La Loze and Madeleine Bust

As Paula righteously pointed out this morning, (most) normal people would take a day off, after yesterday’s effort.

She also knows I’m not normal, so she didn’t object to driving me to Moutiers, to start my ride up the Col de la Loze.

I had never even heard of the bloody thing and had actually planned a trip up to Courchevel, when looking that one up, I noticed La Loze, as it is mentioned “nearby”.

It all went downhill from there and unlike yesterday, today was a complete bust…

Tour de France 2021 – Stage 11 (Marmotte)

February 27, 2023August 11, 2021

Marmotte or Bust

Yes, I did use that title before. Thank you for so closely following / reading my blog 😂

However, at the time I spoke about my plans to do two of them, Sestriere (La Marmotta) and the classic Marmotte Granfondo Alpes during that Tour de France of 2017.

Both were a bust, whereas I didn’t even start the classic, due to the (general) weather conditions and had a flat with no spare tube(s) during the La Marmotta.

This year, being located at an even better spot to start it, I finally did ride Marmotte Granfondo Alpes, but with a twist…

Tour de France 2021 – Stage 10

February 27, 2023August 9, 2021

Madeleine and Chaussy

Today, it was actually sunny but still chilly early in the morning.

Which was not such a bad thing, as it made my warming up for this stage easier.

As it is not a repeat of stage 1 – in case you’re wondering if you did see that stage header before – that warming up took me to La Chambre.

During stage 1, I “missed” the first ~5 kms of the Col de la Madeleine and as they have good gaufres (waffles) at the summit restaurant, the one with the old motor bike in front, I wanted to get up the full length of it, just for one of those 😎

Tour de France 2021 – Stage 9

February 27, 2023August 9, 2021

Col du Pré (Roselend) and Les Arcs

For today, we had a good weather forecast, so during our ride to, and while I was preparing to get on my bike in Villard-sur-Doron, it was raining.

But, by the time I was ready to go, the last drizzle had stopped, although it was still cloudy and chilly.

So I kept my long sleeved jersey on for a little while after starting the ascend of the Col du Pré.

Once the misery for that climb starts, at Arèches, I had to take it off quickly…

Tour de France 2021 – Stage 8

February 27, 2023August 7, 2021

Valmeinier (Télégraphe)

The weather forecast for this afternoon looked grim, but the various sources couldn’t quite agree on when the misery would begin.

I decided not to take any chances and 1) ride a shortish stage and 2) get in the car as soon as it would.

Provided that would not be in the final kms of a(ny) climb, of course 😎

In the end, I made it back home to the supermarket near our apartment, but it had started raining by the time we got out.

On the bight side: this was supposedly the last “bad” day for now and hot, sunny days are coming.

Not sure that’s going to be any better for me…