Cyclopaat, an alter ego with a twist
Taper week for my Tour de France 2023 has begun.
Next Friday, stage one of my Tour de France 2023 is on the menu.
Therefor, it is only logical that tapering has begun, right?
One day I might find out what that actually means for me, but as usual, I have no clue.
It’s all well documented – more or less – for that one day “race”, but for a multi stage event…
New Tour de France 2023 update.
The pros already moved on from only two Pyrenees stages which brought more spectacle than many expected.
As I have no less than 15 stages – provided I do not blow myself up like I did during my Tour of 2021 – I will have a lot more climbs to chose from.
But the more I look at/study the map on climbfinder, the more I realize that those are not enough to squeeze every one of them in.
In my – base camp – area, there are plenty hardly worth a second look, but the list of those I consider a “must” is just too long…
Tour de France 2023 countdown has begun. I haven’t planned much yet, though…
Four weeks from now, I will be on my brand new Trek Émonda for stage 2 – or 3 – of my Tour de France.
It will be day three, but you should know I usually kick of with a prologue.
A tradition I might actually break with this year, as my prologue’s are nothing like the pro’s short (T)TT’s to kick off many grand tours.
But this years Tour de France – two possible GC contenders short after day 1 – didn’t get off to an easy start either.
So, looking at what I have planned, I might start with stage 1 as well…
Earlier this week, I got a call from my favourite LBS (Jean Habets) that my Émonda had finally arrived.
However, they told me they were so busy that I could forget about it being ready for a test ride this weekend.
When they called me again on Friday, I assumed they wanted to talk about a few details regarding prepping the Émonda, but they actually caught me by surprise, saying it was ready for pick up.
When I wrote my Tour de France update and created the Hochsauerland 2023 picture gallery, I hadn’t yet heard of the tragic news of Gino Mäder’s passing.
I, like many more, had hopes he would recover from his horror crash during the Albula descent during stage 5 of the Tour de Suisse.
But looking at the pictures from the crash site, the fact that he was actually dead and had to be resuscitated for 25 (!) minutes, were already bad omens.
