Cyclopaat, an alter ego with a twist
I’ve created a gallery of pictures for my Tour de France 2014, which happened last month.
Most of them are shot by Paula – which probably explains why I am in many of them – and there were so many, it was hard to create a “Best Of” gallery.
Anyway, enjoy and if you want any original – these are usually twice the dimensions you see here – drop me a line.
Forgive me minions, for I have slacked…
After celebrating my (54th) birthday yesterday, I realized that it has been 18 days since I last wrote a post.
Which means that my own “Tour de France 2014” ended nearly three weeks ago.
The hardship of getting back into my daily routine was eased a bit by teasing Wayne on Facebook, with a daily picture of some mountain I climbed.
Paula did a great job shooting pictures and it’s not difficult to find a jaw-dropping scenery – I could keep on driving Wayne to tears for a couple of months.
But the real Tour de France started the week after we got back and the first 10 days of that have been hectic and a pleasure to watch – most of the time anyway.
With Chris and Alberto out of the competition, the tour has not been boring and every time Sagan fails to take a stage, I’m getting more happy.
We even had a Dutch – ka-BOOM! – stage winner and that had been a long time ago too.
Hopefully the next stages will bring more spectacle – tomorrow they will climb the Izoard, which is the only pass the official Tour has in common with my own, albeit that I climbed it from the other side…
Post stage reports of my Tour de France 2014 – part 3, with the “Brevet des 7 cols de l’Ubaye” and some amazing side events.
Our final stay this Tour de France 2014 was in Jausiers, located some 7 kilometers from Barcelonnette, were we had an apartment in La Mexicaine, right at the foot of the Bonette.
In fact, no less than three of the cols for the “Brevet des 7 cols de l’Ubaye” are starting here: besides the Bonette, the Vars and the ‘Montée de Sant-Anne’ start around the corner.
Plus, the Larche is nearby, but that is no longer part of the brevet.
However, I planned on climbing that anyway, perhaps combined with the Fauniera.
In the end, I climbed both, but I made the Fauniera a stage of its own and I’m glad I did.
It was the most memorable stage of this Tour de France 2014…
Two more climbs for the “Brevet des 7 cols de l’Ubaye” – the Cayolle and the Allos – are starting from Barcelonnette and the final two – Saint-Jean1 and Pontis – are a bit further away, starting from Le Lauzet.
You can also rent a B&B room with Heidi and Kristof – if you ever consider going to the area, I highly recommend this place!
I descended towards Barcelonnette – on my bike this time – in the morning to tackle the Cayolle.
Some two kilometers out of Barcelonnette, you get to the junction of the Cayolle and the Col d’Allos. The latter is also the entry to the climb up to the ski station of Pra-Loup.
Upon leaving Uvernet-Fours, you enter the more spectacular part of this climb, the Gorges du Bachelard. The road has been carved out of the rocks and is spectacular, albeit narrow.
This means any wide vehicle or vehicles higher than 3 meters, will get stuck 🙂 So no trucks, no campers and in fact, there’s not much traffic at all.
After you pass through Chapelle Saint-Blasse, the road widens a bit.
At Bayasse, a short series of hairpins leads up to the second part of the climb.
(Well, the Vars was not that petit as it turned out)
Today, I decided to tackle two of ‘les Petits’ on the list of cols for the brevet in the morning. These were the Saint-Jean and the Pontis the furthest away from our apartment.
So, as I was advised to avoid riding to Le Lauzet on ‘zee baik’, Paula delivered me there by car.
But actually, while seeing it from the car, it didn’t look as bad I was led to believe.
Certainly no worse then any main road in Belgium or Germany and by the look of it, traffic – i.e. car drivers – are mostly attentive when it comes to passing a cyclist.
I decided I could easily cycle this road when needed and I did so the following days…
