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 2, with half a Marmotte, the Cinglé du Mont Ventoux and long transfers by car.
I redesigned the road book a little to accommodate for the transfers, as both the one to Bédoin and the one to Jausiers would be over three hours.
As usual, I was a little optimistic when I plotted the transition stage involving the Croix de Fer, Télégraphe and Galibier.
Meaning I arrived later at the summit of the Galibier than anticipated and the trip from there to Bédoin took a lot longer too.
As we didn’t arrive in Bédoin before 21:00 yesterday, we were lucky to get a bite at the Italian restaurant after we settled into our room.
It was almost midnight by the time we went to bed.
Smart people undertaking the ‘Cinglé du Mont Ventoux’ effort, will tuck in early and get on their bike at the break of dawn…
However, the hotel owner was not going to serve breakfast before 8:30 anyway – no exceptions, because that privilege was reserved for the Saturday, when large crowds of Belgian cyclists would occupy the Ventoux for their equivalent to our Alpe d’HuZes.
So, as I did not want to start on an empty stomach, which would be suicide anyway, I still got sufficient sleep…
Just 24 hours before we head off to the Alps for my own Tour de France 2014, I find myself to be excited and anxious at the same time.
Months of planning and training is coming to an end, “zee baik” is prepped and I’ve packed my bags.
I’m so ready to go… Or am I?
(And yes, I’m aware the Latin text in the image is not what that means.)
