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My two-week Tour de France trip on the program arranged by Graham Baxter
Sporting Tours from the UK were great - we saw a lot and rode a fair
amount – we all took our bikes over. I had a fabulous time, and all the
while I was there I was thinking about how much someone like my son
would have liked to be there with me.
One could ride more than I
did, depending on ability, guts, strength and risk tolerance (1000 ft
sheer drop offs with crumbling guard rails about 3 feet high) at the
L'Alpe de Huez and Les Deux Alpes mountain locations in the grand French
Alpes. I opted out of those two rides – I was on vacation, not a death
dare to test my health and life insurance policies. But we climbed some
nasty grades, including one leading out of Grenoble up to a stage finish
in Villard de Lans. It was an 8 mile long hill with many switchbacks,
and it never let up, even once, to give us a breather. We knew we had
accomplished something when we crested the ridge.
France was, as
usual, gorgeous, and the food scrumptious. A high point was the town of
Annecy about 40 km from Geneva, which many of us on our bus of 40
decided we would like to move to. Check it out on the web and you’ll see
why. Three nice sites are:
The finale in Paris was
top notch - Lance Armstrong was a real class act as he rode victoriously
down the Champs Élysées - and Paris is simply one of the most beautiful
cities in the world – if not THE most gorgeous. Ever since I went for
the first time in 2002 I’ve been bitten by the Parisian bug; wow, what a
town!
The advantages of going on a bus with a biking group were
many and outweighed the disadvantages of all large groups - delays in
getting everyone on board (though these were not too many), the wide
varying range of cycling abilities, the lack of flexibility and such.
For first time participants like me the bus tour program is THE way to
go. We developed lots of camaraderie, shared our experiences, cheered
the US Postal Team at each stage we attended, traded war stories, had
some great evenings together, and became good friends. Getting a good
room mate is key - mine was excellent and was he ever a tough biker,
despite his being 50+!
Next time (2005 or 2006?) a few of us are
thinking about putting a smallish group of 4 to 8 together, renting an
appropriately sized van, and doing our own thing. The Giro d’Itália or
Vuelta a España races (similar to the Tour de France) are high on my
list. And a colleague at our Embassy in WDC says we should opt for
Italy, Tuscany, if I remember correctly. If you are into cycling, or
want to be, perhaps you’ll go with me and my friends. We all could have
a fine time together.
Jusqu'à la prochaine fois.
Bill
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