The Missing Week

I have carelessly left out a whole week of fun times in the craziness preparing for the Tour de Limousin. So now I will fill you in...

As some of you now I am a guest of a man named Chris Georgas who, in his love for cycling, is generous enough to organize races for riders like me. He also houses us while we are in Limoux and, in addition to many other generosities, gives us the opportunity to eat genuine French cuisine with his hotel guests once a week (and also to be guinea pigs for his wife, Fabienne, who tries new recipes once a week - such a tough but important job!)

Since I last blogged I have been training and resting. The riding around here is absolutely fantastic. There is a mix of everything: flat, rolling, short steep climbs, short gradual climbs, long gradual climbs and, of course, the Pyrenees offer some epic climbing. One of my favorite rides was a bit of an accident actually. Einat, the fearless ride leader of the day, took me up this gorgeous gradual climb on a cloudy humid day. The climb was perfect for me to spin up and I had just started to feel like my legs were coming back. When we got to the top we were faced with three roads to choose from. On our right we noticed a herd of cows in a pasture. Now, the cows I'm used to are the dairy cows of California: big, slow and back and white. THESE cows were all white and all of them had horns. Weird. As we turned right to visit I noticed EVERY single one of them had stopped and turned towards us and were watching us intently. The closer we got the more interested the got. As if cows aren't already scary enough, these ones kept creeping closer and closer... I couldn't resist and took a video:

In return for his hospitality Chris requested that I help transport some of his guests to the Col de Pailheres on the 18th to ride the HC mountain and to watch the Tour de France riders come through on the tough ~200km stage. The Col de Pailheres is a 15km climb averaging 8.5% and finishing at an altitude of 2001 meters. (Yes, that last meter is important.)

Luckily for me we actually got the chance to ride this climb three times. The first time was three days before taking the guests up. Einat and I did a sort of private trip with one of the couples staying in Chris' hotel. The climb is absolutely picturesque and every bit as difficult as the Tour requires of an HC climb. And, as much as I love climbing, you cannot beat a 45mph descent that lasts 15km. Because the climb ascends so much, the terrain and weather change quite a bit as you go. It seemed every switchback provided a new, even more beautiful photo op so I did quite a bit of stopping along the way (much to my back's relief). These pictures can be seen in my newest album on photobucket (link at the bottom of this post).

On the day of the Tour, Einat and I left early to meet the guests in another town. As some of you may know, my experience driving a manual is somewhat... limited. And, as this is Europe, EVERYTHING is a manual; including the 15 year old sprinter van I was assigned to drive from the town of Bugarach, down windy narrow roads and all they way to the town of Axat about an hour away. Oh, and I would have guests with me. Greeeaaat. I piled into the van to drive it for the first time, only to discover that not only is it a stick shift but it also doesn't have power steering! Who knew they even made cars without power steering anymore??? By some miracle I made it to Axat with out stalling, although there was some confusion at one point between third and fifth gear (yikes).

We arrived in Axat, a town 20km from the bottom of the Col de Pailheres, around 8:30am. The Tour wasn't due to hit the climb until late afternoon but the roads were to be closed a few hours before they came through. We sent the guests off early and then hung around the van for a bit before we headed off on our own ride. Because we were both saving up our legs for the upcoming race of our own we only climbed about half way up and chose a spot on a wide switchback where we could see below and above us for some way. I am SO glad that I had done this climb before. Climbing the mountain the day of a Tour stage was a COMPLETELY different experience. I have seen the Tour on TV for the past few years and seeing the crowds live gives a whole new meaning to the word "fan". Even four days before the Tour, campers were already scouting out spots on the narrow mountain roads. Day-of fans were there even before we arrived in Axat setting up picnics, tents and blankets for the day of waiting. All to see a mere glimpse of the Tour. That's dedication!

I had to do some intervals and every time I went hard on the climb people started to watch. I even got some cheers. I was wearing my Alto Velo kit and some people shouted, "Go Webcor!" It was great (and unexpected) motivation for the workout! We camped out for several hours, breaking out a picnic of our own and making friends with two Americans who had been following the Tour and doing Xterra races. FINALLY the caravan came through and we started collecting all the schwag (spelling?) we could. I said that I would wear everything I caught that was wearable and this was the result...
Just as I suspected, the only disappointing thing about the day was that we had no clue what was happening all day during the race and we only got to see about 20 minutes of riders coming through. The day ended with us changing back into our kits and having a completely different experience descending among the car and bike traffic. It was probably most fun I'd had on my bike in a long time.

Here are some shots of the riders. Unfortunately I was getting so excited that most of them didn't turn out at all :)

Well I hope you've enjoyed my trip update! Ta-ta for now!

Tour de Limousin

Race Report: Tour de Limousin (UCI 2.1)
Dates: July 22nd – July 25th
Team: Equipe Mixte de Limoux
Field: ~180 riders (including UCI teams like Futuroscope, Fassa Bortolo, Michela Fanini and national teams from Australia, Scotland, Russia, Switzerland and USA, among others)



Stage 1: 118km RR. This started with 4 laps of a 10km circuit each of which had a GPM (QOM) up a 2km climb. After the climb there was a technical downhill into a rolling/false flat section. Then came another steep and technical descent into another shorter climb before hitting the GPM again. After the 4 laps we continued straight instead of turning left back onto the circuit and did one big ~70km circuit which was constantly going up or down with a few (very) false flat sections.

Stage 2: 17.3km TT. This course was VERY fun. It was mostly downhill and rolling for the first half and then the second half had a series of short climbs and technical descents. As TT courses go, this could not have been better for me (except for maybe three of the last four km which had some longer, steeper kickers).

Stage 3: 110km RR. The start of this race was a raging (and pretty technical) downhill into a ~2km high speed climb into another extremely narrow and technical descent. We then continued on to another ~2.5km climb across the finish line and into the first GPM and then continued on another up and down/rolling course for about ~30km. We then came back into the circuits, which we started on, and did that three times (which included a GPM each pass). The circuits were full of all sorts of fast descents, technical roundabouts, narrow town roads and short but heavy climbs.

Stage 4: 118km RR. This race started more or less on a climb. It was only about 1km but it was pretty steep towards the end. It was the least technical course of the stage race and had the widest roads but this made things more difficult. This course was up and down, up and down, up and down. The climbs were steeper than the last few days and the course was riddled with GPMs and sprints. The big circuit was about 60km and then we finished on 4 laps of the smaller circuit.
*each stage had 4 or more GPMs and several sprints. they sure like their jersey competitions!

For those non-cyclist readers here are a few key terms to better understand the following race report:
- GPM = QOM (English) = Queen of the Mountain (basically the first one to cross the QOM line at the top of the hill wins a certain number of points or a time bonus and at the end of the entire four days, the person with the most number of QOM points wins the mountains jersey)
- Sprint points work the same way. They are usually on a flatter stretches of road.
- GC = General Classification. Stage races are multiple days of racing. The winner has the shortest combined finishing times of all the stages.
- TT = Time Trial. An individual competition against the clock.

Now for what ACTUALLY happened...

Stage 1: Before I can explain how the first stage went I have to back up and describe the days leading up to it. We left Limoux Wednesday morning at 7:30 am to meet our DS and two other staff in Toulouse before continuing on to Limousin. For the weeks that I have been in Limoux we have had mostly intolerably hot weather. But, in a matter of four hours we managed to leave 40 degree (centigrade) weather and find ourselves in 15 degrees, pouring rain and lightning storms. Needless to say, we did not have a chance to ride after the drive. Even worse, our start the first day was the earliest of the whole weekend so we would not have a chance to ride in the morning either. Our transfer to the start was supposed to be 2 hours but that turned into nearly 2.5 getting us to the race 40 minutes before our start. After spending 20 minutes in line for one of two toilets in the whole area, we had 20 minutes to change, sign in and line up with 180 other riders.

With 180 riders in the field, everyone’s main goal is to be at the front. Combine that with starting pretty much on a descent and you get absolute chaos mixed in with the smell of burning brake pads. Luckily I feel pretty comfortable descending and was able to make my way into the top forty or so after flat-out sprinting for what seemed like 15 minutes. Once we hit the GPM climb, though, my position started to suffer. I managed to hang on to the tail end of the group and make my way back up over the rest of the next circuit. But, since there was a GPM EVERY lap, I eventually came off and could not recover enough to catch back on the third time up. I rode in no-man’s land for a long while and then started to get caught and passed like a dead weight by girls who had gotten dropped earlier. I learned after that experience that the best thing for me to do is not kill myself to stay in sight of the caravan alone but to ease up, rest and wait for a group behind me to cling to. Lesson learned. I ended up riding alone for about 60km between groups. Eventually I got caught by two riders at 25km to go and we came in together several minutes behind the main peloton.

Stage 2: This short TT was a welcome break after the four hour slog the day before. Given my position on GC was beyond help, I decided to go hard in the TT but not to dig any holes. My main goal was to finish the next two days and if that meant sacrificing 45 seconds or so on my TT time, so be it. As it turns out, my legs felt much better for the TT and I had a great time. I went as planned, doing basically over-unders the whole time (floating the fast descents and killing the hills and staying steady in between). I had an early start time and managed to catch two riders ahead of me and keep a third in sight. This gave me the best time of the day for a glorious 30 minutes before the pros got started. It was a very fun course and a great opener and recovery for the next two days.

Stage 3: I would say this was my best day of the race. I stayed with the main group for about 40km before getting dropped 75% of the way up the first 4km GPM. I learned from the first stage and took a few moments to collect myself without panicking. Soon I was in a group of 6. As with most chase groups, there was chaos for about an hour until everyone settled in and accepted the fact that there was just no way we were going to catch the main group. We ended up picking up riders for most of the day and ended up being a group of about 25 at the finish. I focused on spinning up all the climbs and staying in the front for the technical descents (where me and another couple of Belgian and Dutch riders kept dropping the group). The pace was challenging but manageable and I wanted to save myself for the finish to practice setting up for the sprint (as directed by our DS). Luckily I had a teammate in the group with me for company. She didn’t have anything left at the finish to help me out so I set myself up. I got a little caught up by other riders and was a little far back with 500 meters to go but it was uphill so I flew up the left when I finally got an opening and finished third in the bunch. I probably could have won the sprint but the fatigue of the last few days, a lack of sugar to the brain and knowing that we were sprinting for a position on the third page of results left me slightly unmotivated. Still, I was happy to finish in the third group on the road. An improvement.

Stage 4: After a terrible night’s sleep I was feeling a little underwhelmed for today’s stage but I sucked it up and rolled around before the start to get over that first hump of pain in the legs. I managed to stay with the main group for about 40km. After getting dropped on steep climbs and catching back on twice my legs were pretty toasted. Our DS had told us, looking relieved, that today’s course was not dangerous. I beg to differ. The roads were wider than they had been any other day and while the descents were not technical, they were fast. Without any big climb or technical descent in the beginning to break things up, the group stayed together. This meant a lot of track standing and jumping starts in the middle of hills due to the yo-yo effect. All of those efforts wore on me and we finally hit a hill that broke me. I was pedaling squares and barely putting out any power, just praying for a group to come sweep me up. Alas I saw NO ONE for the next 30km until a group including one of my teammates finally caught me as we entered the final circuits. We made it around one before we actually got caught by the lead motos and were told we were done. While it would have been great to say I finished a UCI race, I was not heartbroken. I was completely trashed. I had given everything I had. I would have been stubborn and finished had it not been for the commissaries ordering us off but it would have taken ages. I took my first ride in a sweeper van with two very kind old French men and called it a day.

This was the hardest racing I have ever done in my life. I had a great team to keep me company. I may not be listed on any results but the most important thing is that I truly enjoyed myself. Thanks for reading!
Team (from top to bottom): me, Liza, Linn, Sandrine, Einat, Ella

Week 1 (and a half)

So I have now been in Limoux, France for one week. The jet lag is not longer controlling my every move though there are still some lingering sleeping effects.

My flights over were relatively uneventful. I managed to sleep 4 or 5 hours on the first leg although I think in the end that did me worse than had I not slept. Heathrow airport was a trip! Here I was feeling glad to be in an English speaking airport and I could not communicate with the waiter in the 15 minutes I had between flights to get breakfast (or dinner?). I asked for oats and got hot milk. Then I asked for a bagel with lox and got scrambled eggs, a bagel and enough smoked salmon to feed a brunch party. Yikes.

When I arrived in Toulouse I was greeted by a fellow American (thank goodness because my brain just couldn't quite handle sign language at that point). Lovely British Airways decided to leave my bike in London so we filled out the paperwork to have it (hopefully) delivered to my apartment in Limoux, date and time unknown and undeterminable. What should have been a solid night's sleep after exhausting travels turned into a 4 hour nap and then a wide-awake party at 4am (great time to check Facebook). The next day Chris told me he had heard from the airport and that I needed to be at my house sometime after noon... ok, what time? "Oh just be there all day. You never know." And so I did. And my bike was FINALLY delivered around 5:30 PM. I managed to build it quickly and get out for a ride in the storm brewing weather. Phew! Day one survived!

Since then I have been adjusting to the HOT weather. My second ride was a bit of an adventure. For those of you who know me well you know that my sense of direction is, well, less than stellar. So of course, I got lost. I ended up climbing through some type of forest park, thinking I was on a completely different road. I kept climbing and climbing and climbing until I finally decided something wasn't right. At this point I had been riding for over 3.5 hours and had only eaten a banana (all I had in my house). I finally arrived in a town I knew, completely cracked. I walked into the first store I found, grabbed some chocolate cookies and a 1.5 L bottle of water. The women running the store could not help looking amused as I (completely drenched) pulled out a 50 euro bill to pay for a 1.82 euro basket. Sorry, I'm a stupid American who got lost and has yet to make change :) As I rode back into Limoux I glanced at the pharmacy digital clock and saw a temperature reading of 43 degrees! No wonder my brain was a useless pool of mush!

Then I had my first picture ride. My favorite kind. For those of you who watch the Tour you know that this time of the year is sunflower season. Driving from the airport I saw my first yellow fields and must have sounded like a little kid in a candy store. They are UNBELIEVABLE in real life!

Anyway here are some photos of where I have the absolute pleasure of riding for the next three plus weeks. Some of it reminds me of home actually.



























On Mondays Chris takes his guests to a farm house up on top of a hill where the owner of the farm cooks a completely homemade French meal. He was kind enough to allow me to join the guests for a DELICIOUS meal. He had made tart de fromage (quiche-like pie), roasted lamb (that he had raised himself), zucchini au gratin (which I didn't have but it sure looked creamy and delicious) and a heaping plate of fresh sliced tomates with homemade vinagre de vin and salt. Yummm.

The next day, Einat and I went for a phenomenal ride. It is one of my favorite loops so far. We ascended a long, gentle climb. The day was overcast and muggy and the air smelled like rain. Everything is so green here! I am surprised, considering how hot it has been but I'm certainly not complaining. On our way up we saw maybe two cars and three houses. All of a sudden I rounded a bend and saw this car (picture below) sitting in a field on the side of the hill. Inside there was a man with no shirt reading a newspaper. Ok, kind of strange conisdering he was nowhere near a house. But it gets even better... just chillin next to him outside his door was his goat. What a photo op.

At the top of the climb we had four direction choices. But first we had to visit the cows who for some reason were VERY interested in what we were doing. Enjoy the video below.

I wish I could post all of my photos here but I fear that would send my blog into despair so I will be loading all of my photos on to photobucket.com. The rest of the photos from this ride will be there. Take a look. I couldn't believe the terrain changes we went through. The only other place I have been to that changed so dramatically is Colorado Springs. We left fields of grass and moved through pine trees and then emerged into areas of red clay dirt and then back into the valley with vineyards and hay fields.

AND my last story for this blog... we climbed the Col de Pailheres! This is apparently considered one of the hardest HC climbs in the Tour. It will be the first of two HC climbs that the guys will do on the 18th (and I will be doing it again that morning so look for me on TV in the crowd!!) As the photo below shows, the top is 2001m (that one meter is very important) high and you ascend to that point over 15km at an average of 8.5%. It was a beautiful climb and by far the longest hard climb I have ever done. We took our time and, clearly, I took lots of photos. While it was a fun tough climb it was an AWESOME descent. I was easily hitting 45mph on the straighter stretches and getting practice descending switchbacks with no railings or trees (yikes!). Great day! (pictures were too difficult to choose from - see the photobucket album!)

Visit - http://s727.photobucket.com/albums/ww280/hecht_lauren/Limoux%202010/ - for more photos. The password is "france". Hope you enjoy! (And please let me know if you cannot access teh photos...it has been a while since I've used this and I am not sure that it will work)

Thanks for reading!