Hi all
For those interested I will be bloggin on the bikestyle web-site and you can follow the tour from there.
www.bikestyletours.com

Or go straight to it.
http://www.bikestyletours.com/121-trip-starts-tomorrow

Thanks for reading

Could I have been National Champ?

I'll start off with the National Champ thing. As I won the Midi Pyrenees champs I was an automatic selection for the National Championships. Because it was held in an area that wouldn't suit me, and because the region wasn't going to pay for all of it, I chose not to go. I wondered if I would regret it...

So today I saw the results of these national Champs.. Although they took place last week I just hadn't looked at them. So... here's some food for thought. The winner of the National Championships is from this area... at the regional champs that I won, he was 3rd. So I would have had it in me... hmmm... But then again it was held under rain apparently.

Still, it is great for our region to keep the National jersey local (a local guy had it last year as well), and it is good really that 1 person doesn't get both regional and national jerseys, otherwise one of them doesn't get worn for a whole season and that is sad.

On other news Mr. Shepherd our repeat offender on Bikestyle Tours has arrived in France a week before his trip. Talk about keen to get his butt over here. :-)
We'll be picking him up in only a few days now....

Well what can I say.... it is THAT time of year again. JULY, TOUR TIME. The sun is shining the Tour is on TV seemingly 24/7 and the days are a rush to get out on the bike early so as not to miss too much "Sitting on the couch with the Tour" time. It's a magical time of year.

Yesterday's prologue was GREAT, today's stage was just what we needed to get us back in the Tour swing.

So yesterday Steph came over for a ride. We had planned a 3+ hour ride, but a relative of his was in hospital so we cut it short. But it was a great ride none the less, sunflowers, sunshine and the usual great views this part of France has to offer.

No racing for me this weekend as it is touriste/Tour time with Bikestyletours.com. But I'm not on the Tour yet, so it was a nice relaxed morning. Breakfast and out on the bike for my first "real" ride in a week. A good 3+ hours around the Vaour, Bruniquel, Puycelci area which I love SOOOO much.

A great ride in the sun, came home through Gaillac to the smell of Bar B Qs and empty streets... there really is no misstaking lunch time in France.... everything closes and everyone goes to lunch.

I cam home to find Pat and Gaelle stripping wallpaper off the hall wall in front of the bathroom. Not sure what that's about. Time for something new I guess. So I got showered and went to the kitchen to get lunch ready to the sounds of the Tour on TV in the background. Then we all sat down and watched the Tour on TV with lunch, followed by coffee and chocolate. Good god it's a great life!!!!! Just make sure you never call me while the Tour is on.... Tour on TV is sacred time! :-)

Well they call for a couple days of rain... we'll see. Until next time....

a day on the road

A fairly busy couple days. Yesterday I spent the day in Toulouse getting bike racks and cell phone card for Bikestyle. Funny how some small things can take a whole day. I felt like I spent the whole day in the car on the road... But I did get to go out for a short ride in the evening with Bob down in Mazamet. So that was a relief.

Here are a couple pics from that ride. Mazamet has a some great riding!!!

Just outside of Mazamet is a nice gauge that you would never know was there.

Tour Time Trial preview... OUCH!

The last few days have been quite busy. I spent a couple days replacing my computer hard drives and reformatting computers. Computer things always take longer than you would think, and so I was up until about 2am for a couple nights running. Then just as I was doing that we lost internet here for a day or 2, which was a pain because I thought I had done something wrong with the computers and kept trying to fix it. It took me a little while to find out it was our ISP that had the problem, not me.

I have been taking it rather easy in terms of riding recently. Making sure I am fully recovered from a good batch of racing. That said you can't sit on your ass all day long. On Saturday we had a "dress rehearsal" of the Tour de France Albi Time Trial. A couple of us motorpaced over to Albi where the day really got going. Obviously I know the course and have already ridden it a few times in my life. But never have I ridden it in it's Tour de France format, and never in full flight on a TT bike. The course is hard. It was a really hot day, which it often is in Albi, so it could be like that come the day.

The 1st third of the course is a steady uphill drag which will sap your energy.

Steady uphill out of Albi

The 2nd third of the course is where things get interesting. You shoot down a fairly good descent, where there are a couple of corners the riders will really need to keep an eye on.

The long descent takes you into the town of Ambialet. As you exit Ambialet you ride the only 3km of flat of this 54km TT before shooting left and hitting a hard tree shaded climb.

The climb is fairly steep. In full TT flight the riders will be riding up it at about 30kph and it will only take about 6 mins, but it's a hard climb.

From the top of the climb it is all downhill on a wide open road. Not a descent but downhill. Here the riders will need to use some BIG gear and the speeds will be really fast and they head back into Albi for the stage finish. It ain't gonna be easy. VERY hard TT... this is one to watch on TV for sure!!!


That was a hard day, and just to make it a little bit harder I rode home, giving me over 4 hours of riding on the Time Trial bike. I was pretty tired that evening I will tell you.

So National Champs was yesterday. As some of you may know I was automatically selected for Nationals thanks to my regional championship win. But I didn't go for various reasons. And as most of you also probably know I am not a big fan of Christophe Morron's, so I wasn't overly happy to see him take the French National Champs. But whether I like him or not, he's had a very impressive month and is obviously in great form. Lets see what he can do at the Tour this year. He might be good for an solid overall performance. He won't win because in the past couple of years he's lost a lot of him TTing ability.... but he might dynamite that race somewhat.... great, so we'll have to listen to more of his terribly repetitive interviews. :-(

Until next time.... be well!