Here I am…
// July 16th, 2009 // 13 Comments » // A Day Down Under
… And what a lot I have to catch up on! I don’t even know where to start!
The last few weeks have been a blur, and I can hardly even remember everything that has happened. For a start, we did a few races at the end of June, finishing up with Halle-Ingooigem, and then it was time for what I guess can be called the “National Championships” week. All of the European countries run their National Championships in the weeks leading up to the Tour de France, so for non-Europeans like myself, it was a short break from racing, and a chance to get out of Belgium.
My place of choice to take off to was the only place where I knew anyone else, Monaco. I have a few friends who live there, and they told me it would be great for training and a catch up. The other thing I realised the day before I booked the ticket, was that I would actually be there to see the Tour de France for my first ever time!
So next up, here are a heap of photos, and I can’t really do much more than explain each one, otherwise this will be the longest blog post in history… I really wish I had internet while I was away, and I could have started with some posts then. Also, it has taken all day with our super-speed internet here in Belgium, to get all of these photos up, so that was great.
This is a photo of Menton, the next town to the East of Monaco, and right before the Italian border. The whole coast along here is just stunning, everywhere I saw along the coast, the mountains fall right into the sea; the best of both worlds really!
Next up is a photo of the beginning of the first climb of the prologue, with the finishing area in the background. You can see the boats in the port, as well as the mountains in the background that finish right at the coastline.
Here is a picture of how huge the hills actually are, although it hardly does any justice. You might be able to make out the river and the road running along the bottom of the valley there, and that is where I was just about to descend down to, and then start climbing again! It was just the most stunning, brilliant riding out the back of Nice, and I can’t wait to get back to do some more training down there!
Here I am at the Italian border, just about 15km from Monaco. I was about to take a photo of the sign when a voice came from the van that just pulled up beside it. Turns out the van had an Aussie couple in it, here from Tasmania to watch the Tour! They gave me a food and drink top-up, and we had a chat, then off I went. Pretty amazing really!
Alright, this is the best part of the trip! I stayed at a few different places, back-packing around with my bike and a small back-pack. Nico, our team director has a friend who lives up above Nice, his old Cofidis Soigneur, and he had a place I could stay for a couple of days. It was just the most amazing place you could have a house, and this is where we would sit and eat breakfast each day! JC would say, “This is living” each day for breakfast, how true! Again, I must say a huge thanks to JC (Jean-Christophe) for having me stay! We would look right down into the valley, and out towards Nice, which wasn’t far away.
The only thing wrong with the great view, was riding up to it, especially if I had a back-pack on! This is what the roads were like all the way up to his house:
Each time I rode up there, it was 13 switch-backs, and all in the space of about 3.5km. JC tells me the first mile is the same gradient as Alpe d’Huez, but then it levels off to what I would say was the same as Arthur’s Seat, if anyone is familiar with that climb!
I had to take a photo of myself riding along so as readers didn’t think I just ripped the photos off a website or something! That is another thing too, just about every photo taken that appears on my Missing Saddle blog, is taken while I am riding along, in motion, just in case anyone was wondering!
Here is the road up to the top of the Col de Turini, which was absolutely breathtaking! It was so breathtaking in fact, that I started to get scared of heights! It was insane. After clicking on the link, you can find out the little facts I just discovered, which seem to back up how great this road was! Once I got about 8km from the top, it started to pour with rain, absolutely pissed down on me, and I was up in the clouds. Then, the thunder and lightning started, and I am sure one lightning bolt just missed me, it scared me so bad I actually yelled out loud, as it went off right beside me! I ended up scrambling to the top very quickly, and down the other side into the dry again. Still, the roads were amazing, and I wish I had just been able to film the whole thing, as photos just can’t do it justice! Actually, that applies to the whole of everything that I was for my whole trip!
This is a bit further up the Col de Turini, and looking back down at some of the roads I had just ridden up. I love it when you can look at the scenery and see the roads winding and twisting up the side of hills.
This is just one of the many hair-pin turns I rode up or down!
Here is JC and his six-year-old son Martis. Martis is going to be the next Jim Carrey, or something like that. He is a crazy boy, but a good boy too! I looked after him for an hour one day, and before I started, JC said “good luck”. I didn’t know what he meant until about five minutes later! It was a fun time too, with neither of us speaking the same language!
OK, so the Tour de France! Well, I am one of the lucky ones now, who has been able to see one of the World’s biggest sporting events! It was a great experience, and I got pretty lucky with the area I was watching from, as there really weren’t too many people around. Right when I first got to the race, the first rider I got to see was the King himself, Lance Armstrong! Too bad I didn’t get a few practise shots first, and that the guy in front of me put his hands in the way, but still, I was lucky enough to get my camera out of my pocket just before he came through!
I changed to the other side of the road, and got a few cool photos there. Here is the current Belgian Time Trial Champion (which kit looks awesome), and the Tour of Flanders current back-to-back Champion, Stijn Devolder. Do you think his belly is very big?!
This is Andreas Kloden, of the Astana Dream Team. I think their team kit looks pretty damn cool!
Here is the current King of the Classics, and Belgian Road Race Champion, Tom Boonen! I reckon it is great that he got to race and show off his new jersey, even if he has been having a bit of bad luck in the first week with crashes. It has been great racing here in Belgium this season, as I have been lucky enough to race against these two Quick-Step riders a number of times. Wicked Styx!
Here is a cool little village tucked away up in the hills in Italy. I love these tiny little villages that I stumbled across out training, all packed into the one little spot, all the houses sharing walls with the next house, and then you look around and see all that unused land just down the street!
Here is the village from the way I rode in, with the mountains towering over.
And finally, here is yet another hair-pin turn! There were just so many of them, so it was a bit hard for them not to land in the blog post more than once!
Well, that is that as far as the photos go. Well, not really, I had a hard enough time selecting the ones I did. There are hundreds from the trip, but these are the ones I posted. If there are more that I feel I should have used, I will include them in later posts. For now though, I hope this post has redeemed me a little for my lack of recent posts, and should put me back on track for regular posts now!
So that is it, I will write more soon. The comments I get should help getting a new post up sooner! I hope everyone is well.
Happy 21st Birthday to my sister Lisa for the 17th, and to Nico Mattan also for the same day!
It takes 3,000 cows to supply America’s NFL with a year’s worth of footballs.
