Over a Week In--Time to Update?

Ride 1 Col du Portillon (both sides) and Superbagneres:  47.45 miles 7,966 feet

Ride 2 Peyresourde y Pla d'Adet: 41.86 miles 6,575 feet

 I've not been updating this blog because I don't know how to use Google's Blogger like I used to.  A few years ago Blogger was simple to use, configure, edit, post photo captions, etc.  Now?  I can't seem to figure it out and I've given up on making it look pretty.  

Maybe, then, this just ends up as a bit of a photo dump.  

I wrote a bit about Bagneres du Luchon. . . lovely little town.  The first day routes were tough given that they were full of climbing and we'd not been doing much climbing.

Add to that I've been very unhappy with my bicycle, i.e. the way it fits.  And, actually, the way it rides, too.  It rides like I'm in sand.  Just no forward propulsion.  Then again, maybe I'm just n lousy shape, or jetlag or something.  

I am a slow rider, which I can live with.  What I DON'T like is FEELING slow.  There is a huge difference.  This bike makes me feel slow.  And the fit, after a half hour or so of climbing, my lower back is just screaming.  Fortunately it stops when I get off the bike.  My big fear is developing some kind of permanent damage.

So, riding, Bagneres du Luchon. . . .  After the Portillon/Superbagneres ride, it rained the next day.  Neither Linda nor I rode at all that day.  A few others did, Deb Finley even rode to the top of Superbagneres.  Which was nuts since it was nearly freezing at the summit.  

No one was particularly excited about riding Friday the 13th, a travel day to Saint-Lary Soulon.  The original plan was to ride from Bagneres du Luchon over Col du Peyresourde and down and around to the new hotel (with an option to climb to Pla d'Adet).  I was the only one that ended up riding.  For the most part it was a good decision--except for the descent from the top of the Peyresourde to the valley below. 

Getting a little ahead of myself though.  I bundled up and took every warm piece of clothing I had with hopes of bundling up warm enough to endure any cold I might experience descedning the Peyresourde.  The Peyresourde climb was nice, I'd done it once before in 2017--felt a little better this time than that.  In 2017, after climbing a few other hills, including the Port de Bales, I was having the worst day I'd ever had on a bike.  I had a Red Bull at the top of the Peyresourde and, well, it gave me wings.  Descended (on my own bike) with no problem, and was the quickest of our group of 10 up the Col d'Azet, the final climb of that day.  Point being, I knew what to expect on the Peyresourde CLIMB.  The descent was what I feared the whole way up.  

The rest of the team took the bus over to the next hotel and they started a ride from there.  We had to take the same road over the Peyresourde to get to Saint-Lary Soulon.  I left a bit earlier than the bus and Linda was able to click off a few photos as the bus drove by (scared the crap out of me as the driver honked as he went by):

Got to the top of the Peyresourde no problem.  Word is that at the top you have to have some crepes from the little shop on the side of the road--12 of them for 7 euros!  So I did.  I missed video of them making crepes as there was a short lull when I happened to be there.  I bought three and a hot chocolate.  The place has been there for several decades, I wnat to say 35 years, but I'm not 100% sure of the duration.  Open Tues-Sunday from 9:30am to 6:30pm.  I can't imagine Monday is the only day they close througout the year.  Snowstorms and holidays surely must get in the way?  I would have liked to have learned more about the owners. . . .  Language gets in the way. 

They had jam for sale, too, which would have been even better on the crepes--but I would have had to buy a jar and I don't like the thought of carrying a glass jar on my bike while riding a bike. 

So far, so good.  Now the descent.  Pulled my arm warmers back up (I'd rolled them down for the climb), added leg warmers.  Added a thermal jersey on top of the one I was already wearing.  Added another heavier one on top of that.  Added a wind jacket on top of it all.  Surely this would be enough to keep me from shivering and a case of the shimmies.  

It lasted about a mile.  I had about 9 more miles to go.  It was ridiculous.  On a long run like that I should have been able to easily do 30-40mph.  I was having to keep it under 10mph, and even stopped a few times, the shaking was so bad.  It was the worst time I've had on a bike in a long, long while.  As I dscended and the air got warmer, I was finally able to pedal without the bike shaking apart.  And once that happened, the rest of the ride to Saint-Lary Soulon was actually very nice.  Except for, of course, an unresponsive bicycle.  It felt like I was pedaling in mud, even with a tail wind.  

On arriving at the Saint-Lary hotel I texted Linda to find out where she was.  She'd headed up the climb to Pla d'Adet.  I was afraid she'd say that.  I'd never done the climb but you can see if very clearly as it rises from the valley floor.  After the morning I'd had descending the Peyresourde I didn't want to get to the top of the Pla d'Adet and then find out it was going to be too cold and I'd have the same shviering problem I'd had before.  

But, against my better judgement, I took off--slowly--after Linda and Deb Finley, hoping, stupidly, that maybe I'd catch up to the them before they reached the top.  The climb's tough, steady above 8%.  It was a mental challenge and I was already going slowly from not having taken on enough calories. 

As it turned out, I crossed paths with Linda and Deb about 3.5 kms (a little over 2 miles) from the top.  I briefly thought about turning around and following them back down but 2 miles from the top?  I had to keep going.  There's a decision point with just under 3 kms to go--left to Pla d'Adet, right to Col du Portet. . . I wanted to do Col du Portet, but it was another 5 miles v. the 3 to Pla d'Adet, it was getting later in the afternoon (meaning cooler) and I was already dreading the descent regardless.  So I went left, the closer of the two.  I had hoped to be able to go to the top of Pla d'Adet, descend back to the junction, and go and do Portet, thus avoiding having to climb over again the part I'd just done to get to the junction.  I knew there was a possibility I would't do Portet if I didn't do it right then.  But it was too risky. 

I did make it to Pla d'Adet.  It was dead. . . nothing up there at all was open--the summer activity is over and it's too early for skiing.  

Decision point:

Raymond Poulidor statue at the crossroad Pla d'Adet and Portet. Poulidor won the stage to Pla d'Adet on July 15th of the 1974 Tour de France.  At 38, he finished 2nd in the Tour that year. . . known as "the enternal second" because he was, well, runner-up on several occasions.  

From near the top of Pla d'Adet

Early on, maybe 1-2 kms in:

Laurent Fignon

Jaques Anquetil

Bernard Thevenet

Raymond Pouildor

Daniel Mangeas, Le Voix du Tour (The Voice of the Tour)

Bernard Hinault

Jean Paul Ollivier

At the top of Pla d'Adet looking down at Saint-Lary Soulon. 

Made the descent.  The first 2 miles back was shaded and cool. . . the scariest part.  I started down and just monitored everything--was I getting cold?  How cold?  Watch for the slightest bit of a shiver.  Made it to the junciton and the sun and from then on it was much, much better.  Still not supremely confident in the bike's descedning characteristics, but at least there was no shivering and I didn't come near to going over the cliff.  I was glad to get down and it was LATE.  

The restaurant in Saint-Lary Soulon was outstanding, l'Authentique:

French and Spanish Pyrenees with Sierra Sports & Tours

 American Airlines Sept 8, 2024.  SMF--> PHX--> LHR (London Heathrow) -->LHS (Toulouse)

There isn't much to say about the trip out to France.  Our good friend Andrae McClain helped us out by getting us to the airport (he's helped us out with these trips more than once).  

Mr. McClain

Linda at SMF with her "Flat Patches" travel partner

 We flew American Airlines from Sacramento to Phoenix, from Phoenix to London/Heathrow, and finally British Airways from London to Toulouse.  The trip was uneventful.  No delays.  No drama. The food was terrible--both on the plane(s) and at the airports.  It's not like it was 10 years ago where the food on Air France and British Airways was actually very good and they offered snacks throughout the trip.  Now the attendants hardly acknowledge you, don't interact except on the most perfunctory level.  

We arrived in Toulouse on 9/9.  A bus picked us up at noon on 9/10 to take us to our first hotel in Bagneres-du-Luchon, Alti Hotel.  The only delay was waiting almost 90 minutes for the Marriott courtesy van to show up.  

Our first riding day was Wednesday 9/12.  The rental bikes were brought up from Madrid by Jorge Izquierdo, our support staff from Sierra Sports & Tours (SST).  Super cool man, indulges me by allowing me to practice my Spanish with him.  He claimed that my Spanish was pretty good.  I think he may have just been being nice.  

Linda brought her own bike, I rented on--a Orbea Avant M30.  Originally, when Paul d'Andrea, the owner of SST, mentiong the bike I was pleased given the nearly identical stack & reach measurements of the Orbea compared to my own bikes.  Plus Orbea is a well-known brand.  Interestingly, SST asked for three specific measurements from our existing bikes:  center of bottom-bracket to the top of the saddle, tip of the saddle to the middle of the handlebar, and center of the front wheel to the center of the handlebar.  The bike I received--none of the measurements I'd provided were carried over.  I don't know why they bothered asking.  The bikes are not maintained particularly well.  The drivetrain on my bike was filthy.  The stem's head cap. . . you know, that thing that holds the handlebar in place. . . was missing a bolt (supposed to have 4, there were 3).  For the price we paid I guess that's what we get?  Seriously, the trip is a relative bargain. . . if there's a weak link to SST it's the upkeep of the bicycles they provide and the difficutly of matching up the measurements of one's own bike to the rental.  Up until this trip, the two other times I've rented (at Gabicce Mare in Italy) the bikes had turned out to be quite good.  Even if I was unimpressed on first sight.  Here, on this trip, I think it has changed my mind about bringing my own bike v. renting.  

The bike feels heavy, as in it rolls like it's stuck in sand.  On descents it's a nighmare.  It shimmies from barely noticeable to totally out of control.  I get cold on descents and I tend to shiver.  The bike takes that shivering input and magnifies it 1000x.  I have ZERO confidence on descents on this thing.  It's a dangerous bike.  I can't do much about it at this point other than, perhaps, renting a different bike in each town we visit.  On the few days when we ride from one hotel to the next I have no choice but to ride the Orbea.  I'll simply have to try to bring more clothing for the descents so I don't shiver and send the bike's front end shaking itself into a tree with me on it.  It's super dangerous.  

On top of that, my positionin on the bike KILLS my lower back and it was bothering my shoulders (actually my deltoids).  I did raise the bars abotu 2 cm (which was all I could do since the steerer has never been cut and it needed three 2 cm spacers to close the gap between the top of the head tube and the stem.  It looks ridiculous.  But at least I do understand why they haven't cut it since the bike can't be sized just for me and me alone.  They have to be able to use this thing with a variety of people.  Still, if they'd put a little more time into keeping the thing clean and in good working order it would pay dividends, I think, for them when they do rent bikes out. 

I think that they poo-poo the sizing--much like I experienced with the Italians.  Bike fit is a critical matter and to not have a way to match the rental up to what one is used to risks injuries--back and knees being the most likely problem areas.  So, yes, I do believe they need to step up their game in this area.  Perhaps the mjority of their clientele doesn't care?   

The first riding day a fellow named John Slavonic and I rode the Col du Portillon from Bagneres-du-Luchon over into the Spanish town of Bossost and back and then finished it off with a 10.6 mile climb up to Superbagneres.  The bike scared the crap out of me on the three descents of the day--sucked all of the fun out of it.  All told abhout 47 miles and 8,000 feet of climbing.  

Linda rode with everyone else in the group up to Port de Bales (clockwise), about 43 miles and 5,000 feet of climbing.   

Our SST guide Jorge Izquierdo.  A fine fellow, actor, carpenter, and adventurer.

Deb Finley and Linda Lasswell

Linda ascending Port de Bales

Off to Italy 2023

 09/17/2023  alarm 0615 am.  Plane departs 10:09 supposedly.  Target leave at 0700, leave more like 0730.  So far so good.  No serious problems at the airport except that the bike bag was about 5 lbs over the weight limit.  How much does overweight cost?  $100 domestic, $200 international.  We had to fix the weight.  

Our second bag was about 45 lbs--had to shift a few pounds from one to the other.  Managed to get it exactly right, split even between the two bags.  The kind gentleman at the ticktet counter waived the 1/2 lb we were over the 50.  Turns out that the difference maker might have been my new, purchased-for-the-trip, Prologo Dimenion 143 saddle (yeah, pretentious. . . it's the bike seat).  It arrived with us at the airport, in the bike bag.  Somewhere between switching it from the bike bag to the suitcase it didn't make it to the suitcase.  Of course this wasn't discovered until after we'd arrived in Italy.  I'm not sure what came of it.  I sent an email to the lost-n-found at the airport.  They said they hadn't seen it.  They suggested I send the same note to TSA as they keep a separate lost-n-found.  We'll see.  Maybe it fell out, or was not placed back in the suitcase when they were doing their little TSA inspection.  So that was a bummer.

Flight out of Sac was delayed about 30 mins, or so, due to air traffic backed up at SFO.  They said the air traffic controllers thought it better that we just stay on the ground in Sac rather than take off and get in the queue flying around SFO.  OK, no problem.  

Transfer to the next flight--no problem.  When we were supposed to leave, they announced a technical difficulty they were dealing with.  The few minutes turned into more than an hour as it turned out there was a radio problem and, it sounded like he said, the tech crews needed to switch out the radio.  OK, it's good to have a radio. 

The flight was going to be delayed even it had taken off on time becuase of the flight path they intended to take. . . for various reasons they had to fly a slower route which they talked with air traffic staff to see if there were ways to make up for lost time due to the radio repair.  Must not have worked.  

The flight was supposed to land at 9:45 am in Munich.  Our next flight was to leave at 11:40.  We arrived at about 11:20, needed to get to the gate, unload a jumbo jet, go through passport control, and get to our next gate in 20 minutes.  

We weren't going to make it.  But little did we know that the next flight was delayed some 30 mins.  We had a chance!

Everyone got through passport control (I think there were about 10 of us on the same flights), with Robert Samms, Linda, and me being the last through.  

After exiting passport control, we exited the doors--straight ahead was to baggage claim. I looked left and there was a small hallway to the G gates--I knew that our flight was in the G gates.  The other 7 of our group had disappeared one of those two ways but were long gone by the time I got out.  

I looked at the sign to the left, I looked at the doors in front of me and. . . I went straight.  

Unfortunately, Linda and Robert came with me.  I'd not asked for input from either.  Why did I go straight?  Sandy Yarrow had something about needing to go to baggage claim because of the late arrival of the previous flight.  I thought we'd get to the baggage claim and that's where everyone would be. 

Nope. 

Now what?

We discussed it, I mentioned the "sign to the left" I'd seen, and thought we'd just go back the way we came and go down that hall.  Climbed the stairs up to the next level (must have been 200 of 'em!) only to realize that, for obvious security reasons, the doors we'd come through were meant to be one way only--there was no way to go the other direction without violating airport security.  That would have been a disaster. 

So. . . back down the stairs.  Huffing around a big ol' suitcase and a backpack.  I shoulda grabbed a cart.  We knew we had to get to the G gates so we had to find our way.  Had trouble finding it, Munich's airport was not helpfully marked.  Had to ask some security folks how to find it.  Once on our way, we realized we were going to have to go through security again. . . a consequence of having left those doors I'd chosen. 

Fortunately, the line for security was very short.  The biggest holdup being Linda couldn't find her boarding pass, which was needed to open the barrier to get to the security checkpoint.  Everyone was pretty frazzled by this point, with texts coming in every couple of minutes:  "G47!", "they're holding the plane, run!"  Of course G47 was the very furthest possible gate from where we started literally at the very end of the building, the very last gate.  

I'd seen some roller carts earlier and thought I should have grabbed one as soon as I saw them.  My suitcase and backpack felt like 100lbs by the time we got half way to the gate.  

When we finally did get there, of course, the boarding agents looked at us like we were idiots and told us we'd missed the flight and that we'd have to go talk to the Lufthansa service counter to see about options.  Woulda been ok if it had been just Linda and me, but I'd led Robert astray as well.  

Schlep over to the service center.  Thankfully there was no line.  Later on while walking around (I'll explain why in a second) we passed the service center and there was a super long line of people looking for help.  Other missed flights?

We explained our predicament to the service center person.  She type-type-typed, then said "it looks like the next reasonable flight out departs 8:30 pm arrives 9:35 pm.  It was about 12:30 pm at that time.  

There were other flights but they were not direct and didn't end up getting to Bologna any earlier.  So, we said, alright, go ahead and give us those 8:30pm tickets.  The prospect of spending the next 8 hours in the Munich airport terminal didn't sound too great, but we had no choice.  We considered renting a car and driving to Bologna or directly to San Marino--a little over 6 hours to Bolonga airport and about 8 hours to San Marino. It wouldn't have made sense to drive to Bologna as the bus we were supposed to meet up with was long gone--there was no reason to show up there.  We ditched the driving idea.

United, bless 'em, gave us each a 14 euro voucher to use anywhere we wanted.  Odd number.  How'd they arrive at 14 euros?  We thought we scored.  Until we looked around and found that the cheapest meals were 15.90.  We couldn't get a full meal paid for.  

Wait around for 8+ hours we did.  Around 8:00 pm, the estimated boarding time, the airline was not making any announcements for boarding.  We started to get a little nervous.  I checked the board above the gate and found that the flight was delayed to 9:00 pm (evidently they couldn't find a crew to fly it??).  It finally started boarding at a little after 9:00 pm, departed around 9:30.  

It dawned on me while sitting in the plane that we were going to need to find a taxi to take us from BLQ to San Marino.  I broke out the phone and started Googling taxis out of Bologna.  I found a company and made a reservation, which was difficult to do given the short timeframe.  Just shy of $300, taking 25% down.  We were leaving at 9:30 and we were going to need the taxi at around 10:45.  I made the reservation, received an email that said that they'd look at the needs and send a confirming email "in a couple of hours"!

I worried and fretted the entire flight thinking that they'd not be able to do it.  Sure enough, after landing and finally re-establishing internet service, there was an email from the taxi company apologizing for their inability to fulfill the request. Thank goodness, because Roberto and Sandro from Hotel Alexander arranged for a taxi to be there for us. . . and he was there--Remo was the driver's name.  If the other company hadn't fallen through we would have been out the $300 for that ride on top of the $320 we paid Remo to take us to Hotel Alexander.  

We arrived finally at about 12:30 am Tuesday morning.  Didn't get to bed til about 1:15.  I didn't sleep from 6:15 PDT Saturday until 1:15 am Tuesday morning, CET. . . about 43 hours.  Yep we were tired.

There's not much to talk about at the airport.  It was a long, LONG wait.  Super boring.  

We found out after we finally got to San Marino that Doug Schierer organized a defacto gofundme for us and collected $130--nearly half our total fare.  That was super cool.  

08/21/2019 Riding Day One of Wheelmen France 2019 - Col de l'Arpettaz

Despite the club having arranged a couple of guides to lead us around I had early on decided that I had my own agenda of rides I wanted to do and roads I wanted to see.  The first of these was something called the Col de l'Arepettaz that I had read about on a website I had been using as a resource for some time (a far better blog than my lame attempt here--I'm doing this just as a sort of journal in case anyone ever cares to read it):  https://www.cycling-challenge.com/

I haven't even learned the blogger's name, but he does an outstanding, encouraging, dream-inducing, wish-I-was-there job with his efforts.  I noted one story in particular here:  100 Cycling Climbs Better Than l'Alpe d'Huez

I knew of, or had heard of, and even ridden some of the 100 he named, but I was needing to focus on climbs near where we were going to be:  Annecy, Bourg d'Oisans, Provence, Souillac, and Meursault.

No. 90 was this one:  https://www.cycling-challenge.com/col-de-larpettaz-3/ which it turned out was one of several near Annecy.

Strava file for Col de l'Arepttaz

I was advised I'd have a companion that could keep up--he couldn't--plus he didn't have maps or GPS (at any point during the entire trip).  For better or for worse I am a bit of a loner by nature, so riding alone was fine with me.

That said, it was a great little climb.  Steady, longish, certainly longer than anything we find around here short of going into the High Sierra.  Mormon Immigrant Trail in El Do Co is long, yes, but totally without personality and not that challenging.

l'Arpettaz?  About 39-40 switchbacks, about 10.2 miles, 7.2% average, 11.4% max.  It was a nice solid opener.  I'm very glad I rode it, even if it took bit longer while babysitting.  20 flat miles, 10 miles of climbing, 35 miles of downhill and flat back to Annecy.  Ideal.

Sign leading off from D1508 and the bike trail--20 miles from Annecy.   

Part way up the climb.  Had to stop to make sure my companion made the turn.  So shot a photo. 

It was looking like it might be cold and wet and foggy as we climbed--we could see the clouds from the valley.  We weren't sure what to expect.  Turned out to be just fine--cool, not cold, no wind.  It really was a beautiful climb.

Just the road sign.  The Col de l'Arpettaz doesn't get any love--it's not famous, I'd never heard of it, it doesn't have the signs counting down the kilometers, or counting the switchbacks.  But if I lived in the area, this would be a favorite climb to do over-and-over again.  

Just another view back down the valley towards Annecy, cows in the lower right.  So serene, so pastoral, so buccolic, I just LOVE this kind of thing.  Live for it.  

A monument at the summit.  A prayer to the virgin, saying something like this:
Pray to our lady of the mountain pastures

Glory to you our lady of the pastures

flower bloomed, in the joy of heaven.

Protect those who pass in this mountain,

those who are climbing and all the inhabitants of these chalets.

Our lady of alpine pastures!

Help us defeat evil, which roots so easily in the heart of man.

That in your immaculate heart is manifested for all light and hope.

OK, that's good.  

The front door of the building closest to that monument.  

Looking towards Col des Aravis out there somewhere--great if on a mountain or gravel bike. Mont Blanc is out that direction somewhere. 

Bike at the summit. 

Me and my bike at the summit and a cool little restaurant at the top, like so many of the climbs have in Europe. 

Lots of hiking trails all over the Alps.   

It was a little misty when I first got to the top, burned off quickly.  Wasn't cold--fabulous ride. 

Local residents--lot's of them all over the mountain.  

The descent home starts after this little rise.