Tour de France/Germany/Slovenia/Austria/Switzerland

Alrighty, much to my disappointment my Holiday is over and its back to the serious work of sitting watching the TV. Still no actual work to do…

For its been a busy month. 19th of June I left work caught the train to Dover and jumped on a ferry to the continent.

First week was a hardcore team of kayakers, who spent more time driving than kayaking. We paddled rivers in Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland. Hopefully pictures and report to follow on lucky. (Although my memory card appears to fried so don’t hold your breath).

Second week we joined the rest of Liverpool’s finest paddling classic French rivers, drinking cheap French beer and generally enjoying ourselves. Some else’s report Pictures and maybe video to follow if I can sort out my memory card (yes I am annoyed).

And finally Martin, Lloyd and Andy drove off without me… the bastards.

Have bike, will travel! final route looking something like this:
View Larger Map

A more detailed summary, first day I started my trek north. Going over the Col du Lauteret towards the Alpe D’Huez.

Col du Lauteret

Alpe D Huez

Mildly amusing day, as at the top of the Col du Lauteret I met up with a race, initially I though I’d let them past and join in at the end… there were 7000 lycra glad cyclists, no let up in sight. So I just joined in, when I reached the base of Alp D’Huez I ditched my backpack and went for a bit of a climb. Quite amusingly, the water stations and the like for the race just assumed I was with them, so gave me drinks and at the end I was marshelled under the finishing banner and given more drinks. Top stuff, slightly disappointed by the lack of free T-shirt I always seem to get from my runs.

Day 2-3: Cycled to Annecy via the Col de la Croix de Fer. Which gets my tick for the most difficult climb I have ever done. Also took a phone interview for a job with the Queen… didn’t get it. Annecy, very nice city.

The picture at the Croix de Fer is just a bike.

Annecy

In Annecy I had a day and a half of seats wider that 3 inches. And my arse liked me! I then left and had 2 more days of cycling to Clairvaux les Lacs (spelling?), via Gex. Here it was a case of lots of Boults… Tom, Jackie, Sandrine, Elona, Ayla, Mia. Nice holiday camp very much aimed at families… the company was good, as was the food, the book I stole and… the width of the seats. Fearing not much accommodation along the road I stuck around the weekend and until Bastile Day. This meant 5-6 days of dropping everything at 8pm to go to the stage and watch and/or perform the “crazy dance”… I will struggle to restrain myself if I hear cotten eye joe anytime soon.

This extended break put me a little behind schedule so I started north again, mostly lacking in company.

Company?

Getting delayed a few days had a few major advantages. A phone call to Celia revealed that if I could cover 200km in 24 hours I meet a bunch of other cyclists having a brief jaunt around France… I wonder if they’d stop and have a coffee with me.

The first bunch

The Peleton

Apparently they don’t do coffee, I also think the cheat slightly by not carrying all their camping equipment and clothes for a month with them… and what’s with these support vehicles, wimps, I bet they even have wider seats.

Besides watching the lame version of the tour come past, being delayed also put me on track to meet up with Richard & Loren in Paris.

Rich and Loren

We did lots of the standard touristy stuff… and cycled on the Champs Elysee.

Notre Dame

I think this is famous...

Rich on the Champs Elysees

That to me seemed like a good place to finish, train back to London! Back to real life(?)… well real beds, real ale, real seats. Overall I think I covered between 800 and 900km in 6 full and 2 half days of cycling.