July 21 - Finally, into France

After spending the first several days in Switzerland, today we finally arrived in France. But first, we were at the starting village in Martigny. The main street was barricaded off and had been converted into a parking lot several blocks long where all of the team buses were lined up, with the team cars and other support vehicles alongside. Only the press (and apparently our group) were allowed inside the barricades, so we had about an hour to wander around checking out the bikes, cars and eventually the riders when they started emerging from the buses. When the riders appeared they were very accessible for photos, and were busy giving interviews to the press and others. Some people chatted with Dave Zabriskie, who was sitting on the bottom step of the team bus visiting with whomever walked by. I had my photo taken with George Hincapie, Mark Cavendish and Rinaldo Nocentini, but they are all on other cameras so it may be a few days before I can post them. About an hour before the start (which was scheduled to take place at 1:00 p.m., the riders began riding down the street to the sign-in. We saw them all pass, then caught most of them a second time returning to the team buses and then even a third time riding back for the actual start. Here are a few of the recognizable stars that rode by within arm's length. After the stage started, we went back to the bus and the plan was to ride all the way from Martigny to our next hotel on the Mont D'Arbois, outside Megeve. Because of the time, they decided to skip the initial climb out of Martigny, and so we rode up on the bus and began at the top of that climb. The map and profile from my GPS shows that there was a nice fast descent first, followed by a steep climb, more descending and then finally an interminable climb into Megeve at a steady 7-9% grade, before the final, cruel road up to the hotel, a few km more at 10-12% grade. Altogether, the final mountain was about 10 miles, with only a brief respite in the town itself. We're all sobered at the thought of climbing Mt. Ventoux on Saturday, which is about 50% longer, and steeper too. Because I really pushed on the first climb, by the end I was really exhausted. Two of us rode up the entire last climb together, trading time at the front, stopping once when our van came by and we took the opportunity to refill our water bottles (OK, and take a rest). If you watched the Tour coverage on TV today, you know that it was another spectacular day on the Alps - sunny, dry and hot. Tomorrow, we'll ride on the TdF course from Megeve over two Category 1 mountains, before arriving at the finish line in mid-afternoon.