The snow is landing in the wrong place. I still have one final 50K XC ski race to train for and the conditions outside are better for roadbiking than XC skiing. The pavement here in Ottawa Canada is bone dry and most of the snow in the town and south of here is gone, so the boys are out hammering out miles. Still lots of snow north of town in the hills though. It always amazed me the roads that Paris Nice takes and how they go through fairly rough terrain with huge snow banks on either side. Remember the Sestriere stage in the 1996 TdF that was shortened to 37K of so at which Bjarne Riis put the boots to Indurain ? That was Epic !

Did my pre-work ride this morning up above Gourdon to the summit of Le Haute Montet, a nice 1000 vertical meter gain in 20km from the front door. It's sunny down here on the Cote d'Azur but up top there is still snow on the shaded spots on the side of the road with gravel embedded in ice on occasion. It's been a nasty winter by local standards, two-meter snow depth in the local hills! Descending sure was chilly! Will try to check out the Paris-Nice finish on the weekend if it combines well with our planned long ride, but if the weather conditions and state of my legs require it, we are bagging watching other cyclists in favour of riding ourselves! Nothing like a sunny day in March here for perfect riding euphoria.

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"Did my pre-work ride this morning up above Gourdon to the summit of Le Haute Montet"



I love/hate you some much for that. More love I guess, you beautiful son of bitch.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

indeed, that's a nice climb...I just love riding in that area...can ride there pretty much year round as long as you don't go too high...
El Paso is great for riding year round too...but wind season has started and that's going to be ugly again...every day, 30-40-50mph winds...as I am getting ready for IM Fr. that's going to be a pain in the butt because riding in the mountains when it's windy tends to be very dangerous and treacherous...
maybe I should come down the riviera late may for some last training.

OK, hopefully I won't make you suffer too much more then if I mention the view to the NE of the snow-covered Alps looming above the ridge of Gréolières-les-Neiges, the snow-dappled peaks of Corsica floating 100 miles offshore in the still-cold waters of the Med . . . then there's the descent past the stony sheep pastures and stone huts of Caussols and on down and blitzing by the 1000-year-old stone fortress walls of medieval Gourdon, a blistering winding descent all the way to the olives of Opio and Chateauneuf and into the morning traffic -- Yep, the morning reverie is over and it's rush hour in the arrière-pays! :-) But hey, it's all good . . . stay tuned, will post more about future mornings around the neighbourhood if you like, in the spirit of masochistic indulgences (me climbing, you reading about it!). :-)

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Get's a little steep at the top after you get around the gate to the final access road to the radar dome . . . those 17% stretches should always be done before a full breakfast -- every little bit helps! If you are planning on coming pre IMF let me know and we can hook up if you like.

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I guess my VCR recorded a bunch of fill for 1 1/2 hours this morning.

You suck. I mean that in a good way.

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customerjon @gmail.com is where information happens.

No, you just got yesterday's stage again. I got on my trainer and turned on the tv this morning about halfway through the show. Bob and Paul were talking about a two man break . . . "just like yesterday" thinks I. Lotto rider in the break "just like yesterday too" thinks I. They're about 2 minutes off the front at 20K. "ok, this is too weird" thinks I. It took until Bob started telling the same Manolo Saiz story he told yesterday for the light to go on.

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Anyone who tells you they're as fast now as they were when they were 18...
sure wasn't very fast when they were 18.

You are hurting me more than Mr Tibbs, because I really know what you described looks like. Truly one of the greatest places where to ride...I guess Opio is where the camp of Brett is? lodging at the club med...probably some great runs in massif de l'Esterel...hmmm...
I may come down indeed. Maybe race the MD in Saint Raphael (either this one or go to Brittany where a friend lives and race Lorient).

btw, this year at IMFr. no disc, no bar end shifters...I guess heavier guys like Timo can glue the disc on the road but light dudes...I guess not...I never shook so much than when going down Straiture with a disc...

Yeah, it is sweet. You can ride all day without getting tired -- the terrain is just so great, always the desire to see the next view, the next town. Always a water fountain to be had, little stone villages every hour or so, zero traffic.

The camp is going to be all in Antibes. Decided not to go with Club Med for now. Not so much a training camp as a learn-to-train-right camp, so we won't be doing too much driving around to the great locales for running.

BTW, I'd keep the disk -- just slow down a bit on the corner!

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there were no corners! well there was one, but I wanted to see if I could cut through the grass :-) (seemed a better choice than seeing if the road in straiture was tougher than my skin)...
the crash seemed not much after that (except the 50mph...) not blood, no bruises, but 2 days later I couldn't walk anymore...

I'll take 3 rear wheels and will see there...course has changed again...

I bet Andy Hampstein can't believe it either. Probably thinking "what a bunch of babies" after his winning a snow covered stage in the Giro!!

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TheBikeRacer.com

we can't have it two ways...
have a sport drug free and at the same time expect riders to ride no matter what the conditions are...
the problem today wasn't so much the climbing, but the downhill in the snow.

Check out Saturday's TV coverage for one of the most scenic stages of any bike race you will ever see . . . weather permitting (scattered cloud forecast here). The Gorge du Verdon is an incredible ride -- spucking fectacular!!

For Mr. Tibbs -- I think I will be heading there later this month, perhaps early next month. This Saturday it's our annual "Knee Killer Ride" named in honour of Jenn's IT band from two years ago. 3600m vertical gain over 180km, with 2500m of the gain and 100km of the riding just to get to "The Ridge", a long, snaking road winding along the crest of a mountain at 1 - 2% downhill gradient for about 20km . . . direction east, huge vista of mountains, ridges, valleys, Alps, sea, fields, stone villages, spring in the air, etc. all laid out in front of you as you just coast and coast and soak it all in, most of the work behind you with water and bakery stops dotting the whole way home . . . the Alpes Maritimes rules!

OK, weather permitting.

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Ironguide/Francois, when are you guys going to be in Antibes. Just found out that my club (RCF) are doing a training camp there April 10-17 and I think I'll head down. Always good to meet up with others.

Well, considering I live in Texas, I don't go to Antibes very often...
I may be in Saint Raphael for the half there june 6th, but that's as close as I'll get to Antibes this year.
But you can go there and swim with Esposito :-)
I'll be in Paris from june 13 to 19th though.

Camel, I live in Opio, just in from Antibes. Am also running a camp that same week, April 11 - 17, out of the Antibes pool -- check http://www.excaliburtraining.com/april.htm for more information. Spots left if you are interested in this instead of your club camp.

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Ironguide, I rode through the Gorge du Verdon in 1984 while bike touring in college and took my wife hiking there for our honeymoon in 1994. Totally spectacular area. I'll be riding in the Alpes this summer with an old college buddy doing some of the Tour climbs etc and checking out some of the live action. Would love to ride in the Alpes Maritimes again time permitting. Antibes is a wonderful spot. Is there a half Ironman there every Jun ? On another note, perhaps you can suggest to me the best route to climb Ventoux. If I want to ride from the direction that Lance and Pantani rode ini 2000, which town do a start in. I believe Bedouin (sp?) rings a bell, but I am unsure.

"the Alpes Maritimes rules!"

i do concur. riding up through 12th century villages perched on the sides of cliffs is cool. but i do have one beef. i could not find steep enough roads. 6% is okay, but the french built their roads too tamely.

here in america we were less patient, at least in the west. our 19th century road builders had ADHD, and at some point just needed to get up over the darn thing (whatever it was). hence, we have 6% and 16% in the same road, depending on the mood of the guy driving the bulldozer that day.

i don't know. i see a battle looming. alpes maritime v greenhorns. of course none of you have ever ridden the greenhorns, so i can boast of them all i want. but how about JRA 7000' above sea level and finding yourself through a grove of 2000-year-old giant sequoias not even on your map?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Dan,

either you have missed quite a few roads or if you have a computer that gives the slope, it's not accurate...in the region, you can find a lot of 15% slopes, not on the main roads in general (not matter what main means in France :-) ) but there are plenty of very steep climbs.

"either you have missed quite a few roads"

i've missed the great majority of the roads. i'm only familiar with those between the italian border and grasse. 4 or 5 trips to the nice triathlon, so those roads plus others throughout that area. i just didn't see anything steep, tho i don't doubt it's there.

now the dolomites. the italians obviously had a shorter attention span.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

the dolomites are only for the seriously sick puppies who love to hurt big time!

I agree though, Nice course is not steep at all...
fairly rolling everywhere as are the main roads.

All this talk about biking in beautiful places is making me want to get back on my bike. Slowtwitch rules. After seeing the images from Paris Nice and all this talk, I might just put the trusted Kestrel back on the road, and imagine for a second that I am actually riding the Gorge du Verdon or on some of those roads in the Dolomites, created by Italians with "short attention spans". Still won't be able to visualize the greenhorn experience until Dan posts some pics from semicamp :-).


Back to the topic of Paris Nice, it would be great to see Bobby Julich get on the podium again !