Tour de France 2010

The first trip I made a proper attempt at journaling. This is a 'remastered' version, with some filters run to help the colour balance on my old camera phone, and locations/routes plotted using my journal and matching pictures to streetview. Read more

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Trip start
July 1, 2010
Tour de France 2010 Traveler
Epsom
July 1, 2010 in England ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C
Started from Epsom after a gear check with Chris, who would be joining me later. Rode into London, mostly following the Thames to reach Kings-Cross St Pancras - before taking the 14:04 Eurostar to Gare du Nord in Paris.Read more
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My first Eurostar trip
July 1, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
My first trip through 'the Chunnel' and on Eurostar. This doubled as my late lunch stop; the Eurostar light lunch included a small cheese pie, a medley of vegetables with a small side salad, bread and a cake.Read more
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Paris
July 1, 2010 in France ⋅ 🌙 32 °C
Because of some delays collecting my bike and some miscalculation on my part I didn't get to role out from Gare du Nord station untuil about 19:00: far too late to make my target milage.

With the late start, there wasn't much time to look around, but I stopped at a few icons that were broadly on the way - this being my first trip to Paris since I was in my early teens.

City riding is slow, due to poor acceleration on a heavy bike and having to slow for speed bumps etc. Even so, I rode down the Seine heading toward the forests south of Paris.Read more
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A night in the forest
July 2, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
I rode down as far the forests south of Paris. Even though it didn't really get dark untuil around 22:00, to achieve that I had to ride into the night.

As far as I knew, I was still a long way from any camp site, and it was far too late to rock-up at one anyhow. Thoroughly tired out after over 14 hours of travel, and short on water I stopped at around 00:00. As I hadn't made it to a site I had to "camp sauvage": just put the hammock up and had a sleep for a while.

I woke up on my net hammock in the woods, to bright sunshine and to find I had been half eaten by mosquitos. I then realised that I having scrambled my way into the trees through the undergrowth to be out of the way of the path I had come in on, I had just ended up close to another. It being after 06:30 there were already people walking and running the path; no question it was time to move on.Read more
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Boissise-le-Roi - croissant and snooze
July 2, 2010 in France ⋅ 🌙 30 °C
I headed south east throguh the forests, rejoining the Seine for a few stretches. I managed to stock up on water - I have a further 6l stapped on the bike now, but am yet to find a supply of camping gaz. Also picked up a berret for that French-man look.

A poor night's rest in the woods meant that I didn't really have much in the way of energy. I stopped for a late morning snooze break in the shade of a tree on the bank of the river.Read more
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Petit Vile' Fontainebleau
July 2, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 34 °C
I slowly made my way to the historic town of Petit Vile' Fontainebleau. I mostly used beautiful forestry tracks through the surrounding Fonainleaux foreest. The bumpy, rooted trails did seem to be steadily destroying my laden bike though.

I arrived about 14:30, just a few minutes after the conventional lunch time; as a result I had some issues getting food in the town. Feeling the need to eat before continuing, I loitered around the town for some hours.Read more
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Camping le Lido
July 2, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C
As there had been a number of set-backs I elected to take the afternoon off and end the day in the Fontainebleau area. I stayed at a camp site on the south eastern edge of the Fontenbleaux forest, which isn't great progress, but not disasterous either.

I spent the early evening making a rich minestrone soup. I also trued my wheel (some of the spokes were loosening under the load) and reenforcing the cable tie bodge on the pannier. I also looked up the french for, "my pannier rack in broken" - "ma port-de-bagage en case'" just in case.

It does seem like there might be some problems with the solar charging. I got plenty of sun during the day, but the gorilla battery didn't seem to be holding much juice; it's only given lappy a couple of exrta %age points of power.

There was a thunderstorm in the morning and the tent has done ok. I stayed put until it passed which I think was the smart move. I'm hoping that with the rain and cloud it will be a good day to put in some miles as the heat has definitly been an issue so far.

The camp site owner had lent me a canister of camping gaz, so I could cook. When I made to return it the self sealing seal... didn't, so I quickly reattached my stove to prevent the gas from escaping. Not feeling my French was up to explaining a valve failure and definitely not wanting to spray pressurised butane around to demonstrate, I quietly left camp.

On the bright side, this should be a good position to start a big push towards Dijon.Read more
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Auxerre
July 3, 2010 in France ⋅ 🌧 24 °C
There was a thunderstorm this morning and the tent has done ok. I stayed put until it passed which I think was the smart move, but means I wasn’t underway until after noon. I'm hoping that with the rain and cloud it will be a good day to put in some miles as the heat has definitly been an issue so far.

The camp site owner had lent me a canister of camping gaz, so I could cook. When I made to return it the self sealing seal... didn't, so I quickly reattached my stove to prevent the gas from escaping. Not feeling my French was up to explaining a valve failure and definitely not wanting to spray pressurised butane around to demonstrate, I quietly left camp.

Other than the risk of a gas explosion the day was one of uneventful, overcast riding through the French countryside passed the town of Auxerre. The roads and tracks were at times less than than ideal.

High points so far have been a number of "thumbs-ups" from passing motorists, and a "Le Tour!!!" shouted at me by another passing motorist.Read more
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Avallon
July 4, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
On the evening of the 3rd, I made it to a camp site at Vermenton, about 25Km out side of Avallon. Camping les Coullemières was almost full, and it was quite late; at first it looked like I might be turned away, until another guest highliged that 'monsiour sur la vello'. The camp site was beautifully lit and had a friendly vibe.

Not sure what that would make yesterday's milage, but given a few detours, getting losts and the fact that its a seriously dog-leg route, I think I must have crossed the 100 mile mark in terms of pedaling since Paris. I've stopped for lunch and exploration in Avallon; that places me just over 1 day behind what my ittinerary says (I had aimed to camp here on the evening of the second).

I took a little time to explore the medieval town; I had been hooked by the idea of visiting as soon as I saw the name and that it was roughly on route plan that I was forming. I had a pleasant lunch In Avallon next to the town's striking clocktower. I even felt compelled and brave enough to attempt some intermediate French in praise of the meal.

I consulted my map over lunch; I've made it about half way from Paris to Genvea (possibly just under). As there have been only two "proper" riding days thats not too shabby. I think I'm still well on course to be at the rendezvous in Genva on the night of the 6th.

Speaking of my map, yesterday's harvest of solar power was around 10%, perhaps a little more if I'm being optimistic. Its not staggering, but its enough to get by for a while, although I am concerned about keeping the mobile charged for the satnav. To be honest I'm 99% sure I can make Dijon from here without a map or satnav, and 80% sure I could make Geneva unaided too, however I've precisley no apitite for testing that theory.Read more
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Lac de Grosbois-en-Montagne
July 4, 2010 in France ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
With nearly 100Km behind me so far today, I stoped for a break and an ice cream at Lac de Grosbois-en-Montagne.

When I moved to set off, I discovered I had cracked the rim of the front wheel - no idea how, possibly on a particularly sketchy descent through a pot-holed town.

With about 40Km to go before Dijon I've no option but to deactive my front brake caliper, to stop the broken rim fouling against the breakpad. Relying entirely on my back brake with a loaded touring bike... what could go wrong?Read more
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Camping du Lac Kir
July 4, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
Been a bit of a day. I've still not caught up to my ittinerary, but considering the additional problems I've had I don't think my self to be doing badly.

I'm Currently in Dijon (Camping du Lac Kir, near the centre believe it or not) so that means I rode 135Km (84 miles) today, which isn't bad. Also beat 3 French cyclists and one farm vehicle, and drew with another cyclist (one of the cyclists had a back-pack, the others were all unlaiden).

I limped the last 40Km into Dijon and now I've got directions to a repair shop and I'll be trying to get a fix tomorrow, although I think it's going to be a case of a new wheel (eeeek). Still, the tour goes on.

Continuing to have issues with the heat. Its very difficult to stay hydrated, and I've found that it isn't really possible to ride during the heat of the day. I need to find a shady spot and hide from about 12:00 to 15:30 at the moment, which is eating into my riding day considerably.

Still dispite that significant set-back slowing me right down, and that most of the day was climb I think 135Km is good progress. The climb was payed off by a big decent into the Dijon valley, and a flat ride along a cannal - where I got slipstreamed blatantly by the guy who "drew" with me; he parted with a cheeky 'merci Monsieur!'. Although I've been cheating by eating out, so as to save time on cooking/washing.

Anyway got to sign off - out of sunlight, out of power for laptop.Read more
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Dijon
July 5, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
Right, things aren't going too well. Monday it seems is an extension of Sunday in France, for bike shops especially. The practical upshot of which is that all of the bike shops are shut; and believe me I've tried pretty much every one including one that Google made up (not only the business, but also the street that it is supposedly located on has gone).

As well as getting a bit worked up, I burned through an uncomfortable ammount of GPS power doing that - now dumping the energy I stored when I was in the Cybercafe' from lappy into the phone. I'm resigned to being in Dijon at least untuil the morning; most shops open up around 10, allowing at least an hour for repair, then another to pack the bike back up I would then be leaving in the heat of the day which will slow me considerably.

Hopfuly I can get a big milage day in tomorrow anyway; if I'm within striking distance of Geneva by then end of tomorrow then I shal ride what distance remains on the morning/afternoon of the 7th. The plan had been to reach the rendezvous on the 6th, but I don't strictly need to be there until early evening on the 7th.

Plan B would be to take a train. That is a last resort because I fear that trying to board a train would be more hasstle than its worth; certainly the Eurostar wasn't straitforward. I should still be able make the rendezvous on the 7th, hopfuly without cheating, but this has been a costly set back.

Seriously though; an entire city where every bike shop is closed all day on Monday is a big culture shock. Looking around them all has been very frustrating, particularly because the opening hour signs are a bit hard to understand, they say open tuesday to saturday, then give two ranges of times; I have now deduced the latter set to indicate the Saturday opening hours (I had thought it meant Monday-Sat 10 to 5, then the 14:15 to 18:00 opening I had thought might be the Sunday/Monday times).

Dijon, though is a beautiful city; imagine the Paris, but without the major hustle and bustle - if you like its a good compromise between Paris and small villiages in France. This makes it a great place to hang out with friends, so I have resolved to return one day, with some people who's company I enjoy and chilax. I'm not good at chilaxing solo you see.

I've given my bike a nice clean, and to try and increase speed tomorrow I'm going to pump my tyres to 65psi, before I load the bike. I was doing it with the load already on, but this made them quite squishy and the rolling resistance has been very high. I figure the 65psi limit must assume a heavier rider than me; I'm quite light really, so it should be ok to do the pressure that way around. So provided the tyre doesn't blow and I don't get a pinch flat then I should have a lower rolling resistance and hence higher speed.

I will get to Geneva; no opposition will halt me.Read more
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Port du Canal in Dijon
July 6, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
I was delayed even further than expected in Dijon. I got a new wheel, and had to sort of fit it, then walk back to the camp site for my tool kit because the bike shop guy was "too busy". The cost wasn't too bad though - 32 euro.

Its a bolt wheel, not a quick release so I'm going to need to pick-up a new tool in Genva. I'm having a devil of a job getting it to stay on without a spanner to tighten the bolt. I'm also thinking some sort of flece may be a worth purchase, we've got at least one day to explore Geneva so there should be plenty of opportunity.

By the time the wheel was fitted, I didn't depart untuil 13:00ish. I set out along Dijon's gorgeous canal, heading south east.Read more
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Saint-Jean-de-Losne
July 6, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
My ride today began on the Canal from Dijon to its meeting with the river Saône at Saint-Jean-de-Losne. It was a gorgeous town, so I decided I had to stop for a drink in a river-front bar.
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My first Tour de France sign!
July 6, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C
After my stop in Saint-Jean-de-Losne, I passed through St Aubin and made a mostly southerly, gently climbing leg for about 50Km to Lons-le-Saunier. Here I hit my first major climbs as I headed into the Jura mountains.

My first evening in the mountains, included a climb which I was informed was 13% for 2Km. Whilst the climb wasn't easy it didn't exactly destroy me either, so I'm not too worried about more of them to come. Geneva is about 700ft higher than Dijon, but I'm fairly sure I've been (net) climbing for much of the afternoon, so much of that should be behind (below?) me.

Along the D678 road I encountered my first sign indicating I was entering an area that would be disrupted by Le Tour.Read more
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La Grisiere camping
July 6, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
I'm now 90Km from Geneva, up in a nice alpine environment... I was thinking of pushing on for another 10Km or so, but I found a beautiful small town by a lake (Clairvaux-les-Lacs). Since it had an abundance of camp sites and it was already gone 19:00, I thought the civilised thing to do was to stop and get a pitch overlooking the lake, some food and a shower, and say sod it I'll do 90Km tomorrow.

Now whilst that sounds like a long way to go, I think its actally ok. I covered two-thirds of the distance from Dijon to Genve in about 7 hours, (thats the total elapsed time, indcluding all the breaks etc) - I figure that tomorrow I will have between 6 and 8 riding hours.

If I can get off about 09:00 (excluding days like Dijon, I've usually gotten away earlier than that) I should be on track to be sat looking very smug and composed in the arrivals lounge when Chris, my riding buddy for the rest of the trip, lands.

The locals have been, in general very supportive; I've gotten lots of toots whilst climbing big climbs with my bike, and some spanish guys rolled down thier window and spoke with me. I've also noticed that the traffic on the road has become much more international - I've seen Spanish, Belgian and German vehicles in significant numbers.

There was a France football game on tonight, so the French people went a bit nuts. Had a croquie mousiour, cheese burger, coke, coffee and a protine bar plus a go-ahead yoghurt break in an attempt to get my legs knitted back together for the morning.

Co pilot insists I take the road south, but I'm going to stick with the route signposted as being for vehicles towing to Genvea, as I'm thinking the climbs will be more managable; it's not that I don't think I can do the climbs, but I've got to pick up the pace in the morning.

I've realised that dispite my feelings of having given up when I first arrived, I'm only 4.6 miles from my planned stop point for the day (St Muarice), except in a probably more pleasant location. So almost caught up with my itinerary and also, good starfield here.Read more
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Col de la Savine
July 7, 2010 in France ⋅ 🌙 20 °C
Col de la Savine is a high mountain pass some 990 meters in altitute - my first marked col. The decent was epic, passing along a roadway built into the mountainside and supported by stone arches.

I had to do the whole stop and let air out of the tyres (lest the heat from the brakes increase the tyre pressures to the point that they blow).Read more
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Les Rousses
July 7, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
Les Rousses, was the first point where I met this year’s Tour de France route. It was all decked out read; a huge bicycle topiary greets travellers as they enter the villiage. The race will pass through in three days’ time.

Stage 7 will finish another 6Km along this road at Station de ski des Rousses, so I’ll be sharing the route only briefly.Read more
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Col de la Faucille
July 7, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C
My second col of the day was about 1,323 meters altitude. As I began the descent on the far side, Col de la Faucille gave me my first glimpse of the taller alps. Until I noticed their spiky shapes, I thought the snow caps,were clouds, set as they were against the blue sky on a sunny day.Read more
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The Franco-Swiss border & rendezvous
July 7, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
The border is a the bottom of my second massive descent of the day. Just beyond the customs post the road passes beneath the runway of Genva's airport, where I was due to meet Chris later that afternoon.

After a little difficulty navigating my way to the actual terminal building, I did meet Chris on time. I was on time - his flight was slightly late, and for the first time since St Pancras Station in London, I am actually where my ittinerary says I should be.Read more
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Lake Geneva camping
July 7, 2010 in Switzerland ⋅ 🌙 26 °C
We are now camped in Switzerland, on the shore of lake Geneva - on the Alp side, rather than the city side. Tomorrow we mostly explore Geneva and hopfuly have time to sort any kit niggles.

Did have some issues with my tyres today, which made one section a bit tough; the heat had melted the tar on a badly repaired section of road, the liquid tar in turn got on my front tyre, which then picked up every loose bit of gravel for the next 20Km, the effect of which was to increase the rolling resistance to the point that I had to peddle down the shallower climbs. The tyre is now in a bit of state and I'll look at replacing it tomorrow.Read more
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Geneva
July 8, 2010 in Switzerland ⋅ ☁️ 29 °C
A day exploring and relaxing in Geneva, Swizerland.

We met some american folk in Starbucks who were travelling around europe for a month by train. They were from Chicago, and were explaining to us how they managed to get a ticket to travel anywhere in Europe for a month for 500 euros - bargain. It turned out that they like to go camping at Crystal Lake in Wisconsin, where Dan went on his Pirate camping trip.

Following on from central Geneva, we travelled north east along the lakeshore, working our way back to the camp site. We spent the evening at the site which was complete with showers, giant chess board and an area to swim in the lake.

We finished the day with a dip in lake Genva and a meal of pasta, in a creamy tomato sauce with some marinaded fish (the fish was premarinated - we tried it in the super market and liked it so much we had to have some), acompanied by assorted swiss cheeses, and a sandwich of brie on a crusty swiss style bread.

It was a beautiful evening... excepting the mosquitos.Read more
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Lunch break
July 9, 2010 in France ⋅ 🌙 29 °C
We had a bit of a slow start to the day; we eventually set off for Col de la Ramaz at around 0930. We began by heading north east across the swiss border to a French town (Douvine) to pick-up supplies for a few days in the mountains (our next stop with proper shops will be Morzine on the evening of the 11th).

All the while my sat nav was screaming 'warning: you are entering France'. Perhaps it knows something I don't?

After loading on 13 extra liters of fluids, and two days food (bearing in mind there are 5 meals in the touring day: breakfast, brunch, lunch, elevenses and dinner) the extra weight at the start of a day of big climbs was substantial.

We stopped for a snack break under a tree on a slope facing back towards Geneva, hoping to get one last look at the city and lake. The city was mostly out of view, but the lake shimmered around most of the horizon.Read more
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Col de Cou
July 9, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
This was the start of our journey into the alps proper, and the scenery was amazing, if quite difficult and slow climbing up the slopes. Our first major climb was the Col de cou; beginning near the Château d'Avully the road climbs steeply to the pass some 740 meters above lake Geneva (or 1116 meters above sea level).

We spent most of the afternoon on the climbing, and stopped at a bar for a drink, where we were also able to stretch our french skills conversing wit the resteraunter and replace the 4.5 liters of water we had drunk on just that first climb.Read more
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Col du Terramont
July 9, 2010 in France ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
After Col de Cou, we soon passed through a low point at Habère-Poche before beginning to ascend to the Col du Terramont at 1,094meters. As we climbed our way up we started passing beneath ski lifts for the first time, giving a real sense that we were getting deep into the Alps.Read more
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