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Tour de France 2010

juillet 2010
  • Dan Bowen
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. En savoir plus
  • Dan Bowen

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  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010

    Camping du Lac Kir

    4 juillet 2010, 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010
    One of many closed bicycle shops in Dijon.Looking for more bike shops and journaling at a cafeA clean bike is a happy bike

    Dijon

    5 juillet 2010, 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010

    Port du Canal in Dijon

    6 juillet 2010, 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010

    Saint-Jean-de-Losne

    6 juillet 2010, 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.

    Voir la traduction
  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010
    Decending my second substantial ridge on the D678.Entering the Jura - the D52 out of Lons-le-Saunier.

    My first Tour de France sign!

    6 juillet 2010, 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010

    La Grisiere camping

    6 juillet 2010, 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010

    Col de la Savine

    7 juillet 2010, 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).En savoir plus

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  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010
    Photo-mosaic: A beautiful sunny day in Les Rousses

    Les Rousses

    7 juillet 2010, 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.    En savoir plus

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  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010

    Col de la Faucille

    7 juillet 2010, 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.En savoir plus

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  • Dan BowenVoyageurTour de France 2010

    The Franco-Swiss border & rendezvous

    7 juillet 2010, 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.    En savoir plus

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