Anyone for Alpe d'Huez

[Shazy]

Hi Martin

 

That is indead our chalet. We don't have the top floor, but there is plenty of room in the two floors we have. There are not many roundabouts in Alpe dHuez, so when you find one - you should be able to see a chalet with a Saltire - you've probably found us!

 

Shazy

[BrianS]

getting excited now.....

 

how long to go... ? .....

 

[Dougie Da Rosa]

Not too long Brian but if you keep dancin' like that you will be on the top floor!!!!!!!! .P.S have lost your mobile no. could you ring me as I have a story for you.

[martin]

those planning on the day out of a lifetime should have a read of this account from 1998:

 

http://www.gsoto.easynet.co.uk/fr_ride2a.htm

 

great pcitures, great story. but hey, this guy doesn't climb to d'huez at the end of his tour.

 

cheers

m

[Scott D]

Weather report so far is a bit rubbish. So dig our your showerproofs!

 

Temperature warm (low 18, high 30), but generally raining

 

Scott

[Dougie Da Rosa]

After reading your message Scott and checking 10-day forecast with AOL I was depressed,but then I checked with the BBC and it is completely different,getting awfy warm by saturday,so yeh take your 'proofs but wi' a bit of luck we might not need them.

[Guest]

L,alpe d.huez,l,ile.au soleil

 

 

this site has a live web cam where the weather can be observed, looks abit like ben nevis in july weather.

 

monty 2

[Shazy]

The best weather report is on the alpe dhuez site I mentioned a few mailings ago - very localised report (It also gives the snow line, so if we can't get oot on the bikes we can at least have a snow ba fight). The web cam also gives a hint - it was sunny the other day, but every time I look it's in the clouds!

 

Shazy

 

PS My holiday starts tomorrow, I have the T-shirts........her we go here we go...

[Scott D]

Glorius sunshine at the moment !

 

[BrianS]

can't wait until sunday !!!!!

[Scott D]

Below are the times for stage 16 (the Alpe D'Huez stage) for all the riders who finished inside the time limit.

 

1 001 ARMSTRONG Lance USA USP in 39' 41"

2 011 ULLRICH Jan GER TMO at 01' 01"

3 017 KLÖDEN Andréas GER TMO at 01' 41"

4 002 AZEVEDO José POR USP at 01' 45"

5 023 GONZALEZ Santos ESP PHO at 02' 11"

6 014 GUERINI Giuseppe ITA TMO at 02' 11"

7 075 KARPETS Vladimir RUS IBB at 02' 15"

8 061 BASSO Ivan ITA CSC at 02' 23"

9 097 MONCOUTIE David FRA COF at 02' 23"

10 067 SASTRE Carlos ESP CSC at 02' 27"

11 144 GOUBERT Stephane FRA A2R at 02' 33"

12 108 ROGERS Michael AUS QSD at 02' 34"

13 025 GUTIERREZ José Enrique ESP PHO at 03' 04"

14 027 PEREIRO SIO Oscar ESP PHO at 03' 06"

15 117 SERRANO Marcos ESP LST at 03' 09"

16 081 TOTSCHNIG Georg AUT GST at 03' 15"

17 162 CASAR Sandy FRA FDJ at 03' 19"

18 142 ASTARLOZA Mikel ESP A2R at 03' 25"

19 107 MERCADO Juan Miguel ESP QSD at 03' 25"

20 051 MOREAU Christophe FRA C.A at 03' 25"

21 006 LANDIS Floyd USA USP at 03' 35"

22 185 MERCKX Axel BEL LOT at 03' 40"

23 171 SIMONI Gilberto ITA SAE at 03' 40"

24 071 MANCEBO Francisco ESP IBB at 03' 41"

25 121 CHAVANEL Sylvain FRA BLB at 03' 43"

26 196 SCARPONI Michele ITA DVE at 03' 53"

27 134 CAUCCHIOLI Pietro ITA ALB at 03' 58"

28 141 BROCHARD Laurent FRA A2R at 04' 03"

29 151 LEIPHEIMER Levi USA RAB at 04' 06"

30 208 MARTIN Ludovic FRA RAG at 04' 11"

31 033 ETXEBARRIA David ESP EUS at 04' 16"

32 028 PEREZ Santiago ESP PHO at 04' 16"

33 123 CHARTEAU Anthony FRA BLB at 04' 18"

34 054 FEDRIGO Pierrick FRA C.A at 04' 20"

35 007 NOVAL GONZALEZ Benjamin ESP USP at 04' 20"

36 046 KIRCHEN Kim LUX FAS at 04' 27"

37 042 BRUSEGHIN Marzio ITA FAS at 04' 28"

38 101 VIRENQUE Richard FRA QSD at 04' 30"

39 179 SABALIAUSKAS Marius LTU SAE at 04' 33"

40 146 KRIVTSOV Yuriy UKR A2R at 04' 36"

41 029 SEVILLA Oscar ESP PHO at 04' 40"

42 064 JULICH Bobby USA CSC at 04' 42"

43 126 PINEAU Jérôme FRA BLB at 04' 43"

44 114 GONZALEZ GALDEANO Igor ESP LST at 04' 44"

45 013 BOTERO Santiago COL TMO at 04' 46"

46 032 CAMANO Iker ESP EUS at 04' 47"

47 178 PETROV Evgeni RUS SAE at 04' 52"

48 003 BELTRAN Manuel ESP USP at 04' 54"

49 035 FLORES Iker ESP EUS at 04' 54"

50 125 LEFEVRE Laurent FRA BLB at 04' 57"

51 128 ROUS Didier FRA BLB at 04' 58"

52 005 HINCAPIE George USA USP at 05' 02"

53 158 RASMUSSEN Mickael DEN RAB at 05' 08"

54 009 RUBIERA José Luis ESP USP at 05' 12"

55 102 BETTINI Paolo ITA QSD at 05' 14"

56 074 GUTIERREZ José Ivan ESP IBB at 05' 17"

57 077 OSA Aitor ESP IBB at 05' 20"

58 034 ETXEBARRIA Unai VEN EUS at 05' 25"

59 087 SCHOLZ Ronny GER GST at 05' 29"

60 069 VOIGT Jens GER CSC at 05' 34"

61 111 HERAS Roberto ESP LST at 05' 38"

62 138 NOE' Andrea ITA ALB at 05' 38"

63 091 O'GRADY Stuart AUS COF at 05' 38"

64 105 DUFAUX Laurent SUI QSD at 05' 46"

65 149 SCANLON Mark IRL A2R at 05' 46"

66 036 LANDALUZE Inigo ESP EUS at 05' 52"

67 152 BOOGERD Michael NED RAB at 05' 53"

68 043 CANCELLARA Fabian SUI FAS at 05' 54"

69 083 HONDO Danilo GER GST at 05' 55"

70 168 ROBIN Jean-Cyril FRA FDJ at 05' 55"

71 063 BARTOLI Michele ITA CSC at 05' 56"

72 019 ZABEL Erik GER TMO at 06' 09"

73 018 NARDELLO Daniele ITA TMO at 06' 09"

74 188 VERBRUGGHE Rik BEL LOT at 06' 11"

75 045 GONZALEZ Aitor ESP FAS at 06' 13"

76 004 EKIMOV Viatceslav RUS USP at 06' 15"

77 037 MARTINEZ Egoi ESP EUS at 06' 15"

78 012 ALDAG Rolf GER TMO at 06' 15"

79 022 ELMIGER Martin SUI PHO at 06' 23"

80 072 BECKE Daniel GER IBB at 06' 24"

81 177 LUDEWIG Jorg GER SAE at 06' 27"

82 015 IVANOV Serguei RUS TMO at 06' 30"

83 059 SALMON Benoit FRA C.A at 06' 31"

84 118 VANDEVELDE Christian USA LST at 06' 31"

85 148 PORTAL Nicolas FRA A2R at 06' 34"

86 112 BARANOWSKI Dariusz POL LST at 06' 35"

87 198 SIMEONI Filippo ITA DVE at 06' 35"

88 129 VOECKLER Thomas FRA BLB at 06' 36"

89 024 GRABSCH Bert GER PHO at 06' 38"

90 159 WAUTERS Marc BEL RAB at 06' 40"

91 055 HALGAND Patrice FRA C.A at 06' 40"

92 186 MOERENHOUT Koos NED LOT at 06' 44"

93 098 TOMBAK Janeck EST COF at 06' 45"

94 116 NOZAL Isidro ESP LST at 06' 50"

95 099 FARAZIJN Peter BEL COF at 06' 55"

96 155 KROON Karsten NED RAB at 06' 56"

97 052 BOTCHAROV Alexandre RUS C.A at 06' 56"

98 008 PADRNOS Pavel CZE USP at 06' 57"

99 153 DE GROOT Bram NED RAB at 06' 59"

100 065 PERON Andrea ITA CSC at 07' 00"

101 197 SECCHIARI Francesco ITA DVE at 07' 01"

102 084 LANG Sebastian GER GST at 07' 04"

103 167 MENGIN Christophe FRA FDJ at 07' 05"

104 048 TOSATTO Matteo ITA FAS at 07' 06"

105 122 BENETEAU Walter FRA BLB at 07' 12"

106 096 FOFONOV Dmitriy KAZ COF at 07' 13"

107 044 FLECHA Juan Antonio ESP FAS at 07' 14"

108 139 SUNDERLAND Scott AUS ALB at 07' 19"

109 079 ZANDIO Xabier ESP IBB at 07' 23"

110 184 MARICHAL Thierry BEL LOT at 07' 24"

111 058 JOLY Sébastien FRA C.A at 07' 26"

112 164 DA CRUZ Carlos FRA FDJ at 07' 26"

113 187 VANSEVENANT Wim BEL LOT at 07' 27"

114 137 MOLLER Claus Michael DEN ALB at 07' 32"

115 201 RINERO Christophe FRA RAG at 07' 32"

116 176 LOOSLI David SUI SAE at 07' 39"

117 073 GARCIA ACOSTA Vicente ESP IBB at 07' 39"

118 154 DEKKER Erik NED RAB at 07' 41"

119 157 NIERMANN Grischa GER RAB at 07' 41"

120 195 MORI Massimiliano ITA DVE at 07' 43"

121 136 LJUNGQVIST Marcus SWE ALB at 07' 45"

122 026 JALABERT Nicolas FRA PHO at 07' 47"

123 094 EDALEINE Christophe FRA COF at 07' 48"

124 103 BOONEN Tom BEL QSD at 07' 49"

125 086 PESCHEL Uwe GER GST at 07' 49"

126 156 LOTZ Marc NED RAB at 07' 56"

127 057 HUSHOVD Thor NOR C.A at 07' 57"

128 166 GUESDON Frédéric FRA FDJ at 08' 01"

129 174 COMMESSO Salvatore ITA SAE at 08' 04"

130 068 SORENSEN Nicki DEN CSC at 08' 04"

131 127 RENIER Franck FRA BLB at 08' 06"

132 204 BOUVARD Gilles FRA RAG at 08' 08"

133 062 ARVESEN Kurt-Asle NOR CSC at 08' 11"

134 206 FINOT Frédéric FRA RAG at 08' 12"

135 109 ZANINI Stefano ITA QSD at 08' 13"

136 047 POZZATO Filippo ITA FAS at 08' 19"

137 193 GIUNTI Massimo ITA DVE at 08' 26"

138 181 MC EWEN Robbie AUS LOT at 08' 28"

139 053 DEAN Julian NZL C.A at 08' 33"

140 106 KNAVEN Servais NED QSD at 08' 39"

141 163 COOKE Baden AUS FDJ at 08' 48"

142 165 EISEL Bernhard AUT FDJ at 08' 48"

143 113 DAVIS Allan AUS LST at 08' 52"

144 205 CALZATI Sylvain FRA RAG at 08' 53"

145 115 HRUSKA Jan CZE LST at 08' 58"

146 207 LAURENT Christophe FRA RAG at 08' 58"

147 203 BOURQUENOUD Pierre SUI RAG at 09' 04"

148 095 ENGOULVENT Jimmy FRA COF at 09' 25"

149 202 AUGER Guillaume FRA RAG at 10' 02"

150 093 CASPER Jimmy FRA COF at 10' 06"

151 089 WROLICH Peter AUT GST at 10' 06"

152 132 BALDATO Fabio ITA ALB at 10' 10"

153 133 BERTOLINI Alessandro ITA ALB at 10' 10"

154 147 NAZON Jean-Patrick FRA A2R at 10' 19"

155 169 WILSON Matthew AUS FDJ at 11' 32"

 

Km 15.5 - L'ALPE D'HUEZ - 13.8 km climb at 7.9 % - H.C. Cat

 

 

The slowest completing tour cyclist (Wilson, AUS, 51mins 13secs) averaged 11.1mph for the 15.5kmTT. This is amazing, as I was gubbed averaging 8mph for the hill section (13.8km). It makes Lance's time all the more impressive (an average of 14.6mph).

 

I think all the holidaying Wheelers agreed, that seeing the tour cyclists at speed up Alpe D'Huez was amazing, and gave you the utmost respect for their fitness and dedication. Some of the expressions on the rider's faces were priceless, and hopefuly a few photographs will be distributed in the weeks ahead so others can see. The highlight for me was seeing the beast Ullrich ride past at speed, total concentration on his face, on trispoke and tri-bars... I was sure he'd won the stage. It made Armstrong's stage victory all the more remarkable.

 

And a final note...

From the official tour website discussing Stage 16 ...

 

"Marco Pantani etched his name into the history books with his conquests at L’Alpe d’Huez. This mark of 37 minutes 35 seconds was expected to fall today because the mountain was the only challenge of the stage unlike the day ‘Il Pirata’ reached the climb after 189km were already covered. But Armstrong’s efforts, as impressive as they were, fell short. By just one second!"

 

The pirate will be sorely missed.

 

Looking forward to the next holiday guys.

 

Scott

[Stevie Blom]

SATURDAY 17TH JULY 2004

 

 

 

OK at last I have put some text together about our glorious trip to Alpe D’huez!!

 

The plan is that I use my talented dodgy spelling techniques and do a day to day report which gives other member’s to ask questions or add in something they have also experienced.

 

 

This is a trip organised by Alan and Sharon July 04, all we had to do was pay them £50.00 for the weeks stay in the shaly and get a flight over.

 

 

All in involved in this tour where the following:

 

Stevie Blom

Christian Olsthoorn

Scott Donaldson

Alan King

Alan Yoeman

Alan Miller

Sharon

Martin Mulholland

Ex Pro Brian Smith

Big Christian Olsthoorn

Paulo El Mechanico Mcskimming (Spy for Ian Dooleys)

DA King Dougie Da Rosa

Surprise guest Tony Bell from cycling weekly could not make it due to medical problems.

 

 

If I have left out anyone please forgive me!!

 

So on the 17th of July Stevie Blom , Martin Mulholland , Dougie Da Rosa , Mark Whitehead , Scott Donaldson , Alan Yoeman met up at Glasgow airport for 5am.(Saturday) to catch the 7am flight to Manchester.

 

 

All arrived in very high spirits and ready to start climbing some serious mountains , My only concern was could this plane take all our bikes but the ground staff assured us that it would be ok.

 

So no problems with weight of the bikes and luggage – I took 1 holdall which was about 12kg and the bike bag about 18kg.

Obviously I would be worried just incase I would be billed for being overweight but not the case.

 

Everyone bailed up into the domestic terminal for a quick coffee and a chance to buy a load of the usual Cycling weekly magz with the odd FHM OR LOADED in between to settle any nerves just incase you missed you girlfriend or wife?

 

Off to Manchester it was on board a transit van with wings I mean this plane was like a private jet that a golfer would use for himself.

 

1 Hr later we arrive in Manchester Airport , We had to wait 2.5 Hrs for the next Flight Which in the end wasn’t a problem as we all had a wonder about the terminal bought more jaz magz or just had a look.

 

Alan Yoeman brought one of those IPOD’s – Now this is a star buy!

This tiny machine can do anything except make you a cup of tea.

It’s got the lot for music what a great idea it just gives me the pleasure of chucking out my minidisk player cd player etc etc no use for these things if you have an IPOD.

Anyone likes to listen to music this is what you need.

Mind you it will set you back about 300 quid!!!!

 

I had a loan of it for a few hours and was well pleased with the quality of this.

 

Time to board the Flight and just before we did a bloke in the Q walked up to us and asked “ are you guys in the Jwcc†we all says I!!!!!!

He just asked for some members like Rita and said he was also going to the tour.

 

Whilst standing on the Tarmac about to get aboard we could see one of the trailers with some of our bike’s on board being disconnected from the others and left on its own.

Now this gave me a bad feeling below but thought positive!!!! No negative thoughts on this holiday.

 

Again the aircraft was the same from Glasgow a typical transit van with wings.

Flight time From Manchester was just over 2 hours.

 

Arrival in Lyon!!!!!

 

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA not far form d’huez now lads was the out cry!!!!!!

 

Headed to the baggage reclaim , as we stood with many others we could feel the heat bigtime , must have been over 25 degrees.

So 30 minutes go by and most others have got their luggage reclaimed , a few moments later some of us could feel that our worst was about to happen …………But oh no a couple of bike bags are to be seen at the beginning of the conveyor belt…..1 belonged to Alan Yoeman the other to Dougie Da rosa.

The rest of us where in deep shock all I could think was ahhhhh that’s my holiday gubbed now surely.

 

So we walked to the B.A. baggage reclaim department which was a 30 sec walk over the floor.

A young girl was at the desk she must have surrounded by big hefty angry gringo cyclists all in the same situation as us.

I reckon about 25 people where missing bikes from different flights all over the uk including Ireland .

Now most people went in and gave her a hell of time but at the end of the day its not her fault!!!!

So after a good 2hrs wait a few guys in front of us explained to her that he had packed all his personal belongings in his bike bag.

So he had no spare clothes NOTHING – all she could do was give him a B.A. over night bag which gave you the usual tripe you would require.

 

Our turn at the front desk , She needed all our Baggage numbers , the one’s that where missing.

These tickets are usually plastered on the back of your passport by the check in birds.

Its important that every one keeps a hold of these because if your baggage does go missing and you cant produce this document then they cant do anything.

 

Fortunately for us we all had them somewhere with us , we handed them over then she needed a contact telephone number and a delivery address as she explained that a courier driver would deliver the bikes to the shaly!!

Did we know Alan kings mobile number – NO!!!

Did we know the address of the shaly – NO!!!!

 

No good at this point so only one guy to call who would have this information and that was our honourable life president Kenneth Mcdonald.

 

Big Alan Yoeman gave him a call on his works mobile(he was allowed to use it as it was classed as an emergency situation – I mean bikes are missing folks common!!!)

 

Kenny got the information we need so all is ok now , She could not give us a time or date when the missing bike would appear? So we had to sit tight for now.

 

Ok next step was to grab our luggage and walk over to the bus stop which would drop us off at the hire car area.

Some airport Lyon well layed out and public transport is at the highest unlike our arriva busses that can produce more smoke with one rev than …..i can’t compare it to anything else..

Within a few minutes drive we where dropped off at the hired car plant.

Martin Mulholland and Douglas Mcfadzean both booked a vehicle each – 1 x Renault Megane for both of them.

It was worked out at £54.00 each for both cars and the deal was no 1 took a bike box as we could only fit in 3 people and 3 bike bags in each vehicle.

 

Since we only had 2 bikes and a few bags between the six of it wasn’t a problem taking it in the car.

Of to Alpe duez we go , Martin had printed out a couple of auto route type maps for him and dougie.

According to the autoroute the total distance from airport to Alpe duez was 151 km.

This should have worked out about 1.5 hrs drive I believe , unfortunately for us not the case as we got to Grennoble where we encountered a traffic jam.

This was agonisingly slow – according to the speedo on the dash 8km per hour.

So the total time taken to get up the mountain was just over 4 hours.

 

After a few hours sitting in the sun and moving slower than what paint dry’s we seen signs for “Bourg†– Now I thought yeeha Bourgh d’oisans but now not yet still a bit away .

Quite funny this because in France like many other country’s they have many small towns and villages beginning with a name like “Bourg†then followed by another name.

The last time I experienced this when I got to the top of the col de vars.

Vars is a village on the mountain but it can have many parts added onto the village, “vars du marie†etc etc so many choices just make sure you have the correct one.

 

Its 5pm and some of us are really starving big-time I was beginning to think about eating my own flesh…………..big al yeoman spies a supermarket on the road side so we all pull over.

Quick ganders down the isle’s and before you know it we are standing in the check out with 4 cases of beer along with half a bakers truck load of bread and a farmers field of chicken pigs and cow’s.

 

Another few km’s down the road and finally see the sign for “Bourg d’oisansâ€!!!

By this time everyone was jumping for joy as we knew that Alpe duez was just round the corner somewhere.

Martin Mulholland has been before so he knew what we where in for , the town of d’oisons is really nice and has many shops including a proper cycling shop.

As all of our heads where moving about like a couple of periscopes looking for the sign Alpe duez.

Finally it was to be seen , just outside the town we all seen the left turn for Alpe duez.

Automatically we then looked to the left and saw the beginning of an almighty climb(is it heaven or hell?) that we would be expected to ride every day of our stay.

Now folks for the one’s that have not been before this climb isn’t just a 13km hike up to the top – noNONONONNO its got 21 hair pin bends on this lump and the very 1st km of it was an eye opener , it must have been 14% , by the 1st hair pin and oh my god you have never seen anything like it before.

Each hairpin bend goes on for less than a km , on those hairpin bends you had caravans , tents , and thousands of people claiming mm’s of grass where they would have pitched a tent or caravan.

Only Saturday afternoon and many people had already gathered to claim a spot on this special mountain to witness the tour.

 

My eyes where truly opened and I then realised how bad cycling as a sport is treated back in Scotland.

Talk about football crowds or even crowds at a large rock concert well the people here

Must have been in the hundreds of thousands and many many more where expected by the Wednesday morning for the beginning of the time trial.

 

Me , well I had my big coupon out of the car window looking at the amazing scenery which it had to offer.

Quite amazing because the road just goes up the front side of the mountain as other main mountain passes go round of the mountain but not this one.

Many foreign nationalities would claim a number of bends to them selves i.e. you would have all Belgians on bends 1 – 10 and all of zu Gurmans on 11 – 15 etc etc

 

 

For me I was on the look out for Dutch corner!!!!! As they say it’s the largest mountain in Holland “alpe d'huezâ€.

This mountain is claimed by Dutch cycling fans as they believe they own it due to the overwhelming victory’s previous Dutch riders have had – one thing though it hasn’t been won by a Dutch rider for quite some time!!

 

As we approached bend 9 I could the sea of orange all around me – no folks it wasn’t the orange walk on tour but the true Nederland’s kleur (Dutch pride).

 

Must have been 12 camper vans all parked beside each other with orange flags , gazibo’s and god knows what else they had it was total party atmosphere.

Unexplainable and extremely difficult to put into words to what we all had seen.

Most of the Dutch fans had big loudspeakers on with some dodgy 70’s music dancing away with cans of Heineken singing “cheers boogie boogie cheeeeeers boogie boogieâ€(referring to Michael Boogerd)

Even guys walking up and down the hair pin bend like those “umpa lumpa†bands>?

 

People just all over the place quite amazing to what extreme these guys would go to just to see the tour de France.

 

Finally we get to the top and some of us had some nightmares of climbing this rock from what we could see from the car , parts of it where very very steep.

During our car journey up the mountain we could see many other brave cyclists climbing the alpe.

Personally I wanted to jump out the car knock down the nearest cyclist and ride his bike to the top.

 

 

 

 

On the top of duez , what a view and here we met up with Alan King and Sharon Kinning.

Great excitement all the way, the shaly Josephine is amazing!!!

What a place, and for only £50.00 for the week its was a real bargain, even a true born paisley man would not have the brass neck to argue with that.

Absolutely minted, tiled floors, it had wooden walls all over the place so I gather that most places like this must have been the same.

Must have been hundreds of these shaly’s on the alpe, mind you I did not see an IKEA store!!

 

This place could have slept 40 punters without any problem, plenty of space on the 1st floor, 3 main bedrooms all with fitted bathrooms.

Fully fitted kitchen with fridge and dish washer and cooker supplied as well as cutlery and plates etc.

 

The view from the kitchen table was very interesting , it’s not every morning you stare at a couple of mountain top peaks.

Beside the kitchen you have the lounge area, this could be used as a fold down bed too where Big Christian ended up for the week.

Next after the lounge the sliding doors where opened and there ye have it, a balcony for us all to sit out side enjoying the sun.

 

 

 

So what did we do on our 1st day?

 

Well we all chilled out and relaxed after a hard days travel!

Checked out the shaly and took a few hours walk with Sharon and Alan to see what this famous place is really all about!

I have never seen so many caravans and campers on 1 site before – I think they called an area “Caravan city†– one of them one’s where say you had to be there,

 

So that evening we got booked into a nice Pizza restraunt where all had a great time.

After some glorious grubb we decided to go for a pub crawl – now we are talking!!!!!

A few shotts down the throat I was reminded by Alan King that I had another week to go so don’t worry MAN! I am on holiday mode geez auw the bevy (-:

Well the following morning my head was like a burst couch , still the thought of wakening up to a 25 degree sun ray and not a cloud in the skye was just the perfect cure at 8am in the morning.

Amazing this d’huez , it had a row of shops just next door to us and a street of places to eat , even had an open swimming pool with an airport next to it.

You can go on and on but if you ever get the chance to go to this place be sure you do whilst the tour is going through.

 

That morning I had hoped for our bikes to arrive but after waiting till midday we decided that enough is enough and it not fair on the folks who have bikes to sit and wait on the rest of us.

So in the end Martin , Stevie B , Mark Whitehead hired out bikes from a sports shop not far from our shaly.

 

For 6hours they cost about 20 Euro I think>?

Anyway the bikes where standard road bikes with Low range Campaq groupo plus the famous “Toe clips and strapsâ€â€¦â€¦â€¦..OH NO I THOUGHT!

I cant be seen on a bike like this???

So I took my cycling shoes and pedal spanner and flew down the mountain to get to the cycling shop in Bourg d’oisons.

Once arrived I bought new pedals , looks 447’s – 35 Euros not bad.(Dooleys only 5bux dearer)

Quick change over and bang we all started climbing the mountain.

I did recall seeing a digital Clock which stated 14:28 +38 !

Now _38 is very warm indeed and it proved to be too much for me in the end.

Once I started climbing the 1st part of the alpe it was mission impossible , MAN O MAN CRY FOR YER MAW!!

It hurt so badly that I just wanted to come off and chill out – but NO I have to get to the top.

So by this point we are about halfway up the 1st Kilometer out of 13 , by this time I had used all my gears and then realised that I was in 42 x 23!

NO wonder it was so hard – with that type of gear ratio I could only go HARD till hair pin 11.

Now I shouted to Mark and Dougie to go ahead as my legs where about to fall apart and walk away from me………

I had gone to hard to begin with and struggled to push that gear , I however did not give up and climbed to the top at my own pace.

Once I got to Dutch corner I got shouts of encouragement as they seen I had my RABOBANK Cap on.

Suddenly Im out the saddle as if god gave me a new life?

Many dutch fans running beside me and patting me on the back plus they offered some Boiling hot Heineken beer!

No thank you!

 

Once past Dutch corner a bloke shouted “I son you have to keep up that tempo to the top and not just past us!!!!â€

He was right , as I passed by to the next hairpin of pain I sat back down to that slow snail pace speed.

I lookes up and could see the shaly’s , the commentators are correct when they say on t.v. (Eurosport) the shaly’s look like small ants so its best not to look up!

Bang on I say! – Wish I never looked up now as they did not seem to get any bigger!

Now many riders are passing me in triple rings pushing ridiculous granny gears.

This is when pride gets the better of you but a wee small voice in the back of your mind tells you that you should be doing the same and it would make life so much easier!

Finally I see the sign for bend 18!!!!!!! – nearly NEARLY over!!!!!

So I get all excited and started to get out the saddle again jumping on the pedals as it started to get cooler at the top.

It kind of flattens out near bend 20 and then its just a matter of getting round to the final climb where the finish line is.

I could see Dougie and Mark whitehead lying down in the crucified position as if they had been through a terrible ordeal , well I could understand all the way!

Just another push here and there and hey its all over for another day.

I completed this in 1hr 17 minutes + Dougie and Mark did it in 1hr 13 minutes.

Bloody Hard work you know! – but it wasn’t enough for stevie B as he got back on his bike and started climbing higher to the ski lifts which is the highest part of the climb.

Everyone made it to the top which is some going but my pat on the back goes to Big Al Yoeman who had not touched the bike for a year and still got to the top!

 

That night we all got badly drunk (That’s the game) and enjoyed our short days ride!

About 8pm I could barely walk as my calf or legs in general seized up for good.

The pain was so painful that it was my own fault at the end of the day.

Brian Smith looked at me and said “WHY†did you do that?

Got a bit embarrassed to be honest, Bed time for me folks Ive had enough for 1 day.

 

Monday morning I wake up about 7am, again the old head filled with a thundering hangover.

Suddenly I could hear a mobile phone ringing – I thought jings it’s the bloke from the airport with the Bikes!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

The rest to be continued…………..if you can be bothered reading it?

 

 

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[Kenny MacDonald]

Stevie & others

I gave a CD of fotos from this trip to Ian webmaster recently. He informed me he had already received these previously. If we dont get a volunteer to add text to these images they will be consigned to the bin. Which would be a pity as they would enhance the website.

So an ultimatum no volunteer by Friday then they go bye bye

view at :- http://www.johnstone-wheelers.co.uk/cd/cd_03/cd_03.htm

all you need to do is click iain and add text to send it to our mighty webmaster

 

 

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[Stevie Blom]

Well kenny as you can see we have a sh!t load of photo's.

Now folks im not going to be the sad geek sitting at my pc in my spare training time typing out reports who , where , why , what etc etc

 

 

Anyone giving us a hand ?

 

Otherwise i would let it all be trashed.!

 

 

 

Sevie B.

 

 

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[Darryl Gunson]

Stevie

 

obviously I can't help since I wasn't there, but if we manage to get as many foties this year then I'll certainly lend a hand

 

 

 

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[Scott D]

I've just got a dialup connection.. I thing I managed to download about 8 photos before my computer gave up ! If I can get a lone of the CD, I'm happy to split the work on writing comments.

 

Scott

 

 

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[Stevie Blom]

Scott ,

 

 

Thats a deal if you want to split the work only if our webmaster will give us more than time than the end of today.

 

This is great for the club in general folks.

Other people who want to join this club can see the photo's of many club riders who have experienced touring the alps , pyrenees , Paris brest paris or just even training holidays or whatever!

 

It all helps surely for others to read on etc and could lead them to do the same.

 

Stevie B.

 

 

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[Stevie Blom]

Part 2…………..

 

 

So I get s up and just make’s the phone in time and sure enough it’s the Bloke from Lyon airport from lost / found baggage.

He explained that a van is on its way to the shaly , E.T.A ???????????

No idea when it would arrive!

He suggested to wait at the shaly as he would be sometime with all that traffic etc.

So Brian Smith and Alan Miller decide to go participate in a ride down the alpe D’huez and back up again with the others.

This run we had Paul Mcskimming (flew into Lyon night After we arrived ) , Alan King , Dougie Da King , Alan Yoeman.

This left Stevie Blom , Martin Mulholland , Scott Donaldson , Mark whitehead all home with no bikes!!!!!!

We decided not to hire anymore out from the local cycling shop so we waited patiently on our delivery.

4 hours go by and its midday – its amazing how painful it gets when your sitting about with no bike on holiday but the rest of your Club mate’s are out taking in the rays.

 

So I kept myself occupied for a while by walking to the shop then returning asking the same question all day “has the van driver arrived yet†– usual answer “NOâ€â€¦â€¦â€¦.

Later on about 4pm I kind of gave up and thought well maybe tomorrow……

Sitting out the balcony with a nice cold beer just staring at the most beautiful scenery in front of our shaly was very relaxing , then I could see a silver transit type van going like the speed of a bullet up and down Side Street below us??????

I then shouted to martin – “Marti check out this guy in the van – he bloody mental “

Seconds later we both shouted to each other “its jean-Claude with our bikesâ€(We just made up this name hours before he arrived)

So martin then jumps over balcony and start running towards the van’s direction.

He then holds out his hand stops him – he then asks “Velo – shaly Josephineâ€.

The driver (jean-Claude) shouts “YES YES YES†– “I have been looking all day for this Josephineâ€

Martin then showed him the direction to the shaly where I and the other’s greeted the driver as if he was our best friend!

Took our bikes from the van then ran inside the shaly and began stripping the bike bag.

I had dreamed about this moment for a long time and to get my Coppi frame which has many tours sentimental value would be great to ride it again.

So I starts to unzip it then takes out the outer padding (plywood plus bubble wrap + quilt)

The frame was covered in tubing plus older inner tubes to add protection, to my amazement both wheels got badly buckled!!!!!!!!!! Plus the rear end of the frame was snapped in 3 places – completely broken off.

 

This will go down as the worst ever moment in my life!

I stood for a while not knowing what to say except a few swear words and let off some steam.

No point ruining other people’s holiday so I just said guy’s you all go and have fun.

It was hard to take and still shocked , this reduced me to tears full stop!

Another hour went by and it’s now about 5pm and I could hear some1 enter the shaly.

It was Brian smith , he looked very upset and probably more upset than what I was.

He took his bike in and sat himself down and just looked at me and said “what’s wrong with you�????????

I explained what had gone wrong with the bike and he looked at it said that’s a shame!

I then asked him why you are so upset……. He said “stevie never stop cycling , don’t give up the bikeâ€

Brian explained how it took him all day to get back up the mountain , the same mountain he raced up whilst riding for Team Motorola in the Giro!

 

A LIFE LINE

 

 

After talking to Brian he said “take my bike for the week as I will not using it anymoreâ€â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦â€¦.WHAT I shouts!

I could not accept this as he was on holiday too, he convinced me to take use it and enjoy myself.

It did not take long for me to get my kit on and within minutes I was descending down the Alpe d’huez.

What Brian did was amazing and something I will never forget either, not many people would have done that but he did!

Whilst I was descending on Monday evening about 6pm I could see martin Mulholland and other’s returning from their journey he could see the big cheesy grin on my face but for me I could see the pain he was going through just to get back up the Alpe.

My plan was to get down A.S.A.P. and get back up in-time for Big Christian arriving!

I gets to the bottom finally as many other tourists like us had arrived for the tour, nightmare of a descend as many riders where all over climbing up and others just being a nuisance on the middle of the rd painting names etc.

This time round I was on a super light aluminium frame with carbon rear and forks.

Fully Shimano ultegra and nice light shimano wheels oh and I have to say it had a nice comfortable 39 x 27 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Best of all the weather was 20 degrees cooler than the previous experience.

Hair pin after hair pin I was cruising up to the top feeling much better than the day before.

Had plenty of water and plenty of people on the side of the road egging me on!

Again once I got to Dutch Corner it was amazing feeling to be part of the whole event.

These guys had multiplied compared to Monday afternoon, more orange everywhere more umpa-lumpa bands more graffiti on the rd’s and more dodgy 70’s disco music.

All funny to be honest it made everyone get a good laugh at these mental Dutchmen.

The best part was that the T-Mobile fan’s where next to the Dutch on the same stretch of road.

As you can imagine some funny comments where being shouted from camp to camp.

 

By the time I got as far as Bend 20 I decided to give it an eye balls out to the very top and no holding back.

To get to the finish line you have to pass the Shaly then take a left at the roundabout and follow the steep ending to the top.

When I passed the shaly I could see Big Christian unpacking his bike outside the shaly.

He looked up and seen me powering towards him , he then shouted something in French which had me confused but later he told me it meant Digg in!

I completed the climb in 1hr 02 and something seconds.

I could not for the life of me beat the hour mark but gave it my best shot.

One time I was talking to Darryl about these climb’s and we kind of agreed that they are designed for riders such as Mark whitehead because of his build and seen him action against other riders on a similar holiday in the alps.(Quite impressive)

 

Got back to the shaly where I was just in time to get a quick shower and meet up with the others for a meal and another pub crawl on the top of the rock!

 

 

To be continued……

 

 

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[Stevie Blom]

Part 3

 

After some Great grubb and the welcoming of Big chris Olsthoorn the team was now complete.

Even got me talking dutch full time to the big man , just shows you what a few beers can do to you eh!

Seriously though it was good for me as i can prep up my language skills as i mainly speak a little japanese + german + others to get by in my line of work but hardly speak dutch (unless iam back in holland)

This was my chance again

 

So Back in the Pizza Joint for some more of the same BEER.COM

With all of us at the same table drinking away and enjoying our meal we exchanged tales with many laughs in to the bargain.

 

Some hours later we all decided to hit the local bars again only this time we decided to go to a pub called sharky's bar!

Now most of us had a bucket load to drink awreadys but this does not mean we are for stopping (Although we have a massive run ahead the next day) so i walks into Sharkys bar 1st and orders up a full round of drinks!

After i placed the order everyone else decides to do a body swerve leaving me on my todd!!

FER F--K sake's i shouted - then looked at the bird behind the bar and thought

MAN JUST LEG IT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so whilst she had a few pints being pored i decided to do a runner oot the door!

SHAME ON ME AND THE REST OF THEM!

Mind you has to go down as 1 of the most embarassing days of my life!

Talk about standing at a bar with a mouthful of teeth !

 

So as i got outside everyone was as you can imagine on the deck with laughter!

YEEZ are AUW BASKETS!!!!!! you know who you are!!!

 

Back to the shaly to raid the fridge for more beer and wine

Man next thing i know its 4am and everyone is drunk out for the count and Mr Mulholland is in the corner of the couch sitting in the paraletic / let me sleep inpeace position with a full roll of toilet paper wrapped round his nugget.

I thought he was one of the Taliban with an empty can of beer in one hand!

 

I made my way downstairs to hit the hay - my room mate was Dougie Da Rosa whom choose sensibly to go to bed an hour earlier than the rest - wish i did that!

As i got in the sack i heard all sorts of clatter in the room above me - god knows what was going on but it was some noise!

The next morning 0730 - sweated the alchohol out my system and its time to get ready again.

i sneaked into The room where all the noises was coming from to clear up my curiousity.

Sure enough - Alan Yoeman is lying in one corner in the crucified position with Paul Mcskimming in the other corner and Scott D.

I had a closer look at Big Al Yoeman whom i thought was out for the count but he suddenly jumps up rappidly and shouts loudly whilst clapping his hands "There is only 1 stevie Blom - There is only 1 Stevie Blom etc etc etc "

Jesus Christ did i Crap myself or wit!!!!!!

 

His chants must have woke up all the others in shaly - I asked him what the noise was all about and he explained that when they tried to get into bed a few slats broke on the bed which resulted in them falling about the joint bringing down other

Furniture - but thankfully no one got injured!

 

A few minutes later Alan King returns from the shop next door with a large bag of croissants and other supplys all fresh - which was greeted by all of us hungover madmen!

 

By 9am everyone is out the front ready for another long day in the saddle.

Today the plan is to ride down the Alpe D'huez along to the start of the Lautaret then up that climb and start the mighty Col Du Gallibier then double back!

 

So we all take off down the D'huez , the descent was for me a tad dodgy as many campers, cyclists , dogs , wet paint and god knows what else was getting in the way - this requires full attention.

At one point i tunred on the hairpin and felt my back wheel slipping due to some paint that was still wet ! All those mad fans painting on the roads.

Luckily i stayed on and all is ok for now , although you wanted to fly down the climb you just had to be carefull ,extra carefull and use the loaf!

 

we all regrouped at the bottom at the roundabout just outside bourg d'soins.

Here we turned left heading for le duex alps.

This takes you in the direction of the begining of the Col du Lautaret.

Still an awfull lot of work to be done before we even get to their.

 

Halfway to the Start of the Col du Lautaret Alan King decides to give the run a miss and turns back toward D'huez.

I figured if anyone here knows the terain then its him - as he knew what he was in for he did not feel he had the legs on the day so sensibly took the option to

turn back.

My alarm bells where going off as he was my compass , alan King riden these Alps many many times so he would know the rd.'s

 

as we all regrouped again at the beginning of the Col Du Lautaret we took a couple of group photo's.

After we got our mug shotts done we took off!

All dreesed up in JWCC colours in true style except BIG CHRIS as he had his own Hyeres team kit on.

So with me at the front i thought the hell with it its time to ripp it up.

 

Just ahead of us i could see a whole big bunnch of Rabobank Riders - obviously Dutch Amatuer riders.

So i sat in behind them - the climb itself was not the steepest which meant you could keep a good speed going.

As i sat in behind the Rabo Boys with the others behind me i could hear one of them say in Dutch "Kijk is jongens , wat krijgen we nu dan? Een ploeg van Engeland achter ons!"

 

This is typical dutch for - check this out lads a team of English sitting on behind us! the way it was said was as if to say get rid of them by going faster.

 

The funny thing is that they did not realise i can understand the lingo so i shouted to chris in dutch "Eve Door trappen Jongen" this means lets put the hammer down

 

What a laugh as our whole team passed them by with them now on the rear hanging in.

Then the hairpins started one after another........it was begging to get tough very tough but still we kept it going.

I looked round and i could only see MArk Whitehead and Scott D with Big Chris behind me sitting in.

I truly was about to die as i could not give anymore.

After an hour + climbing i just wanted this to end as the pain was hurting bigstyle = kept saying to myself keep going it will give you more power for when you get home.

 

In the distance i could see the Top of the Lautaret , this is when an almighty sprint started.

I tried to hold them off but nop not to be as Wee Mark and Christian battle'd it out with The big man just edging it.

Scott However did the coolest thing got off his bike and actually took a picture of us all hammering us into the deck.

 

We stopped for a bite to eat at the snackbar sit in place.

This is where the othes joined us including the Rabo-boys.

 

Still they sat next to us and all spoke away to each other and asking each other where we was from as our Strong Scottish accent had them confused untill big chris started talking dutch to me infront of them , now this had them baffled bigstyle.

I thought it was very very funny indeed.

 

Im sitting back drinking as much water , coke and other fluids as i could.

I wanted to turn back home and go to bed......all that booz the night before was just exiting my body.

Next step is the Mighty Col du Gallibier , this was 15 km further up the rd.

Off we go, the temperature was quite cold and no sun as it had a hint of rain in the air.

We got halfway up the climb , the road we was on kept heading round the outiside of the mountain.

You couldn not see anything but a rd and a big mountain side blocking your view from what was to be!

 

Minutes later we got completly round the side of this part of the Gallibier , the view we got was truly a work of god.

A whole series of Snow Mountain peaks , hundreds of them - words catnt desribe how amazing the view was. I did notice the riders with me (Mark, Scott, Chris) all kind of stopped pedaling as our jaws had to be picked u from the deck due to the overwhelming site!

 

we are now halfway up the Galliber and its starts to get mighty hard.

This climb is probably one of the hardest climbs you can do out of all the mountains.

I was beginningto feel very very weak , but continued to keep going sitting in behind Big Chris and Mark.

Next thing i know Chris and Mark are HairpinS above me!

Iknew when i was riding on that new tarmac surface that i would be in for some 15% action.

I was right just a bout 3 Klicks from the top i could see what msy have been gradient like the Otter ferry climb.

39x27 bigtime and no messing.

This is when you need to dig deep , deeper than ever before and just get yerself up , i struggled so badly that i bonked at the top.

 

Mark and Chris where all up before me then seconds later scott was in the scene.

The others had decided to wait a few minutes before we went as some where still recovering from the Lautaret.

 

I must have munched 3 power bars atleast!!!! - i wanted shaz to pick me up with the team car! wanted to die

 

after some Photo's where taken stuart Mcgreggor came up !

This was unreal - 3000 miles or whatever away from glasgow and out of all the days in the week he turns up.

Knowing stuart and how powerful he is , i had a look at his race block whcih was 39 x 23!!!! now that s HARD!

 

What happens next??????????????????

 

Till the next time as it will be continued

 

 

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[Darryl Gunson]

Great report big man. with all those kgs you've lost you'll be flying up the climbs if you make it over to France this year

 

The Pyrenees is the place to be though...

 

BTW. if anyone reads this and fancies a trip to see the tour and ride the famous cols, then a trip is organised for 2nd week in july. If anyone is interested give me a call. At the moment all details have not been finalised, but we have flights and a few days accommodation on the Tourmalet - ideal to watch the tour and ride all the great cols

 

 

Darryl

 

 

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[Stevie Blom]

Darryl this seems a another classic touring holiday with all to offer.

When i get beck from Italia i will need to sort out finances and others stuff/people and get back to you.

 

 

I have only rode over the alps twice or two 1 week trips.

 

Would be nice to have a few Pyrenees to the collection as well.

 

Kenny Mac keeps on reminding that they are steeper and longer

 

 

Stevie B.

 

 

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[Mark Whitehead]

Great report Stevie Brings back some good holiday memories and makes us look forward to the Pyrenees this year! Start saving those pennies now (like me ) and come over with Darryl and us other muckers

 

Take it easy, and don't forget to maintain the strain

 

Mark

 

 

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[Stevie Blom]

Hey Mark ,

 

Ill be saving the pennies awright for a trip away again.

I will ask big Christian if he is interested in going too as he was asking previously.

He looks to be in some form guys i think this year he will kick some bigtime ASS.

The big man has a new bike in order , Its a Eddie mercks Carbon job with 10spd ultegra - bought in belgium off course so this no doubt cost him a small fortune as he would not pay anywhere near the astronimical amount we would pay in certain places.

 

Still a few more tales to be told on that report so watch out for part 4!

 

Stevie B.

 

 

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