One Day Until the Tour Begins-Link to Article in French Press Covering Liam's Ride With Lance

New Link to Article in the French Press http://www.ledauphine.com/lance-armstrong-au-grand-bornand-prepare-le-tour-2009-@/index.jspz?photo=131108 This is a very favorable article about Lance's return to the Tour and the work he is doing in the battle against Cancer. Of course, it also gives a really great description of Liam's ride with Lance. (It is in French)

The Tour starts tomorrow in Monaco. We are getting in one last ride on the slopes of Mont Ventoux this morning before we head down to Nice. It is easier to stay in Nice and, from there, take the train into Monaco for the opening stage time trial. We are going to head in early with the bikes, and, if the course is closed to traffic and safe, we will try and ride a part or all of it. We are both really pumped for the race to begin!!!

Into the Land of Lavender and Sunflowers

We were a little sad to pack up and leave the Annecy area. We had had several days of great rides in the surrounding Alps followed up by afternoon dips in the beautiful Lac de Annecy. Before we left we rented a paddleboat and just kicked it for several hours out in the middle of the lake -- father and son chillin’ in France. The best word to describe the feeling would be peace. It was one of those moments in time that you want to freeze and have last forever.

We will be back in Annecy in three weeks as the tour rolls through, but somehow I don’t think that we will be able to repeat the relaxed timeless atmosphere of the last week. We had made friends with everyone at our little hotel. I will never forget Monsieur Jose, the owner of the hotel, excitedly taking us back to the storage area to show us his amazing Spanish road bike. I will also remember the time, on our last day, when we came down for breakfast to a standing ovation. I couldn’t figure out what was going on until I saw the local newspaper. There had been a reporter and photographer at the top of the Colombiere, and there it was, on the front page, Liam and Lance. On the back page was another large photo of the Col crossing and a very complimentary article about Lance’s return to cycling.

After a quick stop at La Poste to mail a copy of the newspaper back home to California, we set off for an afternoon’s drive down the Rhone river valley into the heart of Provence. In just three and a half hours, we moved from the land of glacier lakes and cowbells to the land of fields of lavender and sunflowers.

I had been to Provence before, but only to the Cote d’Azur. I had read several of Peter Mayle’s books, but, for some reason, I had chalked up what he describes in his books as a bit of exaggerated fantasy. When Liam and I arrived in the hilltop village a Sault at the base of Mont Ventoux, we walked right onto the page of a Mayle novel. Here it was, a several hundred-year-old town perched on a hill surrounded by fields of lavender. I was halfway expecting to see the British author sipping pastis in the local Café watching the game of boule taking place in the town square.

When we awoke the next morning, the first thing that we felt was the heat. It is hot in Provence at this time of year. We had planned to do a morning ride from the town up onto the slopes of Mont Ventoux, but the heat was sapping our motivation. Luckily, Wednesdays are market days in Sault. Instead of setting off on our bikes in the wilting heat, we spent the morning checking out the Market. This symphony of fruits, vegetables, spices, and crafts had taken over the streets and the central square of the town. Liam made friends with a few of the local vendors. He got to discover the history of the local olive oil which they prefer cloudy not clear. (I have to admit the cloudy version does taste better, and the vitamin and mineral content is much higher.) He also spent an hour with Pamela, a local vendor, who was kind enough to give Liam an insight into all the local spices of Provence.



So if you happen to be in Sault, on a Wednesday, be sure to look up M. Alain Farnoux and his wonderfully healthy Olive oil, and Pamela with her great selection of savory spices.

As we were finishing our lunch—lunch is the main meal of the day here, and it typically can go on for several hours—a thunderstorm rolled in and cooled things off. Being from Southern California, where we don’t get that much rain, it was cool to stand in the middle of the plaza just getting wet. That is, of course, until the hail started pounding down!

The storm passed and we were able to get in a great ride. In fact, it was a ride that we had not planned to do this early in the trip. We set off from town and were going to head up as far as we could go onto the summit of Ventoux. Liam was feeling a little more pep than usual after our meeting with Lance Armstrong a few days ago. In Fact, WE MADE IT TO THE SUMMIT!!!

The ride was an incredible 26 kilometers which drops down from the town, passes through fields of lavender, heads up through a forest, and finishes with the classic switchbacks on the windswept barren summit of the Ventoux. From the top there is a view of the whole of Provence. This route is one of three ways to climb Mont Ventoux, and it is a bit easier than the classic route up from Bedoin that the Tour will follow. However now the pressure is off. No matter what happens in three weeks, when we are back with the tour, Liam can now say he has climbed the "Giant of Provence."












After some time to take it in at the top. We descended back down to Sault in the golden afternoon light of the Vaucluse, to finish, yet another, perfect day for a father and son on a grand adventure in France.

First Training day in France

There is a unique feeling that you get when you hit your first alpine climb on a road bike. The roads in the French Alps don’t exactly ease you into a climb. Instead, the tarmac typically slams you over the head with a 10+ percent grade as the chemin winds its way up into the clouds. The French Department or region just south of the Swiss border, known as the Haute Savoie, has many examples of these great climbs on low vehicle traffic roads. It was a perfect spot for Liam and I to begin our training in France.



This morning Liam tackled his first alpine climb on a good section of the Col de la Joux Plane. This is not a climb of the 2009 Tour de France, however, when the climb is included in the Tour-- as it was in 2006-- it is classified a category 1 climb. (This rating puts it in the category of the most difficult climbs, of those, that are still classified, but not with the very most difficult climbs which are considered beyond classification. A rating system is in place in order to give these climbs points. The rider with the most points will wear the king of the mountains jersey. It is a kind of race within a race.) Liam pays a lot of attention to the climbs because they are his favorite part of the Tour de France.

The climb of the Col de la Joux Plane starts just on the outskirts of the village of Morzine. In the winter the town is a thriving ski resort, but in the summer it is practically deserted. Today, it seems, the only tourists in town were a handful of mountain bikers and some very old, but hardy, Swiss hikers. It was a perfect day for a climb in the Alps, and we pretty much had the mountain to ourselves.

When we first hit the climb it was a bit of a surprise for Liam. He describes the sensation as “hitting a brick wall, and then having to continue to ride up it.” We broke the climb up, and rode it in quarter to half-mile sections. We would take rest breaks between the sections to admire the views of the surrounding mountains and valleys below. Morzine sits at the confluence of six alpine valleys and the scenery is breath taking. The ascent up the Col gets you breathing pretty hard as well, so you need big lungs for this one!



About half way up the mountain, we ran into a horse. When I say ran into him, I mean quite literally because he was standing in the middle of the road. We said “Bonjour” and then stopped for a few minutes to feed him some grass. The morning sun with its particular light was making the contrast between the summer alpine colors of deep greens and blues really intense. The air here also has a freshness and quality that is found nowhere else in the world. This was a particular treat for two Southern California guys who are not used to the freshest of air.

We didn’t quite make it to the top of the climb today, but we are going to do it again tomorrow morning. The descent was fun, and Liam loves to conservatively “bomb” them. To my relief, however, even though he uses the term “bomb”; he is being really cautious and riding well within his safety zone on the way down. We dropped down into the village just in time for a great French lunch in the local café. A description of our lunch would take up an entire blog entry of its own. (Our adventures in food will certainly be the subject of a Father/Son Tour dispatch in the near future.)

It was a great first day in the Alps, and one that I hope Liam will remember for the rest of his life. I know that I will remember experiencing it with him for the rest of mine!

Crystal Cove Hill Training

A few miles down the Pacific Coast Highway from our house is Newport Beach's best kept secret: Crystal Cove State Park. Crystal Cove is one of the last remaining stretches of coast line in Southern California that has been spared development and urban sprawl. The park has 4 miles of beach and about 3,000 acres of coastal terrain with several well maintained mountain bike trails. For the roadie (road bike rider) there is a good ten mile paved loop which is traffic free. An afternoon run or ride here brings renewal and lets the day's stress flow into the sand and out to sea. During our time away, this park was, perhaps, what I missed the most about Orange County.




Wednesday is a short day at school for the kids. I got home at 2:00, and Liam and I decided to hit Crystal Cove with the bikes for some hill training. It was a beautiful day with the temperature in the mid 70's. We got in a good 10 mile loop. It has been amazing to watch how Liam has developed as a cyclist. His bike handling skills and his sense of position on the bike are remarkable for an eight (almost nine) year old. After the first loop, we picked a quarter mile steep 10% grade paved path from the beach up to the coastal bluff. I looked at the path and thought that it would be good for a photo, but that we would have to find something a little more gentle for the hill repeats. To my surprise, Liam was having no problem with the grade. He is an animal!!!



One of Liam's goals for the trip is to climb Mt. Ventoux -- "The Giant of Provence." He has a photograph of the "Giant" above his bed. This is an epic climb. It is so steep and long that the mountain's rating is beyond classification for bike racing. Professional bike riders take over an hour to climb to the summit. The record is held by Iban Mayo at 55 minutes. When we first talked about climbing this mountain I had my doubts, but now I am starting to think it might just be possible. . .





On the way out of Crystal Cove, we spotted this rattlesnake. Tonight is a school night so Liam is getting ready for bed. He does, however, want to make sure that we blog about how "awesome" he thought the day -- and the snake -- were.

Travel Bargains Everywhere, Except...

Why is it that everywhere you look there are travel bargains, except when you want to go somewhere? I had been delaying the final purchase of our tickets until yesterday. There is always that nagging voice of comfort which says, "hey, you can get the best French wine right here in town, and you could easily follow this thing on the flat screen from the comfort of your living room." This type of internal dialog usually happens at night after a hard day in the office. However, last night it was happening for a different reason. I was in the process of finalizing our travel plans and everything started to go haywire.

When I first began to research our trip to follow the Tour de France, travel bargains were all over the Internet. I even saw an advertisement for $30 airfare to Paris. Thirty dollars! I knew the economy was bad, but wow! Last night, these incredible bargains were nowhere to be found, and they had been replaced with fares that, I have to say, were seriously making me reconsider the trip. It was like a bad version of Deal or No Deal. At the Air France website it looked like they had some reasonable fares, only to be replaced with extortion once you got to the booking screen. At one point, I actually had a reasonable fare in the checkout screen, but the dates were not quite right. I hit the browser back button, and suddenly the fare jumped by $2,000. Am I to believe that at that very second 80 other prospective francophiles were vying for the same seats? It was a similar story at Swiss, KLM, and Lufthansa. By midnight I was defeated. My eyes were blurry, and I had a bad case of internet search fatigue. I had promised Liam a trip to France for his birthday. Could I take it back?

The morning dawned clear in Newport Beach, and with it, so had cleared some of the internet haze. I found some--I won't call them reasonable--but doable fares from Orange County to Paris on American. We had to move up the departure date which means I will have to reschedule things at home, but this will give us some time before the Tour to acclimate and get our bearings. Instead of doing are final training in the Newport Coast hills, we will be heading to the Alps and the lavender fields of Provence. I suppose it is true that every cloud has a silver lining.

As I was downloading the first picture for this post, I came across some photos we had taken in Pasadena at the 2009 Tour De California. There is a good shot of the family, a shot of Lance and Levi, and a picture of Liam with Lance's bike which was stolen and then recovered by the police in Sacramento during that race.