Hamburg
After a short week at school and a few good byes it was time to leave Hamburg. On Wednesday evening I enjoyed a meal with Sarah and Philip. The last time we met in Freiburg they prepared Crepes. We reenacted this crepe session in their new apartment in Eimbuettel. It was great to then sit out on their balcony and enjoy the balmy evening over a glass of wine after before venturing into the Gruen Jaeger to meet Sabrina. On Thursday it turned out to be terrible weather so I spent most of the day at the apartment getting things organised. I promised Sabrina and Oli a cooking lesson before I left so we went together to do some shopping and then prepared a roast pork fillet dish. They were very good students! We ate like kings, including Sabrinas friend Sari and Olivers girlfriend Eliza. For dessert I surprised them with a dark chocolate parfait ala Table of Champions! Great fun...
Nice
After a very early start in Hamburg to get to the airport and heading via Copenhagen I arrived in Nice to meet James x2. Hay has out done himself and rented a spectacular apartment on the Promenade des Anglais. In typical European fashion the place looks very run down but inside it's very comfortable and provides superb access to the beach, to the markets in Old Nice and a great base for our adventures. Not being able to speak the language is really bugging me. My three words of French don't get me very far at the moment...
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/ajoest/NiceMontVenouxAndMonaco#
Mont Ventoux
The original plan was to meet James Hannam and his brother in Caillavon on Saturday morning. Hannam had organised bikes but that had fallen through meaning he decided to come straight to Nice. I was still determined to head to the Tour and up Ventoux. With the car I had hired, my bike and supplies I left very late on Friday night and headed towards Sault. Aside from the massive mountain passes and unknown roads I managed to get there ready for the morning. I parked my car on the western side of Sault and began my ride very early in the morning. I had no idea what was in store, if the roads would be closed, if the climb was going to break me, if I could get supplied on the mountain or even really where I was (other than in the middle of the Provence). Being the pinnacle experience of bike riders, there were thousands of people thinking the same thing so by the time I got into Sault I was riding alongside people from all over the world. It was a lovely morning, sun shining and warm weather. The smell of lavender was wafting around the landscape. The Provence is a very baron area. It's dry everywhere. It's also very old. The buildings look very worn and are probably all older than white settlement in Australia! I could see Ventoux in the distance so headed off towards it with my pack of food and water.
The people management was a tribute to relaxed French authority. Cars were driving up the climbs and parking on the side of the roads and people walking / riding / mono-cycling up the roads! Campervans had been on the mountain presumably for some days. I rode up as steadily as I could. The road wasn't very steep and was constant. I had heard horror stories of the steepness and how tough it was. I found the climb quite comfortable. Half way up I met a British guy - Steve, who I ended up spending the rest of the day with. We climbed and climbed until getting above the tree line. Still people were everywhere. There were cars everywhere and there were campervans as far as the eye could see. The higher parts of Ventoux are like a moon crater with little vegetation. This is probably a function of how much wind is around and it was no different for us. While climbing we were warm enough but as soon as we stopped the wind cut straight through us. We climbed as far as we could to the top but weren't allowed right to very top as it was closed for the preparation of the tour. After a few photos it was time to head back down as it was just too cold and windy. We rolled down about 5km and found a spot in the sun out of the wind. This spot would be ours for the rest of the day pretty much.
Still people rolled up the mountain. Cars were being stopped earlier in the day but bikes and walkers streamed up the hill. Many coming down again because of the cold. It became a people watching game seeing what bikes people were riding and how they were handling the climb. There was the odd struggler pushing their bike and the odd trooper who was pulling a trailer with two kids in it and pushing the other son on his bike all while riding himself!
Promotional gear was being thrown out everywhere. Most of it was junk but got people excited. Unfortunately we had no idea what had been happening earlier in the stage so simply had to wait. Because I had started relatively early I slept for a little while and just hung out for the 6 hours before the cyclists were scheduled to come through. To keep us occupied a bush fire started in the valley below so we got to watch the fire bombers put it out. It was quite impressive watching five fire bombers strategically attack this fire.
As the cyclists got closer and closer the atmosphere got more and more exciting. More promo cars, more music and more people up on the mountain. We could see in the distance the helicopters following the riders so knew when things were about to happen. It wasn't long before we could see the cavalcade higher on the mountain. The choppers were all getting closer and the sounds of the car horns and people increased. Then came the lead riders who had attacked and were leading a second bunch which includes Contador and Armstrong. They were punching up this mountain. It was most impressive. Everyone was cheering and supporting. It was an amazing atmosphere. There were the odd groups of riders coming up. Then finally the peleton. It seemed as though the peleton was pretty tired and so were taking it pretty easy. Before you knew it, the riders had gone past and it was all over! The stupidity of the day - we spent hours preparing only to see them come through within minutes! But that's what it's all about!!
The chaos began going back. There is only one road on the top half of the mountain and two for the rest. I would estimate a couple of hundred thousand people were on the mountain all trying to get off it! People on bikes were wrestling with cars who were wrestling with campervans and people in between. We were moving at a snails pace. It became a bit of a game weaving in and around others and it wasn't until a third of the way down that everything freed up and were able to get some speed downhilling as a reward for climbing the mountain! I let rip and with Steve we flew down the last few kilometres! He headed off to his car and then back towards London and I made my way back to Nice. It was an incredibly exhausting day but equally memorable.
Monaco
After a giant sleep and taking the car back to the airport we (James Hay, James Hannam, Travis Hannam and I) went around to Monaco. The coast line is simple spectacular. All very old and yet somehow so beautiful. The roads here are pretty frantic but if you give as much aggression back as you get from the others you make it through ok. Monaco, is a place of lavish exhuberance like i've never seen. Every second car is a super car. All the boats out in the harbour end up looking normal. The photos don't give justice the scale of everything. It make us all feel very insignificant it! We wandered up to the casino and had a look around the city before heading back to Nice. The boys are out swimming and i'm about to catch up on emails and few things before joining them.
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