9000 feet of climbing and the tour

Another toilet problem. This time as we are getting ready to ride. Richard announces "Hope you don't need to use the toilet because it won't flush". Possibly a sign for how the ride would go today. The plan today was for three climbs ending with the mountain in the background called the Col de Madeleine. Needless to say I was apprehensive. The first two climbs the guides like to refer to as "wee bumps". But each was over a thousand vertical feet. So off we went, the wee bump portion went well it didn't seem that steep compared to yesterday or what was to come. The other part of the plan was to watch the Tour de France from the top since they were also climbing the Madeleine today. So as we got to the base of the Madeleine crowds were starting to gather. The sag vans were not allowed on the mountain since it was after noon. The French have this thing down. They now when to close roads so there is no way anything can get in the way of the tour. No vans allowed meant two things. First, no water or food along the way (temp about 88degress with moderate humidity) and second once you started it you had to finish. No big deal, right? Well this climb was 26km (15.6miles) long and went up about 5200 feet. So this is why we came here, so here we go. Richard and I started the climb at a reasonable pace (pretty slow) and in the shade of trees at the bottom. The mountain goes above the tree line so no shade at the top. After 2k got really steep averaging 8%. Because the tour was coming they mark each kilometer with a sign saying how far to the top and the percent grade. Nice idea right. Wrong. It just makes each km feel like it takes forever plus the high percents just predict the pain to come. Our average speed was in the range of 7-8km an hour, so it was going to take about 3-4 hours to do this. I was freaking a bit. but to late now. Again people had camped for days for the prime spots. This gave me a distraction from the pain and those signs. Ran out of water about 10km mark in a little village and was able to refill at a little cottage. Lucky. We got low on water again later as we passed a concession stand. Stopped to by water from the hygenic chap in the picture below. And yes that cigarette was lit.
The girls below were just riding horses down the street right at the base of the climb. I'm not sure where they were going.














So as the suffering continued time passed. So much time that the started closing the road to the top to all traffic including us. The police were located about every 1km on the course and more frequent neat the top. So as we would approach them. They would make us stop and get off the bikes. We would walk a little ways, then make sure he wasn't looking and get back on the bikes and ride. We had to get to the top. This went on for about 4km until a bigger problem began. The caravan of advertisers started coming through. This would be proceeded by a motorcycle cop who made us get off our bikes, followed by several caravan vehicles. After they would pass there was about 2 minutes before the next group would come by. So we would get on and ride. Between the police and the caravan we were constantly on and off the bikes . During this process Richard and I got separated. Anyone who has rode a bike uphill knows its tough to get started from a stop especially trying to click-in to the pedals. In several areas, fans on the side felt my pain and would push me to get me started. The picture above is what I saw as I went up the road. It gets very exciting and many people even shouting encouragement. I can only imagine how the real riders feel with all these people cheering in a frenzy as they pass. So after a lady poured a nice cold bottle of water on my head I was almost at the top. I saw the tents for the bike tour and sighed relief. After a recovery period it was time for the tour to roar through. The Madeleine was also hard on the riders and the main peloton was split into multiple small groups that took almost 45 minutes to pass. The pain on the riders faces made my pain a little more satisfying. The guy in the yellow was the leader of the tour at the time. But the mountain made him lose several minutes and the yellow jersey. After the all passed we regrouped and began to make our way down the other side. Using the brakes so much on that long decent actually cause them to start melting creating a nasty burned rubber smell. I stopped at one point to rest my hands from squeezing the brakes. My wheel was actually too hot to touch. Tomorrow will be The Alpe D'huez with it's famous 21 switchbacks. Stay tuned for the pain.