Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Day 2 on the bike!

Hi again everyone. Day 2 is in the books. Today was a rest day in the Tour so we went out to ride a famous climb, that's not in the race this year, called The Tourmalet. Let me tell you, it is ridiculous! Very hard and very exposed out of the trees.

I actually enjoyed today's ride much more than yesterday's. There was no time crunch of trying to stay ahead of the Tour. It was just our group and the bikes ( and the support van with lots of extra water and food-much needed). Today's climb was definitely harder but at least I was able to keep up a pace and stop when I wanted to.

I was the last guy up today but there were a few guys who didn't ride it. Actually, I'm totally amazed at a few of these older guys here in their late 50's and 60's. They can really go still.

Overall, a really amazing day again. The scenery was awesome!

One really depressing part of the rides here is the French government has taken it upon themselves to post signs at each kilometer of the famous climds so you know how far you have to the summit. Well, that's all well and good. However, they have also decided to include the average gradient over the next kilometer. That's just depressing. I mean really what's the point of that information!

Anyway, tomorrow we go to watch a stage finish. Riding roughly 8 miles up a climb to our viewing restaurant. Later in the day, after the race goes by, we'll summit the climb, ride down the back and return for our last night in Lourdes. Thanks for reading!

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