July 15, 2023 to July 22, 2023
Vacation in the Alps
Our vacation really felt like a vacation - awesome, exhausting, and that it is time to get back to real life again after.
Day 1: watching stage 14
Lots of logistics discussion went on on Friday evening once the van and car with all our friends and bikes showed up. We had a fairly relaxed morning then hit the road towards Samoens at 10:30. There was a spare small women's road bike in the van so I enjoyed a much lighter ride than usual. I didn't enjoy descending the climb from yesterday with an almost flat front tire because I was a noob and forgot to pump it up. James was on his touring bike without bags, but with the trailer and Tobias in the back.
Of course he fell immediately asleep even though it was very early and woke up by the time we got to Samoens. He was happy enough so we started up the col de joux plane to find a good spot to watch. James was quite inhibited by the trailer, but we have some strong and lovely friends who took hold of either side of the trailer and boosted him up. We found a spot in the shade which (as seems to be the way with us) disappeared in the afternoon so we were pretty hot standing on the side of the road for 5 or so hours. James made some friends with a chalet down the road who filled up our bottles and our friend Kate hiked up from Samoens with a backpack full of beer and baguettes. Finally the caravan came past which was a spectacle. Tobias was beside himself with excitement, particularly the car dressed up like a melon. The riders came past about an hour later. Of course that part was over in about 10 minutes, but all in all it was a fun day.
I walked down while Damay rode my bike since her knee was having issues. We actually made it down first since we could better weave through the river of people. From Samoens we had another 30km to ride, including around 400m of climbing. And it was uphill. And 6pm. So we threw a spare croissant in with Tobias and set off. The traffic was madness and it was much faster to bike. We were home before the car. Most of the time we were passing on the left hand side of still standing traffic. James again had some help from our mates to get up the hill, and a lone french cyclist who took over until he reached his house. Tobias must of slept at some point and was in great spirits, though very happy to get off to bed at 9pm. We were happy that Kate raced out to the grocery store so we could have a very late dinner after that before Kate and James headed out to Geneva to pick up some other friends of ours.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Day 2: Watching stage 15
After all the chaos and the late night on Saturday we decided to do it all again on Sunday. I slightly misunderstood when James was describing the route and thought we had a 4okm return trip, but it turns out it was only one way. So we ended up riding 80km and climbing more than 1300m with Tobias following along in the trailer.
Like Saturday he fell asleep basically as soon as he got into the trailer and we enjoyed the amazing switchback descent down to Magland. It was stunning and I was completely buzzing when I hit the bottom. I was a bit more used to the bike and having air in the tires really helped. In the back of my mind I was wondering how on earth we would get back up in the evening. It was a long beautiful flat ride through the valley until we started the climb to Saint Gervais les Bains. We climbed the same route as the course and it was so steep that all our friends couldn't help push since they needed to stand and climb themselves. Even at 11:30, at least an hour before the race started, the route was packed. James roped in spectators to give him a push up the steepest parts and we had plenty of people offering us booze, chips, and fondue. Living the dream. At the top of the first climb we had a short descent before climbing the road up towards the ski field. Tobias was awake at this point and starting to express some unhappiness at being trapped in the trailer so we left the others and pushed on up a slightly less steep route. We joined the actual route and were caught by most of the others at about 4km from the finish. We climbed just a little bit further to find the perfect spot - the owners of a house spotted us with Bram and Tobias and invited us to use the shade underneath their house and filled all our bottles for us. This was good because the riders weren't due to come past until almost 6pm. Thankfully we had Kate, Damay, and Kiera to lug up the beer and baguettes from the car. The highlight for Tobias was getting thrown his "own bottle" from Alexey Lutsenko and for James getting a smile from Corbin Strong and Dion Smith while he ran alongside with his New Zealand flag.
The descent off the hill was insane - The riders were descending with whistles to get everyone to clear away, pedestrians of various states of sobriety were walking down and then a stream of cyclists on all kinds of bikes and confidence levels were streaming down. This is amongst all the team cars, motorbikes, and eventually the team busses. It was a bit tricky keeping track of everyone, for the riders too apparently because where we stopped to regroup were several riders from different teams waiting to be picked up. Tobias was asleep again once James reached the bottom so we formed our strange peloton and headed towards the house. The plan was that the people in the car would head home, and then Kate would come down and pick up Tobias and the trailer so that James didn't have to tow it up the hill. However when we reached the bottom of the climb they were still stuck on the mountain and it was almost 9pm so we decided we would just tackle it ourselves. I didn't bring any proper ride nutrition, but luckily Andrew had a spare gel and Dirk some gummy things because I was definitely fading. Tobias was awake but in relatively good spirits so we threw some more food at him too then started crawling up. Holly and Simon hadn't brought their own bikes and the only thing they could find to hire were electric mountain bikes which came in pretty handy for getting the trailer back up the hill. We actually made relatively good time and just had to stop once to get some more layers on Tobias because as the sun set it started to get a bit colder. Tobias was a real champ and the first thing he said when we opened the trailer was "ride bike" so he charged around on his balance bike with Bram while we got him dinner and into bed well past his bedtime.
We were also well past our bedtime by the time we had our own dinner and then sat down to watch the stage together. The cell reception was crappy where we were watching so we all decided not look anything up until we could watch it together.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
Day 3: An actual rest day
After a pretty extreme start to what was supposed to be a vacation we all needed a break on Monday. Holly and Simon had to return their bikes so I volunteered to ride into Thyez with Holly to save the hassle of getting them into the car again. We had a coffee and did a big grocery shop for the team before Simon picked us up and drove us back up the hill. We swapped Holly and Simon out for Jan Willem and Alieke and their 5 month old Lauren in the afternoon. The house had a huge outdoor table and the weather was beautiful. It was such a treat to put Tobias to bed then sit outside and enjoy a long dinner with our friends as the day cooled off.
Day 4: James big ride/Bryony little ride
The dirtbags took off to tackle Col de la Colombiere, a 90km loop that took them back to Cluses then up to Saint Jean de Sixt and home along the same route that took us 2 days to ride on our touring bikes. I stayed back with Tobias and together with Damay and Bram and Alieke and Lauren we visited the farmers marked in Le Lays. Bram and Tobias were very cute in the car together, winding each other up and getting into giggling sprees. It helped keep them awake on the way back home so Tobias could have a good nap in the bed before the guys got back and we watched the time trial together. I was feeling a bit left out and lazy so I took off on a solo ride up to the nordic ski center just up the road then carried on along a gravel mountain bike track (still on Kiera's road bike) for a bit. I ended up turning round when it started descending because I wasn't sure what kind of terrain I would end up on. As it was I had to push some sections down because French gravel is a bit rougher than the Dutch stuff.
Day 5: Watching stage 17
We were all feeling a bit refreshed and today was the last day with the tour in our vicinity so we decided to head out and watch it again. We had a real treat because Kate offered to drive Tobias so we could just ride there with our friends. Its pretty cool that he felt comfortable enough to hang out for a big chunk of a day with someone he'd only met a few days ago. They stopped at a boulangerie and she let him choose out his own treat. We rode down the zig zag to Magland again then along the valley before climbing up from Sallanches to Combloux. Kate managed to park there then lugged Tobias in Bram's backpack and all the baguettes up the road to Demi-Quartier where we didn't have to wait too long for the riders to come past. It was only a few kilometers into the stage, so not nearly so much anticipation and excitement as the mountain stages but it was still very fun. We only caught the tail end of the caravan with Tobias and unfortunately the melon auto was only spotted on the other side of the valley.
After the climb it was about nap time so we piled Tobias into the car with Kate again and hoped he would sleep while we rode back home (he did). It was nice to climb up the zig zags without having to worry about anyone else. I felt really fit and was able to climb up just behind Chase and Doug. It was cool to feel that the last 3 months of biking might have actually gotten my legs a bit stronger.
Day 6: Another rest day
After a few big days everyone was needing a bit of space so a crew headed towards Chamonix in the car for a hike, Dirk and Damay took Bram to a swimming lake in Cluses, Chase and Doug headed to a mountain bike park, Jan Willem and Alieke headed off to find an Eclaire and James and I found ourselves with the house to ourselves. Dirk and Damay have the same Osprey baby carrier as we have so we used that and walked up to our local boulangerie for lunch with Tobias. It was nice to hang out as just us 3 again, though we did almost adopt a dog as it followed us from it's house, up to the boulangerie, hung out with us and the other patrons while we ate and then followed us back where we had to have stern words with it to make it go to it's actual home.
Day 7: A big ride for me and a papadag for James
After their big ride on Col de la Colombiere, Gijs shared a crazy route of 95km with 3 cols and about 3000m elevation gain. They decided they would do that on the last Saturday because the weather looked better than Friday. There was no way James and I could go together since it would be a full day and someone still needs to look after Tobias. But Jan Willem had to head home earlier on Saturday so was also going to miss the big ride so we decided to brave the weather and do it together. It was a truly epic route where we headed back to Samoens then climbed the full Col de joux plane before descending into Morzine and immediately climbing col de l'Encrenaz then another shorter descent before climbing col de la Ramaz. The weather held out and though we heard a bit of thunder in the morning the rain didn't touch us. We did need an extra layer for the descent. Climbing felt so good and the route was quiet enough that we could just ride side by side and chat which meant they were over in no time.
After the last summit was a huge, glorious descent into Mieussy before a flat section and the last climb up to our driveway. My legs were pretty shot by the time we got to that last climb but I just put my head down and kept them turning and eventually we got there then descended down the driveway. Tobias and James had a chill day visiting the local goat cheese farm with Alieke and Lauren. I was extremely hungry and basically spent the afternoon eating and enjoying the spa.
Day 8:
The dirtbag crew headed off for the ride that we'd done the day earlier while I stayed back with Tobias and a few others. Bram and Tobias were just about reaching the end of their tolerance for each other after a full on week so in the end Tobias asked to go for a bike ride. He rode halfway up the pretty steep driveway before I strapped his bike onto mine and we carried on together back to the boulangerie for lunch. Kiera and Andrew passed us on their way back from their own lunch and took the bike for the descent. With Tobias napping and the house almost empty I could finally find some time to sort out our route for the next few weeks. James and the rest got back just as I was getting Tobias up.
For the first time in months Tobias didn't really want to go to sleep in the evening. We told him the plan was to carry on biking with just Mama and Papa and to sleep in the tent again and I think he was just feeling about as sad as us to say goodbye to our friends and the convenience of living in a big house again. It was definitely time for vacation to be over, but part of us was a bit jealous of those heading back to houses, families, and jobs. It was extra bittersweet for us because next time we say goodbye to these good friends of ours is going to be the last time (until they come visit us in New Zealand). We've been putting off last goodbyes by leaving and returning to Utrecht on and off since February. It was extra special then to be able to get (almost) everyone down to France for a week of riding bikes, watching bikes, long evening meals, and hanging out in the jacuzzi.
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 0 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |