Mont St Michel ITT & Blois Sur Loire

Christopher Froome took another step closer to a commanding win in the 100th edition of Le Tour with a dominating 33 km Individual Time Trial to Mont St Michel today. Only the current World Champion Time Trialist, German Tony Martin, was able to beat Froome today and the gap to the other podium contenders has widened.
Valverde wouldn't normally be considered a GC contender, however he is closest to Froome at almost 31/2 minutes down. Contador is almost 4 minutes behind and Cadel Evans at an almost 7 minute deficit can kiss goodnight to a podium this year.
Tomorrow will be a sprint into Tours and we will be there to watch the action after an 80 km roll through the beautiful Loire Valley.
We're currently staying in the beautiful town of Blois, right on the banks of the Loire. We arrived in the Loire Valley after a bus trip this morning from Paris and started our day with a visit to Chateau du Chambord.

The Chateau was built in the mid 16th Century, housing 440 rooms, 365 fireplaces, 13 great staircases and stables for 1200 horses. With the threat of the German invasion during WW2, the art collections of the Louvre and Compiegne museums were housed here.
After our visit we headed off on our ride for the day, a brisk 70 km trip back to Blois in time to see the closing half hour of the Time Trial at our hotel in Blois.

My First 10 Days - Côte d'Azur & Corsica
Part 4 - Favourite Rides on Côte d'Azur

My two favourite rides during this part of our trip were:
1. A 75 km loop from Vence to Nice, along the waterfront and then up to Eze, followed by the climb to Col Madone and then down to the beautiful Italian border town of Menton. The Madone was made famous  by a certain Texan, who used this climb as a test of his form prior to each of his Tour campaigns.
Here is a pic on the top of the Madone.

A couple of pics of Eze are below, its a small walled village high above Monaco.

Th

Brittany - St Malo Sprint and Time Trial to Come

Today's sprint finish to St Malo was a little different to that which was expected. The lead out trains really couldn't control the outcome and in the end the strongest and fastest guy won. Cavendish was left without support, Greipel was well led out by Henderson but had to commit to the sprint early before the last corner and Kittel was smart and good enough to follow the wheels and get to Greipel as he was fading to snatch a very good second stage win.
There was much debate tonight in our room as my Belgian room mate (ex Pro Eric De Clercq) watched the Belgian TV coverage and listened to Tom Steels commentate (Steels was a top sprinter in the late 90's). Did Cavendish cause the Argos rider Veelers to crash? The consensus all round was "that's just sprinting", and neither of them are Cavendish fans so that I found that interesting as I thought Cavendish definitely moved off his line and rode into Veelers?
There is no change to the GC and it will be interesting to see if the notorious cross winds of the Brittany coast can upset the Top 10 GC standings during tomrrow's Time Trial. I think that all eyes will be o Contador to see if he can hold or better his position. It seems the consensus is that Froome will easily defend his Yellow and may even take some time out of a number of the non TT specialists in the Top 10.

My First 10 Days - Cote d'Azur & Corsica.
Part 3 - Nice TTT and start at Cagnes Sur Mer
We arrived back in Nice from Corsica on the day of the Team Time Trial and were lucky enough to get up close and personal with OGE and BMC as they warmed up and rolled to the start line. The final result for OGE was a complete but exciting surprise to us all and it was fantastic to be able to cheer Simon Gerrans on as he led the peloton out from Cagnes the next day, clad in the Yellow jersey.
There was a reasonable Aussie crowd to cheer OGE on as they rolled out of Cagnes Sur Mer and the team responded with waves and smiles. The balance of the crowd were a supportively clapping the riders but were nowhere near as vocal as the Aussies!!

Rest Day - Back to Paris for me.

While the riders are enjoying a day to recover from the effects of the first week of the Tour, I've driven up from Bikestyle HQ at Mazamet in Midi Pyrenees to Paris to meet up with our 38 clients and my 5 staff mates to start the "Provence, Alps to Paris" 14 day trip.

I have spent the last 3 days at Mazamet with a couple of my fellow guides, mainly preparing bikes and equipment for the upcoming tour trips. We loaded our 3 tonne van yesterday and headed out this morning for the 10 hour drive to Paris.

This is a pic I took of the roundabout at the entry to Mazamet this morning as we headed off to Paris.

Apart from cleaning and maintaining bikes, vans and trucks, we managed to do a little bit of riding in the hills around Mazamet.

Here's a pic of our "bike shed".

Stage 9 - Pyrenees Shake Out

Today was the last big Pyrenean mountain stage before the Rest Day, which is followed by a sprinter's stage to Brittany's beautiful Saint Malo. Dan Martin's win today was a great display of strength and finishing skills for an Irish/Garmin  victory.
It was expected that Froome and Sky would be attacked, in an attempt to reduce Froome's lead or to at least put Sky under pressure. Froome survived the attacks from Movistar but Sky suffered some serious wounds. Richie Porte lost time and is now out of the Top 10. It was interesting to seem him try to bridge cross to Froome on the last climb, after being dropped, however he was either suffering or the team DS ordered him to conserve energy once it was apparent that he wasn't going to make it across to Froome?
Peter Kennaugh, a hero with Porte on the previous stage to get Froome into Yellow, had a big "off". He hit the road hard and ended up a long way down a bushy ravine and from the way he looked when he finally scrambled back to the road, he may have injuries serious enough to take him out of the Tour, or at least reduce his level of support for Froome.
Contador rode solidly and he may be able to ride himself into condition and possibly be in a position to attack in the Alps?
The new Belkin team, ex-Blanco, is doing a great job with two riders in the Top 5.
For all the contenders, the Time Trial two days after the Rest Day will be the next big hurdle to manage. Its only a short flat TT of 33 km, however this part of the Brittany coast from Mont Saint Michel  can be windy. Maybe Richie Porte and pull back some time, or possibly "Turbo Durbo" can give Orica Greenedge a victory?

My First 10 Days - Cote d'Azur & Corsica
Part 2 - Corsica
After a relaxing and enjoyable few days of cycling on Côte d'Azur, we took the 6 hour ferry trip across to Corsica to see the first 3 days of the Tour. The weather had been superb on the mainland and it continued on Corsica, days of mid-20's and cool evenings meant we rode and slept in comfort.
Our hotel was well located on the West coast at L'Ile Rousse, mid-way between the key tour towns of Bastia and Calvi. We were all struck by the geography, with beautiful coastal beaches and headlands and a severe and austere hinterland which seemed like a cross between the agricultural and urbane Pyrenees and some of the more remote French Alpine Cols.
Although Corsica is a French island there is a strong independence movement, evident by many Corse flags with the bandana clad Moore head in each quadrant, see pic below.
We were at Bastia for the finish of Stage 1 and witnessed one disaster after another unfold. Firstly the Orica GE bus got stuck under the finishing barrier, some say any publicity is good publicity but this one was a shocker.
The riders were initially advised that the finish would be at the 3 km mark and then at the last minute they were given the all clear to race to the finish. What unfolded was hard to believe; first their was a crash 5 km out which took out a number of the top contenders. Then Greipel jammed his chain at 4 km (right in front of me, see the pic) and then after being positioned perfectly by his team, Matt Goss touched a wheel and hit the deck within striking distance of the line.
For Stage 2, we rode to Corte mid-way along the race route and I got some fantastic close ups of the riders as they came through a roundabout. By amazing coincidence, as I walked back to the bus, I ran into our next door neighbour, John Brannock. Crazy that you can go halfway around the world and randomly run into your neighbour.
On the final day in Corsica we rode to the finish in Calvi, riding the last 12 km of the course to the finish line, and watched Gerro take an exceptional Aussie OGE win.
Random pics below.

1 Week In......and What a Difference 1 Day Makes

Froome & Sky...... Signalling the Beginning of the End?
I'm currently sitting at the Bikestyle HQ in Mazamet, not far from Toulouse and Carcassonne. I'm in between tour groups and will head up to Paris on Monday to meet our next group coming in for the final 14 days of the Tour.

Today was a watershed moment for the 2013 Tour, Sky played their first big card and showed how dominant they are again this year and how difficult it will be for any other team or individual to upset their plans for a back to back win.

With all the recognised GC contenders well and truly distanced by Froome today, it's hard to imagine any other winner this year, barring an extraordinary event, accident or ill health.

The one great outcome for we Ozzies was the fantastic performance of Richie Porte to pull back Quintana on the final climb and to deliver Froome to a dominating win on Ax-3-Domain. The local comment at the end of the stage today was that the Porte-Froome combination was reminiscent of the US Postal 2002 combination of Roberto Heras and Armstrong,....one hopes that is where the comparison ends!

My First 10 Days - Côte d'Azur & Corsica
The first 10 days of my trip was spent with our tour group of 20 riders on Côte d'Azur and Corsica. The weather and the riding were perfect, with temperatures in the mid 20's and the scenery in both locations exceptional. The routes we rode were generally light with traffic and small country roads, except when we rode onto the Tour course route ahead of the race on Corsica.
Part 1 - An introduction to Vence.
Our hotel on Cote d'Azur was up in the hills 15 km above Nice in the village of Vence, with a central medievil walled village and some remaining 16th century architecural features, included in the photos below. Vence is also a town of artists living and working there, Dufy and Matisse were two of a number of recognised French artists to base themselves in Vence.

3 July - No Posts - Wifi Issues

Apologies for the lack of posts this year, we've had virtually no Wifi connection since arriving a week ago. We had three nights in Vence, above Nice, before heading to Corsica and neither place had workable Wifi. We're now back in Vence for 2 nights and we've found a spot to get Wifi but its very slow. My photos from my iPhone are only trickling through to my iPad, via Photostream on the iCloud, so I think I'll save my proper posts for when I can get a decent Wifi connection.

The last day in Corsica and yesterday's Team Time Trial in Nice were great days for the boys from Orica Greenedge. I got a couple of great pics of them warming up on their trainers in Nice and will post them later. Also got a great pic of Matt Goss on Corsica coming through a roundabout at Corte on Stage 2.

We rode the last 10 km of the course into Calvi on Stage 3, so had a great appreciation of how it might pan out; headwind, uphill from 3km to 2km then two roundabouts to the finish. Unbelievable job by Gerrans to hold off Peter Sagan and Impey, Clarke & Lancaster all did a fantastic job in setting it up.

Have to fly, we have to get the client's bikes ready for a ride to today's start from Cagnes Sur Mur to Marseille.

Tour de France 2013 Awaits

Its only 10 days until the start of the 100th Edition of the Tour de France. It's a day that I've been looking forward to since I last stood on the Champs-Élysées in July 2011 to see the BMC Team lead Cadel to that memorable and historic Australian sporting moment, victory in the the Tour.

BMC leads Cadel into Paris

2011 - Cadel's Crowning moment. 2013? He'll be up there for sure.

"The Tour" is often described as the greatest sporting event on offer and subjective as that statement might be, there's no escaping the enormity and spectacle of the event. July in France is magnificent, as you experience the fours seasons as the race traverses the length and breadth of the country and you absorb the pulse of a country proud of its cycling tradition.

This year the race kicks off with three stages in Corsica and I'll be fortunate enough to be there to see it all get under way. The group I'll be guiding will arrive in Nice this coming Monday 24th June and we'll settle in with some great riding on the Cote d'Azur, before heading over to Corsica

In preparation for the trip, I've been taking regular morning rides with a few mates up to Mt Coot-tha for a few reps up the 'mountain' before enjoying a heart-starter at one of our favourite coffee shops. The weather has been more than a little patchy the past few months, with more wet days than dry and then the sudden onset of Winter this week with coolish 7 degree mornings.

Take the chance to look back over the 2011 Archive on the right side of the page, just a peak at the pics will bring back some memories and give you a feel for what lies ahead.

The pics below are a few I've taken recently to get this year's blog under way.

Chelmer at Sunrise

Mt Coot-tha's early Morning Glory

Gaz & Greg on Gap Creek Road

And at Mt Coot-tha Lookout

Pete (Mr Glow), Greg and Graze at our favourite Coffee shop.