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Tour de France - Bastille Day

By Will • Jul 14th, 2007 • Category: Climbs, Cycling, Favorites, Tour de France

What a great Bastille Day. Doreen and I cycled up the Col de la Colombiere to watch the Tour de France. People and cyclists everywhere and hot!

We rode up with Brian - his first week in Geneva and already cycling mountains. Martin and Barry took the train from Geneva and bravely rode all the way home. Scott - from New Zealand rode from Lake Annecy on the other side - and somehow we all met up and hung out exactly one km from the top. Of course the publicity caravan was fun, with free samples tossed at us - we all now own polka dot caps and I am about to try grand-meres café.

A major highlight, Brian took off with a bag and somehow returned with 10 beers from way down below. Nice! Another highlight: a photo with tour legend Didi the Devil.

When the helicopters arrived, we knew the riders were near. It took about 30 minutes for them all to pass - wow were some of them suffering - they were strung out all over the road. Last climb on an almost 200 km day in the heat - fair enough.

Doreen and I returned home and saw us all clearly twice on the TV highlights. Great day!


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Me and Didi the Devil
Canadians, a Yank, a Kiwi and a Brit/Aussie Col de la Colombiere

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Will is Happiest while cycling uphill. More enthusiastic than talented, his 2008 Challenge is to (again) cycle 160,000 metres of vertical ascent.
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7 Responses »

  1. Looks like a great time. I vote for the next quarterly meeting to be held in France!

  2. Hey Wads, I agree. And perhaps we should put this site on the agenda. This french fitness propaganda must be stopped at all costs.

  3. [...] 20,000 metres climbed. Highlights included a five day trip to the Vosges mountains, and cyling up Col de la Colombiere and then Col du Galibier to watch the Tour de [...]

  4. [...] confuse Le Grand Colombier with the more famous Tour de France Alp climb Col de la Colombiere - about 50 kilometres away. Grand Colombier is less well known, but it’s a LOT harder [...]

  5. [...] was lucky enough to see two mountain stages of the 2007 Tour. On Bastille Day up Col de la Colombiere. And at the top of the legendary Col du Galibier a couple of days [...]

  6. [...] far from Geneva and near the famous Col de la Colombiere is a fantastic, steep, quiet climb. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to get to the top (1,500 [...]

  7. [...] the easier La Clusaz side and a big finish up the Classic North-East side of Col de la Colombiere (where I watched the 2007 Tour de [...]

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