All posts by Mike

Planning helps me feel better aka Oops I did it again

Personal stuff, Tdf trip planning

My first trip to France was in 2000, when Trek invited me, along with a number of other dealers, to the Tour de France to watch Lance Armstrong try for his second Tour de France win (later taken away from his, along with his other six, for doping). Flew into Paris, took a train to Avignon, and two days (if I recall correctly) later I rode the “citizens’s” race, a copy of one of the Tour de France stages, starting in Carpentras and finishing atop Ventoux. Almost finishing anyway; the weather went south and they stopped us 4 miles from the top. A really tough day on the bike for anyone not prepared for the feezing cold conditions as we climbed. One person actually died from exposure and there were quite a few busses put into service hauling cyclists off the mountain.

Since then I’ve ridden up Ventoux another two times, both with my son (Kevin), both quite a bit less eventful! Still never made it the last kilometer to the top, due to shutting down the road hours ahead of the race.

And now I want to do it again. Which is kind of nuts; first because why would anyone want to climb that beast in the first place, second because we’re pretty short-staffed at the shop, third because my wife’s health could be best seen as “fluid” and fourth because I’ll be 69. But that last reason is also one of the reasons to do it; how many more big climbs do I have left in me?

But last year I proved that we could do a shortened version (we usually leave on a Thursday and come back a week and a half later, on a Monday… last year we left on Sunday and came back just 8 days later, on Monday) and, even with a very complicated itinerary, pull it off. I would much rather go back to the 12 day gig, but just don’t see that as reasonable. But thinking about it, maybe it’s possible to leave after the shop closes on Saturday? Adding an extra day compared to last year?

Turns out, it just might be possible! There’s a flight out of SFO at 7:25pm. Shop closes at 5pm. Can be at airport by 5:45pm at the latest, which is a bit tight for an international flight with luggage (bikes!) but, since I still have elite status with United and can take advantage of the shorter lines, plus TSA-Pre, this is doable.
2:10pm.
So the plan, worked on late last night-

Saturday-Fly out of SFO at 7:25pm Saturday, straight from the shop. Connect in Frankfurt (short connection, just 1hr 5mins, tighter than I’d wish!) and fly to Lyon. Very familiar with Lyon airport; have flown into it a number of times. Arrive Lyon 5pm Sunday. Take a train directly from the Airport to Avignon, where there’s an IBIS hotel two blocks from the station.
Sunday night- Sleep!
Monday– Shakedown cruise on bikes. Monday evening, find that restaurant in Avignon Kevin and I visited years back, with the monstrous-sized “Formidable” Orangina mug. 🙂
Tuesday– Take short train from Avignon to Carpentras. From Carpentras, just 36 kilometers to top of Ventoux. See the race, head back down, catch train from Carpentras back to Avignon. Trains leave every hour so no issue with timing. Worst case scenario, ride all the way back to Avignon, making the ride back (which is pretty much entirely downhill or flat) about 64 kilometers. Re-pack bikes.
Wednesday– Take a train that, amazingly, goes direct, no transfers, from Avignon to Bourg St Maurice, where we’ll be staying 4 nights. Hotel 1000ft from station. Rebuild bikes. Train leaves 10:39 and arrives 4:28pm, so lots of time upon arrival to check in and rebuild the bikes.
Bourg St Maurice is in the Alps, way out there, and very convenient to the two final, and really difficult to get to, mountain stages. It’s pretty much a perfect location for those two stages, and very unexpected that I could find a play to stay that’s reasonably priced and close to the station! That was key to making everything work; logistically, it was so important it was the first piece of the puzzle that had to be figured out. When that piece was found, everything else just had to work out, somehow.
Thursday– The big stage up the Col de la Loze, an epic climb we’ve never done. Thankfully just a 30km or so flat ride from our hotel to the base of the climb. No time pressures whatsoever getting “home” afterward because we don’t have to worry about trying to catch a train. But- there are trains running up and down the valley anyway, so we still might have the option of shortening the ride a bit, if needed.
Friday– Another big stage, this one to La Plagne, another climb we have not done. This one’s even closer to our hotel. Yay!
Saturday– This is a “free’ day for us to ride, possibly doing the Cormet de Roseland from the Bourg St Maurice side, which we’ve never done before. After the ride, we pack our bikes (this will have been their last ride this trip), do whatever laundry we need to do and get psyched up for the final stage in Paris.
Sunday– Take the (direct!) 9:10am train, arriving in Paris at 2:10pm. Check into the hotel (probably the one right at the train station), then head out on foot/metro to the location Trek Travel sets up for viewing the final stage. Normally we’re ok missing the finale, but this year Trek has a real contender for both the Green jersey (best sprinter) and the final stage itself, a big young guy (age 24, 6’4″ tall) named Johnny Milan. Traditionally walk about 5 miles after the race seeing Paris and finding a place to eat.
Monday– Leave for home, probably a 2pm flight, arrive Monday night at about 8pm.

Notice not one mention of a car… no need to rent one this time!

Anyway, that’s the plan, it looks extremely workable, with the trains being right where we need them, when we need them. Not a single ride where we’d be in trouble missing any sort of connection. The only crazy thing is the idea of leaving immediately when the shop closes at 5pm on a Saturday, for an international flight that leaves at 7:25pm.

January 23, 1975… Genesis Lamb Lies Down on Broadway concert in Berkeley. 50 years ago. Really?

Personal stuff

50 miles is such a very long time ago. Just noticed there will be a special re-release of the Genesis album Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in a few months, a 50th Anniversary sort of thing, although half a year later than it should be. That album ties into a lot of things in my life, including cycling.

I was very much into what is now called “Progressive English Rock” in my teens. I was also into electronics, and it was through building Heathkit receivers that I was introduced to radio stations like KSAN, KOME, KSJO, KFAT, the first three featuring music that was too long and perhaps a bit too cerebral for the normal Top-40 radio stations. I recall being in my bedroom, part of a converted garage at my parent’s house, 15 years old, hearing an 11-minute-long song by War titled “Fidel’s Fantasy” and could not believe how it instantly hooked me. This was music the likes of which I’d never heard before! Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd. The Yes album (by Yes). Anything and everything from Procol Harum. Emerson, Lake & Palmer too. And Genesis “The Musical Box” from their Nursery Cryme album. From “The Musical Box” came lines that, for some reason, stayed with me forever-

You stand there with your fixed expression
Casting doubt on all I have to say

Yeah, the usual thing of being young and feeling like nobody really understands you.

There was a record shop in Los Gatos, “The Galactic Zoo”, that was promoted by KOME (think one of their DJ’s, Greg Stone, might have owned the place?) and carried all the cool English releases and… you could sometimes buy “Import” albums (produced and shipped from England) a couple weeks ahead of their US pressings. They cost more but supposedly had better sound quality. And so it was that I found myself driving the “green bomb” (my parents station wagon) from Redwood City to Los Gatos to buy the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway album, just to be able to play what I’d heard on the radio as soon as possible. Every night I was listening to the genre that became known as Progressive English Rock from 10pm to 1am or so, three hours in which nothing was more important than my music. (I’ll point out that it was only recently that I’d gotten my driver’s license; previously I’d ridden my bike there, but around the time I was 18 I decided it was time to get a driver’s license because, well, easier to do the boyfriend/girlfriend thing).

I went to a fair number of concerts, and remember the most-technically-amazing was the first time I saw Emerson Lake & Palmer at Winterland, Feb 1974. I’ll never forget the opening of the show, with the synthesizer programmed to play by itself as it rose out from the bottom of the stage, playing “Welcome Back My Friends.” Unbelievable.

But the most elaborate show had to be Lamb Lies Down on Broadway at the Berkeley Community Theater. By that time in my life, January 1975, almost 19, things in my life were heavy with confusion and conflict. Did I want to go further with bike racing? What about college? I was in my freshman year at Canada Jr College, but where to after that, and what were my plans for “life?” And the girlfriend stuff, with a long relationship that was beginning to time out, if that makes sense. At that time I desired stability, I wanted things to continue, and yet everything around me was changing. It all seemed so intense and difficult, but of course, in retrospect, much of it seems foolish and easy compared to “real” life later on.

Ultimately, that concert, that album, represents the point in time where a lot of things changed for me. My bike racing, my two years (long time for someone that age!) relationship with my girlfriend… maybe that’s all that changed, but it seemed like a big deal at the time. A couple months later I met Karen, who I’d marry and raise a family with, open up a bike shop, and experience all manner of things I often didn’t feel prepared for (which puts me in good company with everyone else I think). But there are constants, from distant past to today, that remain. I still ride a bike as much as possible, I still avoid driving as much as possible, and I still enjoy the same music I did way back when. And my former girlfriend (Jenny; I should have given her a name earlier!) and I are both in long marriages, each of us with two kids (one boy, one girl). In the end, everything works out as it should.

But was that really 50 years ago?