Provence
Although there are no mountain stages right now, I am still very happily watching the stages as they are in my most favorite part of the world and a place I hope and aim to be for a week in October. This photo is of Mayo when he won Alp d'Huez in 2003. I took the photo after a very long morning and long hot ride to the last 4 km of Alp d'Huez. On the 50km ride back to the car, I got stung by a bee in my lip. try and find anything open on a Sunday evening in France!
Provence is like Napa with a bonus... the bonus is that I stay in a 17th century farm house (mas), eat wonderful fresh food, see Roman ruins, smell lavender everywhere and also experience the medieval hill top towns. Can you tell I would rather be in Provence than anywhere??? Oh, and the riding around there is so fabulous.
In 2003 the week after climbing Alp d'Huez in 108 degree weather, my bf at the time and myself went to Provence for the weekend and climbed Ventoux. The weather had cooled a bit and we left our hotel in Vaison la Romain at 7:15 in the morning. It was fabulous.
After I reached the top, an American tourist handed me a cookie. I stared at the cookie for 45 minutes and have it in my hands in all my photos. (Note, it's in my hand in the photo here.) I finally gave it to Matt. The decent was over 45 minutes - - my hands were tired from using the breaks so I would slow to almost 0 and then let go of the breaks and go until I was close to 45 mph and then slow way back down again to minimize breaking. After returning to Vaison, I had a baguette, a chunk of sheep cheese, some eggplant spread (caviar d'aubergine) and some prosciutto. That was some living.
Anyway, my deep love for Provence is why I watch the flat stages like today - - although today was most exciting as I was watching during the split and shake-up. So cool.
posted by Velovera @ 9:20 AM
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