Caley and I took the train bright at early to the start town of....um....I forget....Anyway, we met up with the other Velo guys there. Caley took off to go take some pics, and I got to watch the caravan arrive! Talk about nuts, I took a bunch of pictures, so hopefully some of it was captured :)
We then hopped in the car and took off! It was soooo cool, we got to drive the course in front of the riders, so all the roads were closed, and the fans were awesome! Again, I took a bunch of pics and videos to try to capture it. The big climb that day was Col du la Grand Columbiere, and it was huge!
As soon as we landed in the finish town, I took off to the train station to get myself home in time to get to the grocery store because we had invited everyone over for dinner that night! Talk about go go go, as soon as I got home, I had to book it over to the store, did my most efficient shopping trip yet, and then back home where I am not kidding, cooked for a solid 3.5hrs until everyone arrived! The timing was perfect though, I was finishing grilling the last few pieces of baguette as they walked in the door, and the pork loin was ready right about 30 minutes after that! Whoooo hoooo!!!
The menu:
Romesco and whole roasted garlic bulbs (is this the right term?) with baguette
White bean salad
Pork loin with peach chutney
Unfortunately no time for dessert and I totally forgot to take pictures!
After our stay on the Mediterranean we headed north to a town just outside of Cuneo, Italy! We arrived two days before the actual race, so much less stressful that way. We found a neat little town to have dinner in, and ended up going back there all the nights we were there. The main square was hopping! Several bars were blasting music outside, it was like they were competing to drown each other out. Kind of funny since it was all weird techno house music.
The day before the race we went to Cuneo to pick up Caleys race stuff, and I got to meet the legendary Claudia who was running an incredible PR operation for the race, and who Caley has met several times at product launches. After that we got ourselves out for a short ride around our hotel, even though it was only an hour, it was lovely!
The day of the race we were up super early just in case we had trouble finding parking etc. There were roughly 2000 participants! I waited with Caley at the start line until it was time to go, then headed back to our hotel for a nap before coming to meet him at the finish line, at what I thought was going to be about 6 hrs.....Turns out, the race took him almost 8! Poor guy! Turns out he wasn't quite prepared nutritionally for how hard and fast it was :( I haven't found out where he ended up, but he definitely could have placed higher with better planning.
Thankfully we had the hotel for another night, it would have been brutal to drive home after that. The next morning we took our time, and had a glorious drive home over the Alpes! We opted to go over the mountains rather than through them. Before coming to Europe, I thought the Eisenhower Tunnel was long....not true at all! Last fall we went through a tunnel that took us about 20mins going 70kph, and the one we could have gone through to get home was even longer. Plus, they are often toll roads, I think you have to pay about 40euros for this one! I'm soooo glad we went over, the views were stunning! About halfway over one mountain we decided to get out and hiked up a little rise for a quick snack picnic and picture taking opportunities. I didn't get that many pics, Caley has most of them on his big camera, I'll try to steal some in the next few days to put up here. But in the meantime, here you go!
Sorry it's been so long for an update! We've been traveling, and my two online classes started last week, so I've been trying to focus on them. Speaking of which, I think their expectations of 4 SUBSTANTIVE posts are a little outrageous when they are asking level 1 thinking questions...it's hard to dig in to a question that just has a factual answer....
Anyway, I wanted this update to be about our trip to the Med! After climbing Alpe D'Huez, we headed pretty much straight south. The plan had been to stop and climb Mt Ventoux, but we woke up too late, and Caley had forgotten what day it was and had a column due...oops! So I drove, he wrote, and we aimed for the sea! It was really fun seeing some of the same places we did in October, but in their full summertime splendor! It was the week before all the kids got out for school, so still not as insanely crowded as things will be this weekend. Caley had the brilliant idea of trying to find the same beach that he visited with his family 10 years ago; it was so nice they stayed for a few more days than they had originally planned to. It took awhile to remember the name of the place, but we figured it out, and I'm sooo glad we did! We ended up staying too nights at a nice little campground about a 5 min walk from the beach. Camping in Europe is pretty hilarious. You get electricity, and our plot even had a refrigerator you could connect. They have sinks for washing dishes, and showers (with hot water at certain hours of the day). Some even have restaurants or bars that you can hang out at. Many have pools! You're not exactly roughing it...
We got out for a bike ride on the bike path that followed the coast. Our legs felt like total crap after Alpe D'Huez, so it was a good thing we got out....Caley's Gran Fondo was up next!
Oh. my. goodness. Today was absolutely awesome!!!!!!!!
Caley returned home after a week at the tour last night. Well, I guess it was a week away, not all at the Tour, he was doing some product launches etc etc...not really that sure. I met him down at the train station, and we grabbed some dinner downtown before taking the nocti bus home (love that nocti bus!!) This morning dawned bright and early at 9am, seriously milking the sleep-in time of summer...that is 4 whole hours more of sleeping than I get during the school year! We headed downtown, picked up our super awesome diesel Renault Clio rental car, packed it up and headed South! First stop, Alpe D'Huez!! !!!!!!
Caley decided he wanted to go a little faster than me (and by a little, I mean a lot) so we said goodbye at the bottom and I was on my own. Except I wasn't! There were hundreds of cyclists out riding! I haven't passed so many people in years! :) The first bit of the climb is super steep, even with the switchbacks. I was passed by a group of three gooney guys, tried to stick to them for awhile, but failed. Then a pretty in-shape girl passed me and I decided to stick with her, about two switchbacks later (they are labeled by number) she cracked! Whoo, go me! I also passed a guy and his girlfriend, and guess who couldn't take being passed by a girl....he caught up to me and we chatted for awhile, turns out he reads Caley's stuff online! I felt like a celebrity-by-proxy :) When Caley got to the top he turned around and came back to climb the rest with me. I was expecting to see him on about switchback 10 or 11 of 21 (remember, they are labeled...) but I didn't see him until switchback 4 to go! I felt pretty good the whole climb (and Caley admittedly felt terrible, but I'll take it).
Here are some pictures! Sorry for any repeats, or near repeats, I kind of just throw them all up here.
I heard about this about a week ago, but it is still bugging me, so I thought I'd share.
The last living Pinta Island Galapagos giant tortoise, Lonesome George, passed away in captivity in Ecuador on 6/26/12. I've been studying so much about evolution and taught the evolution unit last in school, so this news hit particularly close to home. Caley can testify, I definitely cried. While other subspecies of the galapagos tortoises still exist, this subspecies is now extinct, and the other populations are classified as vulnerable. Hopefully I can find a way to impress upon my students the need to preserve and protect this earth and its inhabitants.
