Courchevel Continued

We’ve had back-to-back epic days with incredible climbs and intense action-packed racing. I hardly did our day on Courchevel justice with my short entry two days ago. It is difficult to capture the full impact of such a perfect Tour day…but I will try.

My day started a little differently than that of the other VéloSport travelers. While the rest of the crew prepared for their ride to Albertville and up the category 1 Courchevel climb to see the finish of stage 10, I drove our rental box truck up the same climb. Katie and Susie joined me for the challenging ride up the crowded mountain. Though we hit the climb around 9 am, the mountain was already seething with cyclists, hikers, campers and random Tour vehicles. There were several giant sounds systems set up along the climb and I felt like we were in some wacky music video.

When I got to our reserved hotel/lunch stop in Courchevel, I realized that I was going to have to parallel park our truck behind some Tour barricades. This was going to be good considering I could just barely reach the pedals. But fortunately a very patient French man came to my rescue and talked me through the whole process.

We unloaded the day bags and our gracious host, Florian Treves, showed us our digs for the day. We basically had the run of the first floor of the Hotel des Grandes Alpes, a 4-star hotel and restaurant that had opened up just for us. This included a large shower room, massage room, comfortable television room and bar and a wooden deck with a view of the course below. Florian explained to us how this Alpine resort hotel had been in his family for several generations. His girlfriend, Magali Degardin, was the restaurant’s chef. The place was beautiful and well kept and Florian was eager to share it with us.

Leaving Katie and Susie to hold down the fort, I descended off the mountain on my bike to join our cycling groups as they hit the base of the climb in Moutiers. Normally a descent off a large mountain is somewhat nerve wracking. But add to that the fact that there are several hundred cyclists ascending and descending, Tour cars, trucks, buses and even semi-trucks making their way up and down the mountain—all at the same time—and you have organized chaos at its best. I made it down but let’s just say it was a good thing Jean-Luc had replaced my brakes pre-Tour.

At the bottom I met up with several of my fellow travelers. John Myrick from Clemmons, North Carolina was keeping a steady pace as he rode a safe distance in front of Chris Gutowsky and his random puns. Brent Warnecke from Indianapolis, Indiana was styling his way up the climb in his Google jersey. He is here with his uncle Brad Warnecke who was already a ways up the climb. Though Brad is a more experienced cyclist and floated up the climbs, Brent still managed to hold his own on these Alpine monsters.

Then I happened on Heather and Vera. Actually I heard them long before I saw them. Having only met on this trip, these two women became fast riding buddies, talking each other up the climbs. Despite being relatively new to the sport, Heather and Vera mastered the climbs in style. While most people around them could only grunt a hello, these two always had enough breath to carry on a moving conversation.

As I slowly worked my way up the climb for a second time, I realized that I hardly recognized the climb. The roadsides were quickly filling up with cars as people looked anxiously for last minute parking spots. The number of French police, or “gendarmes”, along the course had more than quadrupled in the last 90 minutes. The Tour traffic on the climb had intensified. Several team buses lumbered past me to the top where many of the cyclists were spending the night for the next morning’s start.

One of the crazy vehicles that make up the massively entertaining Tour publicity caravan.


I was happy to finally find myself back at the Hotel des Grandes Alpes I had left a couple of hours earlier and was ready to indulge in our private luxuries. Most of the crew had showered up and were already digging into the first salad and cold meats course of our meal.

Everyone seemed to be a little dazed but certainly happy to be sitting on a private deck just above the course with plates full of food and glasses full of wine and beer. Magali had set our tables with love and there were colored glass beads and flowers carefully placed on each table. The hot course included large plates of “poulet basquaise” and mounds of fresh pasta. Then the desserts came out—almond chocolate mousse, exquisite fruit salad, almond and apple tarts, and little puff cakes. We all dug in knowing full well we had earned our place at the dessert table.

After topping off our meal with espresso and chocolates, we moved inside to the comfy television room to watch the Tour come to us. It was humbling and exciting to watch these gods of cycling fly effortlessly up the same climb we had suffered just that morning. Not many sports give fans this unique opportunity to share their passion with the pros.

As the action heated up, our little television room became animated. Armstrong was away with two Iles Baleares riders, Francisco Mancebo and Alejandro Valverde and Rabobank’s Michael Rasmussen. As the break neared, we all moved out to the course and the balcony to secure our viewing spots for a brief glimpse of the live action before we moved back inside to watch the finish. Armstrong managed to amaze us all with his strong move around his younger competitors but Valverde’s win at the top gave us a peek at the possible future of the sport.

While everyone else on the mountain prepared to get in line for the long, slow drive down the crowded mountain, we went up and off the mountain in helicopters. It was a final high for a day that could not have been more perfect.