Lunch!

I could have painted that too. Nothing is easier than a Pollock.

A fascinating interview with an art forger
Here

Alex time!

I was trying to indoctrinate him with the ways of Baseball



and sitting on park benches

Charmette

I've been struggling with a bit of knee pain this week -- I was in pain after my standard double col lunchtime loop. I guess it serves me right for ignoring my age and doing that Chartreuse slog last week. Since then, I've been playing with cleat positioning and wanted to test things out today on my local HC climb: Col de la Charmette. I've done it so many times now, it would be routine if it were not so damn difficult every time. It's like a shorter (in length, not elevation gain) Alpe D'Huez with about 14 fewer switchbacks and a tiny bit less gain. It's a good way to build up the stamina you need for the bigger cols, and it's basically in my back yard! I was happy to have much less knee pain on this ride, but man was it hot.. at least for a Bay Area native like me. The first part is fully exposed to the sun, so the second part, under a canopy of leaves next to an unseen but appreciated river feels like an oasis. The change is almost enough to take your mind off the steep and relentless grade. No video for this one. Can't spare the extra weight Pictures below though

A big ride

I'm not much of a long distance rider -- my longer rides end up being 80-90km, and in college I used to dread the longer team rides. But, inspired by the "big birthday ride" concept of my friend Hank, I decided to push things a bit further, and formulated a plan for a big (for me) ride through the Chartreuse. The plan was to go over some of the well known cols like Col de Porte and Granier, then back along the plateau. I spent a little time on Strava and even figured out Hank's uber secret tiny road route near the Cirque de St. Meme. Judging from the other roads I've been, this one would be a worthwhile alternative to the bottom of the valley slog from St. Pierre d'Entremont to Entremont le Vieux. I convinced a coworker to come with me, who has done an impressive list of Brevets, the Marmotte etc and planned on deferring to his pace to avoid bonking a long way from home. On this last point, I was actually a little nervous, so we started off the day climbing the Col de Porte about as slowly as is possible. The flip side was that my legs felt 100% solid at the top. Then it was a descent to St. Hughes, then onto the climb to Cucheron then into the next valley. Feeling good, laughing at the forecasters for being wrong *again*, we started into the Cirque detour. I had mentioned that we should try it to my work friend, and something was lost in the translation, because he told me that he knew the road. However, when I started up the hill, I was surprised to hear him ask if I knew where the road went! I was pretty sure I had it right, but asked a farmer (in French) at the side of the road whether the road did actually go to Entremont le Vieux. He responded (in English): "Best road!", then smiled broadly, pointed up the hill and gave us a big thumbs up. The road is spectacular and at times clings to the side of hillsides with majestic views towards Granier and Cucheron, not to mention across the valley towards Clusaz. During the descent, a huge -- maybe 6 ft wingspan bird of prey took off from a low hanging branch and glided down the road in front of me for a while before peeling off into the canopy. I was pretty excited to catch this on the GoPro camera, but on that super wide angle lens it looks like a sparrow. From Entremont we pedaled slowly up to Granier, which the tour will hit this year, but from a different side, down the descent that I did a few weeks back, and onto the plateau. I had never ridden there before, and I gotta say that the plateau is about as good as it gets. There are plenty of short climbs, followed by descents in between fields, all the while you are surrounded by huge limestone cliffs to your right, and snow capped mountains to the left. It did finally start raining on us here, but it wasn't too bad. Unfortunately, the gopro battery ran out of steam at this point. From the plateau it was down to the valley and then a mercifully downhill/flat ride home, after 126 km, 4+ cols and 10,200 feet of climbing.

La vie, c'est trop banal

poor alex is too small for the Sulkys (and doesn't pedal very well)

oh la la!

Maserati GT. 400+ HP, Ferrari motor. Yours for only 140,000 USD. I have become less interested in fast cars recently; may be a combination of the cycling and the fact that I can't drive recklessly anymore (not that I ever did, Mom!) now that I have kids, but this thing is pretty sweet. Even going 20 mph the engine sounds utterly outrageous.

Yay, Chloe!!

Chloe's big trail race was today. I dragged the kids up a big hill (no parking near the village!) to watch her finish and give her flowers

Alpages

the new Blogger interface

really, really sucks. It used to be that everything the Great Google released was perfect, but I guess those times are over.

Alpe d'Huez

Despite living less than an hour's drive from Alpe d'Huez, I had somehow managed NOT to do the climb before today. I've driven up it quite a few times, and rode up the first four or so switchbacks to watch the Dauphine, but never did the whole thing. One of my season's goals was to get off my a$$ and finally do it. Today was the day. I got to Bourg a little before lunch, parked the car, warmed up on the departmental and then started pedaling. It was a bit warm, but overall a good day to ride. The views of the mountains are spectacular, and of course there is something pretty special about doing such an iconic climb. The first bit is steeper than the rest, and is generally a fairly long climb. I think most people know that there are signs at each turn, counting down from 21 which can be demoralizing. For me though, the demoralizing part was seeing the road switchbacking waaaaay up the side of the mountain ahead of me. After hitting the Vielle Alpe tunnel, I managed to make a wrong turn but ended up at or near the TdF finish eventually.



Also, there was a cool car at the top: a Peugeot 504 coupé

The electron beam is on strike!

Notre Dame de la Salette

Today we went to the Sanctuary of Notre Dame de la Salette, near (in?) the Trieves with the Aussies. Chloe and I had actually been planning on going here for a long time, so we were excited when they called us to say that they were planning a drive out there. It's a really beautiful drive, and I have to admit that I was pining heavily for my road bike on the last part, which climbs out of Corps for ~850 meters to the sanctuary and looks extremely fun. Also, you can see a spectacular cliff to the West, which I think might be Devoluy. Happily, it was raining, which lessened the torture. Corps looks like it has some nice restaurants, but we instead ate at the somewhat institutional cafeteria at the Sanctuary. I was a little annoyed at being shuttled around by the maitre d'cafeteria, but it all worked out in the end because the kids got French fries. After fueling up, we walked outside a bit and then into the church. The sanctuary is still very much active and welcomes pilgrims from all over the world, apparently.

wooo!

A night alone, with DINNER! and no kids!!! Thank you Stephanie!!!!!



We stayed in Uriage-les-bains, which is beautiful: picturesque limestone studded lanes under horse chestnut trees in full bloom.

Cirque de St Même

We went to the Cirque de St Même today for a bit of walking with the kids. It's a lot closer than I thought it was and very beautiful. Our kids were not so willing to walk however. We have some work to do if we plan to do any camping or hiking with them

We saw one of the lower waterfalls, at least!