Zoe: Maaaaamaaaaaaa
Mama: What?
Zoe: I have to go caaaacaaaa!
Mama: Didn't you just go caca? How many cacas do you have?
Zoe Three! I have three more cacas!

Take the most of him with red meat

A ride in Tullins

Another great ride with Hank today in the foothills around Tullins. Today's was a little bit different in that we explored a new (to both of us) road, and ended up on some muddy cobbly dirt roads… on our road bikes, with skinny tires! It was a total blast, and I could see Hank go into mountain bike mode, concentrating on the line and getting the power down. We crossed paths with an offroader and some guy out walking his dog, both of whom looked at us with some bemusement -- custom Ti and full carbon road machines are not typical in the forest. From there it was a cool descent on excellent pavement back to Tullins.

col de Romeyer

I went for a long ride through the Vercors today. I underestimated the amount of climbing it would be so it took a bit longer than planned, but it was pretty spectacular. Things started out well with a tailwind along the bike path to St. Gervais. I hooked up with some members of a local club on the path, which cut down on the boredom of the bike path for a bit. St Gervais was still in the shade when I got there, but that's where the climb starts so there was plenty of opportunity to warm up. It is beautiful scenery almost the entire way up to the col, past waterfalls and huge cliff faces. The last time I had been through here was ten years ago, when Chloe and I first moved to France (and before we moved back to the states) and our friend lolo took us on a drive through the Vercors: Pont-en-Royans, Presles, Romeyer -- I remember being overwhelmed by the beauty of alpine meadows and three hundred and sixty degree limestone faces. It felt pretty much the same to me this time. If you're ever in the Grenoble area, a trip through the gorges is a must. Anyway, everything was great up until the tunnel, which was a bit terrifying: a half km of pure darkness. I have a small headlight on my bike for just these occasions, and it was barely able to cast enough light to see. The tunnel is also extremely narrow, which adds to the fun and spookiness. All I know is that I cranked through that thing as fast as I could. As I finally emerged from the tunnel, a breeze swept by the mouth of the tunnel, carrying flakes of rime fluttering through the air and into an intense beam of sunlight.

After stopping to refill my bottle at the col, it was back through more gorges, Lans-en-vercors, Engins and back into the valley.



90km, 1400 meters of climbing

Mont Saint-Martin death match, part II!

Today, I did the runner vs bike thing up the mont saint martin but with my friend Martin, and this time, NO DAMN handicaps. This was especially true because I know he is a super strong runner. As luck would have it though, he had a hacking cough, so I caught him on the sixth or seventh switchback. Anyway, another beautiful sunny and clear day!

strange things you find on the bike path, part V.

Gentlemen, start your saws and chippers!

Col de Cossey

at lunch. It's not a high or difficult col, but easily doable from work in ~1 hour and is a nice change from the usual Proveysieux loops. Yes, we live in a cycling mecca

If you don't want a four year old and two year old operating your cherry picker

Don't park them on the sidewalk

Montaud

coooold on the way down

Zoe

after I showed her tonights dinner (tortilla): "Yaaay, you're a good cooker-daddy!"

RACE!

Today I had the smart idea for Chloe and I to race up to mont saint-martin. It is steep (10% avg), which usually favors runners, but we decided to handicap her since after all I'm on a friggin bike! We looked up our best times, started chloe off 10 minutes before me, and then… chloe beat her best time by three minutes. I, on the other hand posted my third best time. So I got taken to school, but it was pretty fun anyway, even if I never saw her on the way up. I like the concept though -- we'll have to get more runner/cyclist friends/coworkers involved next time. View from the top:

view from my commute this morning

Cycling goals this year

Last year I think I rode ~5000km and 82,000 vert meters. I rode through a lot of really beautiful places, even if I didn't do very many of the "prestige" cols (except Galibier, and that was from the easier side). I had a few modest goals this year on the local cols: placette in under 20, mont saint-martin in under 30, Narbonne in under 20. These were all just barely met. This year: Proveysieux in under 20, which will require a lot of work, Montaud in under 30 (ditto) and try to improve my endurance and do more than 100k vert meters. Those are the nerdy, numbers goals. The more important goals are to do more beautiful rides, and finally ride up Ventoux and the Alpe D'huez. I'd also like to do the Finestre.

Climbing wise, the usual: do more beautiful climbs on immaculate rock. I have some long standing goals like Rackham le Rouget and Hirondelle des Fauborgs, and the big "M", but nothing pressing.

here's hoping you meet your sporting goals this year as well!

New years day ride

to Proveysieux, then along the digue to Voiron and back

NYE

We had new years eve at our new expat friends' place in St. Pancrasse. It was a wonderful meal, and it turns out that one of their friends works at the same institute as us. We managed not to talk to much shop, however. Chloe made her Valrhona chocolate caramel walnut tart, which was a big hit. The kids were running around acting a little crazy, but were pretty well behaved, all things considered. At the end of the evening we all blew into chemical breathalyzers which took some figuring out even dead sober and went home. Hank and I talked a lot about cycling of course, and I was suitably lambasted for not having ridden up the alpe d'huez yet.

anyway, Happy New Years!

Sledding?

We tried to go sledding with un-napped kids, which did not work out well. It ended up being Cloe and I dragging them up slushy snow, punctuating the constant wail of both kids with our gasps for air. I put Zoe on her skis from the Trocathlon, but she did not seem to understand what to do with them: If I wasn't holding onto her she would obviously immediately fall into the snow, but if I WAS holding her, or actually touching any part of her body, she would interpret this as the cue to go completely limp, and would slump into the snow. It was like one of those mutant goats that faints when you clap.

Here is alex in a rare moment in between screams. Although not red with anger, you see that he is not impressed.

Planfay+mont saint-martin

here's a video of my standard ride up to le Gua + my newly discovered extension into Planay, and then the mont saint martin. There was a bit more ice today, but generally manageable except for one steep section under the trees where I lost traction. Otherwise, another beautiful day. I saw quite a few people gearing up for ski touring at the turnarounds.

Planfay

Did my usual lower motivation/cold ride but found a cool new road that I had somehow missed. Cold, but beautiful weather!

I was trying to decide where to turn around, and the decision was made for me:

Merry Xmas!

after tearing through waaay too many presents for the kids (thank you Grandparents I mean Santa!) we went to the Aussies for lunch, which was a lot of fun.

Drive home

After settling up, we hit the road for Pisa. Neither of us had been, and since it is basically on the way back we decided to go. Unfortunately, a torrential rain started after about fifteen minutes of driving, and the thought of carrying the kids around under those conditions made us rethink the Pisa connection. Instead, we continued North for home. Along the way, we passed the port that serves up huge blocks of Carrara marble to go into the bathrooms and kitchens of the 1% and the peninsula beyond which is the Cinqueterre. We had hoped to visit the Cinqueterre or one of the nearby towns like Tellaro during this trip, but they were recently devastated by strong rains an mudslides.
The Autostrada Azzura is pretty fabulous, and takes you through some dramatic landscape, even if it does require a bit more attention than your usual autoroute! I'd really like to spend some more time in this area at some point. I noticed that Range Rover Sport HSEs with heavily tinted windows seem to be the car of choice for this part of the world… no idea why.

From the A12, we continued on past Torino and encountered savage head and crosswinds. Not so fun, but the wind was kicking spindrift off the peaks which was beautiful