On the way we picked up a copy of the local newspaper Le Progress and were pleased to see our ride being mentioned – see here.
Grenoble situated at the foot of the French Alps was our target today, a mere 105 kms away. Between Lyon and Grenoble lay a few big hills and some long stretches of flat valley floor, albeit spread between numerous villages.
The first big climb of the day was rewarded with a long twisting downhill with the riders clocking up 65 km/hr. As the landscape flattened out we caught our breath and our first glimpse of the Alps. Once again the sun was shining with high temperatures and a few of the riders have caught a bit of sunburn (Frank is positively glowing).
Before lunch we passed camels and lions (courtesy of a local circus and not reflective of the local wildlife) before we stopped in a field for jambon and fromage, set against the stunning background of the Alps with only the sound of frogs and cows (or French and English traditional foods as Simon wryly observed) for company.
With lunch quickly despatched it was time to hit the road and crunch through the kilometres towards the Capital of Alps. Small villages and less then considerate motorists came and went, as the team put in a strong performance in order to meet our colleagues from Johnson Controls Neige; who were exhibiting at the Salon de l'Aménagement en Montagne at the Alpexpo in Grenoble.
Thanks to Regis-Antoine Decolasse and Max Rougeaux, we were able to further promote the team’s efforts to visitors of the Johnson Controls stand. We were also fortunate enough to meet Jean Luc Cretier, who won a gold medal for France in the downhill skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.
Simon made a less than graceful entrance to the stand (high performance road bikes and highly polished exhibition flooring do not mix well) and we had a great time on the stand before heading for a well earned rest at our hotel.
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Dear Carsten and JCI team,
ReplyDeletehold out to the end - however I believe your trip is a rather soft one.
Your example encouraged me to prepare today our bicycles for (unfortunately) shorter and not so large-scale tours in the following weeks.
Good luck.
Regine and Gerhard
Team, Stay on the road and the bike to the end. You all already have riden a lot of kilometers so through Alps must be a piece of cake.
ReplyDeleteI wish you all lots of fun furtheron on the bike, you have my greatest respect for your performance. Please start thinking about the next event ...... :-)
laktatmonster
Carsten is talking:
ReplyDeleteNun ist es fast geschafft. Man muss schon fast sagen es sind 'leider' nur noch zwei Tage zu absolvieren. Leider deshalb weil, das Team gut funktioniert, Beine und Sitzfleisch noch mitspielen ;-)
Only two days and it's done. It is a pleasure to ride in this team everthing works well. Also our legs and our behinds are good for another week more.
Viele Gruesse
Best regards from
Carsten