Mitzi got cute balloon sculptures from a clown.

The fireworks were pretty neat watching them over the lake.

7-14-10 Wednesday
I went on an easier ride today on the bike path out of Annecy but ended up pushing it at times and rode for a little more than 2 hours. They have a great bike path that goes for about 20-30 miles. In the afternoon Kindra, Megan, and Brecken stayed at the house and just relaxed and went on the internet, while grandma, me, Brad, Ashley, Ian, and Mitzi went downtown. Grandma watched Mitzi play at the park while me, Brad, Ashley and Ian went on the pedal boats. After when we met back up with Grandma and Mitzi, they were standing in line with a clown. The clown was blowing up balloons and making them into things. Mitzi being as small as she was kept getting pushed further back in the line. Finally grandma had to help keep her place in line so she could get her balloon hat and flower/heart balloon that the clown made for her. After dinner we walked along the bike path down towards the swimming beach and watched the fireworks from there. July 14th is Bastille Day in France that’s similar to our 4th of July.

The publicity caravan goes through. Those vehicles throw out these little sausages that are pretty good. Especially after you've been climbing for a while and are hungry.

Finally the breakaway comes through.

Cadel Evans in the yellow jersey was quite a ways back.

Ashley and Ian having fun on the merry go round.

Kindra looks nice at dinner.

Grandmas was enjoying herself.

Self portrait.

Mitzi was having fun and being a good little girl at dinner.

Everyone had a good time going out for dinner.

Brecken even tried the sea snails that come with Brads fish dinner, although she was a little hesitant to do so.
7-13-10 Tuesday
Today was one of the days I was really looking forward to on the trip. The chance to see one of the stages of the Tour de France up close towards the top of a climb towards the end of a stage. I was a little later heading to the start of the Col de la Madeleine where I was going to climb up and watch the tour go by. They ride over 3-4 cols earlier in the stage, but this is the final big climb before plunging down into the valley and finishing at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne. I was able to ride up about ½ way pretty easily, but then I started running into the French gendarmes ever so often who would stop me. You aren’t supposed to ride on the course as it get’s closer to race time. Pretty soon I could hear the publicity caravan coming up and had to stop as they all went by. I continued up a little more, but it was getting harder and harder to continue. I was about 5-6 km from the summit. I was hoping to ride to the summit, then ride back down and find a good place to view the stage as it went by, but as it was getting closer I decided to just find a good place to watch. I found a great spot where it was quite steep, the road passed right by a water fall/river, and you could see at least a ¼ mile down the road and a ¼ mile up the road. It still seemed like we had to wait forever. I was chatting with a guy from Australia who was bike touring through Europe and watching the Tour. Finally after a few of the gendarmes on motorcycles came by, you could see the helicopter flying at almost road level come around the corner down the road as it came around the bend and you knew the racers were there. Having watched a few minutes on a TV down the road, I knew there was a small break-away of maybe 7-10 riders and this was the break-away that had fractured. There were only 3 men left in the break, including Damiano Cunego. I knew he wanted to win a stage really bad. They were all riding really hard trying to both stay with each other, and stay away from the pack chasing them. After they went by, every 20-60 seconds someone who had got tailed off the breakaway would ride through, but not more than a couple before here comes another helicopter and Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador come flying up the road. Schleck was in the lead hammering, and it looked like Contador was doing everything he could just to hold his wheel. It was amazing how fast those guys were climbing, especially figuring they had already been over 3-4 cols already and were almost to the summit of this one. It surprised me to find out how much the rest of the field was strung out all over the mountain. It seemed like every few minutes a small group of riders would come by and it took forever it seemed for the whole race to pass by. After the auto-bus (the group of non-climbers) who get together at the back on climbing stages had gone by, then came David Miller on Garmin pulling the very back of the race. He really looked like he was struggling. I was talking with the guys in the Garmin car behind and they said he was really paying the price for a crash he was in a couple of days ago. After getting back, the whole family went out for a nice dinner in Annecy. On the way there we passed through the park, and Mitzi got to ride the Merry-go-round. Dinner was nice and then we walked around the old part of town.

Here's the cute ski town about 2/3 of the way up the Col de la Croix de Fer.

Great views from the Col de la Croix de Fer.

I was suprised to find that the Col du Glandon was only a couple miles downhill from the Col de la Croix de Fer.

The Col du Mollard isn't quite as high up as some of the Cols, but I know it's featured in previous Tour de France stages.

Cute little chalet/shop near the Col du Mollard.

Some of the views being high up in he Alps are amazing.

This was one of the first signs as you start climbing the Col de la Croix de Fer. Pretty intimidating seeing 28KM of climbing starting at 8% and knowing that it will probably be steeper when you get to the summit.
7-12-10 Monday
Today I went for another great ride in the French Alps. I drove to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne and rode up the Col de la Croix de Fer, then down to the Col du Glandon, then back up to the Col de la Croix de Fer, then down part way, then up to the Col du Mollard. It was quite a ride. I could still see evidence on the road of when the Tour de France rode over the Col de la Croix de Fer a year or two ago. There’s a neat little ski town about 2/3 of the way up the climb. As usual, the steepest part of the climb is the last few miles up to the summit. Croix de Fer means “Cross of Iron”, and I remember seeing a great big Cross of Iron when the helicopters during the Tour de France would pan out and show the landscape or some of the surrounding areas, but I couldn’t see the one they show on TV. There is a small one there, but I think the great big one you have to hike up to and can’t see from the road. As I wanted to see where the Col du Glandon was, I rode down to it. It’s not far at all from the summit of the Croix de Fer, maybe only about 2 miles all down hill. Then I rode back up and over the Croix de Fer. As I still had a little energy left, as I rode down back towards my car, I passed a junction and a sign that said the Col du Mollard was only about 5 miles away, so I took the junction and rode up to the Col du Mollard. It was a great day of climbing in the Alps. When I got back to Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne they were starting to set up the finish for the Tour de France as it finishes there tomorrow. As I’m catching up on the blog, pictures of my ride was all I had down. I’m sure we did something else later in the day, but I don’t have pictures of it and I can’t remember. We probably went swimming in Lake Annecy.