Today I rode my bike with a friend to go watch the Tour de France stage that was going through the Jura mountains where I often ride my bike. I'd never had any desire to do this since I was never into road biking before; but now that I'm quite into road biking (I rode over 300 km total this week - that's 187 miles, climbing nearly 12,000 feet in all up and down the mountains) I was thrilled to have my friend suggest we ride to see it.
I took a train out to his place in the early afternoon and then we biked in the burning heat of the day (90 f) up over the mountains and into the valley. We weren't sure where to go exactly after getting to the town "Les Rousses"; turns out the ending today was in a town a way further. We eventually made it to the finish line in time to see the caravan come through (all the sponsored cars, floats, etc.) and then the cyclists. It was a cool experience, a lot of energy. I saw Chavanel come in first for this, the 7th stage, and got a glimpse of many of the riders, including Lance Armstrong.
Here are some pictures as proof that I was there:
Picture of Chavanel on the first place podium.
Picture of me with the finish line in the background.
So, with the race over I headed back up over the mountains to head back to Geneva. I got to ride in hail and rain and some really close lightning; but I made it. The full trip was about 100 km - much less than the 165 km that the tour de france riders did; but we did it in about the same time ;)
Here's a map of where I rode:
You can see more about my ride on the site I use to track my ride activity: http://runkeeper.com/user/scroundy/activity/12621334
Thanks Harm for letting me go spend all day doing this.
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