Cycling from Bourdeaux

Bourdeaux was also on the route of the 15th stage of the 2013 Tour de France.  It was 104 kms from the finish line at the top of Mont Ventoux to the South in Provence (and 138 kms from the start of that stage:

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/fr/etape-15.html

The profile of that stage featured the Cote de Bourdeaux at km 143 (from the start of the stage), just outside of town.  This is where a lot of the painting of cyclists' names was done around here.  See the profile of that stage here:

http://www.letour.fr/le-tour/2013/fr/etape-15.html

We plan to do most of the climbs on this route, including Mont Ventoux, but not this day.  We had another ride planned.

Let me say that I did not feel very well when I got up Thursday Aug. 22 since I hadn't slept after getting up in the middle of the night.  Jet-lag seems to bother me more than others.  However it gave me a chance to get going on this blog in the middle of the night while Cristina apparently slept. 

But we decided to get our first bike ride in and after checking out the market, OK after buying a bunch of stuff at the market, we headed off to Crest and took the harder route on the way there.  Up the Col de la Chaudière which starts a handful of kilometres out of the town so there is really no where to warm up the legs.  Warm up is probably the wrong expression to use because it was already 30 degrees at 11 a.m. when we chose to leave.  It was hot by my legs needed to turn for a while to get them going.  I didn't have the luxury of the time to do that.  Cristina killed the climb and here poses for me once I made it up.

 I had to take a selfie as Cristina wanted to get going and wouldn't reciprocate.  Ouf! 















See details of our ride at this link:
http://www.strava.com/activities/bourdeaux-col-de-chaumiere-saillans-crest-paz-de-lauzon-saou-and-back-france-76689191?ref=1MT1yaWRlX3NoYXJlOzI9ZW1haWw7ND04Mjk2NzE%253D



Coming back the ride was beautiful through the Forest of Saou and over the Paz de Lauzon (the Lauzon Pass).



I'm trying to convince Cristina to use the Strava app on her IPhone to record her climb times as she is so strong this year she is sure to be the QOM (Queen of the Mountain or fastest woman recorded by Strava) on most of the climbs in this area.  (There are a lot of strong male riders here but not many strong female ones, and in any event not many as strong as Cristina, especially taking her, um, ah, maturity into account.)