Tagged With: mountains
Tour de France stage 10: Suffer Faces
What was the hardest thing you did on Tuesday? I promise it wasn’t as hard as the opening 25 kilometers of the tenth stage. With just a few neutral kilometers in their legs to warm up, the peloton hit the climb to Port d’Envalira. The initial dozen kilometers were fairly harmless, mostly around 3% to … Continue reading
2015 La Vuelta stage 12
Andorra: beautiful scenery but very few cycling fans! Tony Hurel. Carlos Verona. Julien Simon. Dominique Rollin poses for fans. Markel Irizar and Stephane Rossetto's bike wait dutifully for their riders. Andrew Talasnky. Carlos Barbero. Amael Moinard and Mattia Cattaneo head in opposite directions. Joey Rosskopf signs … Continue reading
2015 La Vuelta stage 11: Alto Els Cortals d’Encamp
Thanks to a new friend with a car and the free funicular, we landed ourselves the perfect viewing spot about 1.2km before the finish line on Alto Els Cortals d'Encamp. When a single light blue dot appeared on a far road, it could only be Mikel Landa coming in to claim the stage. … Continue reading
2015 La Vuelta stage 11: Collada de Beixalis
Rest day? What rest day? It was a distant memory when the peloton woke up this morning to prepare for the 138km queen stage. I hiked up the first of 6 categorized climbs, which came after less than 10km of riding for the peloton. Waiting for the peloton. Romain Sicard and Darwin … Continue reading
2015 La Vuelta stage 7
Let’s get right to it. The Alto de Capileira is located in the mountainous La Alpujarra area: 18.7km with an average gradient of a modest 5% only because the middle 5km are virtually flat. Otherwise it’s more in the neighborhood of 6% with a max of 14% in the penultimate kilometer (though I walked it and … Continue reading
2015 Tour de France stage 19
I planned to hike the 17km up La Toussuire but only 30 minutes in to my hike, Fien drove by and gave me a lift! So while I avoided a 34km round trip hike, I am looking forward to bed. Enjoy this photo gallery! Vincenzo Nibali won the stage, gaining 1'20″ and moving up … Continue reading
2015 Tour de France rest day
Odds and ends on a few different topics. **** My two cents on Froome In absence of any real scandal–no positive tests, no serious rivals to the yellow jersey, no fights within the peloton, even Tinkoff himself seems to finally be in Sagan’s corner–the cycling world has fallen back on the routine question of whether … Continue reading
2015 Tour de France stage 16
An early break of 12 riders eventually turned into a massive break of 23 after a motivated chase group, aided by a hefty tailwind, joined the leaders. Their advantage grew steadily, reaching 12'20″ as they hit Col de Cabre, a cat 2 climb of 9km, averaging about 5%, with 70km to go. Twenty kilometers … Continue reading
2015 Tour de France stage 12
I don't envy the peloton tackling one of the hardest stages in the 2015 Tour on such a sweltering day. When sign on opened, most of the riders and photographers understandably hid in the shade as long as they could. Everyone got to work before long. Andrew Talanaky, his shot at GC is … Continue reading
2015 Tour de France stage 11
The only thing better than watching race on a climb is catching a lift up the climb when you had expected to walk the 11km! I checked out the finish, but this series of switchbacks, by far the steepest section of Côte de Cauterets. The category 3 climb was the sixth and final climb, less … Continue reading