Thursday 12 July 2012

Smiling winner Pierre Rolland rounds the final turn. Plus some other front runners not looking that bad considering.

Thursday 12 July 2012

Stage 11 finish: lots of waiting, but also lots to see, lots of goodies to collect & of course lots to eat & drink tongue

Thursday 12 July 2012

Driving the final climb to La Toussuire. Early in the day, but fans everywhere. Atmosphere is great & still building!

Thursday 12 July 2012

Passing Albertville en route to stage finish so stopped by Départ. Crazy busy given riders not due for 4 hours or so!

Thursday 12 July 2012

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Views from today's double assault on Col de la Madeleine. Only one small patch of rain which was welcome to cool off!

Wednesday 11 July 2012

@mattgoss1986 wait til you get to the Madeleine mate... Aussie support everywhere! Hope it makes up for the killer day you have coming! wink

Wednesday 11 July 2012

Two choices top of Col de la Madeleine today. Neither was that appealing so chose less stupid one wink ... ended up with 3200m of vertical! grin

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Lots of beautiful scenery driving to Alps camp site today. Bit of traffic too. Oh well, start of Col de la Madeleine climb only 4km away smile

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Lake Annecy. Very beautiful, but such a traffic snarl up & busy in town! Would like to stay a bit longer next time.

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Wait a second... this isn't France! Passing through Geneva on the way to the Alps. smile

Monday 9 July 2012

Another quick look at the centre of Dole this eve. Don't know what all this water is about but it looks nice, non?

Monday 9 July 2012

Amazing day out at #TdF TT. Now eating kebab in pretty park in Dole. Tired but so happy. Saw start/climb/finish. Thank you @Orica_GreenEDGE!

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Arrivé, the pointy end: Monfort, Froome, Menchov, Nibali, Evans, Wiggins

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Arrivée: Van Garderen, Brajkovic, Schleck, Gallopin, Roche, Van Den Broeck

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Arrivée: Sagan, Kashechkin, Cancellara, Sörensen, Velits, Rogers, Izaguirre Insausti, Coppel, Leipheimer

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Arrivée: O'Grady, Hincapie, Kessiakoff, Vichot, Kiserlovski (being overhauled by), Peraud, Szmyd, Casar

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Arrivée: Other sights from on and around the time trial finishing straight.

Monday 9 July 2012

On the climb: Legend Jens Voigt doesn't seem to understand it's a TT & there's no-one behind to put the pain on! wink

Monday 9 July 2012

On the climb: Velits, Fofonov (with no back-up & next rider in his team due almost 20 minutes later!), Minard

Monday 9 July 2012

On the climb: Henderson, who joked via Twitter about not trying too hard was certainly the one smiling most here!

Monday 9 July 2012

On the climb: Levarlet, De Kort, Knees, Trofimov, Morkov, Devenyns, Boeckmans, Popovych, Kern, Marzano

Monday 9 July 2012

On the climb: As you'd expect from a legend like Johnny Hoogerland... he was up here like a rocket!

Monday 9 July 2012

On the climb: Roelandts, Petacchi, Zingle, Impey, Kiryienka, Perez Moreno, Bak, Roy

Monday 9 July 2012

On the climb: Martin, world TT champ looks like he knows how to suffer, but even he though is on the inner ring here!

Monday 9 July 2012

On the climb: Quinziato, Ruijgh, Lund, Kadri, Pineau, Grabsch, Cummings

Monday 9 July 2012

On the climb: Other things snapped in the 2 minute time gaps between riders. And yes - this climb was steep!

Monday 9 July 2012

Saw the start, now on the 14% section of #TdF TT course. Glad these guys look to be finding it as hard as I did yesterday! wink #SweatPouring

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Départ: Cavendish, Gretsch, Van Hummel, Ladagnous, Oss, Pineau, Eisel, Westra

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Départ: Farrar, Timmer, Lemoine, Renshaw, LL Sanchez, Hutarovich, Lloyd

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Départ: Have to include a few of the caravan, but think was more impressed with the Italians at the Giro.

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Départ: Other random stuff. Note the trend in team busses, everything including... wink

Monday 9 July 2012

Stage 9 Départ: TT Bling! And some more standard stuff - what is that doing here? Well - it is a bike show, right?

Monday 9 July 2012

5:30am local time. Can try for another hour's sleep or get up & not worry so much about getting good place on course. Hmm. #TdF live day! smile

Sunday 8 July 2012

Oil companies who claim to be clean 'energy' players yet still cause disasters like Deepwater Horizon/Oil Sands: You're not kidding anyone!

Sunday 8 July 2012

@inrng Sky should try and eliminate Cav on these hills... then he can go rest up for the Olympics wink

Sunday 8 July 2012

@CyclingCentral Have you noticed that the CNN F1 show is using the same title music as you guys? #RandomFactsFromAHotelRoom wink

Saturday 7 July 2012

These birds seem to be all over rural France. Here hunting mice spooked by tractor in a field next to our lunch stop.

Saturday 7 July 2012

Macro fun in a field of sunflowers. Very, very pleasing smile

Saturday 7 July 2012

When in France... in summer... it just had to be done. Messing about in a field of sunflowers of course!

Saturday 7 July 2012

Picking up some goodies for a picnic lunch in Bourbon-Lancy. Plus a last look around before we leave. Nice place.

Saturday 7 July 2012

Our hotel here is right by a small lake. Very pretty spot and very nice for an early morning stroll before breakfast.

Friday 6 July 2012

Wow! OK, I take it back about Sagan. Just out-sprinted Greipel & Goss (& trains) on the flat. And even a more normal celebration. Chapeau!

Friday 6 July 2012

@inrng Close, watching from hotel bed after nice spin this morning wink BTW, pavé/strade bianche a lottery? Seems plenty of crashes without!

Thursday 5 July 2012

OMG... restaurant this eve has run out of tart! Had to chase perfect duck in honey sauce down with some kind of chocolate pudding thing grin

Thursday 5 July 2012

Le Relais Fleuri in Toulon sur Allier: Simple yet amazing lunch. Stew and potatoes, meat that melts in the mouth. Oh, and tart for desert smile

Thursday 5 July 2012

Leaving region of Auvergne. We like cheese, but they love it here! Was sweating it out on the ride yesterday wink Wonder what's in store next?

Wednesday 4 July 2012

Seems latest moronic FB trend is posting with a caption, "Hit like if..." I know what 'like' is for thanks, and it's not posts like that! smile

Wednesday 4 July 2012

French #TdF coverage break: nice ad. asking viewers to join in with their local bike club. All disciplines included: road, MTB, BMX, etc. smile

Tuesday 3 July 2012

Afternoon at Lac Chambon, then back again for dinner & walk after. Funny having raclette in summer, & with no heater.