The pace of this adventure is unrelenting. I'm sitting here on a terrace overlooking the main street in Morzine with Tim, Simon and Michiel desperately trying to catch up with our story before the race arrives today at 3:30 pm. What is supposed to be a rest day is terribly overbooked. Between late finishes, long transfers, and the lack of a reliable internet connection we're all behind. Then there's laundry to do and a World Cup Final to watch tonight. And did I mention I'll photograph the race, probably on the steep pitch a few metres from the chalet where we are staying.
Yesterday I barely made it through the chaos of the finish preparations at Les Rousses. The depart for Stage 8 overlapping the route of Stage 7. After speaking with three friendly Gendarmes it seemed I had no choice but to take a very circuitous detour... but after a few minutes to consider how much time I'd lose I spun around, turned on my flashers and drove onto the course. With a team car behind me I just honked my horn at anything and anyone in my way, including the Gendarmes. Five hundred metres of this bluff (the red mercedes has an official yellow banner on the top of the windshield) saw me through the blockage and free to make the turn to Lajoux that had me on course for Stage 8 to Morzine-Avoriaz.
Morale in the group is great. Food is good and not surprisingly, plentiful. Each day we stop for a full lunch at a restaurant that Wilfred arranges on the day. Typically this is a meal of pasta, salad and bread. The stop is long enough that the riders often change out of riding gear to let bibs dry in the sun. I'm not sure I could stop this long and restart my engine but the boys seem to manage it after a ten minute power nap. Wilfred thinks they need to fuel up in this way and won't be able to take in enough calories on the bike without the serious meal. It seems to be working.
The one low point was the "prison" hotel we stayed in after Stage 7. Forty kilometres downhill from Station des Rousses we stayed at a strange hotel "automatique" that seemed to universally baffle and annoy us. From the side-by-side vending machines in the lobby that gave no indication they were connected, to the strange bathroom pods in each room which felt like something from George Lucas's sci-fi THX 1138, we were in alien territory. That evening I heard several exasperated people struggling at the front gate to book a room through the ATM-like kiosk at the gate.
This was a far cry from the idyllic accommodations the night before. Paul and Joos, parents of team member Lucas, hosted us for the evening at their hill top chateau in Bourgogne. We ate outside... a few metres from rows of grape vines and I slept a few doors away at a conv erted nunnery owned by a local vitner.
Back to the road. A few girlfriends and friends appeared en route yesterday, waving Dutch flags and orange pom poms at the side of the road. It gave the boys a morale boost before lunch and the big climbs towards the end of the stage. All seemed to agree that the penultimate ascent of the Col del la Ramaz was tougher. From the first sharp foothills the avalanche tunnels high on the cliff face above are a daunting target. Above them a high alpine plain opens up which the road skirts and climbs before dropping a little to Morzine.
From there it punches up to Avoriaz, steeply at first before flattening some in the last five kilometres. My guess is that if a selection arrives in the town there will be fireworks on those early pitches.
This was shot from my hotel room window in Reims. Rather nice I think.
To be honest until the boys jumped into a fountain in the middle of a roundabout 7km from the finish in Montargis I really didn't think much of the stage. With the exception of a handful of shaded villages in the first 50km there wasn't much to like under cloudless skies and baking sun. The route was far more difficult to navigate and in some of the towns it ran down narrow one-way streets, which is fine for the race itself, but it gave me a nasty surprise twice today blindly following the yellow arrows only to have an alarmed local driver wave me off.
Between the towns the landscape seemed like a watered down version of Stage 4, it felt flatter and when I wasn't driving in circles to rejoin the route, I was working hard to find anything like the vantage points from yesterday. So today's photos don't include anything on the bike. There will be plenty more of that as the scenery improves.
Easy for me to say this was an easy stage to Reims. Beautiful roads through the grainery of France with little traffic until the campers appear late in the day looking for good spots for the stage ahead. We saw our first sunflowers today. Legs are good but there are a few aches and pains. Thijs broke a rear spoke and threw his wheel out of true. We waited 30 minutes for a replacement in the team car but that resulted in some impromptu bathing au natural. We had a good meal at the hotel del Cloche under the eaves of a giant cathedral. I'll post some pictures of the view from my room tonight. Then we went off in search of a sports bar to watch the Netherlands scrape by Uruguay 3-2. Elmer, who loves football almost as much as he loves food, was nearly ill before and during the game. When the final whistle blew he ran straight outside to celebrate and release all that nervous energy.
This morning I packed my gear and creaked my way down the grand staircase at the beautiful Domaine Du Chateau De La Neuville Hôtel. It sits on a lovely parcel of land complete with pond, geese, swans and sheep. Ironically its 400 metres from a nuclear power station and its giant cooling towers. Regardless of the weather, there will always be clouds over Tihange.
This was one of several nights during our Tour that I wasn't able to stay in the same hotel as the team... as my decision to join them was long after all the original accommodations had been booked. Wilfred Kruijf of the Cycling Dutchman, has done a fantastic job managing the logistics. He's outside now at first light organizing things in one of the support vans as I'm typing this. While I'm on the subject I owe a special debt to Melanie Vandermeer for her patience and good nature in making all my arrangements. Elle est une dame magnifique.
This was a day for the cobbles and after some 160km of busy roads, rain and punctures the sun shone on our peloton easing fears that the cobbles might be wet. Happily they were dry, but these sections will test the pros and should string out the race itself today. Our final kilometres felt like we were going in circles over the pave, left and right through small towns watched by the campers that were already taking their place along the route. The cobbles were also hard on the photo car. I got one section with the guys and then struggled to catch them. Each time I seemed to make progress a lumbering camper would cost me minutes. C'est la vie.
As you can see from this photo the team are putting the SKINS compression gear to good use immediately following the stage, and they're enjoying the white camo tights as modeled here by Jasper.
The boys were super strong again with a handful feeling good enough to accelerate over the cobbles in the last 40km. They rode these sections hard to the finish just outside the entrance to the Arenberg forest (looking ominous in the gathering shade). The last shot is a few metres into the trench. Apologies for the abbreviated story... I slept last night like I was hit by a truck and must hustle to get down to breakfast.
Vive la fléchage jaune. If Stage one was challenging, stage two's navigation was effortless thanks to the Tour and two large white vans that place strategic yellow arrows at every critical junction (and plenty of places in between to eliminate any doubt you're still on course). Barring mischief, it's foolproof. I actually shadowed one of the vans for a few kilometres at the outer limit of the signage before turning back 7k to meet the team for lunch. Huge plate of spaghetti liberally sprinkled with cheese and fresh bread.
The team is the real thing. Clearly they've got the training base to attempt this; as you'll see in the photos they're lean and strong. They look great in their kit and all of the donated gear from Giro, Specialized, Twin Six and Skins has them looking, if not riding like pros (something they're very quick to point out that they're not). And there are some surprises... like Tim Bloemhof who had never ridden a road bike until last December. That's right, never! Sure he's Dutch and always has ridden his bike, but ride the Tour de France on seven months of training. Well, we're a long way from Paris but he's looked great both days and you'd never suspect he was this new to the road. Bravo Tim.
Having been around the easy chemistry of the Rapha Continental boys, I know a good thing when I see it. These guys are terrific together, all of them sharing the work, full of good humor and a healthy respect for the parcours. Only good legs will get them over les alpes and the Pyrénéennes but this kind of camaraderie will take them to the foot of those mountain passes.
On a perfect sunny day they rode through Belgium. Late in the stage we stopped briefly on a forest road at the top of the Col de Stockeu (we were descending it) where a wonderful relief statue to Eddy Merckx stands. He emerges from the living rock. We actually rode down a parallel road into the next town because the local kids were having a soap box race down the hill on the TdF course (and they were flying, these were not wooden crates they were driving but cool little missiles)
The finish in Spa is a long straight shot that would certainly suit a bunch sprint but it may not come to that with the climb and rocket descent into town giving a breakaway or solo rider a great chance at success. Here are a handful of the images on the day.
Today we get a late start on Stage three. We have to meet the mayor of Wanze for a little donation ceremony.
I woke up this morning to the insistent sound of song birds over the roofs of Brussels. They're quiet now as I try to catch you up with the story of the last few days. We rode our prologue on Friday accompanied by Hennie Kuiper, and Jan Janssen; both of whom still look incredibly fit on and off the bike. We toured the closed course at a leisurely pace; the boys riding a fleet of fun, stylish Vanmoofs for the day and me often just off the front on the A2B Hybrid bike equipped with the camera mount that Phil Wood fabricated so I could shoot them around the entire circuit. It worked well.
We rode to the start via the bike paths and surface streets of the waking city, but the best part was riding into what I thought was a subway station, taking our bikes down the escalator a hundred feet and then riding under the River Meuse in a underground stream of commuting cyclists. An escalator ride on the other side popped us back to the surface where we rode out of the station building, easy as you please.
After the prologue we attended a wonderful team presentation from the lofty heights of the Deloitte tower (the tallest building in Benelux) and there Hennie Kuiper inspired the team with tales of his Tours. Sadly, I could only pick up a little of the emotional thread as he spoke in Dutch but I could see the weight of his words register on the faces of everyone in attendance. He told them to persevere and good things could happen. Prophetic words for all sports.
And then there was football. At 4pm, the entire country stopped to watch the Netherlands play Brazil. We piled into a jam-packed bar (sweat lodge would be a better description) to live and die for ninety minutes in orange. The team got off to a slow start in the first half going down a goal but as you know came roaring back in the second. The place went crazy... I mean totally crazy. HOLLAND, HOLLAND, HOLLAND!!!
Yesterday the team and friends (65 riders in total) rode the 223 kilometres to Brussels. It showered as they crossed into Belgium covering bikes in road grit and making the big group a little nervous. Several riders left some skin on the pavement including a couple of ours, but they wore the damage proudly. Typically, the wet roads spawned a series of flat tires.
Without a driver until Tuesday, I some significant navigational frustrations, so I stayed with the Cycling Dutchman convoy through Belgium, driving Jolmer's big red Mercedes wagon behind Leon in the first support van I wondered if he was actually trying to shake me through Antwerp. Turns out he didn't know I was there for about 30 kilometers. I think I earned my first Tour driving stripe Saturday.
Today I hope we see the yellow arrow signage earlier on the route. Yesterday it didn't appear until the afternoon and it made an enormous difference in following the Tour's labyrinthine track through old towns and newer city streets. If the arrows are out, I can forget about trying to follow my Dutch GPS... she does have a nice voice though.
Out of time now must stop writing to get down to breakfast. It's another 200km to Spa.
Rotterdam is all about the bicycle. If I thought I was impressed by Portland bike culture, I was seeing a young, vibrant transplant from older roots. Those roots lie in the rich, fertile earth of the Netherlands and the hearts (and legs) of the Dutch. Here everyone rides a bicycle from the cradle to the grave. The streets teem with them, and it is the bicycle and not the car, at the top of the natural order. Almost without exception Dutch cyclists ride without helmets and yet they navigate their bikes with a stylish confidence in all directions in a constant, thriving urban peloton. It is an amazing sight.
So here are a few of the faces of Rotterdam. All riding, or double riding. You may recognize a few recent transplants at the end of the sequence. Tomorrow our team takes to the streets for our own prologue. I've met about half the boys in the last couple of days and they've welcomed me as part of the team.
One Hundred pounds of cameras, flashes, bike gear and clothing ready to go. ThinkTank Photo's Airport Security v2 (left) and mammoth Logistics Manager do the heavy lifting; the Airport Security gets carried on with all the expensive stuff and actually weighs a lot more fully loaded than it's big brother for this assignment. As always the large Rapha Backpack is glued to me with my MacBook Pro, 2TB of external drives and various power and computer accessories.
If I've forgotten anything now, I'll just have to buy it in Europe. See you on the other side.
The Tour for Kika rider's biggest challenge may not happen on the road. It may be fought every night when they step off the bike and try to recover for the next day's mileage. Recovery drinks, calories and a good night's sleep will be important but we're really happy that SKINS has agreed to provide us with their compression tights to improve blood flow during those important first few hours after the day's stage.
This is technology that all serious endurance athletes embrace. During last year's Specialized Ride to Vegas, world mountain bike champ and last year's Leadville 100 womens champ Rebecca Rusch made sure her amateur charges had an opportunity to wear SKINS' products. It clearly made a big difference.
Each rider will have a pair of sport tights in black and a pair of sport tights in white camo pattern to choose from. Thank you SKINS.
More thanks are in order. Rapha released a great-looking commemorative Tourmalet jersey yesterday and I'll have one of them in France to award to the KOM winner on Stage 17 at the top of the mountain. A great prize for that monumental climb, thanks Slate.
Finally, packing and shipping all this generously-donated gear to Europe was going to be a very expensive proposition before Fedex stepped in and helped us last week. The company who had perhaps the best co-starring role in a major motion picture ever, with Mr. Hanks in Castaway, proved they have a very big heart in response to my hail-mary email. Thank you Lisa and Jill.
France and the Tour for Kika project are rapidly approaching while I'm reeling in my mammoth checklist as inexorably as the peloton tracks down the remnants of a doomed break. Just to keep things interesting I figure to make the catch a few hours before I step onto the plane for Rotterdam. My logistical challenge pales in comparison to the miles the team is logging in preparation for this epic but I've surely set a new personal record for emails in the last six weeks. The lack of activity on the blog is a direct result... apologies.
It's been worth it though. I'm happy to report that all that correspondence has resulted in inspiring industry support for the project and this is the first of many times I'll thank the companies and friends who stepped up to give the team a terrific leadout. Giro has outfitted the whole team with Atmos helmets (Titanium colorway) and killer Pearl-Orange Havik 2 glasses. The Havik 2s are a thoughtful mix of full and compact models for the team to organize best fit and the standard dark tint lenses are complemented with additional Orange Selectors.
Specialized generously organized black BG Comp gloves and white BG Comp shoes for the team. The BG gel pad equipped gloves will reduce hand and arm fatigue on those long stages while the great fit of the BG Comp shoes will transfer every last watt of power into the pedals. Selfishly I'm ecstatic that the whole team is wearing white shoes for photography, Now if I can only get them to shave their legs. Rumor has it we've got a few holdouts. I've suggested they raise a little extra money from friends and family who want to see smooth legs (whatever their motivation).
Twin Six have agreed to supply us with their sharp Motor socks - the only offering in their stylish lineup with a flash of Dutch orange. As an aside I love the look of the new Twin Six Team bibs and jersey. The blue/black graphic stripes on white just rock. Figure I need the slimming power of black for my hind quarters. Those of a more wiry persuasion should definitely check them out.
That's it for kit, but we're not done yet. We know that the final climbs in the Alps and Pyrenees will be mobbed, even 24 hours before the pros arrive. Worried that the police may close the road to cars, we've secured the loan of an electric bike from Ultramotor. The A2B Hybrid has four levels of assistance from it's direct drive motor. It can cruise at 17 mph on the flats and 12-14 mph in the hills. I demo'ed the bike here in California last week and Sunday gave it the litmus test on the 19-mile climb to Mt. Hamilton. If our photo car is blocked we'll deploy the ebike so I can stay ahead of the boys on the Tourmalet.
Finally, my pals at Phil Wood got a brief look at the Ultramotor during its stay so they could machine a special camera mount for the Hybrid's rear carrier. Am I lucky or what. I'll pick up the mount this week and mate it with the bike that's waiting in Amsterdam. The rest of the gear left for the Netherlands Thursday. Provided I managed to complete the custom's documentation correctly it should be in the team's hands Monday.
Finally got some hot weather for the Memorial long weekend and the Mount Hamilton Road Race Sunday. I basically spent two hours testing equipment for France but captured a bunch of familiar faces while being eaten alive by swarms of biting midges. These images link over to the new VeloDramatic portfolio site where you can purchase prints directly. Thus far I've only transferred the most recent local race coverage, but I'll be uploading the Best of VeloDramatic in the next couple of weeks.
I'm liking the painterly feel of the higher-key, flash-assisted color work here. It's quite flattering and certainly helps even out harsh mid day light. Not a huge variety in the shots on offer though. I wasn't in the mood to work the hill too hard, and the Campus police are pretty sensitive about being there period, so I played it cool.
In the end the guys from Becher+ provided some terrific ink for a little edgier B&W treatment.
In 37 days I head to Rotterdam and from there to France for a month.
July 2nd - a day before the pros circle the streets of Rotterdam, fifteen intrepid Dutch lads will set out to ride the 3600 km of this year's Tour de France for Kika, a Netherlands-based charity supporting research into childhood cancers. It is a monumental challenge, perhaps the greatest test a recreational cyclist could aspire to. The prologue, twenty stages, cobbles, crosswinds, and the mountains of the Alps and Pyrenees await them.
Riding all stages 24 hours ahead of the race is sure to elevate the experience; mountain stages will already be lined by fans and towns and villages en route will be buzzing with excitement as they put the finishing touches on their preparations.
Call it serendipity. Six weeks ago I first heard about this adventure when one of the riders, Simon Knops studying in the US at the time, rode and won the cat 5 race at Copperopolis. I'd taken his picture and he wanted to know if he could use it on the Kika site. It's fair to say I was immediately intrigued and two weeks ago after discussions with the team I committed to the project as the official photographer.
The logistics are daunting. Between now and June 28th there's ton of details yet to be worked out. My accommodations are booked for only half the stages. We've got some novel ideas for transport and they need to fall in place. There's gear testing, and decisions to be made about how much I take. Meanwhile the team continues to train, putting in major miles on the weekends and they have a training camp in the Alps in June to put a sharp point on that fitness. By comparison my job is easy.
To date they've raised $30,000 dollars for Kika with lots more to come. Fingers crossed I'll be able to announce a couple of equipment sponsors this week. I hope that those of you who enjoy VeloDramatic will support the cause and if you're in the industry, we're still looking for product in a few areas. I'd love to see the team get outfitted with shoes, its the final piece in the team kit that would give these committed amateur cyclists a PRO look. Arm warmers, gloves, compression gear, nutrition and supplements are all areas we could use some help. Contact me at robertson@velodramatic.com if you'd like to be part of this epic project and the resulting imagery.
I'll have several more updates before we roll out in Holland including an ecommerce donation link from the team shortly. Come July I'll do my best to post a daily update and photo from the road. I'm excited to part of the team and can't wait to document their journey. With the support of the luminaries of Dutch cycling (Hennie Kuiper, Laurens ten Dam, Jan Janssen, and Hennie Stamsnijder) and Ivo Opstelsten (former mayor of Rotterdam) our boys can't miss.
