Stage 11: Tour De France

Everyone that has more experience in cycling probably already knew this but I realized that after @tourdefrance crashes the sprinters in hills and mountains, they try to reward them with a stage that caters to them. And this was one of them (Although I still protest because it was still 5,000ft climbing).

Today we weren’t able to begin with the DDEAV peloton. We started 30-40 minutes behind. Fortunately we were able to catch them during their lunch break. Javo and myself have gotten good at chasing them down whenever we begin later. Last time we tried, we failed but today we succeeded. When our legs are feeling good on the flats, we do 3 minutes on and off and get some good speed going. On the rolling hills, every man for himself. As the better descender, Javo always makes it down the hills before me.

After we caught up with DDEAV, everything felt much better. It really makes a difference in being able to maintain a good average speed and motivation.

If you can believe it, one of the cyclists in the group is doing the stages like us but also rides the transitions. So while we are driving to the next stage, the poor guy continues to cycle. I just have no words for what he is doing. Impressive seems to not be enough.

I will need all your best wishes because starting tomorrow is lots of consecutive high elevation gains as we head to the alps. May the good legs favor us.