Thursday, June 28, 2007

3 out of 5 are home with 0 pieces of luggage

Mom, Dad, and I arrived in Philadelphia last night around 8pm. Unfortunately our luggage did not. Our plane from Nice to London was delayed and then stuck in a holding pattern while a gas leak at Heathrow was being taken care of. We were lucky to land there instead of being diverted to another airport. However, while we made our connecting flight to Philly, the luggage is still in transit. We made our report and should get it back in 24-72 hours. The nice thing about it is that we now don't have to figure out a way to transport our bikes back to Lancaster. Woo hoo!

Our last two days in Nice were good. Jonathan, Dad, and I did two rides around the area in the Maritime Alps and had wonderful views of the Mediterranean Sea. I don't recommend riding in Nice however. The traffic is horrendous and not biker friendly at all. On the second day of riding, we took a train out of the city and then started on a ride that included the Col de Madone and the Col de Eze. That ride was less stressful until we had to ride back to into the city. I have no desire to ride in that kind of traffic ever again.

Jonathan and Jessica return on Friday night and hopefully they have more luck with their luggage than we did.

Thanks for checking out our blog and reading about trip. We had a blast. Look for another post with some final pictures and cycling stats.

--Erin

Sunday, June 24, 2007




Ok, expensive WiFi is forcing us to make this quick so please excuse the misspellings. We had a great time in Piedmonte. It is the perfect place to be on a bike. The hills are lower and shorter (3 - 7k) but they are every bit as steep. On Friday we did part of a ride that included "the climbs of champions" and did about 5500 feet of climbing in about 45 miles. The descents were even better than the climbs. After a quick physics lesson for Erin, she was even able to enjoy them. There was hardly any traffic and we didn't have to worry about packing extra jackets so we wouldn't freeze on the descents.


Aside from the riding, we have enjoyed the food, wine and hospitality here in Piedmont. The place that we stayed was the cheapest and nicest place so far and the owners have been great, offering us wines and cheeses and meats and informal lessons in Italian. Next year, we'll just come back here for 2 weeks.
We left this morning to head down the coast to Nice. After miraculously parrallel parking our massive van in a space 9 inches larger than the vehicle itself, we headed towards the beach where we were able to watch the finish of an Ironman triathalon and dip our toes in the Mediterranean. We just finished a lovely meal and are now planning out our rides for the next two days in the Maritime Alps.
Ciao
jon

Friday, June 22, 2007

Over the Col Agnel to Italy

After two climbs, we made it into Italy. Both climbs were quite difficult, but the views were amazing. We started off going from Briançon to the Col de l'Izoard which was very windy. We got off the top of that one very quickly because of how cold it was. After a quick lunch, we continued our descent until we started to ascend again to the Col Agnel which takes us into Italy. This climb was very long and the last 5 km were quite steep. I decided to become part of the support van while Dad and Jonathan continued to descend. We met up at the bottom and drove to our farmhouse near Sinio. The land changed dramatically in one hour from snow and switchbacks to flat and through vineyards. The farmhouse itself is lovely and the owners are very hospitable. We went out to dinner last night and the waitress just kept bringing us food. No menus were required. There were 6 antipastas served, then pasta, then the main course. We were so full we declined on dessert.
We're planning on relaxing here and doing a few rides and tasting the local wine. We'll post again when we arrive in Nice and include more pictures.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Just a note...

...to let our loyal readers know that we may have trouble finding reliable internet access over the next few days. We'll be staying at this lovely Italian farm 15km south of Alba. We'll try to post when we can but might be too busy sampling the Dolcettos and Barbaras.

-jon

Today's La Grave




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Cindy's turn


I'm having a great time so far, in spite of the anxiety. The beginning of the trip has gone extremely well. Thanks to John and Lorraine, we arrived at the airport early and had two great flights. I couldn't even feel the landing of the 777 at LHR. We took an Airbus A321 to Lyons and began the adventure of trying to communicate in French. Our first glitch was the car rental, because we couldn't fit everything into the Renault Traffic. An hour later we started off in a Fiat Skudo equipped with GPS (which is easily confused on switchbacks in the Alps).

Jon has chosen wonderful places for us to stay. The views from the apartment in Annecy and the chalet at La Grave are spectacular and we've had wonderful weather so far. There are flowers everywhere, cultivated and wild. I've been admiring everyone's neatly kept vegetable gardens, most of which are surrounded by red raspberry bushes. Tom just bought me a pint of raspberries for $1euro.

I was most anxious about driving, since I rarely drive manual transmission. On Sunday, when we were in Annecy, the three bikers took off for their ride and Jessica and I were to drive downtown to find a parking spot where they would meet us to watch the end of La Dauphine. I neglected to have Jon show me how to get in reverse, so I had to ask a resident passing by for help. We made it downtown and fortunately found a parking spot not far from the finish line of the race. Jessica and I had a lovely afternoon, which included a boat ride tour of the 14km lake and a great lunch at a cafe. The highlight of the meal was a Belle Helene, a dessert crepe with pears, chocolate, almonds and whipped cream. Since it was Sunday, the stores were closed. We visited a church, St. Maurice, but the organ loft was closed to the public.

While the cyclists rode on Monday, I experienced my first hairpin turns up the mountains, while trying to avoid oncoming traffic and pass cyclists safely. I survived stalling going up mountains and was grateful for any large parking area. My muscles ache from hanging onto the steering wheel and my left calf muscle is sore from holding the clutch in while waiting at a construction spot that took longer than I thought. They are doing plenty of construction in the area, so there is frequently one lane traffic. Jon drove to La Grave by way of Col de Galibier (one of the finishes in this year's Tour). They were going to ride that today, but after yesterday, we convinced them to take a rest day. Since Erin got a preview in the car, I don't think she was disappointed not to ride it. Kathy, the ride reminded me of the time we had to stop for the cows in Colorado. We were about 4 hours later than we wanted to be to arrive at La Grave.

You've already heard Jon and Jessica's tales of yesterday (the supposedly easy ride day). I got to know one stretch of the road really well. My driving has improved somewhat. After I picked Tom and Erin up at Alpe d'Huez, Tom kept telling me to slow down and not take the corners so fast. I think the combination of adrenalin and resentment made me ignore him. When I get home, ask me about doing 3 point turns on Alpe d'Huez and meeting oversized trucks in tunnels. I was greatly relieved when we got the call from Jessica that Jon had arrived. I kept thinking about the comments my sisters would make about the "Kahler communication" problem. I think the calls from Tom and Erin made it worse as we were trying to figure out which spot to wait for them. They kept saying there was nothing to worry about, when we hadn't heard from Jon for more than 2 hours. To get her mind off the thought of Jon lying on the side of the mountain, Jessica asked me about family history. That only worked for a little while - I couldn't think of enough funny stories. I'm just grateful the day ended well with a delicious meal, and as per Deb's advice, plenty of wine.

Today we are relaxing and sight-seeing. Unfortunately, the cable cars to see the glacier on La Meige don't open until Saturday. I'll just have to look at it from my patio.

Cindy

No cause for concern here

I thoroughly enjoyed my climb of Alpe d' Huez. While it was quite steep and very hot, it was also overwhelming. I kept imagining throngs of people parting to allow me to climb up the mountain. The switchbacks were nice because they offered a brief reprieve from the 10% grade in most places. However, 10% seems much steeper when you're going down.
We had a lovely time at the top and had a nice podium shot taken for us. We headed out in an attempt to find an alternate route down the mountain. A few wrong turns later, carnivorous flies, and much miscommunication, Dad and I were still together and headed back the way we came sans Jonathan. I was assuming he found the correct way down and we would meet at the bottom (which we did--Yea!).
However, when we were still on top of the mountain and wondering where Jonathan was, I stopped to talk with someone in the tourism office. She provided me with a map and directions to where Jonathan may have ridden. I asked her if she had any suggestions as to who we could call if we couldn't find Jonathan. She shrugged and said she had no idea. Then she asked if I wanted a sticker. It was a pretty cool sticker.
We all got back together a short time later and all was good. One other highlight was on our ride back down the mountain, we did get a chance to see Mom doing a 3-point on Alpe d' Huez being directed by a woman speaking French. Quite comical. Another fine day in the Alps.
--Erin
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Tuesday: Ice Cream, Toilet Paper, and I'm not a Widow...

I'd consider that at least breaking even.


So you've read Jon' s perspective, and he did a good job of being fair in his explanation of how things happened as they did. That's all very nice and good, and believe me, I am glad that everything turned out fine in the end. But let's just say that Cindy and I aren't looking forward to any more days like yesterday.

We started our day in the little town Jon mentioned: Bourg D'Something-or-another. It was another cute little Alpine town, with flower boxes in full bloom and small children speaking French in an adorable manner. Cindy and I had good intentions of visiting a small museum with exhibits about the flora and fauna of the Alps, and then finding a book of Alpine flowers to keep with us on our journey.

On our way to the museum, we stopped in a bookstore and found a book that was perfect. We decided to wait to look in the museum shop to see if they had a better/cheaper/English-er one. Stupid American mistake #1.

We walked to the museum only to find that it is closed on Mardis (Tuesdays). Of course, it was Tuesday. The door was open though, so we used the bathroom--and it had toilet paper! A first--hooray! (I put some extra in my purse, just in case.) We walked around and found a woman upstairs who told us the museum would open "after 1." It was 12:15, so we walked back and got some ice cream. Little did I know, this would be a highlight of the day.

We tried the museum again at 1:15. This time the woman confessed that she was not in fact associated with the museum and was a teacher for the preschool next door. The museum was, as stated in the sign, closed. *sigh*

So we tried to get the book we saw earlier. The store was now closed for lunch...till 3pm. *sigh* (This time, a little more dramatically.)

So we drove to the town where we had planned to meet Jon, Erin, and Tom when they finished. It was then that Jon called to let us know they had ascended and would be down in 30 minutes--by 3pm. We moved to the base of Les Deus Alpes to meet them and waited...and waited...then the phone rang.

Erin and Tom told us that they couldn't find the way down and weren't going to go any further. They lost Jon, as he had gone ahead, and hoped/expected he would turn around and meet them once he too realized:
(a) he too couldn't find his way down
(b) he couldn't find his sister and father and should wait for them
(c) he was going the wrong way


Apparently Jon did try to find Erin and Tom, but they were looking for him elsewhere--I don't exactly know the details. Neither do I really need to know. What I do know is that somewhere around 4pm, after 4 more phone calls and no sign of Jon, I was feeling worried. Cindy was too, so she decided to drive to the peak of Alpe D'Huez to pick up Erin and Tom; I wanted to stay put in case Jon would continue on to the place he had told us to wait. I figured it was what he would do, and I was correct: at 5:30, my dear, dehydrated husband finally rode up to me. And what timing! I had just mastered the phrase "Me mari est perdu." (My husband is lost.) I had not yet had time for the following phrases: "Where is the hospital?" "Can you help me?" or "Excuse me, but do you have any Zantac? I'm spending a week in the Alps with my husband and his family and when (and if) I see him again I am going to kick his skinny little cyclist butt."

Anyhow, Cindy, master of the road, drove back with Tom and Erin in tow and picked me and Jon up. We all headed back to our chalet, listening to the 3 of them recount their day while avoiding head-on collisions with wide loads in narrow tunnels. (Really, there is a reason the French drink so much wine, and I believe it has less to do with their physical health than their mental health.)

So in the end, all is well. Everyone learned a lesson though, I hope: communication is key, stick together, carry extra water...and of course, "buy it when you see it!"

--Jessica

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Alpe d'Huez - Jon's experience


Since we all had somewhat different perspectives on the day, we'll do this in three installments. Here's the story of my day:

After a leisurely morning, we headed down the road to Bourg d'Oisan (about 30K) and began the climb up Alpe d'Huez. It's a very different scene on a random Tuesday compared to watching it on TV during the tour. The road is quite wide and in good condition. The switchbacks are clearly marked starting at 21 and counting down. My goal was to do the climb in under an hour. The record is somewhere around 37 min and I heard that Sheryl Crow did it in 90 min so it seemed a reasonable goal.

The climb starts out pretty steep and it was tough to get a good seated rhythm (my low gear is a 39x27) but I started feeling pretty good after a while. In theory, the climb is supposed to ease up after the first 4 km but it really didn't seem to get any easier. The nice thing about the climb is that you are blind to what's above you for the most part. Being able to see the road the whole way up would really be discouraging. I picked up the pace near the top and finished in about 63 min. Dad and Erin came through about half an hour later.

After getting a Coke and a candy bar, we headed out to look for an alternate route to take us back down. Unfortunately, this involved climbing for another mile or so. At this point, about 100 biting flies were trying to kill me so I rode up the hill as fast as I could until I came to a dead end. I turned around to tell Dad and Erin that we'd taken a wrong turn but I couldn't find them anywhere. I continued back down towards the ski resort but I couldn't find them anywhere. I looked for about a half hour before finding the right road and heading down. I figured that I since I didn't know where Dad and Erin were, I could at least go to where I knew Mom and Jessica were.

I thought that it would be a quick descent down to the car but I soon realized that would not be the case. The road I took was about another 30 km or so and included 3 more climbs including the Col de Saranne. This was a problem considering that I only had brought enough food and water to do one climb. To make matters worse, I took another wrong turn and did a climb that I didn't have to do. Finally, very tired and thirsty, I found my way down to the meeting spot where my lovely wife was waiting. I had told her on the phone 2.5 hours ago that I would see her in half an hour so she was a bit worried. Erin and Dad arrived with the van a few minutes later.

-jon

Monday 6/18 - First day in the High Alps

We left our hotel in Annecy and drove south to Albertville. After a stop for breakfast, we assembled our bikes and started to ride towards the Cat 1 Cormet de Roselend. At 22km it wasn't very steep but it took quite a long time to get to the top. About a third of the way up, I left Erin and Dad to ride with a passing Frenchman. We couldn't really communicate at all but he set a good pace for the 10km I was with him.

Once the climb came out of the trees, the Cormet provides really beautiful views of the surrounding mountains. It climbs gradually enough that you can actually enjoy the view as well. As I approached about 2km from the summit, an Astana rider with two team cars came up behind me. I kept pace with him for a bit and said hello when he passed. He didn't look at me but just kind of grunted... Jagje... something or other - I couldn't quite make it out. I followed his team car to the top and stayed within 100 m of him. He stopped to get a jacket for the descent and i took the opportunity to grab the Astana hat we bought at the Dauphine and a pen and have him sign it. One of his support team seemed upset that I had a hat that listed an old sponsor so the rider gave me the sweaty hat he was wearing up the climb. At this point , we had no idea who this guy was but after coming back and comparing the picture we took with the picture of the Dauphine podium, we determined that the rider was Kashechkin (third at the Dauphine and one of Kazakhstan's finest).

We put on some warmer clothes and made the hairy descent from the Roselend. Depending on who you ask, it was either exhilerating or terrifying. We were hoping for some flat roads for part of our ride but we had no such luck. The road to Val d'Isere was uphill for about 25km. In the interest in getting to our hotel before dark and not destroying ourselves this early in the week, we packed it up and drove up the Col de l'Iseran and onward to our chalet in La Grave.

-jon
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Sunday Dinner - Petite Friture

Jessica ordered "Petite Friture" at the restaurant. She correctly translated Friture to mean fried fish and we knew petite meant small so she was expecting a small portion of a fried fish. As you can see, she received instead, many many small fried fish. They were looking at her funny so Erin, the good sport she is, agreed to switch plates with her.

-jon
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Le Dauphine

After our ride up the Forclaz, we went back to Annecy to see the Dauphine finish up. As soon as we arrived on course, the caravan came through and threw sausages at us so we knew it was going to be a good time. We watched the race from the 300 m to go spot and tried to stay out of the rain. It was great to see Vino come through for the win and the home crowd seemed happy to have Moreau get the overall.

As you can see from the pictures, we did our best to try and stalk some pro riders. Bradley Wiggins got away from me as soon as I took his picture but we caught up to the Astana team soigneurs and Jessica convinced them to let her hold some victory flowers for a picture. If you look closely, you can see Vino's helmet in that old guy's left hand. After the race we headed back to the hotel where Mavic was having some kind of press event for the launch of their new wheelset. A few Saunier Duval riders were in attendance but we were too tired to hassle them.

-jon
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Sunday, June 17, 2007



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We're here and Col number 1

Travelling from the US went very smoothly with no problems on the flight or with the luggage. Our bikes made it unscathed and Jonathan and Dad got them together and working fairly quickly. We picked up our rental van in Lyon and drove to Annecy where we are currently. The hotel is right on the lake and we have beautiful views.

We took our first bike ride around lake and to the Col de la Forclaz at 1157 meters. The cat 1 climb was 8.2 km at an average of 8.5% gradient. It wasn't so bad. Jonathan of course was waiting for Dad and I at the top where we were overlooking the lake and watching hang-gliders take off. We ended up riding the end of the course for today's stage of the Dauphine libere race where we are heading off to next.

Tomorrow we leave for Albertville and then we will ride 60 miles to Tignes which is part of stage 7 of this year's Tour de France.

Overall it is quite lovely here. We are enjoying listening to children speak french. We'll post again hopefully soon.

Friday, June 15, 2007

We're off...


The flight to France leaves tonight at 7pm out of Philadelphia. In talking to my fellow travelers, we're all semi-prepared (me probably being the least prepared). I figure that someone will have whatever we need. I'm excited and a bit nervous. Jonathan just rides so fast...how will we ever keep up?
So let's hope that we make connecting flights, everything goes smoothly with the rental vehicle, that we don't get lost, and there aren't too many times where mom has to clap her hands in front of dad so that he pays attention while driving.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

3 days until we leave


Welcome to the Kahler family blog. We will hopefully be updating this site as much as possible throughout our trip to France and Italy. We hope you enjoy our musings...