No, Floyd didn't come on the trip with us, but I did get to meet him when we returned to Lancaster and he was doing a book signing at Barnes and Noble. I let him know that we just returned from riding in the Alps and that I appreciated what he was able to do. It's quite hard to ride up those mountains.

Here are some other pictures from our rides in Nice. We only consulted our maps every 2 miles or so it seemed and still ran into roadblocks. The luggage is slowly arriving home. Mom, Dad, and I have all of our stuff including our bikes but Jonathan and Jessica are still waiting.

I also wanted to share some end of the trip stats:

Miles ridden = 246 miles*

Feet climbed = 29345 ft*
*This data excludes the Alpe d Huez day because of low batteries on the GPS. 6 days of riding are represented.

Number of crashes = 4 (Erin 3, Dad 1)

Number of mechanical problems = 0 (I believe this was due to traveling with our bike mechanic)

Number of redlights run = 1 (By Dad and there would have been more if he drove more than the one time that he did since he was trying to get other drivers to go through redlights)

King of the Mountain Jersey Winner = Jonathan Runner Up= The Scudo



I highly recommend doing a trip like this and hope to go back and bag some more Cols. Thanks for reading and commenting. Feel free to share this blog with your friends.

--Erin

So now it's 5 people and 2 bags home...

...but still many bags (and bikes!) abroad.

Yes, as much as I'd like to say that Jon and I had an easier time getting home, I can't really. Actually, we had an extra day tagged onto our already extended visit, although this last day was spent not in sunny Nice, but in the Park Inn hotel, just minutes from Terminal 1, London Heathrow.

Just how did we find ourselves "minding the gap" you ask? Well, our flight from Nice to London was delayed 90 minutes for no apparent reason, so we landed in London at the exact minute our flight to Philadelphia was scheduled to take off. So we found ourselves stuck with no way of getting over the Atlantic that evening, other than taking a bus to the Manchester airport, then flying to Chicago, then to Boston, perhaps take a pit-stop in Timbuktu, and finally to Philadelphia, sometime early in 2009. Ok, it wasn't quite that bad, but given our list of "options" we decided to let British Airways put us up for the night in an airport hotel, then take an early-afternoon flight to Chicago, and connect via United to Philly. Thankfully the Bernackis, ever flexible and helpful, were willing to change plans and pick us up Saturday at 9pm instead of Friday at 7pm. (Thank goodness for good friends!)

So, let's look at the silver-linings: I found out that I do in fact enjoy Indian food (good thing, because the hotel restaurant had an Indian buffet as the only choice we could use for our voucher that evening); we got to watch silly British comedy on TV; we had a bean-free English breakfast (YES! It's possible!); and...drum-roll please..."Due to the trouble you went through the night before, we're bumping you up to business class." Woo hoo, big chairs! It certainly made the 8 hour flight to Chicago much more enjoyable! And the flight to Philly was fine. It was just good to be off a plane!

Now for the not-so-silver-lining part: we made it to Philadelphia eventually, but not so for our luggage...including, most importantly, Jon's team bike. :-( We're really hoping to get everything back intact and as soon as possible. (I hope the same for the other bags and bikes, too!)

But that's life when you travel abroad--you take a risk, and you hope it's outweighed by the experiences you have on the trip. And we had a fantastic time...the cycling, scenery, food, weather, people, places--absolutely wonderful!


But still...having the luggage might be nice, too!

--Jessica

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

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

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.

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