France | Marnie and Steve Travel

Reims, France

Today, we got up and cycled into the Champagne region of France. Steve ended up with a group that got lost in a vineyard and ended up riding 56 miles. Today’s terrain was hilly and much more daunting than the previous flat stages. To ride day after day like this certainly give us an appreciation of what the Tour riders go through. We’ve been doing our 30 and 40 milers before today’s longer 56 while the pros ride more than twice of that and at a much higher speed.

Steve and the vineyards

We ended our ride in Reims, the Champagne capital of the world. We went with some of our new friends to a nice café, had lunch, shared an excellent bottle of champagne and an excellent Bordeaux red wine. Steve also ate steak tartare, and it grossed Marnie out. It looked a lot like raw ground beef with some seasoning and a little pickle relish. It may have been more than that, but Steve ate it all and said it was great. Maybe he rode so much anything would have been good.

Champagne lunch with new friends

We ended up watching the end of the Tour on a television at a bar about 1000 meters from the finish line. Today’s stage was very uneventful compared to the excitement of the last couple of days. We’re getting to the point of being tour vets, so the TV provides all of the minute details. But the excitement and bustle of the cities is still incredible, making each day another new adventure. The race was won by Petacchi, who also won an earlier stage. The big news was that Mark Cavendish, one of the greatest sprinters in the world seemed to run out of gas in the last few hundred meters to fall from first or second all the way to position 12. As for Lance, he seemed to cross the finish line unscathed, and we saw him chatting and laughing during the middle of the stage. Once again, those guys are amazing.

Tomorrow, we’re off to Epernay. More later. Our trip is coming to an end. As always, it gets a bit bitter/sweet. We’re ready to get home, ready to not live out of a suitcase in a different hotel every couple of nights, but on the other hand, it’s the Tour, it’s France, and we’re on vacation. Plus, you can’t beat a little Champagne.

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La Chaussee-sur-Marne, France

Today we did something we’ve never done before and we may never do again: pavé. Well, Steve might do it again, but then he’s the athlete in the family. Pavé are the old cobblestone roads that you find in the north of France and the south of Belgium. They are a legendary part of cycling’s Spring Classic races and they are very difficult to ride.

Steve on the Arenberg pave

We started the day on a ride that followed the actual Tour de France route about four hours before the peloton passed. Today’s stage had seven pavé sectors and we had the “opportunity” to ride three of them. I made it through about the first 20 yards on my bike and walked the rest of the way. Steve powered through all of them, along with the full 40 mile ride.

Riding pavé is like holding on to a jackhammer while you are trying to stay upright on a bike, while your teeth are rattling out of your mouth and your eyeballs are shaking out of their sockets. The roads are not level and it is hard to find a good path that allows you to move forward. For the Tour riders, they do this at speeds of about 25 miles per hour, in a group as large as 190 riders, while crowds of spectators are screaming at them from both sides. There’s nothing else like it in the world. The Tour de France does not always have pavé sections but this year it is a highlight of the route. It broke the peloton apart, riders went down, lost tires, and came out of it very dirty.

Arenburg pave

The finish line was located right next to the entrance to the Arenberg forest, which begins with one of the most legendary sections of pave. You can see how excited Steve was to actually see this section of “road” even though we weren’t able to ride on it. Maybe next time?

After our ride we drove through the finish line, parked, and were escorted into the Izoard, or VIP area, where we were offered drinks, snacks, and then champagne once the race was over. This exclusive area is less than 100 meters from the finish line and was located right next to a large jumbotron-type television, which allowed us to watch the race progress.

Craziness at the finish (from the bus)

It was quite a day. The photos might give you some idea of how close we were to the action.

We are now traveling by bus into France to our next hotel and the next stage of the Tour, which is through the champagne region. We have just two days left of our adventure and it’s going so fast!

Six of our group left us this afternoon and six more will join us this evening for the next phase of the trip. It’s been a great group with very supportive people, even though our riding abilities vary greatly. We have a professional bike racer from Greece, a triathlon coach from Australia, and an exercise physiologist from the USA among our “Team Custom Getaways.” That’s what we love most about these kinds of trips: the diverse group of people you get to know.

The Netherlands are in the World Cup finals. Steve gets to wear his orange jersey again on Sunday!

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