Vent Violent.....

Warning Signs on the Motorway 

What a day. When we were about to land in Marseilles on Friday I realized that the weekend was going to be windy. The aircraft was all over the shop while we were approaching the airport. We drove to "Baumes de Venise" (the starting point) and the wind got worse. The race is only tomorrow, I'm sure the wind will come down; that's what we thought.

Saturday morning Rider NoShow, Rider CahLi and Rider Zinni rode to the start point (5km from the hotel) and we had the wind in our favour, so it was great.

Rider Zinni, NoShow and CahLi

Before the start the organiser said in French and English: "Be careful on the last three km of the climb as it's a bit windy", carefully forgetting to define the speed of the wind and few more details.


We start the race, good pace, wind all over the directions, so the first 20km are fine. Wind high (30/50km/h) but manageable. I hear few times the same thing like: Putain, le vent est terrible; but we keep going.

We arrived in Malaucene, one of the three approach to Ventoux.  

The Climb 

This is where the 21km climb starts.  The wind picks up again, but there are trees protecting you. So I keep thinking, this is ok, the climb is fine, manageable a bit windy but ok. We ride, we climb and slowly reach 10km sign to the summit. The gradients start getting higher, but it' ok. We can do this! I think... 

Then we get to minus 7km to the summit. I am getting colder and I start thinking: "I should have had used my leg warmers and my proper gloves, never mind", and I keep climbing. I see riders riding back on the other side of the road and I think, what a loser, why are you giving up? CahLi says the same. 

I get to minus 5 km to the summit, I can feel that I am getting slower, and I am running out of water. My legs are heavy... The feed station is only 1km to go. I can see CahLi and No Show in front of me. I reached the feed station and I am feeling cold. CahLi shouts:  "get some water and let's go as it's getting colder here". I fill up the bidon and I quickly start pedaling. 

We are at minus 2km from the summit now. It's very cold, my fingers are frozen and we still need to climb another 250 meters to reach the summit. We keep pedaling. Suddenly you cannot see anything anymore.  We are pedaling in the sky, among clouds, the wind pick us again, there are no trees to protect you, you are in the open space. 

This is where the odyssey starts. I can see an hairpin in front of us that turns left (we later realized that was the last hairpin to the summit), I can see my Garmin and I realize that I must be close to the top. While checking my Garmin and going thru the hairpin a gust of wind hits me and few other riders. It was insane, I would guess more than 100 km/h. 

My bike shakes, I shake, I can barely hold my handlebar because of my frozen hands. I try to stay on my bike but the wind is too strong. I came off and walked for 20/30 meters, I got on my bike again and start pedaling but I see everyone turning back. "Putain, le col c'est ferme'". I keep going up. Once I get to the top I see No Show who tells me to turn back as it's impossible to go over the col and we will not be allowed to cross the Col. A motorbike is on the floor. It looked like a War Zone! 

We turn back and ride to the Cafe' near the food station or 4km from the summit and we see Zeke.
Zeke looks at me and says, what's wrong with you? You look really bad. Go Inside!!  I am seriously cold and start shivering. I get an  hot chocolate and I can barely hold my cup. I get another hot drink, but again I find very hard to hold the cup. We slowly get warmer and decide to go back to the start line, 35 km away.

It was a great experience, scary at times but we were all glad we climbed the Ventoux. We were annoyed not been able to go over the Col but it was not safe.

A Ranch weekend cannot be complete without a proper dinner. Rider No Show was in charge of this and we had an amazing dinner. We talked crap over dinner, as usual.

That's how the summit looked like at 6 PM in the evening 

Vive le Ranch. 

Varsity

So Cah Li and NoShow in preparation for their upcoming ride over the Mt Ventoux decided to take a flight to Nice and stay with our old friend Willem Bonestroo the owner of Les Deux Freres in the charming medieval village of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin.

We began the weekend by CahLi picking up NoShow and Alix from the Nice airport and zooming up to La Turbie for a nice meal coupled with a glass or too many of rosé at Cafe de la Fontaine.

And after a snooze we were up early and having breakfast and made it on the road by 9:30am for our 100k loop into the mountains behind Nice.  The idea was to try out some other Cols we had heard about and hadn't ridden yet so Noshow had planned a 4 cols smorgasborg with the first 60k going up and most of the rest coming down.

So off we went all happy and loaded up with water and energy bars.  Little did we know what we were in for.  The first couple hours was ok - mostly uphill but the pitch wasn't horrible and we were fresh.  Col de At the top of Col de Braus there was a small cafe we stopped at to refresh water bottles and grab an iced tea.  We shared it with these fellas....

Then we continued up into a thinning tree line on D54 a very lightly used old road which brought us eventually back out onto D2566 which we would follow up to the top of Col de Turini and then decend for 30 km toward Sospel.

On the way down we zoomed through one village (Moulinet) with a 12th century chapel (Notre dame de la Menour) just outside of town - quite picturesque with a stunning waterfall across the valley droppping off the top of a cliff into the air...

After this we coast into Sospel only to realize that we have just one more feat to accomplish.  Completely exhausted we have to get back over the col de Castillon before we can decend back into Menton and get something to eat.

And eventually we end up back in town after a 5 hour loop and munched a much needed panini and sparkling water.  The only part left was the final few kilometers climb back up out of Menton and to the hotel but we took it easy with CahLi pulling Noshow all the way back so he didn't fall off his bike from the gravitational pull.  And so, after a nice dip in the Med Sea to pick up Alix who had dozed in the sun for hours only to wake up and realize her sunscreen hadn't been as effective as hoped for, we took a small nap and shared a wonderful meal overlooking the Sea.
Sunday morning - we needed a refresher so after a light breakfast CahLi and Show went out for a 40k loop with the star being the climb to La Turbie from the steep side and then on to the backside of Madone for a u-turn and a race back down the mountain.

A wonderful way to have a morning and back at the hotel by 11am to shower up and head off for a lunch in Menton.  Overall a great weekend of sport, eating and just being with good people. 

When can I do it again.

ITU San Diego 2013 - Return of Mama

Highlights from the ITU World Triathlon in San Diego on April 20, 2013.  RiderMama made her debut back into racing 2 years after giving birth to RiderSasha, giving rise to the next generation of Ranch racers.

RiderMama comes back in impressive form to win 11th out of 30 competitors in the women's 40 age group, Sprint Distance involving 750m open water swim, 20km bike non-drafting and 5km run.  RiderTurbo posts 10th out of 36 in the men's age 42, Sprint Distance.

A remarkable and first-time coincidence was the wave start with RiderTurbo beginning exactly 5 minutes behind RiderMama and eventually catching her one mile into run leg.  This enabled the two to cross the finish line together in fine Ranch form on the blue carpet in front of a loud crowd cheering from the grandstands, all announced over the race loudspeaker by Tri-icon Greg Welch and appearing on the MegaTron LCD towering overhead.

The action was followed by a lazy afternoon lunch and drinks under the pool cabana with the kids at the Dana Hotel on Mission Bay, with sushi for dinner and a fun-filled day with the family at Legoland on Sunday.  All and all, a superb weekend opener for the 2013 summer racing season!

And here's a little video of the secretive, nordic-inspired, high-altitude winter training program pursued in the alpine backcountry of the Sierra Nevada that led to the fabulous spring results. Champions are made in the off-season.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9pSIg7qb8

Ranch weekend Madone.

Felice Gimondi 2012

Grandfondo Sportiful: Feltre, Italia 2012

ITU San Diego Triathlon

Results posted for the 2012 ITU San Diego Triathlon, World Championship Series. Riderturbo wins 12th place out of 63 men age 40-44 category over the 750m swim / 25km bike / 5km run.   Swim time 12:21, bike time 51:45, run time 26:38 in a blow up of epic proportions after overamping on the hilly non-drafting bike leg.  Lovely wife and beautiful kids in the cheering section helped, followed by a pleasant afternoon at the San Diego Zoo and following morning at Sea World watching Shamu.  All told, not a bad result in the timeless war of attrition: either get faster the old-fashioned way boosting wattage, dropping weight and training VO2, or simply hold your pace year after year while the competition gets older, fatter, slower and drops out, one at a time.  Either way, hold on long enough and you'll eventually find yourself at the top. Go Ranch!