Tour de France stuff
Been watching the Tour de France fervently now. I've caught up on mapping out the routes, as I can easily map the next day's stage the day before it starts. It's been great fun following them by picking out precisely what turns in the road they're taking on the highlighted roads.
Got to say that the trip into Andorra several days ago was truly epic. Longest stage in the Tour (224 km) into the heart of the Pyrenees and finishing atop a huge mountain named Arcalis (quite a majestic name for such a high peak). Andorra is such an impossibly beautiful country. Amazing that virtually every square kilometer of it is high mountain terrain, which means all the villages and towns are in the river vally. That stage's profile, as you can see, is insane.
Today would've been better had it not been for the needless drama of teams bitching about not beng allowed to use radios on the stage, and the TV coverage today being horrible. Three hours of the stage and maybe one hour, if that, was actual race coverage. Ugh. This is month-long endurance event going through the French countryside and surrounding regions -- not a made-for-TV drama. Winning is not the primary objective, getting through it is, and those that get through it the best are the winners.
I'm eagerly awaiting the Penultimate stage, which looks to be even more epic than that stage to the top of Arcalis. The route circles round the bottom of a huge mountain alone on a plain, and then climbs about 1800m over 26 km, which is roughly a 7.5 % climb with some sections reaching 9%.
Got to say that the trip into Andorra several days ago was truly epic. Longest stage in the Tour (224 km) into the heart of the Pyrenees and finishing atop a huge mountain named Arcalis (quite a majestic name for such a high peak). Andorra is such an impossibly beautiful country. Amazing that virtually every square kilometer of it is high mountain terrain, which means all the villages and towns are in the river vally. That stage's profile, as you can see, is insane.
Today would've been better had it not been for the needless drama of teams bitching about not beng allowed to use radios on the stage, and the TV coverage today being horrible. Three hours of the stage and maybe one hour, if that, was actual race coverage. Ugh. This is month-long endurance event going through the French countryside and surrounding regions -- not a made-for-TV drama. Winning is not the primary objective, getting through it is, and those that get through it the best are the winners.
I'm eagerly awaiting the Penultimate stage, which looks to be even more epic than that stage to the top of Arcalis. The route circles round the bottom of a huge mountain alone on a plain, and then climbs about 1800m over 26 km, which is roughly a 7.5 % climb with some sections reaching 9%.