France Trip: Day 4 ? Lake Annecy, Col de la Forclaz

guest — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 23:32:52 GMT

Ahhhh, a much needed recovery day for us after yesterday and the Tour riders are visiting Lake Annecy for an individual time trial stage.

There are so many good photos from today, it is tough to select just a few. Sometime later, I’ll post an entire album.

To begin the day, we went for a ride up Col de la Forclaz. It was a beautiful ride on roads similar to the one below featuring Scott Ellis, Ron Kennedy and Todd Singiser.

At the top of the col was a nifty shop and I think food was available as well. There were several antique bikes, chainsaws, butter churns and other interesting relics. In the shot below, you can see an old bike sitting against the railing, overlooking Lake Annecy. The small green platform that is barely visible on the right is a launch pad for hang-gliders. Yeow, what a leap.

After the ride, we cleaned up and Julie had arranged a boat ride across Lake Annecy to the start/finish area for the time trial. Below is a shot from the boat, looking back toward the valley where our chateau was located.

The time trial stage is nice because you have several chances to see the riders. There is a large grassy area, fenced off, where the team buses are lined up. Riders warm-up next to the bus, then roll out for their TT start. The first photo is the warm-up area and the second shot is Christian Vande Velde heading out for his ride.

The group ended up splitting up today. Four of us enjoyed watching some of the early riders on course, had some lunch at an excellent café and then spent most of the rest of the day at the entrance/exit to the team bus area. Others did something very similar, just in different locations along the course. A few folks hung in a pub and watched the live TV coverage of the event.

After a great day, it was back to the chateau via boat to enjoy a delicious meal prepared by the innkeeper – complete with dessert to celebrate Sandy Singiser’s birthday. Todd will have a tough time topping a trip to France birthday present…

Today’s stats: 13.76 miles, ride time 1:18, out-time was 1:41, 2,783 ft of ascending this day.

Blog Posts From Active Expert: Gale Bernhardt Tagged With lake_annecy

France Trip: Day 4 ? Lake Annecy, Col de la Forclaz