One sleep to go.....

I cannot believe that in less than 24 hours I will be on a plane to Europe to ride the 2009 Tour de France Route. After 3500km of training, hours and hours of organising and weeks of carbo loading it's finally here - one sleep to go.

One sleep to go!!! OMG!! I've got to pack, I've got to figure out how to get a bike in a case, there's cleaning and washing to do, equipment to pick up, a helmet to buy and a passport to find!! Maybe there isn't one sleep to go!!

I can't find my ankles...

After 30 hours of travel, two stop overs, minimal sleep, numerous aeroplane meals and two of the fattest cankles I have ever had in my life we made it to Rome.

Our tour start was not without its issues though. For some reason we thought that we’d be able to smuggle an extra 40 kilo’s onto the plane, even though a person’s allowable limit is 30kg and we were already given 10 extra kilo’s in sponsorship. So when Emirates kindly told us that it would cost an extra $2800 to get our luggage on the plane we decided to purge. Thank god Mum, Dad, Cait, Dale and Steve where there. They scored 10 kilo’s each to take home.

It took us over two hours to check our baggage in. So I don’t know why Damian thought he would attempt the same trick with carry on, trying to sneak 30kg in the cabin when the limit was seven. Another quick purge of 15kg and we were on our way.

But we’re here now and all is good. Our bikes are safely stored in the hotel cellar, our 10 items of baggage strewn across our hotel room and we’ve collapsed in a heap. Our first adventure is tomorrow, Damian’s press conference.

Damian's Press Conference

I don’t think that we were quite ready for the press conference. In fact I know we weren’t, we were totally underprepared. It started at 11.00 and I casually strolled down to the conference room in the hotel at 10.55, in jeans and thongs, to be greeted by about 24 well dressed Italians. This is where I really wished I had of brushed up on some language skills, but settled for some polite smiles and puzzled looks.

Set up at the front of the room was a table for six people, which included the head of paediatric gastrointestinal disorders, presidents of different associations, doctors and Damian. The conference went for an hour and I was pleased to see how well received Damian's project was, they were very grateful towards him. We are a bit worried that lost in translation is the fact that Damian isn’t actually competing in the Tour de France, just riding the route, but then again, if it helps promote the project, maybe it’s not such a bad thing. I wonder how many of the people in the room will be tuning into the tour looking for him.

Next stop Nice. We depart tonight and ride with Simon Gerrans in Monaco tomorrow.

Giro d’Italia

On Sunday we were lucky enough to be in Rome for the last day of the Giro d’Italia. It was a 15km loop around Rome, starting and finishing at the Colosseum. Having not been to an event like this before I had no idea what to expect.

The first thing that struck me was how much the Europeans are into this sport. I always knew they were avid fans, I just didn’t realise that they dress up in their finest lycra’s and bring their bikes along to watch the race. That’s settled my question of what to wear to the first day of the Tour de France though! Best book Piaf in for a bath the day before as well.

It was an absolutely amazing event. We wondered around the track watching the riders pass by, and then headed up to the start line to watch them take off. About a km away was the finish line so we headed towards there but became very distracted by team buses parked up a side street, as were half of Rome.

The teams were all warming up outside their buses and where protected from the public by a roped off section, which meant the warm ups were more appealing than the actual race, particularly as the riders had no security to get from the track to the bus and ran a gauntlet of people every time they moved outside their roped off area. People swarmed around buses and in the middle of the street trying to catch a glimpse of their favourite rider. We swarmed around the Cervelo bus hoping to see Simon Gerrans. The rest of Rome swarmed around the same bus hoping to get a glimpse of Carlos Sastre, the winner of last years Tour de France. They weren’t disappointed. He gave a couple of interviews, signed some merchandise and chatted with the crowd. I turned into “one of those” and shoved my camera in his face as well.


We figured if we can get this close to Sastre we should try for Armstrong so we headed up to the Astana team bus and loitered around that. Apart from a lot of screaming fans there was no sight of him and after 20 minutes we gave up and walked back down the street. As we jostled our way through the crowd, some riders were jostling their way in the other direction, and just like that Lance Armstrong rode by us. He was so close we could have stuck a spokey doke on his wheel. Damian became starstruck and gave him a big cheesy “G’Day” as he rode by. My paparazzi instincts flew into overdrive and I ran up that hill trying to get a picture of him.


After that we wandered around some more and checked out the finish line. We also found a spot near the start where barricades were missing and we blocked the path of the riders trying to get a good photo of them as they tried not to run over us.

I never picked myself as a massive cycling fan, especially not one that could write six paragraphs about a race, but as it turns out, I think I am. Thank goodness for that because I’m not sure if you’re aware of this but I’m actually riding the Tour de France in a matter of days.

Simon Gerrans

What a legend. This guy is awesome. Not only is he one of Australia's leading riders, won a stage of the Tour de France last year and a stage of the Giro d'Italia this year, he came to the Monaco train station to pick us up and take us to the start of this years tour....and then rode us out of Monaco to show us how to get home. No wonder Sastre demanded he be on his team!

We meet with Simon today to ride around Monaco and to get some hints and tips about our upcoming tour. First thing that strikes you about him is that he just a ball of muscle, second thing is he is one of the most down to earth guys you'll find. He rode with us, he posed for photo's, he signed our gear, he even entertained our highly technical questions (so how fast can you go?).

It was fantastic that he could meet up with us a day after the Giro and the day before he flew out to Colorado for altitude training for this year's Tour de France.

We're already looking forward to the first day of the professional Tour de France so that we can cheer him on and follow his progress the whole way.

Two days to go

Yesterday we stretched our legs with a 20km ride from Monaco to Nice. Today's training ride involved getting a bike serviced, which equals a 4km round trip. Somehow though I managed to stretch it out to 18km in an afternoon of being completely and utterly lost. When I did finally find the bike shop it was closed for siesta and we had an hour to kill before they reopened.

So, making the most of the situation, Dale and I decided to live it up at a beach restaurant while we waited....by ordering two cokes. We were surprised at how nice the waiter was to us for just two cokes, that was until we got the bill. 16 aussie bucks for two cokes. There wasn't even any vodka in them.

The above picture shows the view from the beach restaurant. I've put it up in the hope that 16 dollars worth of enjoyment will be had from it.

Pre Ride Organisation Day

Our pre ride organisation day was a day to get ourselves together and prepared for our ride. A day to sort things out, settle logistics, get everything packed, work out team dynamics and plans, get maps and routes sorted and be confidant in what we were about to undertake. But, like all things on this trip so far, nothing is ever that easy.

Half of our support crew had arrived the day before, John and Nancy (Damian’s parents) so at breakfast we made a plan for the day.

We had to pick up the two support cars from the airport, our English riding buddy Chris who found out about us on the internet, quickly deck the cars out with the bike racks and luggage and head to Monaco picking up Tara who was part of the support crew (and Damian’s sister) along the way. That way we could check in by 5 and have an early night.



We camped out at the hotel we’d stayed at the previous night (even though we’d checked out for the day) and waited for Damian and John to pick up the cars. And waited. And politely smiled at the hotel staff who were wondering why we were still using their facilities and free internet. And waited.

Finally Damian came back. John was apparently right behind him. When an hour went by and John still hadn’t showed up we started to worry. He put our nerves at ease though when he phoned through to the hotel to let us know he was ok, then let them sky rocket again when he told us he’d run into a concrete barrier and the car was not going anywhere.

Three hours later and one missing hub cap the whole team had regrouped out the front of the hotel thanks to the help of some very nice French people and conveniently located mechanics. By now it was about 4.00pm and there was still so much to do. And Damian decided the best place to do it was right out the front of the hotel. So we pulled the cars right up to the doorstep, blocking their parking as well, and put the bike racks together there. We worked away out the front of their hotel until 7.00pm. When the staff finally saw the bikes on the roof, the cars all packed and all of us ready to go they nearly threw us a going away party. That was until Damian decided to use their free internet one more time.



Smooth sailing for the rest of the night, if you don’t include us getting lost for about an hour on the way to the new hotel. Our apartment was amazing and had the best view (see below). We had tea and got to bed at about 12.30, not the greatest start for our tour but a start none the less.