Christmas Eve Flying

The weather was finally nice enough today to do a little flying! I don't have that much to say, so I'll just illustrate the pictures.

Our 1956 Cessna 180 in the hanger at Airlake Airport. Notice the 1941 Piper Cub we (dad, grandpa, and brother as I don't live close enought to help right now) are restoring in the background.

Yours truly at the controls after shooting a number of fairly decent landings at the Fairbault airport. I actually suprised myself as I haven't flown the plane on wheels for quite a while.
Final approach into Airlake.
It was a fun flight. Hopefully I can make it out again in the next week.
Merry Christmas to everyone! Have a great Christmas!

Winter Wonderland

It was a beautiful morning here, with a couple inches of fresh snow, something I haven't seen the past couple of Christmas's. The temp was right about freezing, so the snow stuck to the trees, making for a picturesque view out my back yard.

I then met Morgan (friend from Caltech, from MN) for a couple hours of XC Skiing. This was my first time on skate skis, and while I was hoping to look like this,
I got used to this view pretty quickly. Actually, I only fell a couple times right off the bat, and then sort of figured out how to do it.

It was a good time, and I can tell that I used muscles I don't normally use, like my arms. Tomorrow, more skiing at Battle Creek Park in St. Paul.

Now, more sitting by the fireplace.

Fireplaces and cookies

I'm now back in MN. The traffic from the airport to home reminded me of being stuck on the 10 freeway between 3pm and 2pm (yes, I do mean that). But there is snow on the ground, and I'm pretty exicted about that, as the past couple Christmas's have been pretty brown. Anyway, after getting home, I slept by the fire and really didn't want to move. The cookie eating has also commenced. This is going to be bad. XC skiing tomorrow morning. Should be fun. Here are some pics from today.

I fell asleep in the chair on the right side.

Here are my parents enjoying popcorn by the fireplace.

Storm the Beach

I did my last cyclocross race of the season two weekend ago, and I must say, it's been a great season. Thanks to Jason and the whole Bearclaw team for introducing me to cross and a great season!

The course was truly different than any of the other courses this season with a few long straight aways that reminded my of why I love road racing. Get in the drops and lay down the power (if I had any, that is). The race oppened with maybe a K of mostly flat fireroad and there was definitely some fighting for position going into the first muddy section. I participated in said fighting and was happy with where I was going into the ridable lane through the mud. Unfortunaly, a couple of the riders in front of me slowed and I couldn't save my line, riding off the trail. At this point everyone passed me and I was left to fight my way as far up as I could get. It was particularly difficult to catch people as drafting was important, but I had a good time chasing and doing all I could to stay in front of Jason Siegel for the entire race (I was ultimately successful in this goal). After the muddy section, there was a section of deep sand leading to the straight away along the beach, and I full on crashed twice going into it. (over the bars, superman style). While it knocked the wind out of me the first time, the sand was soft and neither time really hurt.

I finished 10th overall and 8th in the P/1/2. Fritz finished 2nd, Lyle finished 4th ahead of Tony Criz and Jason finished a couple spots ahead of me.

Now, enjoy some pics and a video of me looking smooth over the barriers. Thanks to Brooke and Lyle for some of the footage!

I should also mention that I grew (or rather attempted to grow) a mustache for the race as all my team mates had also done so. Two weeks and what you see is all I got!

Cyclocross and such

Well, since I haven't written anything here in over three months, you've probably all stopped checking my blog (and rightfully so). But, with some cyclocross pictures finally in hand, I though I would throw some up. The pics are from the Convert Cross outside of Ventura. The course was really fun, and my fitness is finally starting to come back up. Wow, how I miss being fast.



I unfortunately didn't race this past weekend due to illness (I can't seem to kick this cold....f'in crappy green phlem) but will be back in action in two weeks at the Turkey Trot Cross in Glendale.



For now, enjoy the pics. Props to Fritz for a great finish, and Jason for flatting, running over half the course to the pits, and still catching me by the end of the race. Right on!

I'm back

So, let's get a beer! Give me a call or shoot me an email if anyone is interested.

Some Excellent Riding

As I sit in my hotel room in my last night in France, (which has already happened as I’m not willing to pay the 10 Euro price for internet access to publish this post) I figured that I should (and wanted to) write about my last few days in Grenoble as the experience and sights of this past Sunday will stay in my mind for a long time to come. As I didn’t have any more experiments I wanted to do, I decided to make Thursday my last day at work to do some epic rides on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Well, I actually only intended Friday and Sunday to be epic, but Saturday turned out to be longer than I planned. Friday morning I got up a little after 8am, had a good breakfast, stuffed my pockets with energy bars and a banana and set out for Les deux Alpes. First, let me back up for a moment. In one of my first blog posts I wrote about how great one of the local bike shops looked from the outside. Well, I finally decided to check it out, and while I can’t say the bike selection was outstanding, the selection of accessories was excellent! I even got to check out a new pair of Mavic wheels with the R-sys technology (carbon spokes and a reported sub 1400g weight). I’m not sure if they were for sale, but they were cool. Needless to say, I walked out with more than a bunch of energy bars. I finally ditched my SLR for a Flite Gel flow, and it was the best 80 g I’ve ever added to my bike. The thing is so comfortable, and, and orders of magnitude better than the minimalist SLR. And, as my Crank Brothers pedals have come apart (the pedal body actually came off the spindal while I was riding twice nearly causing me to go over the bars and crash), and the cleats have come loose three times on each mounting plate, I bought a pair of Look KEO Carbon Cro-Mo pedals, and for $125, none the less. Yes, that is over $100 less than I would have paid in the states. Finally, I have a solid set of road pedals, and what a difference! (and a but lighter than the Crank Brothers pedals, so I’m about weight neutral) Ok, back to my Friday. The ride to Les deux Alpes heads out of Grenoble as if you were going to Alpe d’Huez and goes through Bourge d’Osians, which is where you would turn to start the climb up to Alpe d’Huez. Rather than making the left, however, I continued down the road and started the climb up to Les deux Alpes. I won’t belabor you with the details, but the climb was great! Not as steep as Alpe d’Huez, but still long enough to be challenging and scenic. The I alluded to in my previous post, the town of Les deux Alpes was very cool! It definitely was a ski town, and the whole place reminded me of any of the base villages you might find at any Colorado ski resort. Lots of outdoor café’s, bars, and plenty of places to rent gear and sleep slopeside. I would love to go back in the winter and see what it’s like. I didn’t expect the town to be what it was, but what surprised me the most was the fact that there were people in ski gear! Jackets, bibs, goggles, gloves, etc. and carrying skis or snowboards. I did see one glacier, but I didn’t see a way to get there. According to Quentin (friend from lab) there is a skiable glacier open all summer. At the top, I had a coke and croissant, and headed back down for a total ride time of 6 hours, 4000 calories. Saturday, my plan was to ride a little shorter (4 hours) as I didn’t want to be tired for my truly epic ride on Sunday. Alas, fate had a different plan. The Vercors mountains and park lie to the west of Grenoble and have stunning gorges and tunnels cut through the cliffs. I’ve ridden through part of them before, but there were still some places I wanted to see, namely the Col du Rommereye and the Grand Goulets. I figured the ride would take 4.5 to 5 hours with a decent amount of climbing. I set out a couple hours earlier than on Friday as I wanted to have time to eat lunch and then head to lab to catch the final time trial of the tour (I didn’t get TV reception in my dorm). The climb up the R*** was, as most of the other climbs I have done here, was quite steep, but well paved. After hitting the summit, I decided to keep climbing up to the Col du Mont Noix, which was only a few more clicks and set me up to descend to where I needed to be to get to the Grand Goulets. The descent was excellent, with great views of the valley below. I’ll try to post some pics I took. I then headed out to the Grand Goulets with the intent of eventually climbing Herboully (another mountain) and then descending back to Grenoble. But, when I arrived to the entrance of the Goulets, they were closed! Damnit! I unfortunately had to backtrack at this point as there wasn’t any way around. This cost me 45 minutes. Oh, I should have mentioned, I had stopped for a crossiant and coke in one of the towns on my way to the Goulets. Man, I love those croissants, all flakey and buttery..mmmm. After backtracking, I was forced to repeat the route I had done on a previous ride, which I wasn’t really pleased with. On top of that, I was running out of bars, and my sunburn from the previous day was starting to hurt again, as I had now been in the saddle for 4.5 hours on the day and was very exposed to the sun. Well, I climbed for another hour and a half or so, and finally ran across a café where I bought a pecan tart…perhaps the most delicious of my life. The descent into Grenoble was fun, and while I didn’t see the whole tour stage, I did get to watch Levi and Evans. In summary, 6.5 hours and 4200 calories. I was a little worried that I was going to be tired on Sunday after these two long rides, but I actually felt good and set out on a ride I had really been looking forward to. Cyclists and non cyclists alike, if you are in France, you must go up the Col de la Croix de Fer and Col du Glandon! Absolutely amazing! Truly Tour worthy, and above the tree line at the top! Incredible! I’lll post some pics below. The ride, again, start by going almost all the way to Bourg d’Osains, and then turns north as you begin to climb. I can’t even describe the glory of this climb. It’s stunning, and definitely challenging. Quite steep at the bottom (7% or so), but eases off a little more near the top. There was one section in the middle where you descend basically down the side of a cliff at 12% and then climb at roughly the same gradient for a click or so. As with Alpe d’Huez, there were lots of other cyclists on this legendary ascent and it was nice to have company. As you climb above the tree line, you can almost see the end of the climb 8 or so k’s in the distance, and there were some pretty waterfalls flowing from the surrounding mountains. The Glandon and the Croix de Fer are actually only 2 k’s apart, so if you climb one, you can easily do both. I rode the climb from the south west, but you could also climb the Glandon from the North East or the Croix de Fer from the South East. More on that in a minute. There is a nice little café at the top of the Croix de Fer and I stopped and had a coke and a Mars bar (no croissants). I then descended the back side (heading north east) of the Glandon. There was tons of Tour “memorabilia” painted on the rode, but on the way up, and down the backside. It was pretty cool to see, and got excited just thinking about how cool it would be to see the pros coming up the final few kilometers. I think it actually gave me goose bumps, and made me think that being a pro would be fun for that climb alone. In any case, I think that the ascent took me about 2 hours, and I went over the top having been in the saddle for about 4 hours. The first few k’s down the back side would be a truly epic climb, and I can’t imagine racing up them. The grade was probably 12 or so percent, and I’ll try to post some pics to show how challenging it would be to race up. I descended for quite a while and then rode an hour to the base of the Col du Grand Cucheron, again steep, but nothing special. It took me about an hour, and I went over the top at 6:15 in the saddle, finally arriving back in grenoble after 8:15 ride time. 5200 calories and 125 miles. The views up the Glandon/Croix de Fer were worth every pedal stroke and I don’t think I have ever felt so good after such a long ride. It was awesome! Again, if you are in the area, the summit is a must see!

Ok, that’s enough for now. I’m going to go do some sit ups before I go to bed. Tomorrow morning I’m going to spend my last 5 euros on coffee and pastries, and then catch my flight back to the states. I’m looking forward to being home and seeing and talking with many of you soon! Until then…..

Looking up the last 8k or so of the Col de la Croix de Fer


Me at the top


Down the backside of the Col du Glandon


Self Explanatory

I am so sunburnt

I'll elaborate more when I get a chance (I'm currently watching the final TT in the Tour and am too pre occipied to write), but this is the last time I will have internet access before I leave. So...yeah....very sunburnt. Yes, it hurts. But, I guess that's what I get for riding 6 hours yesterday (Les deux Alpes, which is a great climb and a very cool town. People were actually still skiing, although I don't know where as I didn't see much snow. But they were dressed in full ski gear and carrying boards or skis) without sunscreen. I bought some yesterday and put it on this morning, but my "shorter" ride today got a little out of hand and ended up taking 6.5 hours. Tomorrow? Yep, the longest of all. Col du Croix de Fer, Col du Glandon, and the Col du Cucheron...over 200 km. I'm guessing 7 hours in the saddle, so I will probably really be a lobster tomorrow evening. I take the train to Paris on tuesday afternoon and catch my flight back to LA on Wednesday morning. I'm looking forward to being home, especially for my own bed and my car...and my cell phone, none of which I have used for two months. I will definitely miss the bread. That's all for now. I'll add more about the rides with some pics later. The scenery today was unbelievable! Later!

The Past Couple Weeks

Yes, yes, I know it's been a while since I've updated this thing, so here goes. I've mostly been working the past couple weeks, but have a couple of stories to tell. I also got to visit my relatives in Switzerland two weekends ago, which was great. We took some pictures, but I don't have them yet. In short, Switzerland is one of the most perfect places I have ever visited. Beautiful lakes and mountains everywhere! I really don't think I could ask for more as far as scenery and a great location, although it would make flying challenging. Meeting all of my relatives was really fun, and they were incredible hospitable and generous. I'm already planning how to get back there in a couple years.

Now, on to the stories. For this, we need to go back in time to last wednesday. Having missed the 4th of July, with the 14th of July on the horizon (Bastile Day), and the departing of two of my friends for holiday, we decided to go out for a couple beers. So, here's the situation. A Norwegian, a Romanian, and an American, drinking Belgium beer (delicious Leffe Brown and Kronenbourg) in an Irish pub, in France. In addition, we had live music played by a half scottish, half irish guitarist who, of course, spoke fluent french and english, both with an irish accent. He selections included tradition irish folk music, some french music I didn't understand (but that was good) and some good ole' American 70's classics. Priceless. I told the guy my last name and he seemed to appreciate that, and yelled across the bar to some of his scottish buddies that we had more scottish blood in the pub. So, after a couple beers we discussed politics (what else), health care, science, etc. You know, the basics. At the end of the night, our Norwegian friend started chatting with another group of people, who turned out to be French medical students who had just gotten the results of their final exam which ranked them for residency. Apparently, some hadn't done so well. But, they were off to some party and invited us to come along. So, we called up another of our coworkers and he and his fiance drove and met us at what turned out to be the end of the party. As the tram had now ceased operation he was nice enough to give me a ride home, and thus my evening ended. Happy birthday America, happy birthday France, and Lucian and Stian...it was fun! Keep in touch.

My second story isn't quite as entertaining as my first, but it was, none the less, a good time. Sunday the 14th was Bastile day, and Stian's last day in Grenoble. So, we decided that we woul get some dinner and then walk to the park for the festivities and fireworks. We had some very good (albeit expensive) Indian food, then some excellent Italian Gelato, and finally headed to some park on the edge of downtown for fireworks. Now, I've seen some good fireworks shows, but I have never seen them quite so "intimately" as this show. First, the show was one of the best I have seen in recent memory. It was set to music and had tons of shells. Secondly, and most importantly, we were so close to the fireworks that it ended up being a 20 minute heavy metal and shell shrapnel shower. (Talk about an insurance nightmare in the states!) The crowd was so close to the fireworks that some of the longer lasting shells actually caused sparks to hit the ground in the crowd. Pretty impressive and very cool! After the display, the streets were filled with people, and we walked and had a beer before I caught the tram back to my apartment.

Well that's all I've got for now. I wish I could report on live tour stages, but it just wasn't in the cards. Too much to do in lab coupled with difficulty in getting to the stages (the closest was about 100 miles away) was just too much hassle. The equipment is booked this weekend and mon-wed next week, so maybe I'll try to catch a stage in the Pyrenees, if I can figure out how to swing it. I'm pretty satisfied with what I have accomplished and have gotten through all of my samples (some twice to check the results) and made good progress on some things that I knew nothing about when I arrived. Until next time....

Grocery Stores, health care, and public restrooms, etc.

Let me start with the etc. part. I don't really have much to report from last weekend. I spent about 6 hours in lab on Saturday and 6 more on Sunday (not saying that that's a lot, just reporting) and then hopped on my bike for a couple of rides. On Saturday, I left lab about 2 and was on my bike shortly before 3. I had planned a route to the west, southwest of Grenoble partly through Vercors, another park in the area, that I thought would take about 3 hours; turns out I was off by an hour and a half, which was fine. The first 1:50 of the ride was flat and uneventful, but then I turned left and started climbing. I unfortunatly didn't have my camera, as I didn't really expect a) to do as much climbing as I did, or b) for the ride to be that scenic. I feel like I climbed forever, (only about 16km) as I wasn't feeling so well and was having some stomach issues. But I forged ahead, and the scenery was excellent! I rode along a river through some beautiful gorges, and under some very cool overhanging "cut outs", and finally reached the ~1300m summit. At this point I was about 45 km from Grenoble, rode a little on some flattish roads surrounded by meadows that reminded me of the Sound of Music, and then was duely rewarded with a fun and fast descent back into town. It really was a great descent; the road was well maintained and had a nice mixture of gradual and hairpin switchbacks. I again was feeling like a Euro pro. I can't say I was that tired when I got home, but I was having trouble holding 200 watts, and man, did I want to get off my bike. I think I was under fed going into the ride, but it was beautiful, none the less. On sunday, I got on my bike about the same time as on saturday and headed south to Vizille, a town I have ridden through a number of times. This time, however, I had picked a small mountain road to climb on the south face of whatever mountain runs between there and Grenoble. Bad choice. There aren't many things that can make a ride not fun, but this climb seemed to have a number of them. First, I was apparently still dealing with hunger knock, because my legs just weren't there. Second, the road was bumpy (that's what I get for picking a small road). Third, I'm guessing 10-12% for 8k or so. Fourth, lots of bugs. In any case, I wasn't really happy to be riding my bike on this thing, but made it none the less. It was really steep. The descent, however, was most excellent! Wide road and new pavement, again with a good mix of semitechnical corners and tight switchbacks, and fun straightaways. I actually caught and passed two cars...until it started to rain, at which point I throttled back a bit. Total time, 2.5 hours in the saddle, but I was happy it was over.

Now on to other things. First, congratulations to Jason Lowetz for winning the Cat 3. race at Manhatten Beach. Pretty cool, man!.

Second, a brief rant. I hate going to the grocery store here (I actually hate grocery shopping ANYWHERE, but even more so here). No, I don't mind not being able to communicate, I don't mind not having some of my favorite foods(like peanut butter and bagels). But, I HATE waiting in line. Oh, and there are always lines. Maybe I pick bad times to go, but every cashier has 6,7,8, etc. people waiting in line. In fact, I think that the least amount of time I have waited at the grocery store is 15 minutes. The most, you ask? Oh, yes, at least 30 minutes last Saturday. WTF? I don't understand. I never wait more than 5 minutes in CA, and I can't figure out what takes so long here! People bag their own groceries, but still, that's not hard. So, I ask again, WTF?

And the final installment of this piece is maybe aptly titled "there is no free lunch". I was thinking about health care this week, as we had been talking about different systems at lunch. (I eat with a couple of French students, one from Romania, and one from Norway (who also speaks no French). I'm not sure I really know enough to argue for one system or another, but I know that the US doesn't have governmental health care systems like much of Europe. (and we also don't pay 40% federal tax like in Norway, although with State and sales tax, I feel we are close if not in excess, of that.) I'm not going to take sides on this issue, but I generally believe that I am better with my money than someone else is with my money. I now need to digress for a moment. When I was in the Paris train station last weekend, I needed to use the restroom....and it cost me 0.5 euros. I hate paying to take a leak. Where are my public bathrooms? See where I'm going with this. No, I'm not suggesting health care is as simple as public restrooms. What I am saying is that I want to figure out my own health care, but I want the Los Angeles airport to provide me with fast and clean access to a toilet. Do I really believe that access to that toilet is free? Of course not. Northworst, et. al. pay fees to the airport to maintain the terminal, and are inevitable included in my ticket price. On top of that, my tax dollars go to supporting LAX. So, I end up paying for the toilet anyway, just not at the time of use. And I like it that way. So, back to health care. I like being able to choose where my money goes and how it gets spent...but I like "free" toilets. If I had been born in Europe, would I like to choose whether or not to pay to use the bathroom, and love the convenience of "free" health care? Ok, so I've drastically over simplified things and I'm sure there are economic and legal flaws in what I've written. Just some thoughts. And always remember, in life, just as in thermodynamics "There is no Free Lunch"! Please don't hesitate to chim in. I love seeing flaws in my logic (or, possibly, lack thereof).

Bike Paths and Battlestar Gallicta

Just some random stuff today. Nothing too exciting going on, other than lab work. With all the emails flying recently about the Rose Bowl ride and cyclists in Pasadena, I thought I would share my own experience yesterday of getting yelled at by a French motorist. Most drivers here are incredibly courteous to cyclists, and most cyclists here almost completely ignore any sort of traffic sign or signal. If there aren't any cars, you're clear to go. But, I was riding down a wide road which leads to and from where the lab is, and a truck pulls up beside me, and the guy inside is furiously yelling and waving his hand at me. Now, his window was up so I couldn't hear what he was saying, and it's not like I would have understood it anyway, but the message was something like "You idiot! Get off the road! There is a bike lane right there! Use it!" Now, he may have had a valid point. There was a bike lane right up the curb, but I hate most bike paths for two reasons, and these apply to California, Minnesota, and France. First, I'm going faster than most people commuting, so riding on the bike bath is annoying. But secondly, and most importantly, is it impossible to make a smooth bike path? Is it really different thatn paving a road? Seriously, nearly every designated bike bath I have ridden on a road bike kills my butt and shoulders with the bumpiness and waviness. I'm suprised I haven't gotten sea sick.

On a final note, I downloaded the Battlestar Gallactica Miniseries from iTunes yesterday and watched them last night. Fantastic! I'm hooked, and will now need to buy the other seasons. I'm just contenplating whether I should buy them from iTunes or on DVD when I get home.

Later!

My Day in Paris

I now had sunday to kill before catching a 7:30pm train back to Grenoble. So, I got up at 6:15, and headed into Paris. I got off the train at Notre Dame and walked around there for a few minutes before getting on a different subway to go to the Eiffel Tower. I checked that out, walked to the Arc de Triumph, and then to the Champs Elysses, where I stopped and had breakfast. It was only 9:30am. Croissants and coffee....mmmm. A met a couple from Missouri who was nice enough to take my pic. I actually heard more English on sunday than French, plus lots of other languages, some of which I recognised and some I didn't. I proceeded to walk down the Champs Elysses and the Seine river to the Louvre, which, after seeing that entry was only 8.50 euros, I had to go in. I spent a couple hours in the Louvre, although it would be more deserving of a couple days, and say the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Mile, as well as many other artifacts, sculptures, and paintings. This is a great time for me to point out that I'm a crappy museum goer. I'm surrounded by all these famous works of art, and understand that great talent is required, but don't understand why the Mona Lisa is really that different from any of the other 35,000 works of art in the Louvre. After "finishing" the Louvre, I continued walking down the Seine river to Pont-Marie, which is a small island in the middle of the river where it widens. My French host, Alain, suggested I find a specific ice cream parlor here and have a scoop; so I did, and it was delicious! Praline Pecan, and it was the creamiest, butteriest and best Praline Pecan ice cream I have ever had. For those of you who find yourselves in Paris and want to experience some truly wonderful ice cream, it was called Bertillon. There are actually three locations on the island, but only one is a dedicated ice cream parlor. It's sort of in the middle of the island, and not one of the two places you see when you first walk onto the west side. (Just FYI). From here I walked to where the Bastille had been, then down to Place de La Nation, and trough some open air furniture market. It wasn't really my intent to shop for furniture, as I was looking for the Promenade Plantee, which is apparently a covered shopping area where Pariseans go. But, I never found it and was getting tired of walking. So, I started walking to the train station. Once I arrived, I found a crepe vendor, bought a Nutella and banana crepe (delicious!) and sat down after 8 hours of continuous walking. I hung out at the train statino for a few hours and then caught my train back to Grenoble. This also highlites why I am a crappy site seeer (Is that a word?). Now, I won't claim to have seen all of a Paris, but I hit many of the major tourist locations before lunch! I guess that just reinforces what I already knew...I like vacations where I go to do something. Don't get me wrong, I had a good time walking around and see all these things, but not something I would want to do for two weeks. Drinking coffee at any of the thousands of cafes or bars, that I could do for two weeks....if I only spoke French.

Paris Air Show 2007

Well, I finally have a few minutes in between measurements and actually feel like writing. This past weekend I had the opportunity to travel to Paris and attend the Paris Air Show. Let me start by saying, I'm an aviation nut. I've grown up with it, started taking lessons in high school, and got my pilots license as a freshman in college. Let me also preface the following by saying I'm a little bit of an air show snob, as I have seen literally close to 100 shows over the years. This was my first time attending an air show out of the country, and I have always heard how great the Paris Air Show and the Farnborough Air Shows were. The Farnborough and Paris shows occur on alternating years, and are the industry trade shows for the commercial and defense aviation industries. Basically, that means that there are lots of military jets and commercial airplanes on display and in the airshow, which was the reason I have always wanted to attend. Most air shows in the US are composed of many civilian acts (Extra 300, Waco, P-51, Wingwalkers, etc) which are cool in their own right, but often don't include many military demos that burn more than the required amount of kerosene. So, I got up at 4:00am on friday and caught the first tram (which was of course 6 minutes late, causing me to get a little worried as I had a tight connection at the station) to the Grenoble train station. The 3 hour train ride to paris was uneventful, and I slept a little more. Once there, I bought a delicious croissant (still warm) and an espresso (American coffee doesn't really exist) and caught the RER (regional train) to Le Bourget and the Le Bourget Airport, which is a northern suburb of Paris where the show is held. I had figured out ahead of time what trains I need to take to get there (and to my hotel) but didn't quite understand the ticketing system. As I later learned, tickets within paris are 1.40 euros, and more if you go further out. But, I bought a 1.40 euro ticket and got on the train to Le Bourget (the ticket should have cost more, but I did't know at the time. Fortunatly, I have never seen anyone check for tickets on any tram or metro rail system, although I hear it happens from time to time). I arrived at the Le Bourget stop, and took the Air Show shuttle the couple kilometers to the show. I walked this leg the three remaining times, as they were running the shuttles in series, and should have been running them in a parallel fasion to eliminate the 30 minute wait (not to mention when I tried to take the shuttle back on the first day, traffic was so bad that it took us an hour to move 6 blocks at which point I got off the bus and walked). I arrived at the show about 9:30am, presented my student ID and got in free. The weather wasn't great on friday, but held until lunch time. So, I spent the first couple hours walking around the static displays. Unfortunately, they had all the airplanes fenced off and I couldn't get very close them, something I'm used to being able to do from my many visits to the EAA Fly in in Oshkosh, WS (still the best aviation event in my opinion), but there were some cool planes such as the Airbus A380, Boeing 777, Dassault Rafael, Eurofighter Typhoon, Eurocopter, Piaggio Avantio P180 (one of my all time favorite airplanes), and a bunch of other stuff. After checking out the static displays, I bought a sandwich and headed into the exhibit buildings. Again, I'm used to the exhibit buildings at Oshkosh, where the booths are somewhat small and "no frills". Not so much here, and this is how you could definitely tell it was a trade show (read "about money"). The boothes were giant and extravagent, and many had privite rooms for business. In fact, most of the static displays had their own meeting rooms (that looked more like box seats at a sporting event) as well. As I happened to be walking around during lunch time, it was funny to see exhibitors drinking wine and champagne with their crackers, cheese, etc. Not a bad lunch, if you ask me. I didn't talk to any of the exhibitors, as there wasn't much for the general aviation finatic, but I did enjoy standing in the MiG and Sukoi booths, and seeing all the vendors who manufacture stuff for the defense and airline industries. Unfortunaly, it was now pouring, and I had to wait around for a while before going back outside. The rain let up just before 2pm when the flying program started. The ceilings were low, and it rained on and off (I spend much of the show under an overhang) so they had to modify the program, but it was still fun to see the military demos, which included A Mirage, Rafael, Eurocopter, Eurofighter, F-16, Su-35, the A380, and some other things. One of the best demos was of an Italian transport, the C-27J (of which the US military has purchased 70). This thing was really impressive; 8000 HP, it climbed and performed like a fighter. They even flewy a pass on knife edge! The SU-35 was also cool to see with its thrust vectoring capability. The show lasted until 4:30, and then I headed to the train station and caught the RER to my hotel, which was only 100 yards off the RER line, a few stops down. I lucked out with the hotel. Good location and a very nice room at a good price. I had dinner int he hotel restaurant and then went to bed. Saturday, I got up, caught the train back to Le Bourget, bought a couple croissants at one of the bakeries on the way to the show, and headed in. As I had already seen the static displays and the exhibit buildings, I decided to bay the 4 euros for a museum ticket. The museum was alright, but not spectacular. They have quite a nice display of pre WWI and WWI aircraft, and many of the plackards are written in English as well as French and German. One of my favorites read "During the war, a new type of combatant appeared: the aviator. For a lot of military chiefs, he inspired only limited confidence because, at least apparently, his induvidualism made him abhor discipline." After the museum, I bought a "hot dog" (which was really a foot long dog on baguette covered with some sort of real cheese, in comparison to the crappy liquid cheese we have in the states) and found a place on the two square meters of grass that existed for all 10,000 spectators (it was a terrible venue for an airshow) to sit, eat, and wait for the show. The weather was a little better on saturday, and the ceilings allowed for the normal show. It was basically the same program as friday, with the addition of an F-18 E and a few other things. I really appreicated the way the fighter pilots demoed the aircraft. Mostly, if the airplane was equipped with an after burner, it was used for the entire program. Shut it off? No way! We have extra fuel to burn. I love the smell of jet fuel! And seeing flame shoot out of anything is always cool. The Airbus A380 was also impressive, and upon takeoff, the pilot pulled back like he was in a fighter. It actually reminded me of watching a C-130 with JATO's. Very impressive. After the show (or most of the show, as I didn't care to see the Extra 300 performance, something I have seen dozens of times) I bought some groceries for dinner and headed back to my hotel where I proceed to eat, and and watch BBC world news until I went to sleep. I would have gone out and walked around, but I my hip was pretty sore from a little spill I had taken on my bike while riding to work in the rain on wednesday, and I opted to stay in. Thus ended my adventure at the Paris Air Show.
Overall Impressions:
Nice military demos, with lots of kerosene and afterburner
Definitely a trade show
Not a great venue for the public
Worth going once, but
Oshkosh is still FAR better.
I've posted picks on fotki and some videos on Facebook and YouTube.
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnAdhasftKI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jx4reVp-Zjk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgQoizmgzaU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EG6PcLw7WM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tzP-qX1ZMQ

Pics of Grenoble

Check out http://www.grenoblecycling.com/PhotoPage.htm for som great pics of the area.

Sunday's Ride

As I didn't get enought cycling or climbing on Saturday's ride, I decided I was going to gou out and ride again on Sunday. Actually, when I woke up, I wasn't really in a cycling mood, but what else was I going to do? I didn't have a gate access card so I couldn't go to work, I don't have a car so I can't really go anywhere, and I don't have internet access in my room so I wasn't going to browse the web. Hence, more croissant's and nutella for breakfast and then out the door. I had done a little searching online for where to ride in the area around Grenoble and came across on pretty decent site with a few nice routes. There is this nice "reginal park" called Parc Naturel Regional de Chartreuse bordering the north side of Grenoble, and there are a number of nice Col's encompassed by this area. So, on the recommendation of this website, that's where I headed. I wasn't sure how my legs were going to feel after saturday's epic ride and they were a little sluggish at first, but then came around and felt pretty good after I warmed up. I rode into the center of Grenoble and then North through La Tronche. This is where the climbing started. I knew it was going to be a tough day, as I had been up the first climb on a shorter ride and the website (http://www.grenoblecycling.com/the-Chartreuse-Route2.htm) I took the route from mentioned that the final ascent had sustained sections of 16%. So, I started up the 16 K stretch to the Col du Porte. This is a beautiful stretch of road that climbs at 8-10% right out of the center of Grenoble, through a number of towns, and finally summits in a beautiful are surrounded by a couple cafe's and lots of nice looking hiking trails. There were, again, lots of cyclist going up and coming down, not to mention quite a few hikers at the top. The descent down the backside was fast and fun, not to mention very pretty. There is one pic below of an old building that I believe was an ore processing facility. The picture doesn't do it justice, as it was probably 5 times as large as the part you can see, with buildings on both sides of the road. Clearly, not still used, but cool to see. After arriving in St. Laurent du-Pont, I made a wrong turn and accidently rode south instead of north. I figured this out about 25 minutes later (all climbing) and turned around. The return trip to St. laurent du Pont only took 15 minutes, and I was soon back on track heading north towards Entre-deux-Guiers and then east alont the Gorges du Guiers Vif river. After a little flat riding, I climbed into St Pierre d'Entremont, where I really wanted to stop for a crepe...but I didn't. I then turned south and the roads pitched up again as I approached the Col du Cucheron, maybe another 8 k of climbing. This, too, was very pretty, and there is a pic or two below looking up to the tunnel the road goes through. The descent down the backside of the Col du Cucheron was again, fast and fun, and at this point I was unsure whether or not I wanted to tackle my proposed final ascent up the steeps of the Col du Coq. But once I arrived at the appropriate turn and had only been riding for 4:10, I had to do it. The climb was 16 k long with the first two at 8-10%. The next two k were a little flatter, but then I turned onto what could have been considered 1 lane, out of repair, road and the grades kicked up. With the exception of a k or so near the top, the grades were pretty tough, but the scenery was awesome. In fact, near the top there was a ski area with some open pastures...a picture perfect scene. I didn't stop to take pictures, but I should have. I finally reached the top, and was quite happy to stop pushing a 39-25 at 45 rpm and 260 watts. I felt much better than I did when climbing Alpe d'Huez (as that was the my first long ride in a while), but a low cadence sure does a number on the ole legs. There is one pic below from the top of the Col du Coq. There were tons of hickers at the top, and as I started down the backside, it started to sprinkle. I was a little worried that it was going to be a cold and slippery trip down, but it quickly quit raining and cruised most of the way. The descent really was great, particularily after I got off the top sections and onto a little wider roads. As I was descending, all I could think think about was how fast Salvodelli would take all the tight switchbacks. I really did feel like a Euro pro...it was great. Finally, I arrived in the town of St. Nazaire les Eymes, crossed the freeway and headed southwest back home. 6:15 ride time (not including stops), 4000 calories, average cadence of 70! Ouch. ~7500 ft of elevation (not too bad there). Enjoy the pics.

The end of the mining building I mentiones
Yep, that's where I'm headed. Right through the rock.
Like I said. Very cool.
Ahhh, snow on the peaks looking south from the Col du Coq.
I was a little tired at the top, but you can see that there was lots of luch foliage going up and down the mountain. I, in fact, haven't been above the tree line yet. Ventoux????

Check out all the Pics at Fotki

http://public.fotki.com/jcmckeen/

Saturday's Ride

With the successful conclusion of my first week at CNRS, I decided to do a little cycling. I planned out a route for Saturday that I thought would take around six hours and give me a chance to see some of the beautiful area south of Grenoble. Come to think of it, there isn't really any area around Grenoble that isn't beautiful, and I think the pictures will reflect that. I rolled out of bed around 8am and had a delicious breakfast composed of a rasin filled croissant and a plain croissant covered in Nutella. In any case, after eating and taking my sweat time to get ready, I headed out in full PAA Pro kit. It took me about 25 minutes to get out of town, which was longer than it should have as I made some wrong turns in trying to find a better route than I took last weekend, but eventually made it. After getting to the south-east side of town, I started climbing (that's where I saw the high end bike shop that I'm going to hit up at some point) towards St. Martin d'Uriage. I really like this climb; the grade is a little less than going up the 2 and the road has a bike lane and climbs for a few miles. I then descended through Visille and rode northwest for a few k's before starting my southward trek. Upon turning south I began to climb again and did so for quite a while. I rode south along the river/lakes, which were beautiful, as the pics below reflect, and through numerous small towns eventually arriving in La Mure. At that point, I contiuned north on the otherside of the mountains I had just ridden through, riding through Aveillans and Laffrey. After descending through Laffrey, I came across a sign that said Alpe du Grande Serre 12k, and it was going up hill. At this point, I had been in the saddle for 4:10, and thought, do I really want to climb for 12k? Then the thought process was, "food..check, water...check, legs...check" (and they really were still feeling good), so like any good cyclist, I decided to start climbing with the intent of turning around when I got tired. Well, like any good cyclist, I climbed to the top at the Commune de la Morte. The last few pics looking over the city are from this ascent, and the last pic is from the top. Then, I decended back down the same way I had came, and rode the 12 or so K back to my apt. 93 miles, 4000 calories, 6:30 minutes, probably 10,000 ft of elevation. Not a bad day in the saddle. Then I took a nap, read some papers, bought groceries, had dinner, and went to bed. Enjoy the pics!

This was on the way out. The water was very pretty.
Lovin' it.

Looking into the vally on the way up.
At the top of my last summit of the day.

Bicycles in France and Nutella

Before I post about my two weekend rides (which I will get to soon) I though I should describe some things I have learned in my first week here.

1. The streets in town are not laid out in a grid. This has caused me to take a different route to and from work every day. It usually starts the same in either direction, and of course ends nearly the same, but I couldn't repeat the lines in between if I had to! The nice part is, I've found my way every time without having to stop to look at the map. It strangely works.

2. People here know how to ride bikes. Not just the cyclists in full kit, but everyone. No Huffy's or Murry's, just lots of townie bikes and 80's vintage Peugeot's. There are two wonderful parts to this. First and foremost, everyone rides with the proper seat height and in an appropriate gear. No knees above the handlebars, no cross chaining a gear that's too tall. Secondly, people can and do actually ride enough to be able to ride a bike up a hill greater than the incline of the ramp to get on the sidewalk. I can't tell you how many people I have seen riding up hills on non-expensive bikes, maybe because they enjoy it and maybe because they have to, but it's great to see

3. Nutella is god's gift to mankind. Oh, my gosh! I love peanut butter, but this stuff is even better! It's probably not as good for you as it has to contain more chocolate than all of Switzerland, but it is awesome. Yeah, yeah, I sound like a little kid, but I really didn't expect to like it when I broke down and bought some. I now eat it with nearly everything.

4. While I haven't stopped in any of the three bike shops I have seen nearby, the one I am most looking forward to (and will post pictures of) has perhaps the greatest storefront possible. The window is FILLED with carbon bikes from various manufacturers such as Time, etc. And, just looking in the window, the entire store is that way! All super high end, including clothing and accessories.

Ok, back to work, but I'll post about my rides when I get a chance.

Criterium du Dauphine Libre

I never would have know had it not been for Alec’s email yesterday, but the Prologue for the Dauphine Libre was in downtown Grenoble today. Quite fortuitous, I must say. So, After setting my alarm for 7am with the intent to go on a nice 2 hour recover ride in the French countryside, I got up a 10:36am (I just can’t seem to kick the jet lag, fall asleep when I go to bed, and get up at a decent hour), had another breakfast of bread and jam and caught the tram into Grenoble. Now, I looked up where the course was, but even after translating the online flyer with a French to English dictionary, couldn’t decide what time the race actually started. I guessed 1pm, which seemed to make sense for a short prologue. Yeah, I was only about 3 hours off. So, I arrived downtown around noon, walked most of the course just to check it out. While doing so, the Astana team rolled past a couple times. I’ve included some pics below.

After walking the course, I still had like 2.5 hours to kill, although I didn’t really know it. I walked around a little more, and then started to get hungry. I must now admit that I broke my cardinal rule of international travel. I went to McDonalds. But, I picked it because I thought that they would have a public bathroom, which they didn’t. I attempted to order in French, which I thought I had effectively done when the kid taking my order said something I didn’t understand. I though he asked if I wanted anything else and I shook my head. Then he said something else and I again shook my head. Then he looked at me with a little bit of a surprised look and said, “No?” I was then forced to respond, in French, that I didn’t understand. Then he asked me in English to repeat my order, and things made sense. Apparently, even my best attempts at French, suck. But I got my chicken sandwich and diet coke and hustled back to my frontline fence spot. IN about another 45 minutes the racing started. The race was actually preceeded by a mini convoy which consisted mostly of Credit Agricole Cars giving out free hats. Yep, I got one. And wore it, along with about a thousand other people. The racing was cool. This is my first pro tour even, and these guys are really fit and look so comfortable on their bikes. Not to mention, I wish I was as skinny as any of them in a skin suit. Well, something to work for I guess. I’ll let a few pics do the rest of the talking. I took about 125 and will post the rest on fotki once I start an account. I’ll post the address later. I start in lab tomorrow, and am excited for that. More to come…

George Hincapie in the Stars and Stripes Jersey
A view for the 50 m mark.

Tommy D suffering to a not to impressive time.

"The man" Tom Boonen. He got a big cheer.
And one of my favorites, Dave Z out of the start.

Alpe d’Huez

With maps in hand and feeling a little more confident and not so tired, I decided I would go find Alpe d’Huez. After getting out of bed at around 10am, having bread and jam for breakfast (strawberry-rhubarb - They actually have lots of rhubarb flavored things, which I think is great as I love rhubarb) I kitted up, filled my water bottles, stuffed my jersey pockets full of food, arm warmers, vest, ipod, money, etc (the necessities) I set out to fine Alpe d’Huez. I rode south, but a different route than I went yesterday as I can’t seem to follow the streets very well, and after about 30 minutes of riding found the route to get out of town, D5. This took my through Vizille, Brie (where the cheese originated???) and out to le Bourg-d’Ojsans. That was about 30 miles and 2:10 ride time, so a little further than I thought. I’ve posted some pictures enroute. As I was riding out, I came across two legit looking riders in full Milram kits (not wearing helmets) and though, hmmm…. Could be, but I’m not sure. Once in le Bourg-d’Ojsans, I made a left hand turn at a sign that said Alpe d’Huez, rode for a few hundred meters and then started climbing a stretch of road that I thought was ridiculously steep. I vaguely recall hearing that Alpe d’Huez was ~6% and figured it would level out a little soon. Yeah, no such luck. The whole thing was really steep and I was really wishing for a compact crank. The next few pictures are going up the climb. They have these nice signs at the switch backs to let you know how much suffering you have left. (There were 21 signs and I wanted to die by the 10th).

I stopped to take a few pictures and these two older guys passed me. They were really hammering along and I though, shit, am I that out of shape? After snapping a couple shots, I started riding again and caught them a little ways up the road. Unfortunately, the slow cadence took a toll on my legs and I had to stop again and took a few more pics, ate a bar, and drank the rest of my water. Those two guys again passed me, and I never saw them again, so maybe I am that out of shape. The last few k’s were pretty mentally challenging, but I had a few rabbits in front of me. Actually, they were no extra motivation, I just couldn’t pedal any slower than I already was. But, I came across some Belgians (who I only learned were Belgian once I was at the top) and had a brief exchange (in French) with them. That was about 500 m from the summit. I hit the summit and was happy to stop pedaling. You can see some pics of me at the top.

In case any of you are considering doing this climb, there is actually a public watering trough with potable water. When I read the sign, I couldn’t tell if it read “Yes, Potable” or “Not Potable”, but once a French speaking person used the fountain, I hit that up. It was surprisingly cold and refreshing. I also bought a coke and a snickers bar at the café. I wanted a coffee, but also didn’t want a coffee. The Belgians were nice enough to take my picture (I only asked once I had established that they spoke English, as a French kid asked them in English to take his picture). Definitely cool for nostalgia purposes, but not something I would want to ride daily. I would much rather ride GMR, which isn’t nearly as pretty, but definitely more doable with a standard crank. The descent was fast and fun, and by the bottom I bet I had seen 100-150 cyclists climbing, descending, at the top, or riding to Alpe d’Huez. That was very cool. There were also many leftover writings on the rode from previous tours in a bunch of different languages. The only one I fully understood said “Go Cadel, C’mon Aussies” Pretty cool none the less. I don’t know how those guys can go so hard all day and then go even harder up something so steep with standard gearing. My numbers (which weren’t that impressive) were avg. power – 250 watts, avg. cadence 55, avg heart rate 175 (ridiculously high), total time – 1:10. It was hot and humid out (85 or 90 F near the bottom) but I’m clearly not in race shape. Sorry, Michael. There was a photographer on one of the switch backs near the top and he took a few shots. I haven’t looked at the pics online yet, but web address is http://www.photobreton.com/, and my web code is FG7B3385 if anyone cares to see them. I may buy one if they look good. After the descent, I had 30 miles back to Grenoble, most of which weren’t too bad. There was one climb that was steep and probably 1.5 miles long (more 55 cadence) but it fortunately didn’t take that long. After getting back into tow, the route I took back to my dorm was far different than the one I had taken on the way out. Not that I did this on purpose, it’s just hard to pick out the road names. But, I did see five legit looking riders in full CSC kit upon Zipp clad Cervelo’s. I gave them the nod, and got nods in return I thought, “wow, this is interesting. What the heck is going on? Are they all doing recon for the tour already?”. Nope, and that leads my into my next post.