欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

AliExpress shopping
What have I ordered from AliExpress this time? Mostly bike parts, I think.

1. 2 bearings
2. 1 RISK bike cable set
3. 1 set (10 pieces) of RISK plastic cable ends
4. 1 bike stand
5. 50 pieces of rubber O rings (1 x 20 x 22)
6. 10 pieces of rubber O rings (2.5 x 55 x 60)
7. 1 Chainring 56 teeth
8. 1 Chainring 36 teeth
9. 1 Chainring 38 teeth
10. 1 set (of 2 brake/2 shift) wires
11. 2 bottle cages
12. 1 set (10 pieces) of RISK silicon frame protectors
13. 1 portable foldable pet enclosure
14. 1 set titanium cutlery

Wow! I ordered a lot of things.

1. 2 bearings
These bearings are for the front fork of my Cervélo bike.

2. 1 RISK bike cable set
I bought two of them a while ago. I just wanted one more.

3. 1 set (10 pieces) of RISK plastic cable ends
Plastic cable ends might be useful than the aliminum ones that came in the kit above.

4. 1 bike stand
It a mini acrylic piece that goes under the pedal.

5. 50 pieces of rubber O rings (1 x 20 x 22)
They could (if my measurement is correct) be used on the bottom cap of my Streamlight Stinger flashlights.
(1 mm width, inner diameter 20 mm and outer 22 mm)

6. 10 pieces of rubber O rings (2.5 x 55 x 60)
They could (ditto) be used on the race humber holder on the seat post.

7. 1 Chainring 56 teeth
8. 1 Chainring 36 teeth
9. 1 Chainring 38 teeth
They will be used on my Birdy. (110 BCD)

10. 1 set (of 2 brake/2 shift wires)
They will be used on my Cervélo bike.

11. 2 bottle cages
(ditto) Of carbon composite material

12. 1 set (10 pieces) of RISK silicon frame protectors
(ditto)

13. 1 portable folding pet enclosure
My Hannah will stretch herself inside during some bike race events beside me (outdoor use).

14. 1 set titanium cutlery
For my camping tour. (knife, spoon, fork, chopsticks)

EV share in European countries

(click to enlarge)

In English: 続きをどうぞ [EV (BEV / PHEV) share in European countries]の続きを読む

テーマ:日記 - ジャンル:日記

1. 2025/01/13(月) 21:06:31|
2. Bike Races
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Camp shower equipment
Yes. There are many types.
1. A simple water-proof bag with a tiny plastic shower head,
2. An air-pressure tank with air-pomp with a shower head on a long hose.
3. An electric water pomp with a shower head on a long hose.

I have type 1. It folds to a size slightly bigger than my fist. It has to be hung from a tree branch or something. Or one of my arms is occupied by this bag.

Later I bought type 2 product. It has a 7-litter solid tank. It is sizable and it is not easy to take it on a camping trip.

Once (2019) I took this type 2 product on the camping tour for 3 weeks. It had to rest in a bag (https://boot-bag.com/store/default/boot-bag-original.html) fixed on the trunk lid. I used it twice or thrice during the Tour de France trip.

Will I take it on the trip in 2025? My 2025 Tour de France trip itinerary is almost done and I expect 10 to 12 nights where I miss the comfort of staying at camp sites. A small bag or a big tank? This troubles me.

Lord! I did not know my camping trip was going to be so hard. I try to find camp sites on my way to the destinations but it is not too easy to find the right ones.

Oh, don't ask me about the toilet situation! It is easy or easier for a man to answer the call of nature. I'm not too concerned.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [The right stuff or gear for a comfortable camping trip]の続きを読む

テーマ:アウトドア - ジャンル:趣味・実用

1. 2024/12/10(火) 22:34:54|
2. Bike Races
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Part 5 of Itinerary

Part IV （The Alps stages）

Rest Day 2 Mon 07/21/2025 Montpellier

16. Mountain Tue 07/22/2025 Montpellier > Mont Ventoux (172 km)

17. Flat Wed 07/23/2025 Bollène > Valence (161 km)

18. Mountain Thu 07/24/2025 Vif > Courchevel Col de la Loze (171 km)

19. Mountain Fri 07/25/2025 Albertville > La Plagne (130 km)

20. Hilly Sat 07/26/2025 Nantua > Pontarlier (185 km)

21. Flat Sun 07/27/2025 Mantes-la-Ville > Paris Champs-Élysées (120 km)


Mon. 21/07 - Rest Day 2
Tue. 22/07 - Stage 16
Wed. 23/07 - Stage 17
Thu. 24/07 - Stage 18
Fri. 25/07 - Stage 19
Sat. 26/07 - Stage 20
Sun. 27/07 - Stage 21


Rest Day 2
Stop: Montpellier - Mont Ventoux
Transfer: 350 km (Col de Pas du Sant - Montpellier - Mont Ventoux)
Accommodation: sleeping in the tent Mont Ventoux


Because of the timely rest day, I can drive up Mont Ventoux and stay on the side of the road. If I am physically fit I will try to climb down to Bedoin and then climb up to the summit on my bike.

The rest day is Monday. Another shopping day! I'll stock up.

I have slept in the tent on the roadside twice already. It was fun. Once (2007? or 2008?) I was there just one or two hundred meters down the summit. The race was Criterium du Dauphiné Libéré (it was callled this way back then). I saw Christoph Moreau win the stage on top of Mont Ventoux. Because this stage race is (was) a smallish (way samller than the Tour de France) race event, fewer audience were there. That is why I could park my car (Mercedez A Class back then) and stay there.

The second time it was a stage of the Tour de France 2009. I stayed about a couple of hundred meters above Chalet Reynard. I remember from there I rode down to Bedoin and then climbed up on my bike. It was fun. I'll do it again.

The expected road closure time is 16:00 on the eve of Stage 16, which is the second rest day (July 21st).


Stage 16
Stop: Mont Ventoux
Transfer: 75 km (Bedoin to Deiulefit)
Accommodation: camp site near Deiulefit

I have not decided but I might drive to Dieulefit and stay there. It is a short drive.


Stage 17
Stop: Deiulefit
Transfer: 254 km (Dieufit to Moûtiers)
Accommodation: Col de Madeleine / Moûtiers (Bozel)

I have not totally decided on what to do. I may skip this stage or enjoy it. I want to watch the peloton on the climb of either Col de Madeleine or Courchevel. I have been to the former so I am inclined to visit Courchevel this time.

First I thought I would skip this stage. On second thought, thanks to the info Cycle Stage provided, I changed my mind. I found a climb section and thought I might as well enjoy it.

Deiulefit is a village at the foot of this climb section in Stage 17 not far from Bedoin. I see some camp sites nearby so it won't be so bad at all.


Bozel is a village located at around 1,000 meters above sea level in the mountain. There is an alternate path leading to Courchevel and Bozel is located there. The main (?) path from Moûtiers leading to Chourchevel is the race course and will be blocked at Moûtiers (located at the base / foot) around 16:00 while Stage 17 is wrapping up.


The following is totally a working theory (assumption) but based on the numbers below, I think it is a working plan at least.

Distance from the Start (Bollène)
65.5 km : Deiulefit: start of the climb
73 or 74 km : Summit of the climb:
90 km : Saou
92 km : Crossing D613 / D136

The bold yellow line is the route that BaseCamp suggests and, from the summit of the climb to the crossing (above), this section is around 14 km long. The peloton rides (the thinner yellow route D538) about 19 km (93 - 74).

By the time I arrive at the crossing point, the race will be gone. I think I can cross this point soon and continue my route (Dieufit to Moûtiers 254 km using 70 %?? highway) further to my destination.

By the time I cross this point, the time will be 13:00 to 14:00. If I am lucky, I may be able to beat the time limit (the road closure at Moûtiers) and drive up the main route to Courchevel. If not, I can still drive up the alternative route up to Bozel.

If I decide to opt for Col de Madeleine, I get off the highway and make my way to the bottom of Col de Madeleine. There might be road closure there or may be not yet enforced there. Even when the race routee is closed, I can still drive up the alternate route up to a village (Longchamp 1,650 meters) near the summit of Col de Madeleine (1,993 meters). Yes, there is an alternative route.

FYI, St. Fran&cced;ois Longchamp (1,587 meters) is the finish of Stage 8 (the TdF Women) 9 days later.

Knowing that 1. there's a climb in Stage 17 and 2. there are alternative climbing routes to both Col de Madeleine and Courchevel, I started thinking skipping Stage 17 would be a shame.


Stage 18
Stop: Courchevel / Col de Madeleine
Transfer: km (Moûtiers to Aime-la-Plagne)
Accommodation: Aime-la-Plagne (Maĉot)

Aime-la-Plagne is a village at the foot of la Plagne ski resort. Acutally there should be the road block at the small village of Maĉot where not roads join the route to Courchevel.

There are no aternative routes. I will stay there for the night and I won't be along for sure.


Stage 19
Stop: La Plagne
Transfer: 285 km (Maĉot to Thesy)
Accommodation: sleeping in the tent at Thesy

I can not stress enough how much I profitted from Cycling Stages. Usually this kind of detailed itinerary of my camping trip to follow the TdF can not be made possible until late June as the official site (lecout.fr) won't reveal the details until then (around the time of le Dauphiné Libéré). Now I have the complete itinerary and it's still November! Unbelievable!

Cycling Stage site is a godsend!

I don't know the official definition of "Hilly" but I assume that a stage without HC, 1st or 2nd Category climbs but with several 3rd Category climbs and/or its gained alititude sums up to a certain amount (1,000 meters?). This is only my imagination based on my hunch.

Officially the stage (20th) is "Hilly" but almost no details of the stage has been revealed by the organizer. I still can, however, plan exactly what to do from the info provided by Cycling Stage. I found this location, Thesy, from the profile data.

From Maĉot (Aime-la-Plagne) it is a drive of 285 km long to Thesy. I don't believe there will be any road closures on the course of Stage 20. I can drive freely to any locations in the evening.

I saw camp sites in Salins-les-Bains (or is it Bracon?) several kilometers away from Thesy (on the BaseCamp map). I may be able to stay there. If I can not take a shower and refresh, there's no chance. I will check if they really exist by searching them on the Internet.

I checked their backgrounds: At least one was real and the other turned out to be non-existent. Additionally I found more in nearby area (Arbois).

Arbois has a lot of wineries, I noticed. I don't drink wine.


Phantom camp sites?
I often run into this situation where I find ghost camp sites.

Sometimes around 19:00 in the evening I'm driving after the stage somewhere and could not find any "Camping" roadsigns. It's summer and the sun is still high. I get a bit worried not being able to find any camp sites to check in.

Then I look for camp sites on my Garmin navigation device (with "latest" map data update). I find one nearby and drive to it only to find it non-existent, a ghost, phantom, echo of the past or whatever.

This is either because the business has gone out of business or because the map has the wrong address (GPS coordinates).

Most camp sites (their receptions) stay open a bit later during summer. Still camp sites without a bar / restaurant close their reception after 19:00. Camp sites with a bar/restaurant will accept later arrivers like me as one of the active workers can handle the reception work.

In 2024, I ran into one (phantom) and then while cursing my bad luck I found a food truck (pizza, pizza food trucks are very popular in France). I stopped and asked them (two women) if they knew a camp site nearby. They pointed to one by giving me the general direction. I soon found a "Camping" roadsign. I eventually got there (20:00?) but it was not the phantom I was chasing (totally different name and different location). I was lucky as this camp site had a small bar. A happy ending!

This food truck was very close to the phantom but they never mentioned it. This means the phantom camp site must had gone out of business a long long time ago. I could not think of any other possibilities.

I know for a fact that some coordinates (GPS location information stored in the device) are wrong (at least not accurate). This is sometimes inevitable when some businesses are located at places out of a residential area. In other words, you can expect, say, 101 Sesame Street between 99 Sesame Street and 103 Sesame Street. It is so obvious in a residential area.

On the other hand, what kind of address do you expect for a desolate small cafe on top of some mountain? It does not have one. An address is mainly dor delivering mail, thus those desolate locations have a PO Box at the local post office. No postman visits them. The business owner visits the PO Box.

This is an extreme example but it is hard for map data makers to place some businesses at the right location on the map (GPS coordinates) if they only know their address. Many camp sites are located in the woods, on the river bank, on the lake shore or out in the field.

In this respect, Google maps data tend to be more accurate than my Garmin map data as users can contribute to Google if they find some mistakes.

How many times have I run into ghost camp sites? At least 30 times, I'm afraid.


Stage 20
Stop: Thesy
Transfer: 440 km (to Paris)
Accommodation: a brief nap in the car seat ;(

There is a climb located in the middle of the stage near Thesy.

After the stage, I will drive to Paris. A 440 km drive is not too bad at all. This year (2024) I had to drive home 1,100 km overnight from Monaco (Nice) to work in the afternoon.

I have some doubts. Am I going to Paris? I can skip it if ... if I want to. In fact I am planning to continue following women's Tour de France.


Stage 21
Stop: Champs-Élysées???
Transfer: ?
Accommodation: ?

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Tour de France 2025 and the itinerary 5]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車ロードレース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2024/12/08(日) 23:05:17|
2. Bike Races
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I bought a new knife from Amazon (Germany)
I bought one.

For some time I have been looking for a sturdy knife for my camping trips.

To save money and have my beloved Hannah (cat), I choose Airbnb hosts who allow pets, inexpensive motorist hotel (simply motel) rooms where pets are allowed or camping sites where usually pets are allowed when the trip requires a place to stay at night.

On long camping trips, I take a minimum set of cooking equipment with me. That's when I need a cooking knife.
It must have a very safe sheath. I have to keep it inside the car, in a bag, in the dark tent and so. If I take a wrong step on the blade or grope for something in a bag and mistakenly stab myself in the palm or so, that can ruin the camping trip.

I usually take a Victrinox folding knife (so-called Swiss Army knife) with me. It stays safe as long as the blade is folded. I like it. Alas, it is not suitable cutting vegetable or similar stuff.

This knife come with a Kydex sheath and also with a neat belt clip. It should do the job well. I think now that it was a bit overkill.


According to the spec sheet;
Blade weight: 198 g
Gross weight: 387 g
Blade thickness 4.2 mm
Overall length: 218 mm
Blade length: 98 mm


In English: 続きをどうぞ [I bought a knife for camping trips]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車ロードレース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2024/11/12(火) 17:58:14|
2. Bike Races
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Kali Linux
I am using Kali Linux on one of my Compaq Presario CQ56 machines.

I have to update the system by issuing these commands periodically.
kali@kali:~$ sudo apt update

kali@kali:~$ sudo apt full-upgrade -y

There is no such applications that would do the process by a few clicks of mouse buttons.

32GB vs 64GB Geekbench6 scores on Mac Pro Late2013
I upgraded the memory on my Mac Pro Late2013 from 32 GB to 64GB just recently. I wanted to know how much impact this upgrade would have so I ran the benchmark application.

I knew it would not not improve since (I assumed that) Geekbench6 seemed that it did not use all of 32 GB of memory. If it does, the benchmark score will be greatly affected by swap (using the disk space when the memory is deleted) performance.

I guessed increasing the memory would not affect at all or the overall performance might get worse because of the unnecessary memory.

It did. I mean the CPU single-core and multi-core scores fell. Here' are the scores. The first three scores are from the era when the machine had 32 GB and the last two scores are current ones.



In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [64GB of memory on Mac Pro Late2013]の続きを読む

1. 2024/08/07(水) 10:26:31|
2. Bike Races
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