欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

That was Stage 10 (Tarbes - Arette La Pierre Saint Martin) on Tuesday, July 14th. The previous day I was heading for the finish. The route was blocked at the Arette and we (the general public) could not go any further. We were shown with two choices, either to turn back or stay at the parking (temporal) there and pay 5 euros per day.

I chose to pay and stay there. One overnight staying meant staying two days, thus I paid 10 euros.

From Arette, the finish (a ski station near the summit of Col de la Pierre Saint Martin) was 27 away. I think I rode about 25 km to the finish and then 2.5 km to the other side of the border (Basque Country).

In other words, the finish was not the summit (Col de la Pierre Saint Martin) but the ski station 2.5 km down the summit.

Anyway, this was the first 'real' ride for me during the Tour. A real long distance and climb ride on the bike.

I noticed dull pains at the back of my left knee after a while. I hurt the tendons there. By the time I arrived at the finish area, the pain was not ignorable. I hesitated a while before climbing again to the summit.

Despite the pain I had to climb up the last stretch until the border as I had already decided that I would cross the border.

This injury remained with me for the rest of Tour and is with me now. Despite this injury, I climbed up Alpe d'Huez (not to the top, though), Pra-Loup. I did not climb up Plateau de Beille, of course.

What a shame! What a bummer!

The pain went away as I use the left knee more. To be exact, using the injured knee made the pain numb. Maybe I should have avoided riding my bike at all but I could not let go the opportunity like this.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Minor injury during TdF 2015 and others]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車レース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2015/07/30(木) 14:17:00|
2. Tour de France
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0

I came home and now the reality set in. I have to start working Tomorrow.

I just picked up my mail at the local post office that had been kept during my vacation.

My room is in a total mess. I have to clean it up.

The vacation was really good and I enjoyed myself. This year I had written a lot of logs during the vacation and I will tidy them up and upload here.

One of my MacBooks (not the one I am writing this now) has been updated to Mac OS X El Capitan. It is a MacBook (13 inch, Late 2009, 2.26 GHz). I am on the Public Beta program and not a developer.

The first public beta version had an obvious bug with the Finder. When I open a folder (just click on the Finder icon in the dock) and click other folders (on the side bar), the window gets messed up and I could not recognise any of the file/folder icons.

The beta update corrected this problem. Now Apple has released the next update. El Capitan was (or is) supposed to be a minor (relatively) update. It is said to be a minor update to Yosemite.

I noticed something right away and then visited Apples web site to know about this change.

Japanese Input Method has been changed. Those who don't know about Japanese Input Method will not be able to grasp the idea of what has been changed. I am not sure if I like this new feature but will try it out before making my mind to say if I like it or not.


In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Home, sweet home and the reality set in]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車レース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2015/07/30(木) 11:11:08|
2. Diary
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0

Now 20:40 Monday, July 20th 2015 lying in the tent at a camping site close to the climb start of Pra-Loup after taking a shower I'm writing this.

Col de Manse was only a second category climb. I did the last 5 K to test my hurting tendons at the back of my left knees that I had strained too much on the climb of Col de la Pierre Saint Martin. They were OK but not healed yet. They hurt yet.

Anyway, after the stage I left for a camp site already mentioned. I arrived there 20:00 to find out that it had been full.

I met there (sitting at a table outside the restaurant also run by the same owner) a couple whom I had known for several years. We went (and keep going) to the same camp sites close to the bike race events. He recognized me (probably saw the Luxembourg license plate first) and called to me. We greeted. He had said when we met at a camping site in Mende that he was going to Pra-Loup, indeed.

He had already checked in with his beautiful sizable camper. I was going to leave when he suggested that he would ask the man in charge of this business that part of his lot be given to my car and tent so that I could stay. The man agreed. He said that he had already turned down more than 30 people this day.

I paid and was accepted into the site.

The bond of Luxembourgers!

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [The bond of Luxembourgers]の続きを読む

1. 2015/07/20(月) 21:23:02|
2. Tour de France

I am up and going.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Still going]の続きを読む

1. 2015/07/17(金) 06:50:11|
2. Tour de France
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0

I'm in Pau at the hotel where TFR are staying. The riders are gone for a ride at this moment.

A typical rest day scenery. Cleaning and preparing for the coming days.

After seeing the riders come home, I'll move to the finish climb of the next day.

Hard days ahead for the riders. Attacks after attacks. Quiet before the storm.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Pau and the Pyrenees]の続きを読む

1. 2015/07/13(月) 11:21:06|
2. Tour de France
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0

I'm resting at a camping site near Namur, Belgium. I was at the Côte de Bohissau Today.

I was happy not to have chosen to to be at the Mur de Huy for reasons.

There were simply too much crowds at the finish climb as you could see on the TV.

I met just by chance some German friends on the climb of Bohissau. We spent a very pleasant time together.

There were not so many people there and we all had some elbow space.

I could paint as much as I could as I was the only one doing so. FÄBU x 52 times!

OK not everything was rosy Today. We saw (I had a portable DVB-T TV) on the TV that horrible pile-up. I saw him fly tumbling on the grass (Gush it was on the grass not on the asphalt). He finished the stage. All I can wish is that nothing is broken and he starts the stage Tomorrow!!!

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Near Namur]の続きを読む

1. 2015/07/06(月) 19:25:12|
2. Tour de France
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0

I am starting packing and loading my Ford Ka.

I did not have time to shop for several things so I have to find these missing stuff in Holland.

Missing items;
1) Paint backet (water solution indoor white, acrylic paint) 10 liters or so to begin with (for the first week)
2) A data/charging cable for iPhone 4 (30 pin)
3) Food (I have nothing! I only have mineral water bottles)
4) ???

I am having a trouble with my Garmin nüvi 2340 right now. What is the f**k?


In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ

[I am leaving for Utrecht, the Netherlands in a couple of hours]の続きを読む

テーマ:自転車レース - ジャンル:スポーツ

1. 2015/07/01(水) 21:40:26|
2. Tour de France
3. | トラックバック：0
4. | コメント：0