欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

I am leaving Today

Woke up and went to the local post office to stop the mail delivery for a while, then to a supermarket to buy the prepaid telephone credit and then went to a bank branch to drop the slip (vehicle tax).

Now I am free to leave. As I came home, I parked my car in front of my residence for ease of loading. The parking plots in front of my residence on the street are usually taken by others. I have to park my car about 100 meters away. People leave for work in the morning and some of those cars are gone.

I will start loading my Mazda MX-5. Not much space on the car but there are a lot of things to load.

Let's get started!

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Now packing and loading]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. 2018/07/03(火) 09:36:56|
2. Tour de France
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Packing now!

Today I felt lazy so I just decided to pack up for the trip. Tomorrow I have to run a lot of errand going around the town.

OMG! It is a lot of work to pack up!

Before starting to pack, I did a bit of bike maintenance that had been long long over due. I had to swap the rear cassettes on my Zipp 404 tubular wheel from 11-28 to 12-36. Both of them are SRAM 1050 grade cassettes. It went smoothly.

This swapping requires one more thing, which is installing the "Roadlink" on the rear derailleur. My current rear derailleur is a short cage one. It won't work properly with this 12-36 (10-speed) cog.

After installing both of them, I checked the shifting and found OK, maybe not great but OK.

The work was not yet done. The reason I needed 12-36 (rather big) gearing was I wanted to install Osymetric inner ring with 38 teeth. Because the rear cog had been 11-28, I could not use this Osymetric 38T inner ring. Now I could use it as this setting would produce almost the same gear ratio at the low end.

A long time ago I purchased a secondhand SRAM Red Wifli rear derailleur. It can work with *-32 cassette (and subsequently I purchased a new 12-32 cassette). After his ebay auction purchase, I was interested in Roadlink and decided to give it a try. The idea was if this setting (short cage derailleur / 36T) worked, I had wider selection of gears like carbon cage big pulley cages or so.

Now the bike is ready to go!


I have to pack more stuff.

1. Bike clothing, bike and bike tools
I am expecting some rainy days and colder climate in the mountains. So the volume gets a big bigger for a summer cycling tour.

My bike will be on the small bike rack. The wheels in a bag will be sitting in the passenger's seat most of the time. This big bag sitting in the passenger's seat bothers me. The bag won't fit inside the boot.

2. Casual clothing and toiletries
Absolute minimum as I really don't have space in the car. The underwear I am carrying are of thin mesh materials so that I can wash and dry overnight. I don't intend to carry any dirty laundry bag. Wash and Dry!

Besides normal toiletries kit, I have to bring electric devices. I have trim the nose hair and cut my hair. My vacation extends to 4 weeks.

3. Cooking equipment and food
Minimum but a bit of extra. Jetboil (original) for drinking expresso and Trangia (with gas burner) for cooking. They never let me down all these year. I will bring my Wacaco nanopresso.

I will keep small portion of some pasta and rice with basic spices. I have to procure food as I travel.

4. Electronic appliances
I need a lot of them. A portable DVB-T2 television August DA100D won't be one of them. There seems no sign of its ever arriving in time.

Besides this TV set, I have to bring my portable DVB-T TV set, MacBook Pro Mid 2010, iPad mini 2, Google Nexus 5X, Garmin nüvi 2340, Garmin Edge 500, other small gadgets and batteries and a load of chargers/adapters.

5. Living quaters
A.k.a., tents. One is for sleeping and the other is for shower/toilet. A sleeping bag is also needed.

6. Paint kit
Rollers and backets.

By the time my vehicle is ready for the journey, I am only a piece of sardine in a tin can as you can see.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Packing and packing]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. 2018/07/02(月) 20:30:09|
2. Tour de France
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Part II

By studying this book, I can learn a lot of things and what to expect and finally decide where to drive to and where to watch the race.

For example, I was wondering where to go in Stage 9 (leading to Roubaix via a lot of cobble stone sectors). I provisionally set my mind on either sector 14 or 15 (or could be 13), one of the early sectors for ease of transferring all the way to Annecy.

The roadbook tells me that for the exception of 14, 15 and 1 none race vehicles (other than race judges vehicles, team cars following the race directly, course security vehicles and some specially authorized vehicles) are not allowed to go in and they will be diverted to detour shortcuts.

What this means is that if I stand by the roadside of either sector 14 or 15, I will get the pleasure of having those publicity caravan vehicles and also get the free giveaways before the race.

After this Stage 9, I have to drive around 800 km to Annecy. I was expecting to visit the hotel where Bob Jungels and his colleagues are staying (Quick Step Floors) but I found out that they are staying in Chambery, some 50 km away from Annecy exactly opposite direction from my final destination, Col de Romme (Alt. 1297 m).

So I will have to settle with one of the hotels (in Annecy) where Peter Sagan is staying or where Nairo Quintana is staying before driving to my final destination of that day.

On the other hand, on the day they have another rest day in Carcassonne, Quick Step Floors members are staying indeed in Carcassonne and I can visit them then before driving to Col du Portillon (280 km away).

It seems that after Stage 17 the teams are staying at the same hotels (Tarbes - Pau area) for four nights before leaving for Paris.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Tdf 2018 Roadbook and the hotels Part II]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. 2018/07/02(月) 00:23:52|
2. Tour de France
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The 2018 Tour de France stages:

Wednesday, July 4
Leaving Luxembourg around 00:00 for la Roche-sur-Yon. A drive for around 800 km in about more than a half day. No toll roads! I hope I get to the camping site by 17:00.

Thursday, July 5
A Team Presentation ceremony in the evening. I have ample time to check out the venue in the morning.

Friday, July 6
Visiting a hotel in Challans about 60 km from my camping site. I will visit the Quick-Step Floors bunch. I know some riders and staff members. I will see them off when they leave for a short training ride. I will wait for them to come back.

Stage 1, July 7: Noirmoutier-en-l’Ile – Fontenay-le-Comte, 189km
Short description of watch plan: 60 km from the camping site.
At the feed zone, Saint-Vincent-sur-Jard.

to continue later.......

Stage 2, July 8: Mouilleron-Saint-Germain – La Roche-sur-Yon, 183km



Stage 3, July 9: Cholet – Cholet (TTT), 35km



Stage 4, July 10: La Baule – Sarzeau, 192km



Stage 5, July 11: Lorient – Quimper, 203km



Stage 6, July 12: Brest – Mûr de Bretagne Guerlédan, 181km



Stage 7, July 13: Fougères – Chartres, 231km



Stage 8, July 14: Dreux – Amiens Métropole, 181km



Stage 9, July 15: Arras Citadelle – Roubaix, 154km



Rest day, July 16: Annecy

Stage 10, July 17: Annecy – Le Grand Bornand, 159km



Stage 11, July 18: Albertville – La Rosière, 108km



Stage 12, July 19: Bourg-Saint-Maurice Les Arcs – Alpe d’Huez, 175km



Stage 13, July 20: Bourg d’Oisans – Valence, 169km



Stage 14, July 21: Saint-Paul-Trois-Châteaux – Mende, 187km



Stage 15, July 22: Millau – Carcassonne, 181km



Rest day, July 23: Carcassonne


Stage 16, July 24: Carcassonne – Bagnères-de-Luchon, 218km



Stage 17, July 25: Bagnères-de-Luchon – Saint-Lary-Soulan (Col de Portet), 65km



Stage 18, July 26: Trie-sur-Baïse – Pau, 172km



Stage 19, July 27: Lourdes – Laruns, 200km



Stage 20, July 28: Saint-Pée-sur-Nivelle – Espelette (ITT), 31km



Stage 21, July 29: Houilles – Paris Champs Elysées, 115km

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ
[TdF 2018 plans, where to be, how to get there and where to sleep]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. 2018/07/01(日) 15:42:45|
2. Tour de France
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