Training Camp at CTS - Colorado Springs

My expectations, going to the CTS Camp were not very high. I just wanted to have a look at their facilities and have a chance to meet with my coach, Kate Grachek, with whom I have exchanged numerous emails in the last three years. Other than that, I was expecting to be with a group of racing guys and to be at a very different level from then
In fact, my expectations were more than met. Not only did I have a chance to have lunch with Kate and also to roam around the huge facilities that CTS has there, but I actually benefited from the camp and learned a few new things.
I thought traveling to Colorado Springs was going to be a nightmare, with a terror threat in London and much tighter security at airports. But everything went smoothly. I was at the airport with three hours to spare and took only 15 minutes to go through security.
The first day at the camp did not go too well. In the morning, we did drills on a field to learn how to improve our bike handling skills, doing track stands, weaving the bike through bottles on the ground, picking up bottles from the ground while riding and playing a game "the gladiators" where we were supposed to eliminate other riders from a square area by either forging them to put a foot down, or driving them out of bounds. I did well on that last game only because I managed to stay out of trouble, waiting for the others to eliminate themselves.
The ride was about learning to ride on pace lines, single, double and rotating. The leading coach allowed the pace to get far too fast and it became difficult just to stay with it. At some point, while drafting, my heart rate went up to 166. So, I made it very conspicuous and dropped way back. After that, the pace became a little more reasonable and the remainder of the ride went well.
The next day was about climbing and cornering. I thoroughly enjoyed climbing at 85 rpm cadence. We did three intervals of 8 minutes each of climbing, at high intensity, and I liked it a lot. In the afternoon, we practiced cornering on a short one mile course at a place called "Gardens of God", and I think that this will improve my cornering ability quite a bit. It felt goo.
On Sunday, only one ride for the camp, which was supposed to include climbing, cornering and pace line. We did all of that and it was quite a pleasant ride.
However, I was saving myself a little as I was planning to ride up the Ute Pass as soon as the camp was over. Chris Carmichael showed up for the closing of the camp, which I thought was a nice thing to do. We had a chance to exchange a few words with him before I set out on my climb.
The Ute Pass turned out to be a little more difficult than I anticipated. Another lesson of humility from cycling. Don't brag about your upcoming ride, only talk with honesty about the last one.
Ute Pas is long and is not a steady climb. There are easy portions, some a little more steep (7% grade) and it is long. Also, the heavy traffic makes it a rather unpleasant ride. It is very safe as there is a shoulder available almost all the way up, but still, noise and traffic don't go well with cycling. It took me 2 hours and 45 minutes to ride the 27 miles from Colorado Springs to Ute Pass (Jason told me that it takes him 1 hour 15 minutes) but only 1 hour and 18 minutes to get back.
This gave me time to pack my bike that sunday afternoon, pack my bags and go for dinner, with basically nothing to do on Monday before catching my flight at 3:30 in the afternoon.
Another good event under my belt, to add to my cycling memories. As usual, I have posted a few pictures of the camp on my library of photos in an album called "bicycling in the US", but my pictures about the Tour Cyclotouriste FFCT 2006 an still be found in a dedicated album.

Le tour Cyclotouriste FFCT 2006 en francais - (english version below)

Quelle fantastique aventure ! Passer sur la route trois semaines avec 150 personnes que je ne connaissais pas le moins du monde, sauf Henri Dusseau et n'en retenir que de merveilleux souvenirs ! En 21 jours consecutifs 3,226 kilometres dont 33,845 metres de montée cumulée. Franchir sans mettre pied à terre des pentes comprenant un maximum à 19% (pour être honnête, 16% selon le site FFCT, les 19 % provenant de participants avec des altimètres). Faire une étape de 238 kilomètres en ne partant qu'après un petit déjeûnet vers 7 heures du matin et arriver avant dîner !
Tout celà ne sont que des statistiques, mais celà ne traduit absolument pas ce que celà signifie de faire connaissance sur la route avec 140 participants venant de différents pays (2 finlandais, 2 danois, 6 britanniques, 11 belges, 1 américain (moi !), les autres français), de visiter autant de régions différentes et magnifiques (notamment le Tarn), si différentes les unes des autres, que ce soit les vignobles de St Emilion, les Pyrénées et son Tourmalet, l'Auvergne et le Pas de Peyrol, la bretagne et le chateau de Josselin, etc, etc. Même si l'éloignement rend la chose peu probable, j'espère pouvoir garder contact avec les amis avec qui j'aie roulé, ceux du "grupetto", Bob, Marcel, Yvon, Michel, Marie-Jo, Marie-Christine, Marie-Pascale, sans oublier mes camarades de chambre, Gilles et Louis-Marie. Et tous ceux qui ont contribué à la joie de cette balade, Pouët-pouët, Papie 52*13, Bernard le Parisien, et tant d'autres.
Je pensais écrire une sorte de journal de bord, donnant le détail de l'aventure étape par étape. Mais sauf pour ceux qui ont fait le tour et qui par conséquent n'ont pas besoin de ce descriptif, je pense que ce serait plutot rasoir. A la place, j'aie réuni les photos que Bob m'a fait parvenir, celles que j'aie prises moi même, 25 photos prises sur le site de la FFCT et 3 ou 4 photos prises par Henri Dusseau et je les aie affiché sur un album sur le Web.
Merci tout particulièrement à Bob, pas seulement pour les photos, mais pour sa gentillesse tout au long du tour ou il a été devant, derrière, partout où il pouvait rendre service. Et ce qui ne gâte rien, merci à son épouse Eve pour le ravitaillement après le Pas de Peyrol et le col de Neronne.
Le Tour était entièrement organisé par des volontaires, ce qui permet de proposer un prix très bas pour le tour (ici aux US cela aurait facilement couté le triple), et donc de contribuer à la promotion du cyclotourisme. Au début, j'aie eu du mal à comprendre celà et je me disais que j'aurais préféré payer un peu plus pour un peu plus de professionalisme (notamment au niveau du road book). Mais en fait, j'en suis venu à la conclusion que j'étais dans l'erreur. Si ici aux Etats Unis, ceux qui consacrent des tonnes d'énergie et de bonne volonté pour organiser des randonnées au profit du cancer, du diabète et autres oeuvres charitables se tournaient plutôt vers la promotion du vélo, la situation serait sans doute différente.
De même, j'aie été impressionné par la participation des clubs locaux pour l'acceuil et l'organisation des étapes, par le concours de l'association des amis du Tour et leurs ravitos, que ce soit à partir du coffre de leur voiture ou sur le bord de la route. Tous ces efforts donnent à l'évènement une constante atmosphère de fête, de camaraderie, de plaisir de rouler, de vacances en vélo. De fait, au départ du tour a Guer, deux cyclos du club local roulaient en tête sur deux vieux vélos de ville, eux-même vétus comme ceux qui prennent leur vélo "pour aller chercher le pain". Le ton était ainsi donné, il ne s'agit pas d'une course ou d'une compétition, mais d'une fête du vélo, d'une balade organisée pour visiter la France et se faire plaisir. Et c'est exactement l'impression qui me reste après ces trois semaines.
Merci à la FFCT et à tous ceux qui sont responsables de l'existence de ce Tour.

The Tour Cyclotouriste FFCT 2006

This is a period of my life that I am not likely to forget anytime soon. Three weeks with 150 people whom I had never met, except for 1. In those 150, there were 140 riders, 2 from Spain, 2 from Finland, 2 from Denmark, 6 from England, 11 from Belgium, 1 (myself) from the USA and the remaining from France. We rode 3,226 kilometers (2,005 miles) for 21 consecutive days. We went up 33,845 meters (111,040 feet) in the same period, which is a daily average of climbing 1,612 meters (5.288 feet) . The steepest climb, in basque country had a 19% grade, the longest stage was 148 miles long. We rode over 20 different mountain passes, the higest being the Tourmalet (2,114 metres - 6,936 feet), the lowest being the col de Naves (330 metres - 1,083 feet).
These are only numbers, but they don't give justice to what it means to get to know 140 riders on the road, to visit so many different areas of France, so diverse and so beautiful, whether it is the wine country around St Emilion, the Pyrenees in the famous "Col du Tourmalet", the Auvergne region and the "Pas de Peyrol", the bretagne country, which hosted the start and finish of this event with its "bagad" (the local bands) and dancers.
I thought of giving a detailed account of the ride, day by day, but I think it would be boring and less interesting than looking at the many pictures that I have from this event, most of them shot by Bob Aldridge, a talented rider and photographer, who lives in France and rode not far from me most of the time, while covering twice the distance to take all these pictures and help whoever was in need on the road. His wife Eve organized a wonderful rest stop in the Pas de Peyrol stage, with lots of home made cakes which were delicious. Thanks Eve, for all your efforts, and thanks to Bob for being such a nice man ! The pictures not coming from Bob are either from me, or taken off the Web site set up by the FFCT (French Federation of Cyclo Tourism).
The Tour was run entirely by volunteers, which is a way to keep costs down and therefore contribute to the promotion of cyclotourism. Most of the accommodation and meals were arranged by local bike clubs, as well as some of the rest stops.
Those who have ridden the Tour in the past have created an association called "Les amis du Tour Cyclotouriste FFCT" and they were with us all the way, offering drinks, cakes and fruits from the back of their car, or setting up rest stops here and there.
The only time we had a group start was on the first day. This was also probably the most dangerous time, as we did not know each other and we were not yet in the groove. Yet, everything went smoothly. On this first day, we got to the picnic place almost all together and we had a very festive lunch, following drinks (yes, wine) and speeches by local authorities. The next day, in St Jean d'Angely, the evening was wild. Lots of local wine, entertainment, dancing . . . I was wondering how in hell we were going to last for 21 days at that pace. Fortunately, thinks got a little quieter afterwards.
Still, everyday, we had a wonderful picnic, everytime with wine available (the foreigners could have water and fruit juice if they insisted on it . .). In the evening, we would be accommodated either in a local high school or college and use their facitilites, which most of the time were more than adequate. On a few occasions, we had to resort to hotels, and in that case would split into as many as eight different hotels, which did not make life easy for the organizers, especially those involved in transporting our luggage.
The cue sheet was prepared for each day by the local bike club, and sometimes it turned out to be more of a treasure hunt than a ride as we tried to figure out how to get to our destination. But nobody got lost and nobody arrived too late to enjoy whatever festivities were on for that night, including watching the world cup on a big screen.
All of this provided an atmosphere of camaraderie, solidarity, fun and enjoyment. The start of the ride was given from Guer with two riders in front on old fashioned city bikes. Just to make sure we had it right. This was not a race, not a competition. Just an organized fun, although tough, ride. And that is what it turned out to be.
If any of you if interested in more details, make sure you contact me. The tour is organized every other year, one time though the Pyrenees, the other through the Alps. The next one, in 2008, will go through the Alps.