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.