Friday, July 29, 2005

Trip Report: The day after pre-riding the mountains of L'Etape we drove to the start town of Mourenx to register for the race.


The Home Village was held inside the Eddy Merckx velodrome. Aside from the registration area, the velodrome infield was full of vendors of bikes, wheels, clothing, energy drinks, etc. We wandered around for a while and then headed back to the van and got ready for the day's ride. We rode the first part of the race course so we knew what to expect prior to the mountains.

The first part was not too difficult. The terrain was rolling with some hills that were slightly longer than the normal St Lous hills. The roads were smooth and wide with occasional roundabout to deal with. With the race the next day we rode easily. We stopped after about 45k and ate lunch in a little roadside part that turned out to be the first race feedzone.


From the park you looked down the road under an arching stone bridge. The start of the Col de Marie Blanque was just a few hundred feet beyond that.

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