Friday, October 20, 2023

FRANCE BARCELONETTE - MONACO DAY DAY 305

ROUTE DE GRANDE ALPES

Hotel room was very comfortable and the breakfast was excellent ,typical French ,bread, meats and cheese, coffee ,yogurt.


Well the weather has turned and the mountains were in the clouds all day with intermittent very light drizzle. Had to stop to put my one piece rain suite on but could only put in one arm as I was unable to get the other arm in without assistance. Luckily a few kilometers down the road was a construction crew, so I stopped and took two of them to get it over my shoulder and zipped up.


Went over a number of 7 to 8 thousand foot passes and a lot of them have had the Tour de France race pass through. I passed cyclists on almost all these passes, with 12 to 15 % grade, respect.

It was one helluva ride and nobody on the roads, got damn cold at times and the roads were were the entire way, but was lucky there was no rain. I did the route plan myself and seems like it was the same as the Route of Grande Alpes from north to south and ends in Menton.

Arrived in Monaco and could hardly recognize the place. The purpose of coming down here was to talk to the head Marshall of the Grand Prix. Found the office and he came out to speak to me as I want to Marshall at next year's GrandPrix, but he said I was to old and I assured him I was not old, showed him my picture of when I marshaled there in 77 and 80 , but no go.
That's such bullshit, I know the French don't age well with all their smoking and eating bread and being rude to anyone who speaks English, and they lost the quarter finals of the WC Rugby to the Springboks, but that's no reason to not make an exception for me.
Their loss.


Went to Nice along the ocean road and found a hotel a block from the promenade where I went and had a sandwich and a beer and enjoyed the view of the ocean and hustle and bustle of the people enjoying the night.

 

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LAST RACE DAY 8th JUNE 2024

The race was postponed three times and finally got going at 1pm, only two laps, but the track is 37.7 miles long.