On Our Way !!!

Bruno and I succeeded to make Air France Flight 17 from JFK to Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris ... and I am updating the blog from the Air France lounge as we wait for our flight to Lyon. We have started to play with the Flip Video camera ... still learning more, but attached is a rocky first video from JFK ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o61uIDc6Fd8

Bruno was lucky enough to trade in some extra miles for an upgrade to business class ... so when we finally got on the plane, we created a second mini-update ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQlSkLxgh_8

OK, OK , ... the content may not be all that compelling yet, but we are working out the kinks. Hopefully having taken these painful first steps (actually not that painful) we will be ready to provide some more exciting footage later.

We should be arriving in Lyon by about 10:45 AM on Friday, and hope to run into Bob Baird and Jim Carpenter there. After our reunion in the Lyon Airport, we'll be taking a rental car down to Montelimar .... actually, our hotel is in Privas, just north and east of Montelimar. We are hoping that our bikes will be waiting for us to go out and work off some of our jet lag.

Not much sleep on the way ... hoping to catch an hour on the flight to Lyon.

Looking forward to Dan Aaron's latest post!

Did anybody see my passport?

With our training behind us, this blog is going to attempt to capture the final preparations leading up to L'Etape de Tour 2009 - the climb up Mt. Ventoux. This is our first blog, but I hope we can capture the impressions of Four Old Guys - Bob Baird, Jim Carpenter, John Colbert and Bruno Perreault - as we tackle the Giant of Provence. Please feel free to keep the comments flowing, and we will attempt to document the event with pictures, video and the written word to share our experiences. Even as I type this introduction, the well wishers continue to call, email and text - some are concerned, other are envious, while still others think we are completely insane. The good news of the day came in from Jim Carpenter with is never ending research of the climb - he announced that the temperature on Monday, July 20th is now projected to be 92 F vs. the previously predicted 98 F. Discussions continue on whether or not we should be using salt tablets on the day of the ride, with the concern being that we have not trained with them to date. My concern is that we don't risk losing our valuable breakfast on the side of the road due to changes in our diet - but I'm sure there is more to report in this area.

Our preparations have also been well documented by Dan Aaron in his daily Bagel Boys news flash, where he documents how we have trained and provided plenty of commentary and support. There seems to be some trouble with the Yahoo Groups posting of his rantings, but if we do get them to work, you should be able to stay current by checking out http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/ogbagelboys/. Maybe Dan can back post his earlier ramblings? Or create his own blog?

I would be remiss if we did not go out of our way to thank Bob Baird and Team Dorel/Cannondale for inviting us on this adventure. We did have to put up with Bob's compression socks, the labeling of his non-conforming ride-mates as weenies, his ever present neon Liquigas kit at 5:30 in the morning, his abuse for anybody riding anything but a Cannondale (and special abuse for those Specialized riders) and his final sprint into town at the end just to show us all he had more pain to deal out to us at the end of our ride. Thanks Bob!

OK, back to work - more to follow. I will try to identify authors if Bruno, Bob or Jim submit their own posts.

JohnC