The Lambregts family adventures: La Marmotte

It is summer again, but this year we have a complicated schedule due to the late start of school holidays and Paula's early start of her new life at university. To get the ball rolling we all drove to France, including Beau. Then we got Beau settled into his new temporary life in the garden, especially with the large number of flies, horseflies and mosquitos. He reunited with his old friend Image, the village pony, and the unlimited amount of grass to eat. Paula started her summer job in the local restaurant La Romanche as waitress and dishwasher, making use of her tri-lingual skills. And of course Mary got all her tools out to work in the garden.

But the main event in the first few days was La Marmotte, the cycling tour Piet has been training for this spring. Unfortunately he was unable to get a race number, as the online registration was sold out in a single day (when he happened to be in Cape Town), and there were no last minute options. His cycling mate Renaat did manage to register, and he and his wife Ans drove over for the event. Piet joined as a gate crasher....

On the day most roads were closed, but with careful planning Mary, Dorien and Ans managed to get ahead of the pack, and drove up Col du Glandon to wait. As there were 10000 participants it was tricky to pick out the boys, but luckily Piet had a very distinctive jersey. Renaat was a bit more difficult to recognise. The next meeting point was on top of Col du Telegraphe, and all was still going well. The weather was perfect, not too hot, with bit of sunshine during the day. Then on the Col du Galibier both started suffering. The last 7 kilometers are very steep, and it was a real struggle to the top (at 2645 m), with several rest stops required for both. They were not the only ones, and although there were hundreds and hundreds of cyclists it was dead silent on that stretch of road. On the top they filled up with apple pie, chocolate and sports bars, before the 45 km descent down to Bourg d'Oisans.

The last climb of the day was Alpe d'Huez, and although they could take it relatively easy during the descent they had already cycled 160 km when the road started to go up again. Helped by his intimate knowledge of the climb Piet managed to cycle up without major problems. Both managed to finish the event, with more than 9.5 hours on the bike for Piet.

Back at the house there was food and football, the World Cup quarterfinals. First Belgium got beaten by Argentina, and then the match between Netherlands and Costa Rica was not broadcasted by French television. Renaat (he is Belgian) decided for bed, but Piet went to Paula's restaurant to watch. Luckily they won, and exhausted Piet fell into a coma in his bed. The next morning Piet and Dorien drove back with Renaat and Ans, as school and office were still waiting, unfortunately.