Tour de France 2013

This year the Tour de France organisation decided to climb Alpe d’Huez twice during a stage, passing through the resort, descending on the east side along a narrow back road, to end up at the foot of the main climb again. This attracted a lot of spectators, and the valley was filling up with supporters until there was not a single empty spot left. All available space was covered by camping cars, parked cars and tents, and people were cycling and walking everywhere. Luckily our little hamlet remained an oasis of peace, despite the closeness to the Alpe. On the day itself Piet and the girls (Mary stayed behind to recover from the overnight trip with Beau) walked up halfway the climb, and first saw the publicity caravan passing (even distributing condoms this year!). Then the cyclists came, first a scattered front group, following by a small peloton led by Team Sky of Yellow Jersey wearer Chris Froome. After this the non-climbers followed in several groups. Due to the steepness of the road they go (relatively) slow, and we were able to recognize quite a few. The second time round the situation hadn’t changed much, except that the favourites had attacked each other, and were spread out. Dutch hopes Bauke Mollema and Laurens ten Dam had a very difficult time, and lost many minutes. When the last rider had passed all the people on foot and bike started descending, a massive “migration” as there were numbers of 700.000 to 1 million people mentioned!

The next morning we watched the publicity caravan again, and saw the peloton at the foot of the Col du Glandon. The cyclists were busy forming a break away, and were speeding along at 50 km/hour, so recognising them was a challenge this time…..

Christophe Riblon, the stage winner, during the first ascent of Alpe d'Huez

Andrey Amador, first Costa Rican in the Tour de France

Team Sky leading the leftovers of the peloton during the first ascent

Tom Veelers is struggling by himself, only halfway the first ascent

Moreno Moser will finish third in this stage

 Dutch favourite Bauke Mollema is dragged up Alpe d'Huez by Gesink and Nordhaug

Tom Veelers during the his second ascent, still on his own

Summer holidays (part I)

Summer holidays: time to move the Lambregts household to France again. Like in 2012 we took Beau along with us as well. He was declared fit after a long rehabilitation of 4 months, and Mary and the girls just started building up Beau's strength again. He was loaded into the trailer, and we drove through the night without any problems. In France he was offloaded, had a quick taste of fresh grass in our garden, and then was put in his box in our barn for a rest. The next day he met up with his lady friend Image, the village pony, who is keeping him company during the holidays. Life of fresh grass, free roaming in our garden, and some daily exercise started.

After a few days Beau started to show some signs of colic (severe intestine cramps), and the local vet was called. His injections did not help, and panic mounted, as colic will be deadly when treatment does not work. After the 3rd visit of the vet it was decided to move him to a specialist clinic, and at midnight Mary and Paula left for a place between Grenoble and Valence, a 2 hour drive. They came home exhausted early next morning, and Beau was left in the care of the clinic. The main treatment was “greasing the system” until he started producing horse shit again. Luckily Beau improved quickly, and after 3 days came home. Although he did not have any problems last year, the colic was most likely caused by the change in diet to fresh grass, and the change in climate to hot summer weather. Building up his strength started from scratch again…

Outside all this excitement life in Bassey continued as usual: some work in the garden, hiking, climbing Via Ferrata’s and cycling. The girls also got infected by the cycling bug (probably helped by the move of stable owner Cecile to the Ardeche region), and joined Piet on several rides. They also cycled up Alpe d’Huez with a few of the village grandkids, something we planned for the end of the holidays only! The weather has been tropical, real summer with some thunderstorms, so we spend a lot of time reading and playing cards in the shade as well.

Beau's first careful steps near our house

Susan and Dorien in the Via Ferrata of St. Christophe

Dorien on a tricky stretch of the same Via Ferrata

Piet's bike on Col du Galibier, the highest mountain pass in our region

Paula and Dorien taking a break during a hike

Dorien and Piet near Alpe du Pin

Checking directions

Mary and Beau on a recovery ride after his colic

Along the Romache

Dorien arriving in Le Mollard

Dorien's International Award

As part of the International School curriculum the girls are participating with the International Award (or Duke of Edinbrough Award, see also post of 25th June 2012), a British program aimed at stimulating voluntary work, reaching creative and sportive goals, and independence. This year Dorien and 4 friends organised a 2 day - 1 night hiking & camping trip in Zuid Limburg, the only hilly region in the south of The Netherlands. They spend a lot of time planning the journey (train and bus), the hike and other logistics. The weekend itself was a lot of fun, and everything went very smoothly. The weather was good (despite poor predictions), and the hike not too difficult. Dorien, with her extensive outdoor experience acted as natural trip leader, and some supervision was provided by one of the school's teachers. Paula is next, in September.....

Ready for a day's hike

Cooking dinner at the campsite

Satisfied after the trip...waiting for transport

Cycling - Jan Janssen Classic

Piet has been very active on the bike this year, although the weather has not been very good. Too cold, too wet, or too much wind: there have only been a few reasonable days so far. He registered for 3 tours in the spring: Ronde van Vlaanderen (see also post of 4th April 2012), which he had to cancel due to illness, Limburgs Mooiste, which he rode with his friends from Utrecht, and recently the Jan Janssen Classic, which he had to ride by himself due to injury and family obligations of his cycling mates ("by himself" is not really true, as there were 5,000 participants!). 

The latter was a tour of 155 km, starting in Wageningen and with a large loop around the Veluwe. There were many short hills, not too difficult, but slowly wearing you out. In the end it was not too hard, and Piet finished in less than 6 hours. Now a few weeks of preparation for the Alps will follow, and then it is time for some real climbs, and the Tour de France. Also planned is a race with nephew Bart and a first attempt of Dorien, both on Alpe d'Huez.

Piet on the Italiaanseweg, the last climb of the Jan Janssen Classic

Paula: school and horses

Last week Paula had her final Y12 exams at school, the results will determine her predicted grades, that subsequently could be used to enter into university. Motivation was high, as Paula is seriously thinking about a direct placement into Veterinary School at Utrecht University, and a high grade threshold is needed to escape an unpredictable placement lottery. So she put in a huge effort, studying every evening until we went to bed, and using almost all her other free time revising and practising exam questions. On Friday morning she had her last exam (Biology), threw her bags in a corner and went for a ride on Beau (careful though, as he is still in his recovery phase!). At least he can go riding in the dunes now, but no kentering and very limited trotting, just 3 x 2 minutes a day.

In the evening she teamed up with Anouk, from the Madurodam handicapped stable, to go to a 2 day horse carriage driving event. Anouk is passionate about this, and has been looking for good grooms and navigators for some time. She found Paula and Dorien, who are taking turns now helping her during events (see also post of 25 June 2012). This time the event was in Schijndel, where they did 3 races with horses Jack and Bo. Paula took a small tent and camped overnight, whilst Anouk was sleeping in her truck. They did a dressage and skills courses on Saturday, and a marathon on Sunday. In between they scouted the courses, discussed tactics and groomed the horses. In addition the weather was beautiful, so this weekend was a good ending of a tough two weeks. Now it is waiting for the results!

Paula navigating Anouk around a course

Bo and Jack ready for the next race

An official photograph of the marathon (courtesy of Photowerken)

Dogs

More animals in the Lambregts household...  Since a few months we have occasionally been looking after the neighbours' dogs, in general just during daytime. Obviously the dogs like it, as they are sometimes confused which house to enter. The neighbours are happy as well, as they asked us to look after the dogs for a whole week, while they would be enjoying a holiday in Turkey. The dogs are very well behaved, an unlikely pair (large black & small white) and like the attention from the girls. The only issue is a lack of fitness, as they generally do short walks only. So we started them on a bootcamp, and took them to the beach twice. These were lessons in pacing yourself, as Britt (large & black) found out. She likes running after a tennis ball, but only manages a few times, before getting completely out of breath. But enjoying it tremendously.....

Her little sister Fleur likes sitting on peoples laps, so the first thing she does when someone sits down is looking at you with sad eyes until she is allowed up. In summary it is the ideal way to have pets, by the time it starts to become routine they go back to their owners! 

Dorien and Mary walking Britt and Fleur

 Piet with his harvest of the Piemonte trip, Giro d'Italia in the background

A short holiday in France: rain, snow and sunshine

We went to France for the spring school holidays, looking forward to a week of sunshine and being outside, after a long, long winter and a very slow start of spring. The start wasn't great as we had a very tiring drive, with poring rain throughout the night. The first few days the rain and low temperatures continued and most time was spend inside or in the barn, working on a second horse box for a (yet) unidentified friend of Beau.

A cycling group from Piet's office (from the spinning classes) was in the area as well for 3 days, planning to do some nice sunny rides and ultimately climb Alpe d'Huez. The first day they rode through wet snow; the second day Piet joined, and it was very, very cold, but dry. So Alpe d'Huez was brought forward, and Piet had his first climb of the year! In the end he did fine, and all 30 riders reached the top without too many problems. The descend, however, was done in full winter gear! The next day it rained heavily again and the ride was cancelled. Most people drove back early to join the royal celebrations at home.

Later in the week the weather improved a lot, and we managed to do two nice hikes, walking in the sunshine and through knee-deep snow! Work in the garden (preparations for Beau's arrival in the summer) and biking continued as usual. The trampoline, that had been gathering dust in The Hague for 3 years, was assembled, to the enjoyment of the kids in the village. And as Cecile and all her horses finally moved to their new location in the Ardeche this was the first holiday in a very, very long time without horse riding!

Shell's cyclists on Alpe d'Huez. Piet in yellow rainjacket, 5th from right

Checking directions

Piet and Paula descending a snowfield near Taillefer

Hiking near Ornon, with the Taillefer in the background

The ladies at the start of the Via Ferrata in Venosc