7/17/06 - Day 1 - Berade Valley

The day started with a quick meeting at the train station and then an hour bus ride to the park where we were fitted with our bikes. Trek Madone 5.2s with an Ultegra triple.

Most people had a detailed set of measurements but I figured that my bike is so screwed up anyway that I'd just go with their recommendations.

After that a leisurely lunch and we were off. My GPS kept dropping the signal in the mountains so although motionbased.com says it was 20.75 miles with 2,000 Ft of climbing I think it was more. The first part of the ride was a little busy because people were already parking for the next day when the tour would reach the summit at the Alpe d'Huez. We finished the day with a ski lift ride up to a hotel in the town of Duez Alpes and a swim in what their heated pool.

Although the ride was billed as a warm up I was shocked at the intensity. The nice thing about the ride was that the physical exertion really knocked down any social barriers between people and we all became close pretty quick.