July 18: TdF Stage 0 - Prologue

Ok, ok, for those of you that follow the Tour de France (TdF) you are well aware that the tour is well beyond the original prologue stage, which occured in Monico nearly 2 weeks ago. However, today I joined a big group of strangers who have all traveled to Paris to follow the TdF through the Alps. We will catch up with the tour on Tuesday, but in the meantime we are just enjoying riding in France while we travel down to join the tour. Since today was the first "get to know each other" kind of ride and an opportunity for all the travellers to stretch out their kinks I will refer to it as our prologue.

I had a distinct advantage of living in Paris so I was able to ride to the hotel to meet the group. Already they think I am a little strange, whatever - after dealing with frenchies for the past year I am more than used to being the outsider!

I am really excited about the next week. It is really awesome to be around a group of like-minded people who are all totally into the TdF and keen to ride. Right now I am sitting in the hotel bar, watching the tour, hearing everybody discuss the tour and getting excited about it, and drinking a beer with my gal...vacation has indeed started!!

I rode 22 miles from my place to the hotel, which is beside the airport. Jennie joined me later with our bags.

As a group we rode an additional 25 miles around the countryside from the hotel.

Today's ride total: 47 miles

TdF total: 47 miles

A+