Mathieu O'Halloran's Blog

Hey after a quick sleep over in Albertville and an F1 continental breakfast, we started ridding through the valley on desolate side highway roads in the crisp french morning!

After som un-eventfull flat ridding, we stoped near the bottom of the Col du Glandon for a supermarket lunch!

Right after we assaulted, what has becomed the most challenging climb I have even ridden.

Ticking allong!

RYTHUM RYTHUM RYTHUM!

A look back at the terrain conquered!

So close to the top and sucking in thin air! As I stared at the road in front of me, I could, painted on the road things like JAN JAN JAN or CONTADOR and other famillar names who climbed this hill some years ago!

DONESKIES!

Whats that saying a picture is worth a thousand words?

Now the hard part, going down the chilly downhills.
Very safelly!
I snapped a picture of a beautifull lake!

After some more ridding and climbing, we got very close to our destination!

Heres a view from the top, of the in-famous Alpe d’Huez and its 21 switchbacks!

Batman and Robin releaved that the climbing is done, for today

Once we got to the top, we went for a run and checked into our accom, went shopping, supper, ect. The atmoshpere up here is great, theres people on bikes everywhere and theres a pretty big expo with all sorts of gadgets!

Anyway, im racing on Thursday, so now its all about staying loose, staying off my feet and eating well!

Hey this morning, myself batman/robin and big dave left our training base of Leysin on Switzerland on our bike towards the Alpe d’Huez triathlon!

We confronted our first big climb about 1 hour into the ride, going up La Forclaz on our way to lunch in Chamonix France!

After a long and cold descent we passed through the border Switzerland/France and I kid you not, as soon as we rode into france, the road quality degrated…

After another short climb and another short descent, we got into Chamonix France, home of the famous Mont Blanc and host of the first ever winter olympics in 1924!

And then had a typical bagette with accesories inside to fuel up for the rest of the ride!

Scotty loves Chamonix!

Scotty LOVES coffee!

After some more ridding, we got to our destination in Albertville, home of the 1992 winter Olympics!

We made our way got to our beds for the night, at the local F1!

`

These F1 are very very basic, me and big dave and our bikes share the same small room.

But the price is RIGHT!!! ahahahaha!

Well today is in the books, 159km ridden, 2 countries seen and lots of calories consumed!!

Tomorow is a bit shorter, but hiller, finishing at the top of Alpe d’Huez!

Hey training has been rolling pretty good and one thing has been pretty tedious in our daily regiment, is the Leysin hill.

We go up this hill almost every day, after all track sessions, all time trials and some long rides. Heck, we even run up it a few times a month!

Its about 17km long and goes up to about 1300m from the bottom to the bat cave. Theres about a dozen switch back and has some gradual and stepish sections…

In fact, Alberto Contador won a stage here during the 2006 Tour of Romandie.

Heres is a visual of our climb!

Heres a view of Leysin from the track!

Going up!

This board is very important in the winter time!

This gives you an idea of the challenge up ahead!

A great view at the start!

One of the many switchbacks!

Thankfully the roads are sweaped regularly, as there is often some sizable rocks on the road, which is dangerous on the downhill part!

More protection from the falling rocks!

This is the tunel! Its a bit stressfull because the cars engines echo's inside and its a bit narrow, but the tarmac is very smooth!

This is one of the very few flat sections! Actually this is where I got hit 3 yars ago by the abricot loving old man!

Almost there! Very close to our oasis in Le Sepez!

Le Sepez fountain is about 7 from the batcave!

Now the hill kicks up and gets quieter!

Almost there!!

This is a tricky section, the road quick ups, twists and you can see where your heading!

Approaching the final few turns...ALMOST THERE!

A view from the back, the conquered terrain!

Entering town and so close!

HOME!

My legs hurt just writting this, but its clear that “THE hill” is our bread and butter which makes us stronger, during our “cool down” TBB style!

Anyway, myself, batman and robin are ridding our bikes to Alpe d’Huez tomorow to race, and then we ride back!

Stay tuned for more tales about me and the dynamic duo!

Same blog.
Same people.
Different adventures!

On Saturday night, after our training was done, me and Scotty went on a 100km road trip to Morzine France to meet up with AJ and his mate who rode there during the day from Leysin! We then watched the consolation final of the soccer world cup and then planned our day to watch what would turn out to be a very dramatic day in this years tour =)

Morzine has hosted the tour several times and is presently bidding to host the 2018 winter Olympic Games with Annecy! Its at about 1000m altitude and was buzzing with cycling fanatics from all over the globe, especially americans!

On Sunday morning after my logn run, I was directed by the lady at the front desk to an ouber nice outdoor 50m pool near the city center, like a good triathlete I had a
swim gear handdy and went for a short swim! Well, long for some, but short according to TBB standarts

After that I meet up with the guys and we had a quick lunch near the main strip and waited for the sponsor caravans!

These caravans throw out to the crowds some random gear like little packs of chips, jujubes, hats, giant hands, key chains, ect.

The trick was, to stand near a group of small kids because the people in the caravans where prone to throw the “shawg” to them, versus some beared dude on the side of the road and then all we had to do was hussle to the free stuff =)

After that, we quickly went to the pub and watch the tour LIVE and then once they summited the second to last col, we headed out about 2km into the final climb and then waited anxiously! I agree, AJ needs a tan

This is a shoot of the break away group!

Heres Lance wayyyy back after 3 crashes during the stage…

And then shortly afterwards the “maillo jaune” Sylvain Chavanel!

I had planned to run beside Canuck cyclist Ryder Hesjedal (3rd in the GC on that day) like a geek and slap him on the ass but all the groups where surrounded by motor bikes and team cars…And even if it was up hill, there where flying up there. In fact, some of these guys, had their mouth closed and looked like they where just cruzing…ummm a little suspicious…

After that, we rushed back to the pub, watch a very exiting finish and then saw a HUGE cervelo truck!

After that, we quickly left and drive out into the sunset back to Leysin to watch the world cup soccer final!

This is what they call, A REAL BEEEER!

Anyway, to SUM it up, this was a very special experience, the atmosphere, the smilles, the cheering and to be this close to the tour de france, an event I watch so many times on TV over the year! Also a big thanx to AJ who was the master mind behind this trip!

This is an experience I recomend to all, cyclists, non-cyclist, cycling synics, ect.

VIVE LE TOUR!

Hey I have been here for over 3 weeks now and we have been refering to our appartement as the BATCAVE! Because if you observe James (batman) and Scotty (robin) go about their trainining together, you’ll understand why!

Since I have been living with the dynamic duo, daily nutrition is a HUGE part of our training/recovery! My diet has changed a little big since I have been here, less rice and fruit replaced by more dairy and bread =)

Heres a typical day of eating:

It start with the coffee

And then some bread with knock off nutela with banana toping!

Breaky number two, here is a batman special:

A bowl of muselix with strawbery yogurt, banana and kiwi chunks!

Here’s Robin powered by baggets on his long ride!

And of course another coffee dose is a crutial part of breaky # 2

For hydration, robin use to wash down the cheppo ice tea from the COOP —>

But now, Alex got us a NUUN hydration sponsorship and we got ourself a box of NUUN in the batcave! THANX NUUN!

For lunch I like to make a fresh and colorfull salad!

-Half roman lettuce
-1 tomato
-1 hand full of peanuts
-1 hand full of chesse bits
-2 grated carrots
-2 hard boiled eggs

With the dressing of your choice!

For supper, my favorite has been chicken pasta with pesto:

-1 cup of noodles
-2 chick breast
-3 tea spons of olive oil
-1 cut up tomato
-1 hand full of parmesan chesse!
-1 huge slabber of GARLIC BASIL PESTO!

=

And then for desert I like to have a bar of chocolate! These ar supper cheppo, they cost 0.45 cents for 100g bar =)

At the local COOP, they have great prices of certain items that are PINK label, those are the no name “prix garanty” which means in english garanted price!

It seems to me, like the local Swiss, are a little to proud to buy the PINK label cheppo brands, but for us at the batcave, we have NO SHAME in showing up at the counter with a WHOLE basket of PINK label items!

So basically, as you can see, we eat very good and very balanced here at the batcave! Eating healthy is important not only for our bodies but for our minds! I believe that all engines need a bit of oil and grease to run smoothly our bodies are no different!

If I actually had money, I might eat a bit differently, but I would still by some PINK label item, because thats how I BE!

Heres a cool pic of me and Perdo Quatro from our Cervelo photoshot last week!

And finally, heres a picture of a nice rainbow outside our window!