France Cycling Trip 2011, Part Eleven

Our first Friday was an off day. Saturday is the big race day so we used Friday to go to Tarascon sur Ariege to walk around, do a little tourist shopping and to pick up our race packets. In the packets were our jerseys if you wanted one, some energy type foods and coupons that I really couldn't use. I stayed away from the energy foods as I didn't want to introduce anything new into my body that I wasn't used to. Also at the jersey pickup they had a decent sized bike and gear show - I picked up on some of the previous years race jerseys on the cheap for some friends and also got a pair of bibs that were on clearance (only $15!).

For those who don't know, these are bibs. Basically biking shorts that go all the way over your shoulders. I have always been a shorts guy but I had heard lots of people tell me how great bibs were so I bought a pair to try at home. They were on bigtime discount so what the heck. I have tried them several times and I don't see the charm. I am sticking with shorts.

Tarascon sur Ariege is a wonderful town to snap photos in.


I was happy to get this shot of the typical euro scene - sitting around smoking at a cafe.

One of our riders was Catholic and said he made it an annual thing to enter the Catholic Church here and light a candle for good luck and safe passage.

It was refreshing just to walk around and let my legs have a break and relax the mind a bit too.

Dinner was at Dave's again. I forgot to take a photo of the appetizer - it was a sort of quiche pizza, quite tasty. Main course was chicken. Pretty good. But really, chicken can only be done so well imho. The pasta was tasty and Dave was kind enough to have seconds on the pasta - just what we all wanted and needed to carb load for the huge day we all had ahead of us tomorrow.

Dessert was an apple/pear tart. Quite delicious.

Not much wine was drank this night. Tomorrow was race day. And what a day it was.