68 km (more or less). 8 plus hours, but who’s counting?

First, I want to thank all of you who have sent words of encouragement– whether through your comments, or by email or facebook. I can’t tell you how much it means to me. Your words are my fuel!!!

So yesterday, Bastille Day, started out as usual. My morning motivating thought was: Well, if French peasants can storm the Bastille and start a Revolution, I can sure as hell bike up a mountain, right? The scenery in the first 3 hours was not as mind-bendingley beautiful as the day before, but still nice, and the weather has continued to be in our favor. After the first hour, I hadn’t spotted my animal totem for the day yet, and we pulled over for some reason or another. Gabriel was adjusting something on his bike and that’s when I noticed a bee, hovering, buzzing, eye-level with me. It just hung there in the air and we seemed to stare at each other. For a moment I thought, “is it about to sting me?” I started to say “There’s a bee, we should move…” but then it flew away. So on the way up the hill I thought– well maybe that bee is my totem today. And I contemplated bees, how essential they are to the ecosystem, and how nature has provided them with powerful stingers to protect themselves. How they’re disappearing though, and what that means for our environment. (As you know, I have alot of time to ponder things). So onwards and upwards we go, through a tunnel under a waterfall. The right side of the tunnel was open so you could see the waterfall crash over you. Magnificent.

Maybe 4 hours in, we got to a village in a valley called Val D’Isere. We had a coffee, we ate bread and cheese. Then we started the huge ascent of the day, the Col de L’Isiran. The valley was hot but as we went up the air got cooler and cooler. The way the road wound up the mountain you could look down and see how far you’d come. The view was glorious. There were some hikers with their walking sticks, families picnicking at the vista points, motorcycles going for joy rides. A couple more hours and we were up to the snow, giant patches that hadn’t melted yet. The air was very cool there but the sun was toasty and it was just right for riding up. I think it was about hour 7 when we reached the summit. Everyone– cyclists, motorcyclists, hikers– were taking pictures by the summit sign. We bundled up for the descent. I put on my bike jacket, my ski-mask thing, and my down jacket. I felt fine. I hadn’t had any issue with the altitude yet at all. We were at about 9000 feet. But suddenly I felt HUNGRY. Like really really piercingly hungry. Well, word to the wise: When you’ve been riding for 7 hours and you’re at 9000 feet and your body says its hungry: listen to it. EAT. Eat anything you can get your hands on. Don’t be a DUMB-ASS JERK like I was and think: “Man, I’m hungry. But I don’t want to eat any energy goo. We just have to descend and then we’ll be at our hotel and then I’m going to eat real food. I’m gonna have a whole pizza, or maybe spaghetti bolognese, oh that would be so good…” This is what I was thinking about as we started down. And then I noticed I was suddenly really light-headed. “The altitude–weird how I’m just feeling it now, but it’ll be okay cos we’re descending. This light-headedness will pass as we get lower. Hmm. Ice cream. After the pasta I’m gonna have ice-cream. Man, I’m still really light-headed. You know, this is kind of like drunk driving. I think I’d better…” and I started to reduce my speed. And then, boom. A little turn, a little gravel, and I’m down. Hard core on my left side. Not a funny fall. The first thing I did was scream bloody murder for Gabriel. Cos even in that second I knew there was no time to get the whistle and if I didn’t blast my voice out he would never hear me. (Loopers, you know the scream). He heard it. My second thought was: I didn’t hit my head. I pulled myself and my bike a couple of feet to the side of the road and dipped my head down for oxygen. Gabriel had dropped his bike and was running up the mountain, alongside another cyclist who had heard me. I was moving my arms and legs so I knew nothing was broken. I couldn’t feel my arms at that point though–they were all tingle, no feeling. My knees, elbow, and knuckles were cut pretty bad, but I was okay. “The altitude.” I said. The other cyclist gave me some Coke and a chocolate thing: “Sugar. Sip. Eat slowly.” And the sugar instantly–I mean instantly–cleared my head. Once we determined that I wasn’t hurt, Gabriel straightened out my bike which had gone off alignment while I just sat there and thought: “The bee. That’s what that meant. The bee was warning me.” I know that might sound nuts, but there you go.

We rode slowly, slowly down to the village, Gabriel behind me. I wasn’t scared getting back on the bike because I knew what had happened. I knew it was my own stupid-ass fault. Take Nothing For Granted, right Ranj? Good one. Confident with my descents. Mmm hmm. The fall wasn’t bad, I’m fine. But it really could have been. THANK YOU GOD for protecting me. THANK YOU. (I know you’re out there).

We’re at the hotel now. We are calling it “The Shining” hotel because it is in the most picturesque spot, surrounded by snow-capped mountains but there’s nobody here. There’s the proprietor and I think one other couple checked in. Our room is at the end of a long hallway, and every time I walk toward it I expect to see those twin girls standing there. Today, the 15th, is a Rest Day. And its a good thing too. My cuts are washed, slathered in Neosporin, and wrapped. Gonna have a couple good bruises on my left hip and elbow. Knuckles a little swollen, but I’m good. And I’m smarter than I was yesterday and I’m very very grateful. Today I had my whole pizza and an ice cream sundae.

Epilogue:

Lessons I learned: 1) Always listen to my body, 2) Take nothing for granted (especially the effects of altitude), 3) Pay attention to the bees.

* There’s a documentary I’ve been wanting to see about bees and the environment called Queen of the Sun. Gonna see it for sure when I get back.

P.S. The picture of us on the France photos page of this blog will now be captioned: “The Pride before The Fall.”