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From:
traveldoc@westnet.com.au [mailto:traveldoc@westnet.com.au] G'day Phil and Muggaccinos climbing team. Thanks for letting me know about your tour. it's the sort of thing I'm interested in and at this stage I could be described as a potential participant. As you know I've done a fair bit of riding in the past with a few climbs included. Manali (~1600m) to Rothang Jot (4000m) through the first blizzard of a Himalayan autumn, followed by 500km of progressively higher passes culminating in Kardung La at 5280m. You don't spend much time at the top if you are wise. Atmospheric pressure is 1/2 of sea level and most people have blue lips and fingers. I have ridden in southern France before: Climbed to top of alpes maritimes from Nice one free afternoon while on a business trip. Only about 1100m but fantastic scenery and good roads. A memorable ride. Actually I've done very little cycling in the past few years and put on more than 10kg. As I sometimes tell patients: BMI is supra-optimal! I needed about 3 days of hard riding last year before getting back a bit of form in our Tasmanian east coast tour. A couple of weeks after that I was able to ride a MTB from home at East Kurrajong to my cattle farm at Oberon via Bells Line of Road, 130km and about 2km of climbing, in a (full) days worth of autumn natural light. Included about 30km cross-country. So I feel confident that I could cope with your climbing schedule, with a good amount of preparation, and it would certainly be good for my health. Getting time off work is no big deal. The price looks to be very reasonable. The critical factor for me is my son and daughter. Both Lachlan (28) and Brittany (26) will be living in France for the next 12 months, with working visas and I had planned to visit them some time around Sept. and go with them on a cycling tour. They are both strong riders. I had a half-baked plan to retrace my PBP course from 2003 but I'm just as interested in the countryside around Grenoble. I may be able to get the offspring interested in a few climbs, possibly with some flatter day-rides in between. If they want to do a long continuous trip we might just call in at your camp en route for a day or two and have a glass of red. So I'll try to find out what kind of riding will be appropriate for my two kids who will also be in France in Sept. and let you know of the outcome. Regards Steve Cooper |
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