ACCREDITATION

Easy to criticise bad driving ? You have all seen it and occasionally wondered how there was not a wreck due to the stupidity of the driver !

Case in point , having been overtaken by the Peloton a couple of km before the Pass Thaun I decided even though rain was falling to persevere and then descend to Mittersill before heading homeward by way of the Gerlos Pass . On the downward slope there are occasionally two lanes to allow overtaking and these are separated by about a kilometre of winding narrow road . Having passed through this choke point filled with delayed traffic , because of the Tour of Austria , heading upward the road runs about a kilometre before narrowing as it enters a 60kph zone due to tight corners . Well into the 60kph zone I was letting the bike run even though the road was wet and the wind was gusting . As you will know a wet road will tell you that there is following traffic and at 60+kph keeping to the centre of the lane as you approach a tight right hand turn is a sensible precaution particularly on mountain roads where there are potholes .

Hearing the following vehicle I continued in the same position and speed since no way could anyone get through the fast approaching corner at these speeds . Well whoever was following either did not know the road , or how fast they were travelling , since there was now a dark blue passenger van straddling the double white lines and overtaking regardless with the corner less than a hundred metres in front . Holding my line and still in excess of 50kph I started into the corner with no idea what was a hundred metres ahead . However by this time the van was on the other side of the double white lines and to cap it all was towing a dark blue box trailer which was being buffeted by the wind and rocking along side to side , from wheel to wheel ! Expected that a gust of wind would have blown the trailer over , but luckily for the driver this did not happen nor was there traffic heading towards them .

Most of you will realise that on tight bends a bike will get through them faster than most motorbikes and certainly vehicles but this clown was hell bent in getting down the mountain regardless of the dangers of reckless driving  . Through a series of bends passing traffic that was struggling upward this combination succeeded in getting into Mittersill . At the point of danger the local churches were sounding the midday hour and as the Tour of Austria was listed in the programme to pass through Mittersill at about that time , one wonders why this driver was in such a rush !

Of course I haven’t mentioned yet the “ Apparent Owner of the van and trailer “!  Emblazoned so that you could not fail to see , “ Tchibo “!  Yes , one of the main sponsors of the “ Tour of Austria” ! Of course the company are not responsible for their drivers are they ? Never heard of “ Corporate Manslaughter “ , have they ?  Luckily on this occasion no harm done ! Doesn’t matter what I say , BUT , the helmet camera on “ YouTube ” will tell it’s own story !

Accreditation of drivers at “ UCI Events ” still relies on the driver saying they are legal ! No other checking appears to take place . Now this incident was outside the “ Parcours “ and thus not subject to anything , other than the “ Normal Driving Regulations of Austria “! It will be interesting to see the reaction of the Polizei , when they review the positioning and movement of the trailer ?

This post of course will get to the “ Tchibo” company , doubt they will do anything and no doubt the “ Polizei ” will reject the situation for “ Lack of Credible Evidence !” . Wonder how long it takes the Info@tchibo to arrive with the CEO , and , yawn , whether a minion will use their email to reply ? Their coffee i never bought  , but they do offer  some good gadgets in their outlets .

Yesterday , Tuesday , the day started gloomy , far better than the two hour torrential downpour of Monday at the DEPART in Innsbruck ! I arrived in Kitzbuehel later than planned , but was able to congratulate Danilo Di Luca and Tommy Rohrregger for their success on Etappe 2 . Near the start I caught up with Tim Roe for the photo and then with a 10min start headed for Pass Thaun , most of the time in company with the Polizei Motor cyclists who were sidelining the traffic so the Tour Accredited Vehicles  , followed by the Peloton , could make its way along the “ Parcours “ !

Contrast this with the Tour de Suisse , which operates with the same efficiency and the “ Le Tour “ where the road is closed for several hours to ALL but snails , unless you have paid a HEFTY FEE to the “ ASO “ for the “ ACCREDITATION BANNERS “! When these smaller events have caused so little disruption to the “ Locals ” , WHY does the “ Le Tour ” insist on creating even more disruption each year ? Pass Thaun is only a Cat 3 climb with a banner and timing device but “ Le Tour “ needs to close the road for Hours !

Read a blog recently that mentioned that the French Gendarmerie and National Police are again this year , having to contend with the same “ blight” on France’s Honour , Those thieving Baskets that control the road junctions and demand money for their plastic flags . Once again they are going into shops and menacing the shopkeepers to add to their revenue ! Last year I wrote about this behaviour several times , but it appears that “ Crime” in France will continue whilst “ Le Tour” visits !

Those of you with bikes at the “ Le Tour “ , the bike stays in your hands , or stands in front of you ! Bikes behind you , are out of sight and out of mind , thus the target of the PROFESSIONAL GANGS that raid the route , the Campsites and even the Team Hotels ! Of course if you are crooked , you can take an oldy , hope it gets stolen , then report to the Police for the paperwork to relieve your Insurance Company on a claim for your clever substitution !

TOO OFTEN last year I met with people , later in the Tour and heard of “ thefts “ , regardless of these warnings . Costs of getting to the Tour these days are astronomical , so losing your bike or property can turn the “ Holiday” into a Nightmare !

ACCREDITATION

REPETITIONS

EACH Year i arrive back from the Tour de Suisse determined to lift my level of fitness . In past years having closed the winter quarters i would head to Seez , close to Bourg St Maurice in France and stay at the Auburge de Juenesse . Food there is excellent and plentiful so after a large breakfast i would take off for a day with as much as 300km before returning to load up with 2nds and 3rds . Rarely would i find that there wwas not enough to satisfy the hunger created by unremitting climbs in the area !

Could go on for pages about what is available but suffice to say that Seez at 650m and the Col d'Iseran at 2700m attacked a couple of times inb a day will improve your condition or break your spirit . Of course you could have it all go pear shape as it did one year . Several punctures in a short distance above Val d'isere really sent my internal thoughts spiralling out of control . Carrying 4 spare tubes and checking the interior of the tyre did not solve the problem that day .

Suffering from lack of funds due to once again being " cheated by Winter Employers " i am staying close to where i live in the Inntal . Certainly i will get the money due me , but once again , i have fallen victim of the " Zillertal Mafia "! That is what the locals call these people who prey on the tourist . Each of these businesses provide services to the Tourist industry , charging premium prices and then TRY to cheat their eemployees out of their " Dues "!  Fortunately there is an Organisation called the " Arbeiter Kammer " which handles cases such as this and will eventually recover the monies due . With out going into detail , it would appear i will get my monies sometime after this year's  " Le Tour " ! What do i do meanwhile , starve ?

Arriving back from the Tour de Suisse on Saturday i was up early Sunday to do what i promised myself last season . With riding around this area i have come to know where the steepest climbs are and so without too much effort i am able to get on to this 20% climb each morning . When i told my local bike shop owner , last season , that i had done this climb 6 times one afternoon , i am sure he thought i had had a touch of the sun . I went on to say that Next Season i would be doing 10 climbs each morning as a way to strengthen the muscles for the season . Whilst on the Giro d'Italia i didn't find any climbs that caused me concern , but i was also wondering how much better i could have done , had i followed my earlier plan .

This climb west of Reith in Alpbachtal is okay when the road is dry and there is light traffic . This morning due to heavy thunderstorms overnight  the road was covered with soil and gravel washed onto the road . After starting out at 6.30 i was into the fifth climb when i found that there was constant traffic in each direction . With the road little wider than a truck and having to pick a line through where the gravel had been cleared by the passing vehicles the situation became untenable and an early return for breakfast was the decision .

Sunday had been  a little easier , in that the road was clear but around 10.30 , so many cars were going up the climb to a chuch parade that i stopped at 12 ascents . Monday i repeated this with a little earlier start . Tuesday after 7 climbs , i saw a local race cyclist descending towards me , so decided to chase and finished up heading off to Stumm before making a visit to Innsbruck and Schwaz  on the way home . Wednesday with another 6.30 start i was able to get in 14 ascents before i wearied of the repetitions .

With the heavy rainfall overnight the roads have dried but there is a heavy cloudcover so will be off shortly for some flat running on the " Il Giro " using the 16 spoke Shimano wheels . These wheels do not like climbing strong climbs , but then they have done 100k in the 10 years i have used them . For the repetitions i have been using the Green bike that i took to the " Le Tour " last year with the 32 spoke wheels , but even then i am on 39 to 25 most of the climb . No doubt i will find little difficulty on the French Cols with this preparation .

Now all i need in the next week apart from training , is an infusion of funds to be able to get to Liege and survive 26 days on the road with my 15th riding of the route of the Tour de France !

REPETITIONS

WHEN A COP SAYS STOP !

Spent the last three days reading a “ Bicycling Magazine ( http://www.bicycling.com/news/advocacy/when-cop-says-stop ) ” article about an Ohio case where two cyclists were stopped and one was “ Tased “ ! Over 11 pages this article went into some detail as to the happenings on that occasion . Suffice to say that the L aw E nforcement O fficer started off by acting incorrectly and now this matter will be finally settled in a Civil Court Action which will cost the Ohio State a LOT of money !

Some interesting points were raised about the way that Ohio Law operates and the behaviour of the people involved in this case but I am sure that the story could have been told more concisely . What is clear is that a L E O can order you to stop and the best result is that YOU STOP ! The grounds they have to Order you to stop may be a “ figment of their imagination ” but you won’t know this until after the interview has concluded . Whether there was a justification for the order does not matter since they are in the uniform and as citizens we are obliged to respect the uniform and the Laws of the Land . In reading the article it is clear that this particular L E O had not ordered a stop but he thought he had and thus an unfortunate incident occurred .

Considering my own behaviour as to the Police I have always found that complying with their requirements and going along with their assessment of a situation has resulted in minimising the incident . Confronting the L E O only digs them into their corner and thus they can become self righteous and seek to add justification for their behaviour and the outcome then becomes more abrasive for all concerned . Copping a ticket/citation is never a pleasure but then there is the opportunity to contact the authorities to have the matter resolved in a straight forward way rather than having to adjourn elsewhere either voluntarily or otherwise .

When on occasion I have been injured riding the bike I have had to refuse “ Hospitalisation “ because there was no provision for transporting the bike . How can you leave your property on the side of the road somewhere and expect to recover it later ? No way Jose ! Whatever is not “ Nailed down “ will get up and walk away since there are so many charming people out there only so willing to offer a new home to ANYTHING they chance upon of value ! In the article the two bikes were abandoned by the L E O ‘s and only chance saved the day ! So there is another reason to avoid creating a situation where you could lose control of your property .

Over the years of riding the various Cycle Tour routes I have come across so many different attitudes of the L E O ‘s involved in Policing these events . Generally they behave respectfully towards those who are out to ride the route but there have been cases where Juniors have been rigidly officious and I can think of several cases where when stopped I have been told the bike will be impounded if I try to leave the point where stopped . In most cases when stopped I will walk on till out of sight but when confronted with a “ Stand Here ” order it is hard to overcome . Usually I then look to enjoy the hospitality of those on the scene since they have seen the unreasonable behaviour . One occasion on the Tour de France I was given a sumptuous lunch with wine and when the Gendarme involved approached for water ( hoping for better) he was sent away to the local shop . One of the hosts chortled about his getting one back for me but as it turned out we were delayed beyond the “ 15 min prohibition period after the passing of the “ Broom Wagon “ regulation ! A bit of “ tit for Tat threre I think .

Reading the comments attached to the article it was easy to see that this was not there first time the article had been run and there was a series of exchanges in 2010 which could well have been left out since the two parties were too busy slanging each other to contribute value to the debate . From the initial comment by “ NoMoreSlowFiveO ” on 3/09/2010 to 14/09/2010 he responded repeatedly to comments by “ BadBadLeroyBrown ” . Hopefully when this article next appears these nonsenses will have been removed .

Tour de France does the Gendarmerie no favours by having these L E O standing in the same spot for most of the day , rarely in the shade on hot days and exposed to the elements in inclement weather . As to turning Public roads into “ Private Roads ” for the passing of “ Le tour ” one wonders why they cannot follow the example of the “ Tour de Suisse ” and thus not create the problems for the community that result at present . Whilst the Policing forces are busily occupied the criminal elements are having a field day not only badgering people and enterprises to “ BUY ” their nougat and plastic Drapue but perhaps other crimes such as burgularising empty homes and stealing bikes and bike parts and breaking into unattended cars . Of course these activities take place elsewhere but then the response is so much quicker and positive investigation and not a “ incident no ” that will be the outcome when you report to the Insurance Co. your loss in an area where the “ Le Tour ” has visited .

POSTED by Posterous as Blogger continues to give problems !

WHEN A COP SAYS STOP !