Just a quick reminder: The Guide to Cycling the Atlantic Pyrenees is free for 4 more days only.

You can download the guide as a PDF by visiting this post. You can email the guide to as many of your friends as you’d like.

After that, it will be $9, but will continue to be free for those who subscribe to the mailing list.

You can subscribe to the mailing list here.

The Cycling the Atlantic Pyrenees guide covers tips and tricks for getting to the Atlantic Pyrenees for an epic cycling adventure and includes;

• Getting There (airports to fly in to)
• Baggage Restrictions
• Taking your bike
• How to pack your bike (and some bike case reviews)
• Airline Options
• Where to stay
• Rides to do
• Rough costing
• Language
• Accommodation
• Weather
• The Pyrenees and L’Etape du Tour
• The Pyrenees and Le Tour de France
• Mobile Phone coverage and options for mobile data

I’m currently working on a new ebook guide concentrating on helping you Tackle L’Etape du Tour.

I’m really interested to hear from you if you have any ideas on what could be in the guide. Of course, I have many ideas, but want to be guided by the TDF Tips readers.

Things to consider:

• Training
• Nutrition leading up to L’Etape
• Nutrition on the ride
• Post ride recovery (eating, stretching)

So, unload with all your ideas! Keep it specific to doing L’Etape, as the other TDF Tips guides have a lot of logistics info (flights etc). I’ll be covering logistics very briefly.

I only need your name and email in case I want to follow up with you on your suggestions.

TDF Tips will be down for maintenance on our host for 2.5 hours on 1 Sept, from 12.01AM Australian Eastern Time (GMT +10) for about 2.5 hours.

We received late notice of this, so couldn’t put in place alternative arrangements to serve you all the page.

I’m really sorry about this, and I hope it doesn’t inconvenience you too much.

You’ll be able to check all our posts out on Facebook where our posts appear on the TDF page, and contact me on Twitter.
Tim

2010 was a doozy of a trip for TDF Tips. I, and my equally loony travel partner, the inimitable Michael J Brown, took off around the world to tackle L’Etape, eat croissants, drink (usually bad) coffee, drink some sneaky Heinekens, ride in the warm French summer sun, and revel in the greatest sports spectacle on this awesome planet.

And we did it in under 2 weeks. Insane? Yep. Fun? Hell yes.

If you want to skip the post, and get my whole trip in a 5 minute video, watch below!

And some Etape video is also below.

You’d think after the trials and tribulations (and this one: photo rock) and obsessive planning I did, this trip would have gone as smoothly as a 20 year old Scotch goes down the hatch.

I got it wrong.

I was struck by my own ineptitude and conspiring nature of circumstance on this trip. Despite the fact that I’ve highlighted that you MUST get to Tour stages early – it’s one of the Key Tips of the Cycling Through France guide, we didn’t. And despite my best efforts to the contrary, I again wracked up an extraordinarily high phone bill (disclaimer: Telstra later wrote off the bill).

We cut costs on flights and paid the price. And lastly, I was hugely underprepared for L’Etape.

So let’s look at the mistakes, and highlight what you can do to avoid them to ensure you have a kick-butt trip.

Flights
As we get older, the threshold for getting mucked around and/or slumming it on cheap flights with long layovers into non-hub airports in order to save some money, gets a lot lower. I think I left mine behind in my early 20s.

When we looked to book for 2010 in late 2009, flights were around AUD$2700 into Barcelona or Paris, with no extra baggage. We managed to score an around the world (ATW) fare for around $2300, which gave us 2×23kg all the way ATW as we were flying via the US. A few months before we were due to leave, our fare rules on our Toulouse-Hong Kong leg changed from 2×23kg to 1×20kg (thanks for that, Lufthansa). As I said earlier, we paid the price for being cheaper.

Lesson: Cheaper is NOT always better.

I recommend booking a slightly more flexible fare, and have covered airline options here as well as extensively in the Cycling Through France guide.

The Tour Stage
As I’ve written before, you absolutely MUST get to your vantage point early. Plan for everything to go wrong. Plan for traffic, overly-judicious gendarmes, rain, flat tyres.

You’ve gone to all this effort to get here, and the worst thing you want is to miss the stage, or to be stuck in a crappy spot. Trust me it happens; read my stories here (Stage 13 2009), here (Stage 16 2010) and here (Stage 17 2010).

Other key tips for maximising your TDF experience include:

• Be on a steeper uphill to maximise all the free stuff from the caravan. Being on a downhill means you’ll get almost nothing.
• Have a back up plan, including a different road/bike route to get you where you need to be.
• Ignore gendarmes (walk your bike slowly and innocently up/down the road, staying well off the road) or go around them. My failure to man-up cost me a ripping downhill hairpin in 2010’s stage 16, which looked up and down the road. The photos would have been incredible.
• Pack for bad weather (2010 Stage 17). Had I been better prepared (I had a poor quality “wet weather” jacket), I could have been up the road on the Soulor for some epic hairpin photos.
• If the weather looks the least bit sketchy, and you have camera gear, have a back up plan and position for photos. Pack a plastic rain bag/hood that covers all of you. There’s nothing worse than standing in the miserable rain, getting wetter and wetter. Plastic hoods/bags don’t look cool, but they work.
• Be prepared to walk (take note of point about rain gear). Pack food and water in case you can’t find a place that sells food and water, and prepare to be located in a place with no toilets.
• And, the number 1 tip: GET THERE EARLY. You can usually find the expected arrival time of the caravan and the lead group to key areas, which lets you plan. Allow for traffic. This means if your vantage point is up a Col/climb, and you are climbing from the other side that the Tour ascends allow 6 hours. I promise you won’t regret it. Once the caravan is on the climb, you’ll be pulled off the road. If you’re climbing up the same way as the riders, you have a bit more leeway, as you can walk you bike up the road.

L’Etape
L’Etape is a beast of a ride worthy of a TDF Tips guide of it’s own (hint: this is in the works, make sure you subscribe to the mailing list here to get advance warning and discounts), however, I’ll cover what went wrong for me briefly.

Preparation: I was hugely underprepared for the 2010 Etape. I was laid low for several months with an illness, and was unable to train or race. This affected me hugely, and the difference between my 2009 ride and 2010 ride is glaring.

Regardless of my underpreparedness though, the around the world flight did both Mike and I no favours. That long in the air (Mel-Syd/stop 1 hour/LA/stop 7 hours/Frankfurt stop 2 hours/Toulouse) dehydrated us immensely, and we arrived on the ground with about 48 hours to rehydrate and acclimatise. In 2009 we flew in about 10 days before hand so had ample time to build energy and hydrate, get our bodyclocks into the EU time zone, and get some riding into our legs.

I could (and will) write a lengthy guide on preparing for L’Etape properly, but briefly:

• Arrive in Europe at least 1 week before L’Etape.
• Spend some time riding, drinking loads of water, sleeping and eating properly.
• In the 6 months prior to L’Etape, train your bum off. Unless you ride a lot already, you’re going to have spend hours and hours riding, including in the hills.
• During the ride, you’ll need to hydrate and feed effectively. Don’t drink too much water (as you dilute the salt in your blood, then start cramping) and eat enough. There’s been a lot written on feeding properly in long races, and I’ll save this for another time.
• Make sure you get enough sleep leading up to L’Etape.
• Make sure you stretch before L’Etape (and after).

In the forthcoming Guide to L’Etape, I’ll be discussing some training, nutrition and stretching routines specifically designed to help you do L’Etape. Make sure you subscribe to the mailing list here to get advance warning and discounts.

At the Airport
These may be obvious, but:

• Get to the airport early, or your bike may get left behind. This happened to us in 2010, but it was fortuitous, as it meant our bikes were shipped all the way to my front door, which made getting to/from the airport in Hong Kong much easier (and cheaper).
• Lufthansa (and others) sometimes don’t weigh bike bags (certainly not when you’re late to Toulouse airport). I’m told this is common practise at airports that service the cycling areas.

Some people don’t mind missing flights, but I hate it. You don’t want to be doing 160km/h up the freeway to make the flight. And then find there isn’t a petrol station at the airport. And then get stung 90 Euros for them to refill the tank with 10 litres.

Packing
These are really important, pay attention!

• Pack your bike carefully. Read this post on how to pack your bag properly, and this post which discusses a couple of different bike bags.
• Pack light! Don’t be like me and have 3 Packing Lists for camera gear, bike gear, casual gear and miscellaneous debris like laptop, chargers, books etc.
• Get a helmet pod or bag from Wiggle or a Giro helmet pod from Chain Reaction and take it onto the plane or pack in a hard case.

Mobile Phone
Seriously, read these posts on mobile phone data roaming. They’ll save you a load of money.

What went right?!
So, after all that, what went right?

I had a ball doing L’Etape. Yes it hurt, yes it was a terrible result, but boy was it fun.
Downtime. The last year has been a mental and physical overload, and it was good to ride with a chilled out group of friends, read some books, watch some Tour, eat croissants and get on the bike in the warm French sunshine.

• Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22: Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-15: Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-0… http://bit.ly/9sRpKV #
• Camping Le Colporteur, Le Bourg-d’oisans, Rhône-alpes, France: RatingOriginal Score: 7, 7.00 averaged over 1 votes… http://bit.ly/cnBhjE #
• Free for a Limited Time – New TDF Tips Guide: Cycling the Atlantic Pyrenees: I am really excited to announce the r… http://bit.ly/b3bPAx #
• Cost blow-out: How to avoid a $2000 mobile phone data bill: This post is all about how to avoid a $2000 mobile pho… http://bit.ly/cgfvou #
• @mrcyclingworld thanks for the retweet Rhys in reply to mrcyclingworld #
• NEWSFLASH: Rumoured 2011 TDF Stages (with 2011 L’Etape thoughts): A big thanks to reader Brad K for sending this i… http://bit.ly/d4lw6e #
• @elcamino thanks for the retweet! in reply to elcamino #

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• Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-22: Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-15: Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-08-0… http://bit.ly/9sRpKV #
• Camping Le Colporteur, Le Bourg-d’oisans, Rhône-alpes, France: RatingOriginal Score: 7, 7.00 averaged over 1 votes… http://bit.ly/cnBhjE #
• Free for a Limited Time – New TDF Tips Guide: Cycling the Atlantic Pyrenees: I am really excited to announce the r… http://bit.ly/b3bPAx #
• Cost blow-out: How to avoid a $2000 mobile phone data bill: This post is all about how to avoid a $2000 mobile pho… http://bit.ly/cgfvou #
• @mrcyclingworld thanks for the retweet Rhys in reply to mrcyclingworld #
• NEWSFLASH: Rumoured 2011 TDF Stages (with 2011 L’Etape thoughts): A big thanks to reader Brad K for sending this i… http://bit.ly/d4lw6e #
• @elcamino thanks for the retweet! in reply to elcamino #

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Review Detail:

A big thanks to reader Brad K for sending this in.

It looks like some 2011 TDF (and therefore L’Etape du Tour) information is starting to filter through. With just over a month until the official launch, rumours will be flying fast.

Steephill.tv has a post here about it.

Even if this is only half right, this is a WOW of a Tour. Looking at stages 16-20 (5 stages in a row of climbing), there is some epic climbing there, with the Izoard, Mont Cenis, Alpe D’Huez, Telegraphe+Galibier, Glandon and Tourmalet. Even Mont Genevre is no walk in the park.

It’s pretty obvious to me what the 2011 L’Etape will most likely be. And if that’s the case, accommodation will be very tight.

We won’t know for sure until October, so stay tuned. As soon as we know officially, I’ll be posting my thoughts on where to stay for L’Etape and the logistics around it, including how to get an entry-only to L’Etape, as well as recommending some tour companies to check out.

Just to let you all know, I’m currently writing an Etape-specific guide that will help you to not just finish, but do very well at L’Etape. If I am right about the 2011 Etape, it’s going to be brutal, and I don’t want those of you attempting it to have a horror day like I did in 2010.

I don’t want you to just survive this thing, I want you to best it. Stay tuned for that, but if you want to get an advanced discount, sign up to the mailing list here.

Steephill.tv says:

2011 Route Rumours
August 14 update: Here’s an early look at what the 2011 route may look like according to our France correspondant, Colin Flockton.

1- Sam 2/ Noirmoutiers – Mont des Alouettes
2- Dim 3/ C.L.M. aux Essarts
3- Lun 4/ Olonnes – Redon
4- Mar 5/ Lorient – Chateaulin
5- Mer 6/ L’Aber Vrach’ – Saint-Brieuc
6- Jeu 7/ Dinan – Lisieux
7- Ven 8/ Alençon – Tours
8- Sam 9/ Tours – Limoges
9- Dim 10/ C.L.M. au lac de Vassivière
10- Lun 11/ Limoges – Saint Flour avec Néronne (2C), Pas de Peyrol (1C), Perthus (2C), Lioran (3C), Prat de Bouc (2C)
Mar 12/ repos au Lioran
11- Mer 13/ Aurillac – Lavaur
12- Jeu 14/ Toulouse – Luz-Ardiden avec Aspin (1C), Tourmalet (HC), Luz-Ardiden (HC)
13- Ven 15/ St Gaudens – Limoux avec Larrieu (3C), Port (2C), Montségur (2C), Saint-Benoit (3C)
14- Sam 16/ Carcassonne – Nimes
15- Dim 17/ Nimes – Dignes
Lun 18/ repos
16- Mar 19/ Dignes – Risoul avec Allos (1C), Vars (1C), Risoul (1C)
17- Mer 20/ Embrun – Pinerollo avec Izoard (HC), Montgenèvre (2C), Sestrière (1C), PraMartino (2C)
18- Jeu 21/ Pinerollo – Col du Lautaret avec Mont-Cenis (HC), Télégraphe (1C), Galibier (HC)
19- Ven 22/ Bourg d’Oisans – L’Alpe d’Huez avec Grand Cucheron (2C), Glandon (HC), L’Alpe d’Huez (HC)
20- Sam 23/ C.L.M. Grenoble – Chamrousse (HC)
21- Dim 24/ Provins – Paris

This post is all about how to avoid a $2000 mobile phone bill
This post just goes to show, despite your best planning to prevent things going wrong, they can, and will. This is the Black Swan event which is a very interesting topic in and of itself.

After the absolute debacle of 2009, where I returned home to an AUD$2200 phone bill (around USD$2000) – read more about that by clicking here – I was determined not to come home to a big phone bill again.

I did a lot of research and wrote a post about the various plans available for our Australian readers.

Since I am on Telstra (for those international readers, Telstra is the ants-pants, rolled-gold mobile phone carrier in Australia. More expensive, but very fast 3G everywhere), I signed on to their $160 for 60MB of overseas data plan. You can read a comparison of the plans here.

I thought that for 2 weeks, 60MB would be plenty of data, given we were staying in one place and had Wifi. Last year, I used around 200M, and was constantly on Twitter and Google Maps.

Before I left, I reset my iPhone data usage stats to 0MB. I turned all my email data push and app push notifications off. This meant data would only be downloaded when I specifically asked an app to do so.

When I got home I’d used 61MB according to my iPhone, so I expected excess usage charges for 1MB.

When I got my bill for AUD$1900, it would be fair to say I was shocked.

My SMS and calls added up to AUD$400 (Note to Telstra: you NEED an international call and sms pack like the one Optus offers), my month-and-a-bio of international roaming was $200, so Telstra was telling me I used $1300 (around USD$1100) of excess data (around 130MB). No way.

When I looked at the bill, the data usage had been reconciled into minutes/seconds, with some calls showing 394 minutes. Clearly something was awry.

I rang Telstra, telling them that I thought the bill was erroneous, and if they couldn’t reconcile the bill into data (bits and bytes, not minutes and seconds), then I clearly couldn’t confirm the accuracy of their bill. They told me this was all they received from the overseas carriers.

Honestly, in the year 2010, telcos, who are at the cutting edge of technology, can’t get their billing systems into the year 2010? Shocking it is.

Happily, Telstra saw the folly of the situation and wrote a significant portion of the bill off. Compare this to Vodafone who operate a global network – at least when I got their bill it was unified and in MB so was clear to see what I was using (Google Maps) and how much time/data I used (unfortunately, Vodafone’s Australian network is average in terms of coverage).

Despite your best intentions to protect yourself, you may still get a hefty bill. So, how do you mitigate this, and what are the lessons here.

• Option 1 (good): I highly recommend getting a Vodafone SIM card and adding overseas data roaming if your local Vodafone offers it. For Australians, they offer $200 for 120MB or $329 for 200MB. Get the cheapest monthly SIM you can, about a month before you leave, and add the data component about 1 week before you go. You may have to pay a $300 bond for the roaming (returned to you when you pay you bill). Vodafone’s roaming between countries (Germany->France, France->Spain and so on) is seamless and the benefit is you get a bill that’s likely to be accurate.
• Option 2 (best): This is by far the most cost effective option. Go into an SFR (Vodafone France) and get a prepaid SIM; the SIMs usually come with €5-10 of credit for SMS and calls. Get them to add data. It’s not publicised, but they have a product where you can add data for 20 days; the data is unlimited! Be aware that they need to activate the data for that SIM, so make sure you do it all at the one shop at the same time. I can’t stress this enough. Speaking a bit of French will help you a lot (check out Coffee Break French for 80 free lessons).

I like the second option best, as you pre-pay for everything and can get help when you’re there. With unlimited data, you’ll be able to go crazy. Of course, if you want to keep using your home SIM card, take an old phone you can make calls and SMS from.


]]> http://www.tourdefrancetips.com/travel-tips/cost-blow-out-how-to-avoid-a-2000-mobile-phone-data-bill/feed/ 0 http://www.tourdefrancetips.com/travel-tips/cost-blow-out-how-to-avoid-a-2000-mobile-phone-data-bill/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tdftips/~3/KoyP0AD79xs/ http://www.tourdefrancetips.com/products-and-services/tdftips-products/pyrenees-guide/#comments Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:42:20 +0000 Tim M http://www.tourdefrancetips.com/?p=1040


I am really excited to announce the release of my latest ebook: Cycling The Atlantic Pyrenees.

The Cycling the Atlantic Pyrenees guide covers tips and tricks for getting to the Atlantic Pyrenees for an epic cycling adventure and includes;

• Getting There (airports to fly in to)
• Baggage Restrictions
• Taking your bike
• How to pack your bike (and some bike case reviews)
• Airline Options
• Where to stay
• Rides to do
• Rough costing
• Language
• Accommodation
• Weather
• The Pyrenees and L’Etape du Tour
• The Pyrenees and Le Tour de France
• Mobile Phone coverage and options for mobile data

The guide is free for a limited time only and is available for immediate download (as a PDF) here. You can email the guide to as many of your friends as you’d like.

In about two weeks time, the guide will only be available for sale, or to mailing list subscribers (subscribe to the mailing list here).


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