“When you finished the Tour de France during my epoch, you received a medal from the organization”. Marty
1998 Tour de France Finishing Medal
Marty finished 45th in this 85th edition of the Tour de France. In 1997 Marty finished 98th and at the time was one of less than 20 Americans to have ever finished the race. By 2010 the USA has had a handful more citizens finish the race. (does anybody have the exact number and names)
1998 TDF Route on Finishing Medal
Below is a small plate from the 1997 World Championships which were held in San Sebastian, Spain (Donosita). Marty finished around 30th in this edition. A week earlier he won the 203 mile race LoToJa an endurance event between Logan, Utah to Jackson, Wyoming. “It was a great training race for the World Championships” Marty
The team at Marty Jemison Cycling Tours have decided to offer climbing Alpe d’Huez as an option during the 2010 Tour de France. July 12th is a Tour de France rest day and we will have guests choosing to depart the hotel by bike and ride around Lake Annecy and possibly climbing the Col du Semnoz or Col du Forclaz.
Another option is to travel to Bourg d’Oisans and challenge the famous Alpe d’Huez
The phrase “What happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas” cannot apply to our recent dinner at Picasso’s. Eating at Picasso’s was such a pleasant suprise, evoking the senses and stirring memories. Picasso’s is French cuisine, interpreted by Chef Julian Serrano, inspired by the regional cuisine of France and Spain. (the Catalonia region comes to mind)
Las Vegas Five Diamond French Restaurant - Picasso at Bellagio
Living between France and Spain for the last 20 years racing bikes, leading bike tours and dining in fine restaurants has heightened my awareness of haute cuisine. I look forward to so many eateries upon my return to Europe, however, the experience at Picasso’s has equaled many places that I’ve experienced in Europe.
an original Picasso
an original Picasso
Picasso’s wine paring stirs memories:
We started with a fantastic champagne and then a white wine from the Alsace region of France. Just a few years ago Jemison Cycling Tours was in the Alsace region following the Tour de France. (remember the Grand-Ballon 2nd Cat climb?)
Riding through the vineyards outside Guebwiller and sampling their wines in the evening was a great introduction to white wines from the Alsace.
Next we moved to the Burgundy region in our wine paring. We tasted whites from Chassagne-Montrachet and Meursault, both cities we ride through on our Burgundy Tour, both producers of world renown wines. Our red wine of the evening was ” Le Richebourg”, and the greatest surprise of the night. Our sommelier was choosing the wines and had no idea that Jemison Cycling Tours stays in Vosne-Romanee at the Le Richebourg hotel who’s owners produce Le Richebourg wines.
Our sommelier also brought out a sweet dessert wine from Sauternes. Although it was more rose’ in color it reminded me of Yquem because of a bike ride through Sauternes to Chateau Yquem on a private Bordeaux Tour. In my case the two dessert wines are similar only because they both lie on a Jemison Cycling Tours route. Yquem is liquid gold in color and our Sauternes was more of a rose’ of the finest quality.
Dessert at Picasso's
Having lived in Europe for the better part of 20 years, racing bikes and leading bike tours, has opened a world of haute cuisine and fine wines. There is nothing better than developing your palate through travel, preferably by bike. Why not join us on a Jemison Cycling Tour to discover great places to eat and drink some of the region’s best wines if you so choose.
I have a large storage container full of jerseys from my Amateur and Professional cycling career. I think this one is worth showing. This is from the Rheinland-Pfalz-Rad-Rundfahrt Tour and is the second race that Lance Armstrong won post cancer. A week or so before this race we helped Lance win his first comeback race which was the Tour of Luxembourg.
Marty Jemison, Lance Armstrong, Christian Vandevelde, Sven Teutenberg & ? - Signed Jersey
Rheinland-Pfalz-Rad-Rundfahrt was a Tour we did in Germany.
Marty Jemison, Lance Armstrong, Christian Vandevelde, Sven Teutenberg & ? signed jersey
This jersey is back in storage with 50-60 other jerseys with historical importance to my career. Maybe someday I will take a picture of all of them and make them available online. After more than 900 races I did in Europe and 3-400 in the USA, the jerseys take me back to some great racing and travel moments.
Marty Jemison
www.martyjemison.com
Thanks to George-Brian Dauenhauer for correcting a couple of facts in this post
There is a lot of focus on training cyclists to put out the greatest wattage possible. Descending is another skill that takes thousands of hours before you arrive at a level of comfort that you might see in this video.
Can you imagine if Levi was riding for the Yellow Jersey himself or riding to protect the Yellow Jersey? Remember that what you see here is training pace on open roads. Levi must pay attention possible oncoming cars, cyclists etc.
In an actual race a leading cyclist will often have a motorcycle out in front essentially clearing the road of hazards. In my experience this motorcycle means everything. By concentrating on the acceleration and deceleration of the motorcycle the cyclist has information that may be ahead of what he sees visually. The result is that the cyclist can descend faster and with more confidence.
This is a good video where you can see one of the best riders in the world descend effortlessly. There is no tension in his body and what you see is very fluid. After such a decent a Professional rider will be fully recovered and ready for racing or more training as in Levi’s case.
Marty & Levi were teamates on the US Postal Service Professional Cycling Team. Their friendship started as early as 1994 when Marty had just turned Professional with the WordPerfect Professional Cycling Team and Levi was heading to Belgium as an Amateur. Marty & Levi spent the winter training together in Salt Lake City and continued to meet up for training rides in Europe.
Gardie Jackson is a friend an Personal Trainer that lives in Park City, Utah. Gardie has recently been invited to the BMC Professional Cycling Team training camp to help the riders with a “core” strengthening program.
I had the opportunity to film Gardie while he was training a few local Park City athletes.
I have posted a few clips but have a library of nearly 30 clips loaded with great information about Functional Strength Training for Cyclists. ( I hope to make them all available)
As a retired Professional rider I am excited to see the resources are available today. I can honestly say that I wish I had spent more time working on my core…. as it became a very weak part of my body late into my career. In short, I highly recommend the core workouts and Functional Strength Training that Gardie teaches.
This short video shows a Marty Jemison Cycling Tours – Guest getting involved with locals and helping them dump grapes into a tractor bed. Our timing was great and was captured for French Television.
The television crew then asked our group of cyclists to ride through the Vineyards to capture some of what France really values: Great Cycling & Great Wine
As I am working on our website photo album* for our 2009 Girona Marty Jemison Cycling Tour, it seemed like a good time to thank you all for a wonderful trip. Our 4th MJCT, and like the others, a completely different tour from all the others. It was great getting to know Girona & the area around Girona. I can see why the pros call it home for the cycling season. The rides are challenging, but fun, & quite varied – some climbing, some flats, some towns & villages, some country roads. The beach towns were an unexpected treat & as Bret always says, MJCT never ceases to surprise & amaze with lovely destinations & wonderful accommodations. For this trip we especially liked the beach-side Hotel and we aren’t even beach folks! But how could we not just love the small beach on the Spanish Med, steps from our hotel room. Wow.
Every ride had something new to experience – the steep roads along the coast, the young girl selling figs who could speak 3 different languages, the occasional long climbs, the various lunch stops, every one different and interesting. I particularly enjoyed never having to take a van transfer – maximum ride time! Which was just what I was after this for this trip. But at the same time, it sure was nice to have the van there when we stopped to taste some wine & buy a few bottles. It would’ve been too bad to load Bret up with all that wine in a backpack for the rest of the ride .
Give our thanks to our guide for the trip, Kurt, who did an awesome job of taking care of us both on & off the bike**. It’s fun getting to explore areas that you all know so well, and Kurt was able to introduce us to a number of his favorite places, in Girona & the other destinations during our trip. And our Olot ride on the last day was bonus cookies – thanks for adding that extra day, which gave us another opportunity to experience the area around Girona. Maybe next time we’ll take him up on the offer to ride the big climb (name escapes me) at the end. We were pretty toast after 8 days of riding (but it was a good toast .
Thanks for showing us your Spanish home & experiencing all the great food, wine and cycling terrain the area has to offer! Now we are just trying to decide which MJCT trip we will be on next year – Tuscany? Burgandy? Provence? (that’s the one I’ve got my eye on). Until then -
Cheers & have a wonderful, restful, off season. See you next year,
Lisa & Bret
* The photos from our trip on the Gallery are super. The quality & effects from your camera is awesome & it’s so nice to have so many pictures of us to chose from for our photo album. We never do a good job of taking pictures of each other when on holiday.
** Big kudos for Kurt for determining that a dinner I ordered had saffron, which I am unfortunately allergic to, and then switching dinners with me.
Marty Jemison on the cover of Park City Life magazine.
Secrets of the Tour de France from local Marty Jemison
250,000 miles with a race number on his back
Ask Marty what it was like racing over 900 events in Europe alone, or finishing his first Tour de France. How did it feel to win the US Professional Cycling Championship? Ask Marty how he helped Lance Armstrong win his firs post-cancer race, The Tour of Luxembourg.
Jemison Cycling Tours is excited to announce that Alex Stieda will be be at our 2010 Tour de France Pyrenees trip as a celebrity guide. Alex was the first North American to wear the Yellow jersey in the Tour.
Alex Stieda in Tour de France Yellow
Marty and Alex have known each other for several years and have worked together on high-altitude cycling camps in Park City, Utah.
Classic Steel dipped in copper and waiting to be burnished
Copper Beauty
Its not carbon; its not aluminum; its not titanium…. its Steel. Its a custom built bike with SNS couplers made to travel the globe and fit nicely into a small suitcase. It will not be the lightest bike out there but it will ride and look like a classic.
I am looking forward to having it built and testing it out on a Jemison Cycling Tours ride.
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