Seven Sandwiches

My father is turning into a kind of over-sized bike-riding hobbit creature. He eats first breakfast around 6am, and then second breakfast sometime in the mid-morning, followed by first and second lunch, snack, and a couple of dinners. When he was ordering second lunch the other day, his friend Dan began to wonder if perhaps he was ordering for both of them when he asked the waitress for four bottles of water, a slice of pizza, a piece of quiche, a sandwich, and some ice cream to finish it all off. Dan ate seven sandwiches one day. And still, they think they are burning more calories than they can possibly manage to consume. I was wondering, the other day as I was shivering in the freezing rain near the top of the Col d'Agnel, if I burn more calories by riding up big hills or by trying to keep warm. Yesterday the weather was better and so I think most of my energy went towards riding up the highest mountain pass in Europe, which the pro riders are going to summit today. Tomorrow they ride up the Alpe d'Huez, after which the overall ranking of the riders will become very clear. You simply can't fake being a good rider in the Alps - either you have the strength to get up the hill faster than everyone else, or you fall off the back. It will be very interesting to see who can hang on today, and whether they can keep it up tomorrow or not. It will also be interesting to see what my father orders for first dinner when he arrives in the small town at the base of the mountain later this afternoon.