Paris, France - the city of love, the Eiffel Tower, le Louvre and... traffic jams. Could Paris really be a destination for a PEZ 'Top Ride'? Well, yes as just 35km South-West of the capital is the gorgeous Vallée de Chevreuse where the cows, sheep and forest replace the hustle and bustle of the big city making it an ideal playground for cyclists.

For the very first time, the 2013 Tour de France took on the mythical Alpe d'Huez twice in one day by descending and then ascending the little known Col de Sarenne. In June of that year, just before the Dauphiné tested out the roads and much needed roadworks were completed, PEZ's man in France, Chris Selden cycled the route on a simply epic 150km and 4800m elevation day.

PEZ ON SCENE: The Omega Pharma – Quick-Step pro cycling team is one of the most successful and it’s always a pleasure to see how a big team functions behind the scenes. PEZ got a close up look at their recent Spain training camp, meeting the riders, taking a spin in a team car and eating a nice lunch. Could it get any better?

It’s that time of year again with lots of teams on the Costa Blanca for their first training camp of the off season. Our man in Spain, Alastair Hamilton is on the spot and spent the day on the road with Team Astana. Here is how his day panned-out with the Kazakhs.

In a land of amazing food, and even more amazing people, there’s always one meal that stands out when I chase the Giro. These moments materialize when least expected, but remain stuck in my mind as one of life's truly 'good times'. This one involved a smoking grill, homemade wine, and being held against my will...

The Tour de France has given us all so many special memories over the years and with the 100th edition starting on Saturday we thought it was a good time to ask the PEZ crew what their personal favorite Tour moments have been. Fittingly Alpe d'Huez gets two mentions but some other favorite PEZ stages may be a surprise.

PEZ TECH: Old world Lugs and stainless steel wrapped around custom electronic shifting, prototype cranks and more. This project is the result of a murderer’s row of talent (and me) taking a swing at old-meets-new…

We've featured some pretty special machines in Readers Rigs over the last year but today's machine is something completely different again. It's a custom built racing tandem owned by Peter Spencer a Cat 1 racer in Australia and his blind stoker Zachariah Clarkson.

Things are not as good as they used to be in Spanish cycling, look back to 2006 and there were four ProTour, five ProContinental and five Continental Spanish teams registered with the UCI. In 2013 there are two ProTour, one ProConti and two Conti. Add to that the top Spanish rider, Alberto Contador, rides for a Danish team. So what went wrong in Spanish cycling?