rest..recover..ride!!!!
Wednesday
DID NOTHING – that’s right – shock, horror, not like Tony – yes I know – forced myself not to – and the cloudy cool and constantly threatening rain clouds didn’t help to dissuade me otherwise.
First thing to do was get the mountain bike fixed - My front fork was making a dodgy noise and , my rear wheel had a few bent spokes (well she has had a hard time recently!!!) , so took it in to get sorted in La Clusaz - nice town actually, and the young lad did a complete service to the forks, oil, seals, fixed the noise, fixed the sticky remote lockout, new spokes, tuned both wheels, cleaned the bike, and the chain, and lubed it all up, and checked my chain and brake pads and REAR shock too! all for.....75Euros - done in the same day!
So he's going to be ready for Switzerland now (it’s a he – he is called R2D2 !!!!) - just looking at thier websites for road/mtb - and they have stacks of rides (not downhill stiff though, farmtrack type riding) so i'll be spending a while in there - then off to Italian lakes... but finding accommodation there is proving difficulty- it’s a popular spot – lakeside + hiking + riding + cable car trains mean everyone has something to go there for – so I’m still looking at accommodation options. Looking quite expensive, even to camp! There’s a host of resource out there on the web for Switzerland – hiking, cycling websites, mountainbike websites , B&B accommodation, Hotels, Hostels etc – just a matter of time before I find somewhere – I quite fancy a B&B – camping is nice and my first week there is camping, but B&B will get to meet the owners , see how they live , talk, listen, and perhaps get to know a bit more about the country.
So anyway after picking up my bike, surfing all day, I fancied going for a run – not been on one for ages – but again I resisted – I knew I had a big ride tomorrow – 70K’s of hills – well actually it was about 50K with 20K of flat in between – an early start should see me beat the heat of the sun (if it was going to nice!) and most of the traffic….
Thursday
SUNNY, at 7am it was sunny – I got up after a sound nights sleep and got ready – museli, 2 x water bottles for the bike (1 with energy powders inside) 2 energy bars, map, phone , wallet, pump – and I was away (no coffee – I KNOW!!!) – I was very very excited about this ride – it would take in the classic Tour De France route – Col de la Colombier!!!
Of course having to go over it means you have 3 options – 1 turn around at the top, 2 turn around at the bottom and climb it back, 3 do a loop using other road – I chose 3, as that’s how its done pretty much in the Tours – it would take me from where I am staying in Le Grand Bornard – (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Grand-Bornand) - over the Colombier, onto a fast descent into Cluses along a main ‘National’ road for about 20K of flat riding, than back through the ‘route de gorges’ road – which is a tight twisty road next to a huge Gorge – and another long climb back to the start…total 70K…
I instantly knew this was going to be a hard ride – just a few mins out from the start I was climbing hard, thankfully the sun was out and the view of the surrounding mountains was amazing – my top stuffed with gear (see above) was holding up well, I was warm but not sweating and my heart-rate monitor showed I was steady at 145 – a few beats below my lactic threshold – so I was in good shape – the climb took 52 mins, on the way I passed a heard of sheep, some men cutting the grass who acknowledge me with a wave…. The climbing – as always – get stupidly steep and I ground out the last few k’s to the top…. and of course when reaching the top a Bar and a church (see previous blog entries) both of which were open. The cars that had passed me on the way up were parked at the bar – climbers getting their kit ready…. They looked passive and nervous and didn’t look at me – concentrating on getting their gear ready – after all who would want to be without a rope up at the top of a mountain!!!!
I bridged the top and again fantastic views of the ‘big’ mountains in Switzerland – which I can only assume to be the Eiger and Matterhorn – covered in snow – man those are big mountains!!!!
The descent was scary – no barriers on this backroad climb – just the edge – and – in preparation for the Tour it was being resurfaces – so no road markers….but the road was quiet and I descended quickly – the cold biting into my feet and hands, and then after a full 10 mins of descent and now into thick forest it was too much – I stopped and put on my windproof and headed off again quickly…trying to keep warm. The windproof worked a treat and I hit the ‘National Road’ quicker than I though – it was still extremely busy though….but the drivers get me a lot of space and respect – in fact in all this riding through twisty tight and fast roads, I have not had 1 incident that I can remember on the bike , between me and a car – perhaps the only one was a BMW overtaking a slower car on the other side of the road…. Apart from that ,NOTHING – New Zealand drivers could learn a lot….
I pushed hard against the head-wind on the straight flat road – around about 35k’s an hour – munching on an energy bar and taking on extra drink. My seat giving me a few issues today, as I hit the 2 hour mark – and turned off the main road onto the ‘gorges’ road back – this would be about 26k’s – almost all steady climbing on a tight road.
I was thankful I left on my windproof – the shadows of the mountains lining the road blocked out the warm sun – and my tired legs slowed me on the climb too – I used a few mind tricks to think of other things to make the time pass quickly….. coffee, croissants, warm shower, more coffee, thoughts of places to go, coffee, life, coffee and finally, coffee. The end came sooner than I thought, I finally started to descend and maxed out my gears to crank into the campsite. 2hours and 50mins, for 70k ride …. I was very very pleased….
Of course there were no crowds cheering me on, no girls with flowers to give me a kiss and a smile, just people looking funnily at me as I flexed my left wrist – stiff from the cold…but you don’t do these things for this – like anyone does anything, its about that little thing inside that you feel, that you did something, without help from anyone, without cheating, without compromise – you did it for you.
The quickest shower ever and before I knew it was eating croissants and on my 3rd coffee…
The afternoon consisted of searching for accommodation (still no luck) then down to the bar to see the latest Tour De France action , along with a salmon salad, a full portion of French fries and a stack of French bread….and a bit of French red wine too.
Tomorrow- well if its nice I’m hoping to go for a bit of a run in the late afternoon then climb a little mountain for some final views of this area, before moving on to Switzerland on Saturday….As for the day time, not quite sure – maybe a drive out somewhere….
