A “Nice” Adventure!

So arrived and all setup Tuesday, excellent, hmmm yes except weather forecast is gash 🤨 Wednesday was a stay in the gazebo and hide away from the rain kinda day, it sucked, I want to ride my bike! Thursday forecast looks better, well the morning does, so out with the laptop, bit of research and I plan a route on RideWithGPS, a nice little 32 miler with 1,300m of climbing, sweet!

Wake up @7:30am ready to make the best of the “morning” weather. Coffee: check, Pain o Choc: check, that’s me sorted let’s roll.

Mistake 1

I keep forgetting both Google Maps and RideWithGPS are slightly over optimistic as to what actually counts as a road, especially in the mountains….

So we head down a couple of clicks from the campsite and turn right to avoid the main road, the road viciously rises up through some housing, then the houses stop. Then the tarmac stops to be replaced by concrete, then the concrete stops. Ahhhh bugger, we discuss our next move and think well it’s not too bad let’s press on.

400m later whilst thinking how admirably my carbon Cosmics shod with 23mm 90psi Conti’s are holding up, BANG! We have a rear tire failure, grrrr. No point fixing it here, best get walking. 1 and something miles later we have hiked up over and back down the off road section! Time to fix the puncture!

A road less travelled on road bikes!

Mistake 2

After examining said puncture it would seem some flint ripped a small hole in the side wall of the tire, the poor bloody inner tube didn’t stand a chance! Poor little guy 😢 I digress! So mistake no2 would be not cleaning my cleats post off-road deviation, post puncture. A strange quirk of local geology means there are a lot of cement and limestone quarries, add overnight rain the stuff turns into concrete on ya cleats after yomping through it, mind you Siany faired worse, she sacrificed the heal of her shoe to the off-road hiking-in-cleats gods! 😂

Defo used to be 2 blue heel bits!

Mistake 3

Mistakes, buses, yeah yeah! So we are now enjoying a lovely ride up and down some lovely little hills through picturesque French villages. We get to the big climb of the day La Grave to Peille, only 6.5km but a good solid average of 7 or 8%. We ride together for a bit but I end up riding up a bit ahead, after 2km I stop to wait for Siany at a little bus stop, it’s got 3 seats and everything! It’s been harder than it was supposed to be due to the aforementioned Mistake 1, so I’m thinking I’ll pop a gel, only had Pain o choc remember. Siany comes along and says she’ll keep riding, ok cool, I’ll catch you up in a mo…

Always ride around the outside of the hairpin kids!

I neck a gel, relieve myself in the bushes and chase after Siany, a little bit up the road I catch up, Siany says she’s very hot and has drunk her water, no worries have mine babe, it’s only a 3 or 4km to the top. I gain time on her so just get on with it and plan to wait for her at the top, get to the top and pull over to the side. Time to take some pics, read sone mindless shizzle on BookOfFaces. I reach into my back pocket, no phone? Check the others, blind PANIC! AARRGH I’VE LEFT AT THE BUS STOP! Back down the hill we go, fly past Siany who is still coming up, shout “FIND A CAFE!” and continue my quest for the fabled iPhone-on-a-bus-stop-seat, all the way down I constantly switch between 2 thoughts 1) the bus stop is surely around the next bend and 2) please don’t let me see a bus coming towards me!

I get there, can I see it, can I, oh I can’t!AARRGH, no it’s there, no way it’s sodding there! AMAZEBALLS! Everything is great again, well aside from the 4km back up, no bother, I’m feeling great, 2km later I’m now not feeling great, I really need a gel or some water. Water: no gave that to Siany, gel: no already did that, oh well let’s tap tap tap it out!

It was worth the effort

Eventually haul my hungry arse up there, a crepe, can o coke and a beer later and all is back good with the world, we ride out of town road admire the view

That’s where I’d build a town!

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful, thank god. Got back to campsite for a chilled evening, then 30 local fireman turned up for a stag do! Ha gonna be a rowdy one!

At least they stopped playing Eurodance….for now 😬😬😂😂

As they say around these parts, it’s been a “Nice” adventure!😂😂😂