A week today and I will hopefully
be celebrating my 42nd birthday. I say hopefully because on Sunday,
or my birthday eve, I will taking a bit of a personal challenge and all I can
say is that I hope to be around to celebrate on the 16th.
This summer can be described as a
summer of cycling for us. We have been out and about on the bikes, sometimes
20km pre-apero runs, sometimes full days out cycling 70 or 80km circuits and
other times we have travelled all day on the bikes before crashing in a hotel
and returning the following day. We must be quite close to 2000 peddled
kilometres this summer, which for a pair of forty-somethings with a 12 year old
in tow isn’t too bad. For more cycle posts see here.
However all these bike rides have
been as a family (or a couple) at a pace that is comfortable for all of us,
with plenty of stops for food and drink, and yes many refreshment stops have
been in bars. This is about to change as we are planning to take part in an
organised cycle event on Sunday, where there will be ‘real’ cyclists with real
bikes and real leg muscles. The 2nd Tour des Flandres Charentaises is
inspired by the Tour of Flandres, a Belgium event famous for it’s hill climbs
on narrow cobbled streets. Now while the Charente department is a little short
on cobbled streets (thankfully) they have managed to find plenty of hilly,
narrow lanes to cause pain and suffering to cyclists mad enough to give it a
go. There is a choice of routes from 30km, 55km, 80km and 110km and by
consensus of opinion we have decided to tackle the 55km route that will include
eight of the seventeen hill climbs.
I am not too worried about the
distance involved, but I’m not really the greatest hill climber in terms of
stamina or speed. We took a sneaky ride out last weekend to Nanteuil en Vallée
where some of the climbs are located and although I made it to the top of the
two nasty ones I was wheezing like an old steam train most of the way up and
Ade and Ed were just specks on my horizon. My main worries for the weekend are
that I will an obstruction to the real cyclists behind me, especially on the
narrow sections and that I will hold our group up, especially if I need to get
off for a breather at the top. To make it a little bit more social and fun, we
are joining up with some cycling friends, but they are likely to be faster
than I am. Food is probably going to be 'grazing on the peddle' with energy packed
nibbles from our pockets as we won’t be taking the panniers – every bit of weight
counts when climbing, gulp!
 |
| The 55km route |
More information on the planned
route can be found here. If you happen to be a local reader and are around the
St Gourson, Champagne-Mouton, Vieux-Ruffec, St Gervais, Nanteuil, Pougné or St
Sulpice areas on Sunday morning, please feel free to throw some encouragement
toward Blue Belle (my old bike) and me, thank you.
 |
| With Blue Belle in the Cognac vineyards |
Good luck! I think you're nuts, but have fun...! My birthday is a few days after yours! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone, lots of people have said I am nuts, bonkers, mad.....
DeleteMy birthday was the day you posted this! And, alas, I was 56. But I still cycle and try to fend off the years. Good luck - 55km is nothing to a stripling like you!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Vanessa and I hope you had a good birthday.
DeleteGood luck; I read this and smiled, 2 colleagues tried a bike competition in the Uk and found lots of the competitors used lightweight cycles, perhaps Blue Belle may need an update for competitions or at least hill climbs .. allez.
ReplyDeleteThanks Billy. We have talked about replacing her (but don't tell her that), however I decided not to. Although old, she was the top of the range, lightweight, racing frame of her day and let's face it - it is still the same old legs doing the peddling whatever the bike!
DeleteGood Luck and how amazing that your 12 year old is cycling too , well done to all .
ReplyDeleteThank you Anne. Cycling is such a great sport and perfect for families to do together.
Delete