My birthday cycle challenge

A week today and I will hopefully be celebrating my 42^nd 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 16^th.

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 2^nd 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

Charente Cycle Route 35C

Charente Cycle route 35 

Yesterday the weather was just perfect for a family afternoon on the bikes. We chose the Charente route number 35 that starts in Montignac, but we parked the car in La Chappelle and started at the half way point as this is closer to home. As with all these routes there are three distances; 5km, 27km and the one we did of 43km. This is a beautiful route that often follows the river Charente, where we were entertained by dancing dragonflies, and also criss-crosses the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The hedgerows were often a spectacular clash of red poppies and cerise pink wild rambling sweet peas. We had hoped that when we reached Montignac we could stop for our customary beer, however the two bars we found were both closed and we suffered more disappointment in the next town of Vouharte as their bar was also closed. However as it was a Sunday afternoon I guess this is to be expected in rural France.

La Chappelle, Charente

The high speed railway LGV works

At the moment the railway works, that are cutting a high speed rail link from Tours to Bordeaux, have eaten a small section of this bike route too. The D116 to Vervant doesn't exist, but by continuing on to Xambes we were able to pick up the route signs again.

Up close at a wind turbine

Up on the high ridges we could watch the buzzards soaring on the thermals and also took a detour to investigate one of the many wind turbines that are in the area. They are huge! Quite spectacular, but the creaking and groaning as the paddles slowly ambled around was a little disconcerting when you were stood underneath.

St Amant de Boixe

The town of St Amant de Boixe, somewhere we have not visited before, was home to a very impressive church and abbey and is on the marked pilgrim route the Chemins de St Jacques. In the grounds of the abbey is a rest house for those on their pilgrimage to Spain, the key being available for a small fee of 3.50€. We often see cyclists and walkers in this area who are displaying the clam shell sign of the pilgrims and I will admit to finding this really fascinating.

St Amant de Boixe

Just outside of Montignac the route followed a pot-holed track and poor Blue Belle got a puncture when I failed to steer her out of the most enormous pot hole. Thankfully my hero was on hand to save the day and fit a new inner-tube. We did try to repair the puncture, but it was too severe! 

My Hero!

This route will be a stunning ride in a few weeks time when the sunflowers (and hopefully the bars too) are open.

Cycling with Blue Belle

In St Fraigne, notice Ade's new toy on the back of the car.

Yesterday's weather was beautiful and delivered a much deserved dose of warm sunshine. It was perfect for the first bike ride of the year, although still a little early for me to be dressed in shorts and a T-shirt. We debated stopping for lunch while out, but decided on a picnic instead and packed the car to the accompaniment of some rather blue language from our neighbour who was struggling with the spluttering engine of his rotivator. I know we too should have been gardening but we did sow some more seeds in the morning. Blue Belle, my lovely retro bike and I were fit and ready to tackle the 34 km route Ade had chosen, or so I thought!

We were following one of the Charente marked cycle routes, No 33 B, and although this one was new to us we've always found them to be well marked. They are also well planned to take in the prettiest of the villages, avoid the busy main roads as much as possible and pass through at least one town big enough for a beer stop. Route 33 B was no exception.

Lunch at the lavoir

We started in St Fraigne, where there are some lovely gardens by the river that are well worth a visit in the summer. We stopped for our picnic in a pretty village with no name, in a quiet spot by the church and lavoir (old wash house) with only birds and butterflies for company. It is so unusual not to have a sign with the village name on it as most places in France tell you not only where you are entering but where you are leaving too, here there was nothing. 

A walnut mill stone in Tusson

After lunch we continued through more sleepy villages and spiky stick-like vineyards, meeting very few people or cars until our beer stop in Aigre. 

A well deserved beer in Aigre

There is nothing quite like a cold beer in the sun when you have really worked for it, and by then (28 kms) my whole body really felt it had worked for it. However we were not all in agreement. Mr Super-Ski-Fit was quite a nag; "Do you think you can go any faster?" (No, or I would be!). "If I go any slower I will fall off" (Oh well). "Keeping up OK?" (Yes thanks, so long as I can go at my pace). Nothing in my life is measured on how fast I can get somewhere or do something - life for me is all about the journey. How I managed 80km in a day on Ile de Ré last year I have no idea. But I do know I have a long way to go before I could do that sort of distance again. Oh winter I hate that you make me wobbly and unfit.

For more information on cycling in the Charente see here for all the route information and links.