by Gord Blair<\/p>\n
\tMy first ride over 600kms., my first time to France.<\/p>\n
Not knowing how I would take to the hills or the distance, I planned on 60 hrs of pedaling.\tThe plan was:<\/p>\n
\tI finished with 60.5 hrs on the pedals, fairly close to the daily distance, with a time of 89 hrs. A personal best \ud83d\ude42 <\/p>\n
\tI wanted to take in as much of rural France as I could, stopping to enjoy a considerable number of\troad-side cafes, and not passing any of the boulangeries that I saw open. Any ‘lost time’ along the\tway was usually at a control, competing for services with hundreds\tof other riders. <\/p>\n
\tThe French keep things quite tidy, there was no junk on the road, no litter in the ditches, with lots\tof planted flowers and hanging baskets along the way. Couple of pictures from ‘sur la pont’ attached.\tNext time I’ll ride a bit quicker, and get the camera out more. <\/p>\n
\tIt was awesome to be out with so many riders, especially with such an International flavour. Lots of\tdifferent brightly coloured jerseys from almost everywhere to look at, and many people that wanted to\tchat things up a bit and meet someone from somewhere else as well. Travelling in a pack at night\tthru deserted villages with narrow streets, and the odd streetlight making interesting shadows on the\told stone buildings was way cool. Or flying down the centerline of a long curvy hill at night, with\tmany bike tail lights ahead making a constantly changing thin red line to show the way. So much\tdifferent from my solo brevets this year. <\/p>\n
\tI still have a couple of postcards to send. I had stopped at a couple of roadside tables where the\tlocals would not take any money for the crepes, cakes and coffee they were passing out. All they\tasked for was a postcard from when we got home. <\/p>\n
\tI expect my road bike is away for the year, unless someone somewhere has a fleche or a 1000k in mind.\tIt would be nice to complete the whole series with a Brevet de Randonneur 5000. maybe. <\/p>\n
\tI have already knocked the dust off my hiking boots, the cobwebs come off the Trance 1 this weekend. <\/p>\n
\tHappy trails, y’all
\tGB <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Gord Blair My first ride over 600kms., my first time to France. Not knowing how I would take to the hills or the distance, I planned on 60 hrs of pedaling. The plan was: Sunday eve. 100km Monday 350km …<\/p>\n