Wednesday
Rained all day
Coffee stop in small cafe bar.
Our first col – 7% and 1,180m altitude at the top of the Col de la Republique, while crossing the Massif Central. Remarkably easy when driving a car. Did not even use first gear.
Lunch – picnic in car (still raining) in the Rhone Valley. First Pain au Raisin of the trip, but did not really deserve as zero effort expended in walking from the car to the boulangerie to buy them.
Arrived in the Vercors – looks very hilly. From where we are staying lots of scenery and not much sky in sight.
Assembled the trike and stowed her in the barn bike store beside 2 Colnagos, 2 Treks and a Cannondale. No panniers, tyres wider than 23mm, nor mudguards in sight.
Our host, who is an former professional racing cyclist has promised to discussed routes with us tonight to ensure we step up our fitness levels at the right rate. Could take several months if we did it properly. He also offered us some bubble wrap to stuff down our jerseys and shorts to avoid becoming hyperthermic while descending at high speed from the summits. When he has actually seen our tricycle, I have a feeling he might re-assess us.
Now going out to recce the eating opportunities in the village, taking a large umbrella with us.
PS have decided that accented vowels are an unnecessary French thing and are just too difficult to type on a small English keypad. So blog will be accent free throughout. Ca va.
Rained all day
Coffee stop in small cafe bar.
Our first col – 7% and 1,180m altitude at the top of the Col de la Republique, while crossing the Massif Central. Remarkably easy when driving a car. Did not even use first gear.
Lunch – picnic in car (still raining) in the Rhone Valley. First Pain au Raisin of the trip, but did not really deserve as zero effort expended in walking from the car to the boulangerie to buy them.
Arrived in the Vercors – looks very hilly. From where we are staying lots of scenery and not much sky in sight.
Assembled the trike and stowed her in the barn bike store beside 2 Colnagos, 2 Treks and a Cannondale. No panniers, tyres wider than 23mm, nor mudguards in sight.
Our host, who is an former professional racing cyclist has promised to discussed routes with us tonight to ensure we step up our fitness levels at the right rate. Could take several months if we did it properly. He also offered us some bubble wrap to stuff down our jerseys and shorts to avoid becoming hyperthermic while descending at high speed from the summits. When he has actually seen our tricycle, I have a feeling he might re-assess us.
Now going out to recce the eating opportunities in the village, taking a large umbrella with us.
PS have decided that accented vowels are an unnecessary French thing and are just too difficult to type on a small English keypad. So blog will be accent free throughout. Ca va.
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