Summer Tour - France June 5th

[doog]

Cheers Jim got the gaffa tape as described (great forum this!). I was thinking about the sunglasses, may nip down to screwfix and get a spare pair of safety sunglasses for a fiver. My mate owns a bike shop so I have a nice big cardboard bike box with all the trimmings to be binned at Girona airport!

Right Im off first thing tomorrow and have just done the final weigh in. Fully loaded:

Bike plus toolkit ,pump and lock = 16.3kg

Panniers rear left 4.2kg
rear right 4.5kg
Front left 2.5kg
Front right 3.45kg
Tent 1.75kg

Total 16.4kg


Me = 89kg


Really impressed at how this has come in, . This doesnt include 3 X 750ml bottles of water to be filled in Spain and a bottle of campingaz to be purchased over there.

Second day is my concern (Monday), 4000 feet of ascent over the Pyrenees in the morning, followed by the downhill in the afternoon.

 

[bigjim]

U got butt cream? Sore ass can spoil a holiday.

 

[doog]

U got butt cream? Sore ass can spoil a holiday.

been okay on previous tours but am taking some assos cream and also vaseline. If I get a rash then its nappy rash cream as being the father of 3 I know that does the trick. Never done this long in the saddle so I am expecting some issues down there!

 

[doog]

Hope you have a brilliant trip. Right now I'm in Dorset, where the weather's lovely, house- and dog-sitting for friends who've gone to France - where the weather's dreadful! Hope you have better luck.

Ha, yep I live in Poole and its glorious at the moment, my first destination tomorrow is showing 16 C going down to 6, to be honest the cooler temps suit me.

 

[scraynes]

Hope you can sleep well through the excitement tonight.

Have a great trip, and look forward to reading about it on your return..

Makes my week in the Loire seem a bit tame..

Regards

Spencer

 

[albal]

have a good trip doog, used that track in Normandy recently, prefer the roads, less bumpy. We set off 2 jul from Santander, poodling about for 16 days. Raining in Poole now

 

[vernon]

Was in France the last two summers and a few days last month, never saw anyone wearing hi viz, not saying DON'T take one, just that as with helmets in Spain it may be the law but it doesn't seem to be inforced.

That's at variance with my observations. Perhaps you were in bandit country?

 

[vernon]

Ha, yep I live in Poole and its glorious at the moment, my first destination tomorrow is showing 16 C going down to 6, to be honest the cooler temps suit me.

A week in the Loire is far from tame. It's wonderful cycling country.

 

[doog]

Tour is over and complete

, 11 days and 10 nights camping and 761 miles.

In brief all went well.

Route

I kept roughly to my Garmin route but to be honest relied more on the Michelin maps. I crossed the Pyrenees at nearly 5000 feet over the Coll d'Ares on a thoroughly wet and miserable day before dropping down and heading North west skirting Toulouse to the East up to Bergerac, Saintes, Cholet, Vitre and St Malo.

Weather


A mixed bag with showers most days a bad headwind heading towards Toulouse but tail wind up to St Malo.

Campsites


Paid between 4 and 7 Euro for municipals, the most i paid was 15 Euro for a top of the range job. On the last night I couldnt find a camp site to set up camp next to a lake and cleared off before dawn.

Daily mileage


Between 50 and 100 a day depending on terrain - some of it was really tough, did 140 miles on day 10- realised I had a ferry to catch!

Mechanicals


Worn rim tape caused spectacular blow outs wrecking 3 inner tubes early on and still in Spain. A simple problem I had overlooked but was diagnosed in a Spanish cycle shop.

Summary: I didnt spend enough time planning this route. Very hilly in parts. Loved every minute of it, wouldnt recommend it everyone within the time frame I had.