FNRttC The Fridays tour 2014

[StuAff]

Sorry to inflict this on you, but
http://bit.ly/1aVLWvq
is a link to my pix of the ride from Madrid northwards across the Pyrenees. Spain really is a fantastic country to ride a bike in. Notice the perfect tarmac and the almost complete lack of traffic. One day we passed one bar in 65k, and while in there one van passed. The chickens in the road had to get out of its way. So while the 2014 Tour will be fab, obvs, 2015 might be even much more betterer.

Linky no worky.

 

[StuAff]

PS planning now moves to Caen-Bordeaux. You seem to be set on those dates?

I've (hopefully, others' leave choices permittting) booked the week of the 15th off. If it moves, hopefully I'll be able to move it.

 

[srw]

Quite remarkably the week of the 15th fits neatly between two big meetings in my diary, and even allows a few days at either end. If my beloved wife is similarly free we might find ourselves at a loose end - anyone have any idea of an informal bunch of people who might happen to find themselves on similar roads at the same time?

 

[StuAff]

Quite remarkably the week of the 15th fits neatly between two big meetings in my diary, and even allows a few days at either end. If my beloved wife is similarly free we might find ourselves at a loose end - anyone have any idea of an informal bunch of people who might happen to find themselves on similar roads at the same time?

We might well do

 

[rvw]

Provisionally looks good for me, in that my unmissable meeting is provisionally fixed for July. I've pencilled it in!

 

[mmmmartin]

http://bit.ly/1aVLWvq

does that one work? should do.

this one is long and unwieldy but should work, deffo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29651652@N06/sets/72157637272871686/

EDIT - have corrected the permissions so can be seen by anyone at all. Silly old me.

Note the lack of traffic, the perfect tarmac, and the uphill gradients that are long but very easy. I don't think I was ever in the bottom gear (18 inches) on the Sherpa, and I was carrying luggage (for hotels, not camping).

 

[StuAff]

http://bit.ly/1aVLWvq

does that one work? should do.

this one is long and unwieldy but should work, deffo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29651652@N06/sets/72157637272871686/

EDIT - have corrected the permissions so can be seen by anyone at all. Silly old me.

Note the lack of traffic, the perfect tarmac, and the uphill gradients that are long but very easy. I don't think I was ever in the bottom gear (18 inches) on the Sherpa, and I was carrying luggage (for hotels, not camping).

Linkies worky

 

[dellzeqq]

once an audaxer, always an audaxer
http://www.flickr.com/photos/29651652@N06/10651824134/in/set-72157637272871686/

this is cycling in Spain. Wide open spaces, great tarmac, naff-all traffic.

 

[velovoice]

Yes, but is it just me who thinks it looks a bit featureless and bleak?

Not just you.

 

[srw]

Yes, but is it just me who thinks it looks a bit featureless and bleak? Where are those little lanes we rode around in Normandy - you know, with hedges and all?

Apparently Normandy is just about the only place outside England which has widespread hedges. It's something to do with our laws of inheritance via primogeniture, which we got from the Normans. - I'd have to look up the details, but the hedge is a symbol of aristocratic hegemony. Certainly most of France is almost hedgeless.

 

[mmmmartin]

Indeed, and one of the videos Is designed to show just that, the one in Castille de la Mancha. That is in the plain north east of Madrid (on which the rain in Spain falls etc). Nevertheless, Dell's (and my) point is to do with traffic levels and quality of tarmac, which I found to be pretty consistent from Gibraltar all the way to the French border. The scenery changes, obvs. Where Dell wants to go is very different from the plains of Castille de la Mancha, at least, I think it is from looking at Google Streetview of his route. There are trees, hills, valleys, etc.

 

[srw]

So we should really despise the lovely wind filtering but view spoiling things?

I think it's OK to be conflicted.

 

[mmmmartin]

Oh right. I just meant that a road that looks like a motorway is still a road that looks like a motorway, even if it's empty.

I'm struggling to keep up here. Are you complaining about a motorway quality road, with perfect tarmac, and only a cyclist on it for mile after mile?

 

[StuAff]

Well I like the look of it. But then I'm the kind of person who prefers Dunwich to Southwold, so no accounting for taste. Very (spaghetti) western

 

[dellzeqq]

Apparently Normandy is just about the only place outside England which has widespread hedges. It's something to do with our laws of inheritance via primogeniture, which we got from the Normans. - I'd have to look up the details, but the hedge is a symbol of aristocratic hegemony. Certainly most of France is almost hedgeless.

primogeniture? Aristocratic hegemony? No wonder Hardy despaired of them! A bas les hedges!

I don't think it's a Norman thing. The open-field system, pretty much hedge-free, survived for centuries after the Normans turned up and expected their tithe. Hedges followed enclosure, and, as Stephen says, the subdivision of land upon inheritance.

If anybody wants me to challenge Stephen to a hedge nerd-off at breakfast they've got to buy the beers.