Agent Hilda
The Babe
Hahahahahahaha! Agent H falls off office chair clutching 400 pages of Board Meeting Minutes and a chocolate croissant! I would have LOVED THAT HILL
FNRttC The Fridays tour 2014
- Thread starter mmmmartin
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
Hahahahahahaha! Agent H falls off office chair clutching 400 pages of Board Meeting Minutes and a chocolate croissant! I would have LOVED THAT HILL
AlexB
Guru
Due to a mix up with the location of the various ibexes in la Rochelle...Richie and I are slumming it in this quaint, but rather excellent backpackers hotel in the centre of the old town, whilst Martin and Gordon are tucked up in a budget Ibis by the railway up the bumhole of town. We have plans for a rendez vous, but they have all the maps and the only functional GPS, so hopefully we will meet again. Otherwise Richie and I have a pretty stressful couple of days ahead of us...
OP
OP
mmmmartin
Random geezer
Totes Amazebold day.
A quick exit from Cholet, and a stop at a supermarket for rations, divestment of layers and donning of suncream.
Road much less hilly than we had expected. We seemed to cross the same contour line many times so it was little ups and downs. Generally we were faster than expected: at one point we think we did 30k in one hour, with a side wind, not a tail wind.
We found a pretty village for a mid morning stop and picnic, then a proper picnic area in a small country village for a mid afternoon stop.
After Cholet it was pretty flat and after Thire it was pan flat, utterly.
@srw will recall the nightmare bridge on the D10A, and crossing this with 24 cyclists had been keeping me awake at night. Imagine my joy on discovering two brand new bridges only for cyclists had been built that take us round much of the problem leaving us with only 200 metres of busy road before we reach the roundabout and turn right into the village. Hurrah!
Entry into La Rochelle will take some thinking about and it is to be hoped that we won't do a repeat of today, when we went first to the wrong Ibis hotel, then to the correct Ibis hotel for Gordon and me but the completely wrong one for the other two in the party, who we may not see ever again as we agreed to meet in the morning at the Ibis hotel in De Gaulle road, which is in fact completely fictional.
Tomorrow is an easier day. Or it will be, if we can find alex so I can sit behind him all day. Otherwise I might be murdered by Gordon if I keep telling my old jokes again and again.
Er, that's all.
A quick exit from Cholet, and a stop at a supermarket for rations, divestment of layers and donning of suncream.
Road much less hilly than we had expected. We seemed to cross the same contour line many times so it was little ups and downs. Generally we were faster than expected: at one point we think we did 30k in one hour, with a side wind, not a tail wind.
We found a pretty village for a mid morning stop and picnic, then a proper picnic area in a small country village for a mid afternoon stop.
After Cholet it was pretty flat and after Thire it was pan flat, utterly.
@srw will recall the nightmare bridge on the D10A, and crossing this with 24 cyclists had been keeping me awake at night. Imagine my joy on discovering two brand new bridges only for cyclists had been built that take us round much of the problem leaving us with only 200 metres of busy road before we reach the roundabout and turn right into the village. Hurrah!
Entry into La Rochelle will take some thinking about and it is to be hoped that we won't do a repeat of today, when we went first to the wrong Ibis hotel, then to the correct Ibis hotel for Gordon and me but the completely wrong one for the other two in the party, who we may not see ever again as we agreed to meet in the morning at the Ibis hotel in De Gaulle road, which is in fact completely fictional.
Tomorrow is an easier day. Or it will be, if we can find alex so I can sit behind him all day. Otherwise I might be murdered by Gordon if I keep telling my old jokes again and again.
Er, that's all.
Agent Hilda
The Babe
Agent H rolls her eyes! Totes Amazeballs Indeed! Bunk Beds!!!
OP
OP
mmmmartin
Random geezer
Brief update
My phone battery died last night hence so post then.
Out of La Rochelle - suburban for a while and a little bit next to a motorway but it was extremely flat.
A great patisserie and a fantastic Martrou transporter bridge led to a crap cycle path and then a fantastic marsh area with brilliant, unforgettable multitude of bird life, storks, herons, buzzards etc etc.
Need to decide if the crap path is worth using to get to the fantastic area.
Then miles and miles of flat perfect tarmac cycle paths through fragrant pine forests.
Bellevue is a great hotel.
Off now to find a cleat bolt then the small ferry to the peninsula and Bordeaux.
Hard to think where a week has gone.
If The Real Thing has a quarter of the fun, emotion and sense of achievement that we have had on the Recce, it'll have been well worth all the effort.
My phone battery died last night hence so post then.
Out of La Rochelle - suburban for a while and a little bit next to a motorway but it was extremely flat.
A great patisserie and a fantastic Martrou transporter bridge led to a crap cycle path and then a fantastic marsh area with brilliant, unforgettable multitude of bird life, storks, herons, buzzards etc etc.
Need to decide if the crap path is worth using to get to the fantastic area.
Then miles and miles of flat perfect tarmac cycle paths through fragrant pine forests.
Bellevue is a great hotel.
Off now to find a cleat bolt then the small ferry to the peninsula and Bordeaux.
Hard to think where a week has gone.
If The Real Thing has a quarter of the fun, emotion and sense of achievement that we have had on the Recce, it'll have been well worth all the effort.
AlexB
Guru
mmMartin here. Totes amazebold day. Route today needs a bit of a rethink as some bits are narrow busy fast and dangerous. Others are simply sublime. The fragrance of pine forests is fantastic. The ferry this morning is lovely. The approach through busy Bordeaux is horrid. We have a cunning plan. I'm too tired to post any more now after 130k in the sun. We're all shattered.
Oh and we've told Gordon about his see through bib shorts. We thought it polite to wait until the final day. He's going to replace them. Phew....
Oh and we've told Gordon about his see through bib shorts. We thought it polite to wait until the final day. He's going to replace them. Phew....
Similar threads
England : West Sussex
Vineyards Tour and Tastings - 21 september 2024
