Christmas Eve

Finally work is over for the year, and after a spectacular crash and burn yesterday (jet lag, long hours, winter bugs etc) I wake up refreshed and ready for a bike ride).

Sadly, the weather was not playing ball.  Heavy rain forecast, but what the hell we went anyway!

Unsurprisingly, we are the only ones at Potten End!

I still have my festive bike helmet, but I only got 1 comment, probably because we only saw 1 person whilst we were out!

We did get pretty wet, but despite putting the gloves by the fire they didn't dry out.

On the way home the rain has stopped.

And we even get some blue skies.

When I get home, I discover the meme app on my phone - time for my first meme!

Jingle Bells

The Ladies Breeze network in Hertfordshire organised a Christmas ride on 5 Dec for all the different Herts groups to arrive in St Albans at the Inn on the park for coffee at 11am.

A Christmas ride, that has been billed as a Jingle Bell ride, marvellous.  Neither me nor my bike are ever knowingly underdressed for a bike event!

As I approach the start point I do suffer a worrying couple of moments as I spy mainly fluorescent bike jackets at the start point.  Have I got this completely wrong?!

Happily the Blues, Greens and Red groups of Harpenden are suitably festive!

I have decided to ride with the Blues and Greens groups on the outward ride, as I have not been out on my bike much lately.

Another fun group of ladies who are all great to chat with.  I'd expect nothing less of a Breeze Group!

The riding is nice and and easy and the route is well thought out and mainly on country lanes and bike paths.

(thanks to Mike Fish and his drone for the overhead picture)

Only one busy road to cross and Helen our ride leader decides to stop all the traffic in both directions (lollipop lady stylie). I am most impressed.  There are 20 of us that needed to cross, so this was a good call.

Stuart took some photos of the group at the start, and then heads to the Inn on the Park to take pictures at the end.

When he arrived at the cafe, he ordered himself a coffee and noticed how slow they were at serving.  He asked if they were aware that 100 cyclists  would be arriving shortly, they didn't seem too concerned.  He then pointed out that you don't want to get between a tired lady cyclist and her coffee, at which point the owner looked slightly alarmed!

Happily, the groups arrived a few minutes apart, so there were no coffee rage incidents.

The Roaring Reds are one of the last groups to arrive, but they have ridden at least 10 miles more than the others.  Good job I wasn't with them or they may not have arrived until afternoon tea!

We all squashed into a tiny room for some recognition of the ladies breeze champions who do such a fantastic job organising the rides. I know I thoroughly enjoyed my summer evening rides led by Tracey, and it's nice to see that all the hard work gets recognised and appreciated.

We then head outside for a group photo, credit for which should go to Misterphotocyclist.  Great picture and lovely to see this appearing as so many FB cover photos.

On the return journey I rejoin the Roaring Reds and realise that once again I am struggling to hang on the back.  The pace was considerably faster than the ride out,

I realise I have to clock a lot more Winter miles, to get my Summer smiles!

Fairly weathered, but not all at the same time

I am booked on a ladies sky ride on Sat 21st Nov, and all week I have been nervously checking the weather forecast.  It is looking grim.  I am seriously tempted to cancel off the ride, I keep checking FB for updates to see if anyone else is going to cancel.  I also check the sky website - 9 ladies booked on the ride.  The number stays constant all week.

I remind myself that this blog is called fairly weathered cyclists for a reason.  I cycle in all weathers.

I have cycled in torrential rain, the sort of rain that made me long to be sitting in front of a roaring log fire (where I am sitting now) - see post here.

I have cycled in howling gales, so strong that it felt that no matter how hard you cycle, you aren't actually moving forward. See here.

I have cycled when there is snow on the ground (see here) and when the temperature has plunged to -15 deg C (oh how I miss cycling to work, this one is a video)

However, I do object to cycling in all four bad weather conditions at the same time, and this was the weather forecast for Saturday morning

At 8.30am when I am due to depart, it will be raining, snowing, windy and freezing cold.  I check Facebook again. Nothing!  

There are even comments about suitable winter cycling gear.  I think they are bluffing.  But if no-one else is going to cancel then neither am I.  On Friday night I get all my gear ready, so I have no excuses on Saturday morning.

Saturday, morning and my alarm goes.  I peep out the curtains.  Good grief, the snow has actually settled on the ground.  I did not expect that!

Check  Facebook again.  Hallelujah - the ride has been cancelled on safety grounds (very wisely).  I seriously would have gone on the ride, but am so relieved that I don't have to go out in that weather!  It's a real shame to miss out on catching up with the ladies, but there were some serious weather conditions out there!

Instead I go spinning, and then for a well earned coffee and cake, although I don't think my paltry 262 calories burned on the spin bike, was quite enough to justify such a big slice of cake!

Still no latte, but this time I'm not complaining

Another dawn, another day!  We don't fly back to Luton until late Monday night, so we plan another bike ride.  And yes the cycling kit was washed overnight!

We decide to head west today, and discretion being the better part of not missing the plane, we make the journey an easy one way trip, by taking the train to Cannes and cycling back to Nice.

This is me outside Nice train station, which gives me the opportunity to retell Stuart the story of a train journey taken by my school friends Helen, Catherine and I on our European inter-railing adventure 28 years ago.

We took the overnight train from Nice to Milan and were unfortunate enough to share a carriage with an Italian man, who decided to have a selfie moment.  This was in the days before mobile phones were invented, so it is what you are thinking.  Helen threw him out the carriage before things got critical.

It really was an easy cycling day (around 25 miles), so we sit and watch the world go by in Cannes for a bit before we set off.

I even decide to go for a paddle, and can confirm that the med is far warmer in November than the North Sea is in the middle of summer.  Note the distance from which Stuart is taking the photo.  He is taking no chances of getting coerced into the water!

Eventually the bikes are calling, so we set off on what has to be on of the easiest rides I have ever undertaken.  Pancake flat (626ft climbed according to Strava), very slight tail wind, lovely blue skies and sunshine....

.... and of course more lovely scenery.

When we stop for coffee, once again there is no latte, so I order the cafe gourmand, and this is what turns up!  I'm not complaining!

Whilst cycling through adversity, monster hills, and adverse weather conditions can present its own satisfactions in managing to survive, I have to say that today's ride was one of the most pleasant excursions that I have ever undertaken.

Cycling for softies, even my bicycle averse friend Julie Mungomery couldn't fail to have loved this ride.  (And I suspect that Catty Chen might have enjoyed the coffee!)

Bust Monte Carlo, we're going to Latte!

The plan was a lazy weekend in the sunshine in Nice.  That was until I spotted on google maps  that a little village called Latte in Italy was a very cyclable distance away.

So Saturday was spent preparing for the trip.  Carbon road bikes were duly hired, toe clips purchased to add to the bikes, and emergency lightweight jackets and gloves also purchased.  This was going to be one hell of an expensive coffee!  (At the very last minute I had reluctantly thrown some lycra into my suitcase, as I could see that Stuart had packed his lycra and was looking at me hopefully!)

Dawn on Sunday morning was beautiful, it was going to be a great day for a bike ride

I thought briefly of my friends back home who I knew would be on the VCC Sunday morning club ride. I thought, thank god I'm not there, the weather looks lousy!!  (And from the subsequent comments on Facebook they had a very tough ride in 40mph+ winds).

Breakfast was a coffee and croissant on the beach in Nice, then a lovely ride along a cycle path to get out of town.  We had been told by the concierge in the hotel, that there are three routes we could take to get to Italy, the coastal path, the picturesque middle route and the Col de "I really don't care what it's called, I'm not doing that".

We chose the coastal path and it really was gorgeous. Cycling along the French Riveria on a balmy Sunday morning was pretty idyllic.  I always expect coastal routes to be as flat as beaches, but I'm always wrong!  (This ride we clocked up 6,667 ft of climbing in 35 miles!)

At the top of the not insignificant climb to get out of Nice, Stuart stops to set his watch based on on the sundial, which we figured was in all likelihood pretty accurate.

Our journey takes us through Monte Carlo, but instead of being impressed by the wealth and the glamour, we both find it pretty obscene.  I had wanted to pop into the casino to see if lycra qualified as "properly attired", but we decided not to waste anymore time in this claustrophobic town and get back to the beautiful coast line.

Eventually, we get to Menton, which is a delightful seaside town, with many many restaurants on the beach, we decide that this will be the lunch stop.  We can see the border crossing to Italy just on the edge of town!

Latte is only just across the border, and there are two routes to get there.  One loops up into the hills and one goes through three tunnels.  Much as I hate hills, I am terrified of cycling through tunnels on a bike (especially as we have no lights).  Unfortunately, we accidentally miss the loopy road up into the hills and are suddenly faced with the first tunnel.  It's well lit, and there is a very small shoulder to cycle on.  I grit my teeth and pedal as fast as I can.  We survive, it wasn't too bad.  The first tunnel is the longest, at just over 1/2 km.  the other two don't seem too bad after that.

Finally, we reach our goal for the day - the little village of Latte!  Time for a very bad selfie!  We only seem to take bad selfies!  I guess we spend too much time on selfie-indulgent cycling, than on selfie practicing!  Actually, I don't think you can spend too much time on selfie-indulgent cycling!

Latte is a tiny village, with not much in the way of coffee shops, but we do find a cafe attached to a supermarket.  There are several bicycles parked outside, so I am quite hopeful!  But what do we find they serve?  Cappuccinos!  I'm aghast!  I think the village is missing out on a great business opportunity here!

We return to Menton for a well-earned lunch, and when we arrive at the restaurant I ask the waiter for beacoup de l'eau.  The woman at the table next to us takes pity on us and hands us her bottle of water.  It's been a hot ride and I obviously look like I need water, or perhaps it is my wild eyed staring after cycling like a crazy thing back through the three scary tunnels again.  The pizza was good though!

We seem to be a little slower on the return ride, (yes, it was a big pizza), and pretty soon the light conditions are getting difficult.  We are heading west and the sun is setting, we can hardly see the road up ahead, and this means that behind us, the cars can hardly see us.  However, I'm surprised when Stuart suggests hopping on a train back to Nice, I wonder if he has an ulterior motive.

It turns out Stuart did indeed have a hidden agenda for getting back to Nice early.  The night before as we were wandering through old town we came upon a marvellous gelato stand.  There were some amazing flavours that we had never seen before, but we just had no room for ice-cream.  (I'm not sure if the chocolate festival we had visited earlier in the day had had anything to do with this, but every single stall was handing out free samples.  What a great chocolate festival!)  Anyway, the gelato stall owner had said to Stuart that Sunday was his last day before he closed for the season and that if Stuart came back tomorrow he could help him finish up all the ice-cream.  Stuart loves his ice-cream!  I think the stall owner probably said that to all his customers on the Saturday, because when we arrived on the Sunday the place was heaving, and huge in roads had been made into the ice cream stocks.   Fortunately, our chosen flavours were still available.  Stuart had fig and rhubarb, and I had coquelicot (poppy) and chocolate/orange.

What a fabulous day out, Stuart has always wanted to cycle along the French Riveria, I think that going to a village called Latte, is a great excuse for a bike ride, and it all ended with an ice-cream!

East of Albi

On our last day cycling Stuart and I decide to head out to Ambialet, which is a few miles east of Albi, along the river Tarn.  We expect this to be a hilly route, so the others decide to take a shorter option.

We have a very optimistic plan of returning to the gite in time to have a dip in the pool in the afternoon.  I consider the chances of this highly unlikely given that we are often over ambitious in distances to be cycled, tendency to get lost and predilection for stopping to take photos.

Anyway, we set off early (9am, it is a holiday after all) and discover that it is pretty chilly first thing.  We have a strong headwind, the sun isn't high enough yet and the hills kick in after about 5 miles.

It's quite a tough cycle out, but when the road leads us to the top of the gorge, the views are very lovely.

Stuart's initial suggestion was to cycle along the north bank of the river, and then back along the south bank, but there are two long tunnels on the south side of the river, and my inner 3 year old appears, stamps her feet, refuses point blank to cycle through a tunnel (too scary) and retreats back inside.  We stay on the north bank!

Despite the chill, the sun makes for some lovely photo stops.

Eventually, we arrive at Ambialet, where two loops of the river are so close they almost join.

Just 30m on the other side of this tunnel is the other loop of the river

We stop to have coffee, where we meet a lovely Canadian couple, and spend a pleasant hour discussing all things Canadian (and how much we love Montreal!)

After the coffee, Stuart thinks that they offered to pay for our drinks, I wasn't sure, we departed without paying, and now I'm thinking it's best if we never return here.

The journey back is fantastic.  The sun is high and warm, we have a strong tailwind, and it feels like it is downhill all the way back.

Amazingly, we are back in plenty of time for a dip in the pool!!

Garlic from Gaillac

Today we decide to go west, since the previous 3 rides were to the north, east and south.

After the big 50 mile ride yesterday, we decide on a nice flat route to Gaillac, the nearest big town just east of our gite.

Disappointingly the weather wasn't scorching sunshine and cloudless blue skies, not bad weather, just not perfect.  I am uninspired to take photos along the route, but do manage one nice group photo once we get to the town, Stuart, Chris, Sally, Sarah, John, Mary and me.

Sarah, also organised a group photo, loosely based on some sculptures she had seen earlier in Toulouse.  I think I shall call this one - Mad Scots and an English woman.

After coffee in the square we have to do some top up supermarket shopping.  Sally says that I am banned from the store, due to my tendency to massively over cater.  However, I do manage to sneak in to buy some of the wonderful pink garlic of the region.