Rubbish, Rubbish Weather, Great Biking…

Despite the lack of my own cycling today I do have a few matters to write about here.  Firstly an omission from yesterday blog post.

Whilst riding along yesterday I couldn’t help noticing the amount of litter by the road side.  They were not main roads they were quiet country roads.  I don’t know how people can just open their car windows and throw out their litter.  I remember a couple of weeks ago I was riding along and saw this fellow, who I assume was a council worker, in his fluorescent yellow jacket and one of those litter pick up gadgets.  He had the tool in one hand and litter sack in the other steadily filling it up.  After I had passed him I saw a full sack, ready for collection about every 200 metres.  I think that is appalling.

I have noticed this litter problem all over the country, not just locally.  The only place I haven’t noticed it is when I am in France, be it side road or motorway, the roadsides are always spotless.  So much so that its probably the reason I notice it.

I know many years ago there used to be a campaign here and everywhere you saw posters saying ‘Keep Britain Tidy’.  I think its time for a revival to give those responsible for the mess a nudge.  I believe it is actually an offence to throw your litter away in public places but I never hear of anybody being punished for it.  It looks like there are plenty of guilty people around.  Mind you, having said that I cant say that I recall ever actually seeing anybody throw something from a vehicle.  But someone is for sure.

Next time you are out on the roads just take a look at the road side.  I am sure wherever you are, in UK at least, you will see what I mean.

If I felt I had any influence I think I would start a campaign but I’ll just carry on muttering in my little corner of the World..

More Rubbish News

This time I am talking about the rubbish weather we are having.  I was supposed to be marshalling at the circuit races at Milton Keynes Bowl tomorrow that are being promoted by Team MK.  I say ‘are’ because tomorrows event was to be the third in a series of three but unfortunately due to the weather it has had to be postponed.  I know there have also been lots of other events suffering the same fate all over the UK tomorrow.  Come on Spring, get a shift on..

Fabulous Fabien

To finish on a positive note It was great to see Fabien Cancellara back to winning ways again today in the E3 Harelbecke race.  He is one of my favourite riders and he won today in the typical way that he has.  He just rode away from a group of other riders on a climb with about 26km to go to the finish and then held them off all the way.  He built a lead of around a minute and despite the fact the five chasers were all working together to close the gap they were unable to make any inroads at all.  Its a great way to win a race when you win like that you have really won it.

Last year was not a good year for him, his only success was in the opening time trial of the Tour de France and he then held the yellow jersey for a week until Bradley Wiggins took it off him and kept it to the finish!

Lance Armstrongs Changed Legacy To Cycling…

The last week or so saw the exposure of the secret of Lance Armstrong’s success and turned his legacy to cycling from a positive one to a majorly negative one.

The press and TV here have been full of his misdeeds and tarnished the image of cycling from a positive one to negative one and I wonder just how far it will go?  Already today I have heard of the pulling out of cycling at the end of this year of the one long term major cycling sponsors, the Dutch team Rabobank.  The reasons given being the recent revelations about drugs in cycling and they see no short term improvement of cycling’s image and they don’t want to be associated with it.  I wonder how many more pro teams will follow the same line? Thanks Mr Armstrong for your legacy.  But I guess you are OK with the millions of dollars you stashed away in your drug ridden career, Leaving cycling to pick up the pieces.  I see that Team Sky have taken some kind of initiative asking their team and support staff to sign a document to say they are clean of drugs and always have been and if they don’t sign they are off the team.  If they are subsequently found to have lied or taken drugs since, they will be fired.  This would always have been the case anyway, anybody found guilty of drug use in team is usually fired but its a step to try and clear the decks.

Here in the UK it had been a wonderful year for cycling with Brad Wiggins and Team Sky’s major race successes in the Tour de France, Criterium du Dauphine and Paris – Nice race, finishing off with the Olympic Gold in the time trial.  There were also the great successes of the mens and womens track cycling teams in the Olympics.  All of these successes raised the profile of cycling here in the UK to enormous heights and everyone was impressed with it and the uptake of cycling here was tremendous.  Now all you hear in the media is about the disgraced Lance Armstrong and the US Postal Team.  Anybody that talks to me about cycling now is asking about Lance Armstrong and his misdemeanours.  There is nothing the media like better than the opportunity to dig up a bit of dirt.

They seem to ignore the fact that all these revelations are about historical events back in time and in recent years cycling is steadily ridding itself of the drugs in the sport.  You only have to look at the faces of cyclists as they finish the stages of races these days to see that.  Also there are no more wins on mountain stages by enormous margins like there used to be Lance Armstrong’s racing days and by Lance Armstrong himself as well as others.  No more do riders have a bad day one day and next day break away from the peloton and go flying up the mountain on a solo break.

Whenever that type of stage win did happen then it would arouse my suspicions and I would await the revelation of a positive drug test on the rider.  It would usually happen, sure as night follows day.  However it appeared not to in the case of Mr Armstrong, he never failed a drug test as has been well publicised recently.  However that turns out to be untrue as not only did he fail drugs tests it appears he then entered into all kinds of subterfuge to keep the results hidden.  He was also, somehow able to get advanced warning of impending tests and take some kind of medical or other avoiding action to mask the results.  I don’t know how or what was involved in that exactly but it happened judging by the sworn statements of team mates of his in US Postal team who had been drawn into his web and threatened with all kinds of retribution should they (a) not take part in drug use so as to be able support him in races and (b) prevent them from disclosing what was going on.

Another tactic that I think helped Armstrong avoid detection was the fact that he never rode a full season of events like most other riders do.  He would only seem to specialise in riding the Tour de France and maybe one warm race beforehand.  He wasn’t a season long rider whereas most are.  The early and late season classics were not for him, neither the other major tours apart from on one or two occasions.  By doing this he avoided post race drug testing opportunities presumably

I dont know how it has affected cycling in the USA or will do in the future but I am sure Armstrong was probably responsible for a major upsurge in cycling there as his successes built one on the other as has been the case here this year and was probably set to continue.  There must be some very disappointed cyclists out there not to mention the major sponsors of him who have dis-associated themselves from him one after the other.  Who knows what the future holds here and in the future for cycling ?

A lot of the problem also comes from the UCI (Union Cycliste International).  They seem to be in denial and to this day have not accepted Lance Armstrong did anything wrong despite the thoroughness of USADA’s report.  The former UCI president, a Mr Verbruggen is quoted as saying that Lance Armstrong never failed a drug test.  The present president Mr Pat McQuaid is saying nothing, yet!  Oh and by the way Lance Armstrong donated the drug testing machine to the UCI’s testing laboratory that they use. Now that in itself seems a strange turn of events in itself.  I think there is a lot more dirt waiting to come out about the whole affair yet and it will be interesting to watch it unfold.  Disappointing but interesting, lets hope everybody gets just what they deserve out of this for what they have done to my sport.

Having said all that, Cycling is by no means the only sport with a drugs problem.  I know athletics(Track & Field) has one and also football (soccer) by all accounts and I am sure you know of plenty of other sports to add to the list.  Cycling though appears to be the only sport that widely publicises its drug test failures giving the impression it is the only ‘dirty’ sport among all the others.  Not so my friends.  Cycling does this to expose and shame the drugs cheats whereas other sports appear to try to hush things up.  It does slowly seem to be dragging cycling out of the gutter and I am sure it will do so eventually.  Maybe not 100% as there will always be cheats in any sport exploiting the rules and chemistry to their advantage.  Drugs tests can only test for known drugs and masking agents so I guess somewhere there will always be a chemist beavering away on some new development to keep ahead in the dirty war.

None of this detracts from my continued enjoyment of jumping on a bike and riding for the pleasure and benefits it endows on me.  Hopefully all the other ‘ordinary’ cyclist feel just the same way and will continue to do so for as long as they want to.

There are several ‘truths’ that apply here,  If something seems to good to be true then it usually is.. Cheats never prosper.. Be sure your sins will always find you out.. 

 

Where Was I ?…

OK, so carrying on from my previous blog, which more or less became devoted to the Olympics I should now try and remember some of the other cycling stuff that has been going on for me.    It appears after checking my Garmin records that since I returned from France at the beginning of July I have done 19 rides amounting to a total of 790.09 miles.  This kind of surprised me, pleasantly I might add because I would have guessed considerably less.  Following is a report generated from my Garmin records:-

Ride Summary, July 9th – August 22nd (Click image for larger view)

There have been three Team MK Saturday rides and one Team MK Wednesday ride in there somewhere, the rest have been solo rides.  I wont bore you with all the details of the solo rides as I might have done had I been keeping more up to date with my postings here.  The rides are pretty much all repeats of routes I have reported on before anyway.

This coming Saturday I am leading the Club ‘C’ group ride to Carlton again.  However the weather forecast is not good apparently, a 99% chance of rain with possibly a thunderstorm thrown in for good measure !  Weather forecasts have been wrong before but in my experience only when they have forecast sunshine.  If they forecast rain its generally what you get.  I will have to show up anyway and I expect one or two other foolhardy riders might join me.  I will be sure to let you know.

After the weekend I will be full on into final preparations for my road trip (car) to Annecy, France with my ride buddy Cyril for a fun packed camping and cycling 8 days around the mountains in the area.  Most of the climbs in the area are not too famous so far as classic climbs are concerned but there are some toughies I can tell you.   There is one classic climb in the area that I hope to add my classic climb list of Alpe d’Huez and Mont Ventoux and that is the Col de Colombier.  Earlier this evening I was mapping out a route ready for loading into my Garmin from the campsite and it involves a total ride of 65 miles with the Colombier right in the middle.  It is an 8 mile climb to 5136 feet but that also means an 8 mile descent afterwards, which is nice !

I think that will then be the last of my mega climbs and I will sit back on my laurels as I reach my 70th year next year and I will stick to more ‘normal’ cycling befitting my years but don’t hold your breath !!

OK folks, This will probably be my last post before I disappear into the tunnel under the channel apart from maybe an account of Saturdays TMK ride if I have time.  When I reappear I hope to regale you all with detailed accounts of adventures, misadventures and mishaps that occur on my trip.  Until then Au Revoir for now as Del boy might say..

Apologies For Absence.. It was the Olympics..!

Hi, I just thought I would pop in here and let you all know what I have been so busy with during my absence of the past few weeks.. The answer is I really don’t know what kept me away from blogging specifically just lots various things..

To start with I haven’t given up on the cycling.  The weather has been good and I have been out plenty of times.  Its not always been blazing sunshine but after the lead up to the Olympics here which was very bad weatherwise it suddenly got a lot better as soon as the games started.

I was very pessimistic about how it would all turn out but I was pleasantly surprised once it got underway.  I wasn’t at all surprised about the medal haul we got in the cycling events.  Team GB managed 7 golds out of 10 events on the track and bearing in mind they decided to cut out a lot of the events that we were good at and also limited it to one competitor per country for each event in a bid to try and stop one country dominating affairs that wasn’t a bad result at all.  The cyclists and the rowing team were responsible for the large bulk of Team GB’s medal successes.

In the road cycling we got 3 medals from 4 events.  It maybe could or should have been more but despite GB’s best efforts to get a win for Mark Cavendish in the road race it didn’t turn out that way.  It seems the other countries were just interested in making sure that Cavendish didn’t win rather than actually trying to win themselves.  They just left Team GB to do all the chasing of the breakaway and offered no help themselves until Team GB eventually ran out of puff and legs and by then it was too late to catch them and breakaway never got caught.

I went down to watch the Olympic time trial which is really best watched on the TV as you are more up to date with events from around the course.  However the riders do come past one at a time and so you get a chance to get a good look at them, unlike the road race where they all come past in a big bunch and its gone past in a matter of seconds and thats it.  This was the Olympics though and it wont happen here again my lifetime so I felt I should make the effort.  I took my eldest grandson Harry down with me and I think he enjoyed the occasion but he is a rugby, cricket and football person really so not really his scene, but being a general sports enthusiast as well it was an occasion for him also and it probably wont happen here again in his lifetime either.  We found a good vantage point on a long straight section of road so as one rider passed you could see the next rider approaching as they started at 90 second intervals.  I took plenty of pictures and here is one of Bradley Wiggins on his way to a gold medal.

Bradley Wiggins, Team GB

And this is a picture of Chris Froome catching and passing Sylvain Chavanal of France.  You can almost see the look of amazement on Chavanals face as he is caught, having started 90 seconds  ahead of Froome within 20km of the start.  I felt sure that this meant Froome was going to win the Gold medal but as it happened he ‘only’ got silver.  He must have started fast and Wiggins’ was a more measured effort.

Chris Froome and Sylvain Chavanal

It was definitely a good spell for Wiggins and Froome who, just over a week before had also finished first and second  in the Tour de France.  The first win of the event ever for a UK rider but not I suspect the last.

All the publicity surrounding the Tour and the Olympics cycling has resulted in a  terrific upsurge of interest in cycling throughout the UK.  Its been on the main TV news bulletins and the newspapers are full of it.  Bradley Wiggins even got to ring the big bell that kicked off the Olympics opening ceremony.  On my rides I have noticed many more cyclists about and there have been quite a few new people taking part in the Team MK Saturday rides.   Unless its just my imagination another positive result seems to be a better understanding of cyclists  by the motoring fraternity.   I seem to notice many more car drivers and especially truck drivers being willing to wait behind cyclists until it is safe to pass.  I always give a wave of acknowledgement when vehicles pass me after waiting behind me until its safe to pass and I seem to be doing it more often recently.

I started this post by saying lots of things had side-tracked me over the past few weeks and I seem to have concentrated on just one pretty much, so in the interests of brevity and not wishing bore my reader with too much I will save the rest for another post which should be along in a day or two. At least thats my intention.  I have just over a week before my second trip down to Annecy in France this year.  This time driving down with my cycling buddy Cyril and we will be camping and cycling daily from our base over a few Alpine lumps hopefully.   Therefore I had better get up to date here before my departure as there should be plenty write about when I get back..

To be continued…

 

 

 

Back To Routine, Whatever That Is ??

Now the French odyssey’s are over, mine, Bradley Wiggins and Team Sky too its back to normal, for a while at least.  I have to say that Brads trip was considerably tougher than mine but we did cover about the same kind of mileage, about 2500 miles although 90% of mine was in a car and my trip was a week longer than his too.

So much back to normal that this Saturday I partook of my first Team MK training ride for about two months.  It was to Jenny Wrens cafe in Winslow, Buckinghamshire.  One of my favourites.  It’s always a circuitous route to get there, around 35 miles and then just a 10 mile trip from the cafe to Stony Stratford.  It also happened to be the first sunny and rain free day in what seems like half a lifetime.  Still not hot but good for cycling

Click Image For Detailed Stats

It was good to be riding in a group again, I always enjoy it.  It makes a nice change to have company on a ride.  My solo rides are OK but I tend to spend a lot of time having conversations with myself in my head,  I also seem to always come up with ideas and sometimes solve problems  when riding solo.  I guess it’s because there is nothing else to do and my mind just wanders where it will.

When we eventually arrived at the cafe it seemed crammed full of cyclists.  Obviously not only one of my favourites.  I know one of the groups was the ‘A Group’ from Team MK but there seemed to be much more than that.   It was difficult to find a seat even but I did, perched on the window sill.  I could see it was going to take a while to get served and then to eat and drink so given the short distance back I opted to forego the nourishment and ride back solo as I wanted to get back in time to take my seat in front of the TV for the penultimate stage of the Tour de France, a time trial.  This was duly won’t by Brad Wiggins and the final seal on his yellow jersey into Paris

Just as I was leaving the ‘A Group’ where also preparing to leave but I was away before them and was expecting to hear the whirring of tyres at any time as I made my lonesome way back.  I am not sure if they even came back the same way as me but it was not until I was entering Stony Stratford that they came past me.  Very fast too but I realised they were sprinting for the Stony Stratford sign at the time.  It always used to be the thing to do to ‘sprint for the sign’ when reaching the town of your destination as though it is the finish line of a race.  It still seems to be the case.  There is always one standing out like a great big banner by the road side as you enter every town and village here.

I do remember one occasion when we were sprinting for the sign in my younger, more energetic days and I was passed by someone coming past me like a rocket, Mark Cavendish style, with his head down and his chin almost touching the front tyre.  He came past so fast in fact that I just sat up when he passed me head down and going full steam and I could just watch helplessly as he rode full speed straight into the back of a parked car!!  He wrote off his bike and lost several from teeth in the process.  A good lesson learned I think!  Always sprint looking forward as Mark Cavendish does, not head down.

Bradley Wiggins Superman…

I couldn’t let the moment pass unrecognised by me that today, Bradley Wiggins became the first British rider ever to win the Tour de France.

What a momentous day for me, the British public and all its new found cycling fans.  If it has that effect on us I can’t imagine just how Brad Wiggins and the team are feeling now that its all over and history has been made.

It was a very much a team effort though as ‘Wiggo’ is always the first admit, likewise Mark Cavendish.  They are both the first to recognise and acknowledge it would never be possible without the team behind them.

I have never seen so much media coverage here.  Everywhere you look on TV, radio and printed media they are all over it.  I know a lot of people won’t fully understand what has actually been achieved from a physical point of view unless they have suffered up mountains and riding day after day for 3 weeks… or even riding for a couple of hours in some cases.  Sometimes my neighbours ask me how far I have been when I come back from a bike ride and if I say 40 or 50 miles they seem to consider that some kind of marathon.

They have no chance of understanding just whats involved in over 2000 miles around France and sometimes 5 or 6 mountain climbs in a stage of around 150 miles, in the saddle for up to 6 hours every day for 3 weeks.  They have rest days but even on these they go out on the bike for a couple of hours or so otherwise the body starts to think its time to relax and switches off.

So, hats off and congratulations to Bradley, Team Sky and all its riders, management and staff who made this historic day in British Cycling possible..

PS, Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome, and Mark Cavendish from team Sky and David Millar from Garmin are flying back to England from Paris tonight to meet up with Ian Stannard now to prepare to ride for Great Britian in the Olympic road race and go for Gold in six days time, so no time even to properly celebrate the win.  All four of the Tour de France riders have won stages in this years race and the fifth, Ian Stannard, has won the national road race championships.

 

Back To Business

I know its been an age since I last posted here but I have been away for a month on an annual pilgrimage to France. There is an account of one of the more memorable rides in the previous post to this.

Rather than bore you with all the details of my ride which were not too memorable I will just put links to the Garmin details of the rides and a few photos where appropriate.

The first ride of the holiday was my usual first ride of a trip down the Annecy Cycle Path. I have written often enough about this feature and still can’t praise it highly enough so I won’t repeat all that either. It is a good ride for getting your legs working again after a few days travelling.

Heading south down the Annecy cycle path

Click Image For Detailed Stats

The next ride was circuit of the lake another solo ‘warm up’ ride that I usually do on arrival before tackling the bigger climbs to get my legs turning again.

Annecy cycle path , near to the town

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After the ‘warm up’ rides the next ride was with a couple of new friends I made soon after I arrived. I discovered they were cyclists as well so a conversation was started. Dave and Dennis had travelled down together with respective wives in convoy with their caravans. They had got into the habit of taking early morning rides around the lake at Annecy before the rest of the world woke up and had a good ride around the lake missing a lot of the congestion around Annecy town and home in time for breakfast.

They invited me to join them on their next ride and graciously delayed their departure on this day to accommodate me as I am not such an early riser when on holiday and I joined them for the 23 mile circuit of the lake. So it was before lunch and not before breakfast ! We managed an average of 17mph on this occasion riding as a threesome.

The following ride was also with Dave and Dennis and was up to Semnoz, along the ridge and on to Cret du Chatillon. This was a ride I did last year and this years ride is documented in the previous post to this. It was definitely a memorable ride for so many reasons, weather and misadventures not being the least. At the same time, for all that there was a real sense of achievement afterwards given the circumstances and also the usual feeling of well being after a bike ride. Anyway, here are the ride details in all their glory.

Setting out in sunshine..

Dave , Me and Dennis returning after a thorough soaking.. but still smiling.. !

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Next was another solo ride around Lake Annecy, I haven’t posted the ride data for this for fear of boring my reader too much! However I foolishly decide to do it late on a Sunday afternoon and the section of path around Annecy was very busy, not only with cyclists but roller bladers, pedestrians and dog walkers. Not a wise move on my behalf and having got through that I was then confronted with negotiating traffic jams through a couple of small towns on the way round caused by the day trippers leaving Annecy in their cars in droves after their day by the lake. Getting past where I could and also at one point after clearing the towns, there was another hold up caused by a an accident between two cars who had obviously met face to face in an overtaking accident, no doubt caused by impatience after the aforesaid hold ups.

Heading into Annecy on the cycle path, not a busy part!

The next ride was just Dave and I as Dennis had left for home by then. It was a new ride for both of us, along the cycle path towards Annecy to Sevrier where we turned off the path and up the steady climb to the Col de Leschaux. We decided to do this as a late afternoon ride. The Col de Leschaux is about halfway down the the the descent we did a few days earlier coming down from the Cret de Chatillon but this time the sun was shining and it was considerably warmer and drier and we were able to enjoy the descent from Leschaux to Saint Jorioz much more.

Dave at the summit

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Dave and I next repeated a ride I did a couple of years ago taking in the the Col des Aravis with its summit at 1487 metres. Its a Tour de France mountain and has been included in ‘The Tour’ quite a few times, the last time being last year. Its quite a long ride but not too difficult as mountains go in this area. Its a 58 mile ride in total from Annecy in a big loop through Thonesw and up to the ski resort at Clusaz and then up the Aravis. Its all good riding and wonderful scenery.  It was a hot day for our ride but we were refreshed by a couple of strong black coffees at the top in preparation for the thrilling descent of about 16 miles, a long way without pedalling apart from a couple of hundred yards to climb off the plateau about half way down. After that we had only about 15 miles to ride back up the cycle path to ‘home’. This was the last ride for Dave and I together as the next day Dave departed for home. The last ride together for this year anyway.. !!

Summit achieved

Dave did it too !!

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My next expedition was again a solo circuit of Lake Annecy. It wasn’t my initial intention to try and beat the ‘record’ average speed of 17.3mph Dave and Dennis had achieved on one of their early morning rides. However, as things progressed and I was feeling good I decided about half way round to press on and see what I could do. I eventually managed to do it at an average speed of 17.5mph and set a target for them to beat when they return next year! And I should add that it wasn’t an early morning ride for me either, I like to do my rides after breakfast.  (I am just posting the details here for Dave’s benefit as proof..  )

Click Image For Detailed Stats

My final ride at Annecy was great to finish off with. Being bored by now with the ride up and down the cycle path, nice as it is I decided on a variation and explored the ride possibilities of a drive we had done in the car the day before to see the L’Abbaye de Tamie.  I set opff south along the cycle path and turned off the path at Faverges. I had thought it looked like a nice ride and wanted to see how it was for future reference.  The first part out of town was the toughest but not too severe and the rest was just a great ride, although uphill. There was very little traffic, a smooth road rising up through rolling countryside, in and out of the shade and towards the top a river tumbling down beside the road making its way steadily towards Lake Annecy no doubt.  I soon decided to press on to the top as when we came up the day before in the car I wasn’t sure we had actually reached the top before turning round and dropping down a little to the Abbey.

I made it easily to the top and found that we had reached the summit the day before more or less as I just rode on a few metres more and came across the Col de Tamie sign and duly photographed it..

The drop down was brilliant, all the way back to Faverges and the cycle path. The ride had been no further than going down to the end of the cycle path and back and I avoided the long trudge back up the path from Ugine. Although not much of an incline coming back, maybe 2% at most in places I also avoided the seemingly permanent headwind that blows down the valley from Annecy

Late afternoon sunshine at the top of Col de Tamie

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The next day we left Annecy and headed for Vermenton in the Burgundy area to site recommend by Dave and his wife Jan. It was a lovely quiet site with lots of sightseeing to do in the area. Hence as we were only there for 3 or 4 days cycling opportunities were limited but I did manage a ride across to the town of Chablis in the middle of the Chablis grape growing countryside.  It was a simple enough ride all along one road. A steady climb up onto a kind of plateau with a few ups and downs on it before it finally opened up into a spectacular view of the Chablis area and the hillsides as far as the eye could see covered in vineyards. I then dropped down into the town of Chablis and had a brief look around before returning back up the hillside I had just ridden down and back to Vermenton on the same route.

Click For Detailed Stats

Well thats it for now my friends, I hope you managed to find something of interest and not too boring a list of stats.

I return to Annecy at the end of August with my almost lifelong friend and cycling buddy Cyril for a more concentrated cycling visit to the Alps but this time travelling light and camping for 9 days altogether, and about 6 days  the Alps around Annecy

‘Au Revoir’ for now..

Sorry for lack of recent posts here and apologies for forthcoming absence of one month.  Tomorrow I am off for my annual trip to France for a month to get some vertical miles in on the bike in the Alps adjacent to Annecy.

Annecy town, towards the lake

Lake Annecy

Annecy Canal

Annecy will be the first destination apart from an overnight stop on the way down.   Will be staying there for about 2 weeks and then finding somewhere else for a few days on the way home and before reaching northern France for the last few days to take in stages three, four and five of this years Tour de France all being well.

Depending on WiFi availability I might be able to get some ride descriptions in here but I think most of my posts will be of a non cycling nature and will appear in my other blog, ‘Brians Blog’ .  Hopefully I will get some news updates and pictures in there from time.  I would rather save the posts in here for my return so it can be full of pictures of me breathless at the top of mountain passes !! but I think the mountain views will be better than those of me..

So… see you in a while..