Monday, April 8, 2013

Day 10 - France cycling trip: Mondoubleau - Tours

Today I did 83km and I'm not even sore!  Also, by doing Chartres -Tours in 2 days instead of 3, I've made up for the day I spent comatose in Maroeuil. So, I'm back on schedule.  I have a buffer of a few rest days,  but I prefer to save these days for really bad weather or aches.

Today, I had interesting weather. I started out with a slight drizzle.  Not too bad but having rain gear was a must. It stopped raining,  and after a while I saw a laundromat. I went in and dried a few things for 20 minutes.  Feeling comfy again,  I exited the laundromat and it started to rain again.

After a while the clouds cleared,  the sun shone down its warmth, birds started to tweet and I started to dry. That lasted maybe 45 mins and then it started to rain again.  It was off and on the whole day. Each time it became sunny,  I had hope it would stay that way, and each time it started to rain, I reminded myself that it wouldn't last long.  Every time it transitioned from rain to sun, I looked around for a rainbow,  but alas, I never saw one.

At one point it was sunny AND raining.  I was covered simultaneously by complete sunlight and raindrops. Very weird.  You can't explain that.

At one point after a rain spell, I noticed that my breaks were rubbing against the wheels. I did my best to fix it, but I decided to take my bike in to see the bike doctor for a checkup. I arrived in Tours and went to GoSport, where the bike doctor tweaked a few things (gears,  breaks). I think he spent about a half hour on it and charged me 24 euros. It's probably a lot for simple adjustments, but I was happy to have somebody who knows better than me do it.

Today, I took pictures using an app BoD made just for me! It adds a timestamp and location caption to the photo, but unlike EvidenceCam, the timestamp is in local time, not GMT. Now that's love, making a special tailored app just for your girlfriend :-)

I had dinner at the hotel: shrimp with clementines for the starter,  tagliatelle carbonara (with an egg!) for the main dish, and a fruit salad for dessert.

6 comments:

  1. Hi, dear:
    I guess you have reached the mid point mark of your trip.
    Rain is never the cyclist's best friend, and not just for getting wet, but for the slippery roads, mainly when using the brakes.
    At least, you got some laundromats here and there.
    I see you have an eye for horses. ;-)
    Maybe your next adventure will be on horseback.
    Love you.
    Take good care of yourself.
    Papa

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    1. Haha I don't think I'd go horseback. Horses are nice to watch from a distance , but that's it.

      More rain in the forecast for today!

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  2. Is the same Tours where Charles Martel defeated Muslim invaders?

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  3. By the end of the trip I can easily see you riding 80 miles (not kilometers) or more without feeling especially tired and doing it day after day. Of course there's no point in making it any harder than you want it. You're not in any hurry.

    As to your bike, it's possible the wheels went out of true, especially the back one. Hopefully the technician checked that out. On my long trips I usually had to do some kind of adjustment after about 2,000 miles, so on the way across the US I stopped in bike shops twice. You probably won't need a lot of maintenance of your trip.

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    1. I might be able to do 80 miles without falling apart, but I think it would take a LONG time. Maybe 12 hours. Even though it seems to be getting a bit easier, I don't think I'm going much faster :-)

      Argg. I can hear the rain outside my hotel window. I think there's gonna be even more rain today than yesterday. :-)

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