Yesterday I went out in the morning for a 130 km ride. That’s where the good news stopped. I had, in one single ride:
- A fall (don’t stop to pee in deep gravel).
- 4 hours of cold rain (for which I was woefully unprepared).
- A puncture.
- The shock of my life when I realized my pump was missing its inner seal, rendering it useless.
- Over 20 km of riding on my rim because I just couldn’t wait there for a cab. I was pretty freezing.
- A ride on the Montpellier tramway where I was, like the title says, shaking pretty badly. Luckily there was a real crack addict on board, so I didn’t feel too freakish.
- 45 minutes to wait for my train back home, where I found a vending machine and molested the illuminated advertising on the side to keep warm.
- 5 coffees to get me warm again.
But, I also had the good fortune of getting back right before my bike shop closed and the mechanic assuring me that my rim was still round (how is that possible?). I even could keep the tire I had thought I had ridden to shreds.
Back on the road today with much the same forecast. What, me, worry?
The Vicious Cycle 
Indoor trainer time for you young man…
I just put in away for the ‘summer’.
Hi Gerry, and I thought I had a bad day. You win. I did the reverse of my 85km loop thinking the 3km 9-10% was spread out over a longer distance making the climb easier. It wasn’t. It was 6km of 6-11%. I bonked. At least that is what I think it was. Like you wrote in your post a couple weeks back, I could not get my HR up. No power. The heat may have been an issue. It was 30C avg temp! Just when I was thinking I might get away with my 12-27 cassette. Are electric bikes allowed? Have a good ride.
That could be anything. Sick, not enough rest, diet. If you’ve been riding a lot, you need a rest. Or, you might need a good massage.
I’ll be testing out the 11-25 on Ventoux next week, so will have a good idea whether it was a stupid purchase or not. I agree with Tim. Could be any number of things contributing to your bonk…or all of them! Hope you get it sorted out.
That’s even worse than my 140 last week where I had a flat in the first ten ks, followed by 2 hrs of rain and another 2hrs of climbing into headwinds! No riding on rims (well briefly there was, but luckily I had the good fortune to be only about 500m away from my mate’s cafe – so he made me a coffee while I changed the tube) and no public transport required, so you get the cigar!
Nice to have cafes on the route. Believe it or not, it’s one thing I’m lacking here in France.
by the way, my little boy can now say Ventoux!
Nice. Now start him on Alpe d’Huez 😉
I’m also in the South of France and getting over the rain!! But I haven’t had a “character building” ride like that in a while! I learned from a friend last year if you can’t fix a puncture and still have to ride to stuff your tyre with grass to help cushion the rim. It’s supposed to be sunny next week but I’m still packing my rain jacket!!
Good tip on the grass stuffing, but I couldn’t move my fingers enough to get it done, even if I could find some! I see all the sun coming next week. Summer has to hit at one point, so I’m remaining optimistic. Do you live here, by the way?
Never mind that last question. I’m going over to your blog to find out 😉
Uh-oh, one of those days. 😦 Poor you. Hope your cycling happies up soon.
This morning was better, Steph. Thanks. What’s the weather like up your way these days?
Nightmare!
good on you for getting out
not too many mamils out today..the boys in the Pezenas club say”they only get up just before wetting the bed!”
another thing said of them was
“if there was work. in bed. they would lie on the floor”
ditch that hometrainer….its a crime to habe one in Le Sud.
😉
The trainer is retired for the season, collecting some well-deserved dust. Looking forward to seeing you next week. Wait for me on the climbs so we can chat a bit, okay?
Uh, you could have called here. I was here a lot of the day, and although there’s not much room in the apartment, at least it’s warm!
Yeah, but how would I get out…?
Yikes, sounds miserable. A friend of mine had a similar experience on a supported ride in the mountains. He was shaking so bad he almost had hypothermia.
Keep your head up. Odds are that the next ride will be dramatically better.
It was better, you were right, Aaron. Then again, it didn’t have very tough competition.
Well, a puncture, no pump and heavy cold: it’s better training this now than during the Haute Route, right?
Good point, Clem. Get the bad luck out of the way. Nice plan!
Oh yuck, that’s hideous. And no better in France than anywhere else. Except, I suppose, you can follow it immediately with a good glass of inexpensive red. Though that might be at a chilly cafe.
And the fact that a village (with no commerce usually…) is nearby!
Darn, that’s quite a “ride”! Good to read today was better and that the weather seems to be improving. It was a bad spring in Chicago, but perhaps worse in Europe. But summer must be coming now! Good thing with 10 weeks to go to HR.
Jan, your ’10 weeks’ shocked me, so I looked it up in case you were off. You were…it’s less than that even! Yeah, the weather is going to be great this week. Hope it’s the same for you over there.
Sunny warm south of France? how much weight would a cycle pack containing a lightweight rain suit, spare inner tube add to your bike? versus would it be worth it..hmmmm u can stop shivering now.. how about putting it in a second water bottle I’m sure it can be compacted enough to fit that size and carry that modified in some way…. this of course is as an alternate to having a pursiut team, mechanic, driver, and radio communications LOL…..hell maybe u aren’t even using an innertube.
I’m usually better prepared for bad weather, but I guess I figured that it’s June…there can’t be rain and cold in June!
Hi Gerry, Sorry to go off topic here but has anyone else been having trouble ordering their Haute Route kit? And weren’t we supposed to get two sets? I may be mistaken but I thought it originally said 2 sets of kit.
Luc, I don’t remember how many sets there were, sorry. And I didn’t have any trouble with the order at all. Maybe I got lucky.
Gerry, this reads like a ride from the far side of the Moon. Glad you survived.
Gerry, so how do you find your new cassette? OK going up Ventoux? I am not even going to pretend that I’ll be able to live with a 11-25 going up something like Ventoux…
Chikashi, I like it so much I’m not even taking along my 27 to Haute Route. Yes, probably a big mistake, but I guess if I don’t have that extra ring, I’ll find a way to manage.
Going up Ventoux – if you can climb it in under 1:45 I think the 25 would be just fine. It would be an average speed of 10kph (in the forest), which doesn’t bring down the cadence too low. Then again, it depends on how fast you like to spin usually. I am more of a ‘grinder’, I think.