Minipips and his Dad's Cycling Adventures

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Tour de France - Heading South West

So once we decided on leaving the French Divide route we headed South West. We aimed to avoid big hills, big cities and busy roads.

Tom aimed to eat every type of cake he could find along the way.

Now we weren't quite so tight for time, we took to stopping for a mid morning coffee too.

We'd had a bit of a mechanical with the eccentric bottom bracket slipping in the Morvan, but now, just before we entered the Dordogne region, one of our spokes went ping.

We happened upon a bike shop quickly who found a replacement spoke.

Their mechanic wasn't there to fit it. Thankfully we had our own.

Tom being irrigated.

Nice views along the way.

Did I mention the heat?

There aren't many of these painted adverts on buildings left now.

On the 19th I get a message from the French Divide guys to ask if we were coming to their party at Mendionde on the 20th. I check the distance and we are around 100 kilometres away and sort of on our way to the coast, so we head there to see some of the other people who have ridden part, or all of the course.

Here's Tom and Céline.

We had a great evening hearing about the other riders exploits.

Then next morning, we continued our journey towards the sea.

One of the few rain showers we encountered on the whole trip.

In the afternoon we arrived at St Jean de Luz on the Atlantic coast and the usual hot sunshine had returned.

French Divide - The Auvergne.

We'd been told that after the Morvan, there was some easier terrain before the route went upwards again into the Massif Centrale.

The heat didn't abate though.

One good thing about the sun, was that our suntans were coming along nicely.

The route was getting hillier, and as it got hillier, we got slower. The heat was a real hindrance, and I could see that heatstroke was a possibility. Tom didn't complain, but I wasn't having "fun", and I'm sure he wasn't either.

We stopped under the shade of a tree for a drink of water.

I explained to Tom that whilst we certainly could complete the French Divide route, that our speed would mean that it would take a lot longer than we had envisaged. This would mean we'd not have time to ride back up the Atlantic coast.

It did not take us long to decide that we'd leave the French Divide route, and take the easier roads instead towards the Atlantic coast.

Below, Tom celebrating our "Plan B" moment.

We had covered around 1000 kilometres of the French Divide route.

Tom smiling as we head into Puy de Dome on the road.

French Divide - To Toulon sur Arroux

The French Divide to Reims had been reasonably flat. Onwards it became a bit hillier, then it entered the Morvan national park which is definitely lumpy. The next checkpoint was the other side of the Morvan at Toulon sur Arroux.

First we visit the Champagne region.

The weather over the first few days had been warm. From here on in the afternoons were HOT.

We were either drinking water, or looking out for more water.

In the UK, we'd manage with one bottle between us. On this trip we carried 3, and that was only just enough.

A top tip is that cemeteries usually have taps.

The route towards the Morvan was agricultural.There were lots of tracks that skirted between fields.

The cross reminds us that this part of the route follows an old pilgrim's trail.

This is the first time we'd seen this particular plant (below) growing in a field. ;)

After the fields and big skies, we entered the Morvan which is mainly a forested area.

You know what trees look like, so there aren't lots of pictures of those.

The afternoons continued to get warmer, and by the end of most days, we were fried and could not wait to have a lie down in the shade.

12 days after leaving Bromsgrove we arrived in Toulon sur Arroux.

We'd missed the French Divide checkpoint time limit by a few hours, but it didn't matter, we were just glad to have made it.

That evening we ate pizza, and were interviewed by a local journalist who'd heard what we were doing.

French Divide - To Reims

The first checkpoint on the Divide was at Reims, and the day after leaving Bray Dunes, we put a big effort in to make some progress in that direction.

A misty start as the sun rises.

The route in the first part meandered between Belgium and France. The picture below is taken at the top of the Kemmelberg cobbles.

Whilst speaking of cobbles, there were plenty more to come that day, with many sections from the classic Paris Roubaix race.

As well as the obvious obstacle below, beyond, there were lots of brambles and nettles to negotiate also.

Plus an unavoidable section of paddling.

There was time to stop in the afternoon at a cafe for a drink as the weather started to warm up.

3 days after leaving Bray Dunes, we arrived in Reims. We were greeted by Céline and Samuel, two of the French Divide's organisers.

Oh, and we ate some lunch.

Time for a quick bit of sight seeing.

Then it was time to head South towards the Morvan.

French Divide - Depart

Bray Dunes is right by the Belgian border, and that is the way we headed to buy not one, but two bottom brackets next morning.

Steve had all the tools needed to fit them which we did as quickly as we could. We'd hoped to have left Bray Dunes the day before.

Breakfast on the beach shortly after.

Around 1pm we started along the French Divide route with a working bike.

The sun was out, and we were happy at last to be on our way South.

This wasn't the first time that we'd visited this part of France, but it was the first time that Tom was old enough to start to appreciate part of the history of the area.

Tour de France - Prologue.

We did a talk at a Scout and Guide jamboree in Bromsgrove on the 1st of August. Next day, we rode from there to Dover, as it was going to be easier doing that than trying to get the tandem down there via any other economical way.

We used Cycle Streets to plan a route. Day 1 was to be a long ride to London, in fact it would be the furthest Tom had ever ridden in a day. Day 2 was planned to be an easier day to Dover.

We left Bromsgrove early and the route followed quiet roads with the odd bridleway and disused railway to add a bit of interest.

It turned out to be a rather long day, 221 kilometres long.

This is Tom on Vauxhall Bridge in London around 11pm not far from Andy's who was kindly putting us up for the night.

Day 2 and we were pointed the right way out of town by Andy.

Maybe we were tired from the previous day, but we stopped a lot more often than we would normally do, here, for "refreshments".

In spite of us both putting in the effort, the tandem felt so slow.

We stopped for supper in Canterbury, Dover would have to wait until tomorrow.

On our way out of Canterbury we finally noticed why we'd been struggling all day.

One of the cranks was really stiff to turn. It seemed like one of the bottom bracket bearings had collapsed.

Here is Tom next day demonstrating how hard it was to turn the cranks.

We rode on to Dover to get a bottom bracket from a bike shop. Google listed an independent shop that was no more, and Halfords didn't even know what an HT2 bottom bracket was, even though they stocked a tool to fit one.

So rather than waste any more time in the UK, we decided to head to France with a view to getting it sorted over there.

By the time we arrived in France there was only time to visit a couple of shops, neither of which yielded a bottom bracket.

We headed for the campsite in Bray Dunes with a view to going bottom bracket shopping again the next day.

There we met up with Jean and Steve, two of the French Divide riders, with whom we had a very pleasant evening.

Tour de France - Intro.

Our summer adventure which now complete, we have titled "Minipips Tour de France". Like most Tours, we started in another country before making our way round a good chunk of France.

It was a composite adventure made up of a core, a new bikepacking route in France called the French Divide, a ride to get there from Bromsgrove in the UK, and a ride back along the Atlantic coast of France to get a ferry home.

In total it took 27 days to complete. We rode every day and covered distances from as little as 61kms to as much as 221kms.

Our total distance covered was over 3200kms or 2000 miles. We averaged 119 kms or 74 miles a day.

Like all of the best adventures, things didn't always go to plan, and the going could sometimes be described as tough. There were no tears though, and there was lots and lots of laughter.

Links to the individual posts are in order below.