I have recently come back from an Old Ports trip to France
to follow the tour. It is events like this that remind me about the benefit of
being part of a cycling club. Now there a plenty who don’t like the club thing
for whatever reason, but for me it has opened up worlds that there is no way I
would have accessed otherwise. There are places I have been and things I have
experienced in the last seven years that I will enjoy forever, which I would
never have experienced if I had not rocked up to a Saturday club run one
January morning.
The kind of trip we have just enjoyed would have cost a fortune
if one had tried to book it commercially. But Iain did the bulk of the organising
for the love of the sport and Cloudie and Kev backed up on the driving. Ok we
were subject to Iain’s frugal hotel choices and rooming arrangements. (Lesson,
bring your own partner otherwise you never know who will be in the bed next to
you.)
There are a couple of things that always leap out at me when
I go back to France. Firstly, though clichéd there are parts of Provence that
are a Garden of Eden, some of the most beautiful landscapes one could ever hope
to ride through. Secondly, how accessible and friendly France can be. Sitting
by the river in Ile en de Sorgue on Bastille Day enjoying a lovely meal in the
company of friends, absolutely brilliant. Some of the food was mind blowing,
even a day’s climbing could not give Julian the appetite to finish one of his
steaks, lovely has it was. Three of us had a go and there was still meat on the
bone.
I love riding the road the tour goes over. It just builds
ones admiration for the riders. Anyone who a descended Col de Sarenne knows
just what a tricky bugger that is. To ride it eyeball out as the pros did –
full on respect. The return to the world of work was not easy.
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