TDF Journal Tuesday 23rd May Arlon to Eupen: Hail and Hills

Distance 142k
Time 6 hours
Climb 1950m
Weather Wet and windy

I woke up with a slightly sore head but this soon cleared when I get outside and into the wind which had freshened up considerably since the day before.
Fortunately I found a route which took me round the large hill I had to go up yesterday and headed off back into Luxembourg. The day's route took me south to north through the middle of Luxembourg then back into Belgium. With the wind, rain and unfamiliar terrain I was not sure how far I would get so I set off, with the intention of seeing how I would get on and think about booking a hotel at lunch time.

The morning went well, though I found Luxembourg is quite hilly. I stopped at Wiltz for a snack lunch and gave Mrs M a call and asked her to see if she could find a hotel in Belgium just past the border.

I started off again and pretty much as soon as I had turned the pedal it started raining. This marked the beginning of an afternoon of showers/alternating with sun, with the wind blowing all the time.

Sometimes it got a little more interesting as the showers turned into downpours. This reached a crescendo as I headed down a hill, ironically just after passing a cafe but deciding not to stop. The sky went from light to dark in a few seconds and a huge wind whipped up the hill making progress, even with the aid of gravity, almost impossible. Then it started to hail and the road turned into an ice rink. Luckily there was another cafe at the bottom of the hill. Not so luckily it was shut. So I cowered under a tree at the front, feeling miserable and eating my emergency banana.

After 15 minutes or so the storm passed over and I continued on my way, eventually leaving Luxembourg to get back into Belgium.

Not long after I came across a significant problem in route. I use Michelin maps and on these yellow roads are often a good choice for the cyclist making long journeys each day, as being a balance of not too much traffic but reasonably direct and with good road surface. So I chose these in preference in Belgium as well.


This proved a mistake, as the yellow roads in Belgium actually had a lot of traffic (I guess because the country is so much more crowded) and appalling road surfaces.

The worst was the N676 from St-Vith to Amel. This is narrow, but with lots of HGVs passing every 15 seconds or so. It seems to be constructed of massive oblongs of concrete about 10 m long, laid end to end like a row of dominos. The concrete surface is rough and slippy when wet, but worse each junction between blocks makes bikes without mountain tyres jump and shake like mad. I had planned to cover 15km on the N676. I did 2 and was as scared as I have ever been riding a cycle anywhere. I stopped and quickly re-plotted my route to go across country and was very pleased I did as not only was there almost no traffic at all but the countryside was very much more picturesque.




My route eventually took me to Robertville, which seems a like a nice holiday resort.

http://www.robertville.be/

I stopped there for a drink and was informed by Mrs M that she had found me a Best Western hotel to the north in Eupen. This did not seem like too far on the map, it meant going by a main road (the N68). This proved to be fine, however what I did not realise was that I was heading into the Eifel mountains, so had a way to go up before arriving at my hotel.

http://www.naturpark-hohesvenn-eifel.de/fr/die6landschaften/hocheifel/index.php

Also, inevitably it seemed, it had started to rain. Again.


I was feeling a bit tired as I headed up hill and also, as my clothes began to get wetter and wetter through a combination of rain and perspiration, I started get colder and colder. Fortunately the road was wide enough to avoid the splashes and most of the spray caused by the occasional car that passed me.

It seemed a long way to get to the top of the climb around Mt Rigi but after that things got a lot quicker as the road started going downhill and I had built up a real head of steam as I tanked down the road to Eupen. The hotel was easy to find, right at the entrance of the town at the bottom of the hill I was speeding down.

http://catalogue.horse21.co.uk/belgium+hotels/eupen+hotels/best+western+ambassador+hotel+bosten


I parked up and went in. I was dripping wet but the manager was very welcoming, showing me a place to park my bike for the night and telling me that I had been upgraded to a bigger room (Mrs M must have done some sweet talking).




The best thing about the super room was the big warm bath. I washed away the day's grime and warmed myself up. The hotel was proud of its restaurant (as you can see below) so I dined there and had a thoroughly good meal. My only concern was that I seemed to have lost my Alien and compass. (My Alien being a handy multi-tool, a sort of Swiss army penknife for cyclists). Still that would have to wait until tomorrow.

47 and breaking 20

Blowing my own trumpet I know but today I achieved a lifetime best by averaging over 20mph for a serious ride for the first time. This was done on a circuit I know well from Newbury to Lambourn then Wantage and back to Newbury again. This takes in the downs so has a few climbs (some with bits over 10%), the hardest being the ones coming out of Wantage back to Newbury. All in all the route is 47 miles with 680m climbing.

Back in January I rode this and averaged 15.9mph. Pre riding the TDF I had got this average up to 16.8. I rode the route following my return from the TDF and surprised myself by averaging 20mph up to the bottom of the final Wantage hills and ended up with 19.3. Today I finally pushed past 20 (just) making it round and back to Newbury at 20.1mph. Main reasons for making this were I think pushing myself a bit harder and also using a 11-23 cassette which let me get bit more speed up on the downhill parts of the course.

So pretty chuffed with myself.

Give a man a tool - the joys of bike maintenance

One of the good things about returning to bikes as a forty something is that it gives me the chance to get my hands oily again.

Way back, when I had a mini I used to attempt most of its servicing/fault fixing. I even attended an evening course on car maintenance, the highlight of which was taking an engine to pieces (easy), putting it back together again (a bit harder) with no pieces left over (the tricky bit).

I must admit this was only with partial success and the occasional cockup. The most extravagant of these was a simple error of forgetting to close the bonnet properly after an oil change. This resulted in the bonnet popping up when we were doing 60, briefly obscuring all vision before coming off its hinges and flying over the roof. Fortunately nobody was behind us to be decapitated and a temporay fix with gaffer tape was applied.
(PS: this was in the early days of me courting Mrs M. I must say she reacted very calmy to this minor calamity as she did when she enquired regarding the state of the mini's body work "are you meant to be able to see the road through the floor of the car?")

Next car after the mini was a Ford Capri 2.8i and this very quickly got me to the point where the car's sophistication soon exceeded my capabilties and I fell into the clutches of the local garage.
(the next car we had/still have was a Toyata Previa. I have had this 16 years and not even seen the engine!!! (it is a mid engined car and it is under the seats)).

This meant that my rather lovely set of tools remained unused (slightly sad story regards these, I got these cheap via a woman who had brought them for her husband as a gift before he told her he wanted a divorce. You have to think if only she had given them to him earlier...)

But now I have bike I can dust my wrenches off and start to use them again. A bike is perfect, it is simple, even for a klutz like me, nothing can go too badly wrong even if you do cock it up and best of all it has no electrical system. (Another memory from my car mechanic days was the smoke pouring out of the car's dash when I put in a new stereo and mixed up a couple of wires...).

Also it has lots of special bolts & bits which in turn need special tools. And there is nothing to make a man happier than when he has a new tool to play with.

Bad noise from down under - bottom bracket expired

Went for, now becoming regular, training ride on Tuesday and found bike was making very depressing noises when being pedalled at anything more than very light load.

Consensus from those who know a whole lot more about these things than I was that I was having bottom bracket problems. This was interesting as, my ignorance of bike topography being what it is, until it started making a racket I did not even know I had a bottom bracket.

Anyway this provided the chance of getting my hands oily and so took spanner to bike. I discovered that I have a rather special bottom bracket (or BB as I now know to call it) as I have a FSA SLK crank. This is a rather nifty design that has an integrated, oversized BB called a MegaExo http://www.fullspeedahead.com/fly.aspx?layout=product&taxid=21&pid=434

This needed a special tool (as ever) to detach from the bike so I paid a quick visit to AW Cycles at Reading about who I had heard good things http://www.awcycles.co.uk/

They had the tool I needed (Park Tools BBT-9 for anyone interested) and also it must be said a rather spiffing range of bikes, including a candidate for blingest bike - a limited edition Giant with 24 carat gold plating (not sure how weight saving this is!)
http://www.awcycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b8s6p1289

This is available for only £4450...I resisted the chance to buy it but did succumb to the rather more modest temptation of a new pair of Look cleats and covers.

Back to the bike last night I used the new tool to remove brackets and sure enough they were rather grotty inside. I put this down to combination of bad weather in France and me, not knowing it was meant to be sealed, copiously oiling.

Fortunately FSA have a super now MegaExo which is "ceramic".

http://www.fullspeedahead.com/fly.aspx?layout=product&taxid=29&pid=759

Being a bit of a sucker for new fangled goodies I have ordered one of these and hope it arrives in time for me to fit and try out next Tuesday. Watch this space

TDF Journal: Mon. 22/05 St Avold>Arlon Three countries tour (not planned)

Distance 134k
Time 6 hours
Climb 903 m (mostly at end)
Weather Grey then wet

Alsace and Lorraine are two regions of France that have been joined at the hip through the centuries, often sharing a troubled history as a battleground and prize for France and Germany. However despite of this shared past the two regions feel different. When you think of Alsace the thoughts are of wine, the Rhine, delightful cities like Strasbourg and Colmar and equally delightful villages like those that linked by the "route du vin". Lorraine on the other hand is a region of heavy industry and coal mines. Put another way Alsace is light and sunny, Lorraine dark and dour.

Waking up on Monday I find that the weather had conformed to this stereotype, the sun of yesterday (from which I was even suffering a bit of sunburn) has all gone and the skies are grey.
By the time I have breakfast and set off a steady drizzle had started. The impression of gloom is reinforced by the long drag uphill, out of town, along a busy lorry filled dual carriageway past, first, the US military cemetery and then a large (and smelly) chemical factory. I am glad to get off the main road and back onto my preplanned route, but only relatively. The skies are dark and grey and the drizzle is turning into steady rain. I stop at a boulangerie to get some croissants and a couple of slices of "quiche lorraine" (natch) that I intend to have later for lunch. (Following the mistake yesterday I intend to make lunches a bit lighter in future.)

I press on, to add to my woes a wind has started, at least it is blowing across me but it means that as well as feeling wet I now start feeling colder. The countryside is not very encouraging, everywhere pretty much looks like everywhere else and none of it is especially picturesque.

After a couple of hours of this I have had enough. All this water has triggered a need to take a break for a call of nature. It being Monday and the villages I pass through being small and apparently deserted, no welcoming bar appears so I stop at a bus shelter, nip behind a bush, then gloomily eat my croissants and quiche.

Someone upstairs must have taken pity on me because by the time I had finished the rain had pretty much stopped and, if the sun was not shining, at least it was slightly less grey.

I set off again and decided to head straight for the Luxembourg border which I crossed just after Mondorf les Bains. There is a noticeable change, while Lorraine felt slightly run down and depressed, Luxembourg felt prosperous, evidenced by the smart houses and smooth wide roads with pristine cycle lanes. This further helps to lift my mood and I decide to press on a bit and go on past my intended overnight stop at Esch. This proves to be a bit risky as the various villages I pass through all seem noticeably lacking in hotels or anywhere else to stay. Also my meticulous advance planning did not include hotels in Luxembourg. Getting a bit desperate I stop at a Hobscheid, a small village, and go into a bank. I ask the lady there if there are any hotels nearby and she is very helpful, lifting my spirits by saying yes there is one just up the road.

Up in this sense is quite literal. The village was on the side of a steep hill which is hard going. But I finally get to the top. The directions I had been given say just go along the road and you can't miss the hotel. So I speed off down the other side of the hill at a rate of knots but then start to get a little concerned as the directions also said that the hotel is only a five or so kilometres away and I have already done nearly ten. So I stop again, this time outside a house and ask a man gardening if he knows of a hotel nearby. He speaks perfect English and says yes there is a hotel and he points back in the direction I have just come, back up the hill I have just happily sped down. Rather less happily I slog back up it and at the top spot a turning that I missed first time.

This goes back downhill and at the bottom I find not one but two hotels. I stop at the first, it looks quite posh so I get take off my bike gear to look a bit more presentable. The hotel seems deserted, but when I go inside and ask for a room I hear that it is full. (Hopefully it really was, thinking about it later maybe I just looked a bit too shabby...). So I ask about the hotel next door and get told that one is closed. I am starting to get a bit desperate now and ask if there are any other hotels nearby. The reply is that I will have to go to Belgium! Fortunately that is not far only another five kilometers or so. Bad news is that it is up another steep hill. So up I go again. Immediately after the top of the hill I just manage to spot a sign that say "Hotel" and points off down a road. It's downhill so I take it and, voila, find a lovely hotel. Only problem is despite ringing on the bell no-one appears. I get worried it too may be closed and as a last resort try phoning the number on the board outside. A lady answers and I ask if they have a room. She says yes, just one remains and asks when I will arrive. I reply just outside and she comes and lets me in.

I have landed on my feet, the hotel is very comfortable and has a superb restaurant.





http://www.peiffeschof.be/

I celebrate my good luck and the fact that I have cycled through three countries in a single day by drinking (slightly too much) Luxembourg champagne (well cremant actually) to wash down a thoroughly good meal.

South Downs Challenge Recce

One of the many joys of cycling is finding new routes to follow. And they don't need to be a million miles from home either.

I have entered for the South Downs Challenge, a 110 mile circuit starting/finishing Highclere Castle http://www.cyclegb.co.uk/southdowns.asp

So today, with the weather being so good, I decided to do a reconnaissance ride to take a look at the course, since I am familiar with the end but not the rest of the course.

The ride was a delight, taking me into Hampshire and along many roads, all new. You pass through a number of villages, full of thatched cottages and looking like picture postcards. And to complete the perfect image of a fine English summer's day I passed 4 games of cricket.

(Some early pictures (not taken by me but from the web site)

The pubs along the route looked very inviting as well. Today I was a bit pressed for time so did not take the opportunity to combine my ride with a bit of beer tasting but will tackle the ride again on coming weekends, in smaller chunks, and be sure to include time in the schedule for a pint (or two).

Just a few of comments on the route>> South Downs Route Map

I don't have a map for the bottom right bit (finishing at Petersfield), so cut a corner, heading south from Gundleton, through Cheriton and picking up the route at Stony Hard farm (great name). But still clocked up 158km in total (including ride from home to/from Highclere). Most of the route is pretty easy to follow, albeit with a number of stops to check map/directions, did miss one right hand turn after Micheldever Station to West Stratton and also only got through Michelmersh more by good luck than judgement.

Overall the trickiest thing about the route is, as you would expect, that there is little that is flat, most of the time you are going up or down, not usually very far in either direction but it does get tiring after a while.

The last couple of climbs are the hardest. Just before the final one (the "scorpion" in the route description) there is, as the directions say, an "acute right turn". This does not do the turn justice given the approach is at 13% down hill. The turn is not cute at all it is downright nasty and just to make it a little bit worse there is a big pothole in the middle of it as well. Hopefully that will be filled before the day.

The scorpions sting is a little less venomous than the route directions say, its maximum gradient is 11% and it only lasts 600m or so. The climb immediately before is tougher, being slightly steeper in parts and 1.5km long (with a steep bit just before in Combe and you pretty much go uphill all the way for the preceding 20km albeit only at an average of 0.5% so not really alpine).

Also I think I would take the total ascent figures given on the route directions with a pinch of salt. If the total of 2925m climbing is true this would push the ride close to being a Tour de France mountain stage which I don't think it is **. My altimeter (which I think is pretty accurate as it tallied with the heights of the TDF cols I climbed last month) gave me a total ascent for the day of 1540m. The last stage, which I rode pretty much exactly as planned was 480m rather than the 950m on the route description.

** By way of comparison, in France I rode tomorrow's (16 July TDF) stage from Montelimar to Gap, pretty much exactly following the route. This is classified as a "mountain stage" by the tour in terms of green jersey points.

Stage 14 timetable

This was 191km long and included a couple of category 2 climbs and a couple of category 3. Highest point was 1300m and started/finished at around 100. My altimeter for that day recorded a total ascent of 2570m.