Posted by Neil
Friday:
London - Sunny intervals - light cross wind http://uk.weather.com/weather/dailyDetails-London-UKXX0085?dayNum=2
Dover - Sunny intervals - moderate cross to head wind http://uk.weather.com/weather/dailyDetails-Dover-UKXX0042?dayNum=2
Saturday:
Calais - Sunny intervals, rain in the evening - moderate cross to head wind http://uk.weather.com/weather/dailyDetails-Calais-FRXX0272?dayNum=3
Abbeville - Mostly sunny, rain in the evening - light cross to head wind http://uk.weather.com/weather/dailyDetails-Abbeville-FRXX0111?dayNum=3
Sunday:
Abbeville - Showers - moderate cross to head wind http://uk.weather.com/weather/dailyDetails-Abbeville-FRXX0111?dayNum=4
Chambly - Light rain - moderate cross to head wind http://uk.weather.com/weather/dailyDetails-Chambly-FRXX5767?dayNum=4
Monday:
Chambly - Light rain - moderated cross to head wind http://uk.weather.com/weather/dailyDetails-Chambly-FRXX5767?dayNum=5
Paris - Light rain - moderate cross to head wind http://uk.weather.com/weather/dailyDetails-Paris-FRXX0076?dayNum=5
So it looks like its going to be better in Kent than it is in France, with the lighter French traffic and warmer temperatures of Saturday looking like the best day of our ride.
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Showing posts with label France. Show all posts
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
Monday, 29 August 2011
En France Practice 4 - 3 Days of Plouay
Poseted by Neil
The UCI Pro Tour rolls into the tiny town of Plouay every August for the Grand Prix de Bretagne. It's a 248km 13 laps of a course that has its start/finish line near the town's velodrome. The preceding day sees the junior and ladies races and the major teams usually field strong B teams for the main event. So the likes of BMC, HTC Highroad (with Renshaw), Sky (with Swift, Thomas & Bosenhagen), Europcar (with Voekeler), FDJ, Leopard Trek, Cofidis, Astana, Saxo Bank and more fielding teams gives a mini TdF flavour.
Via Nirone 7 posing next to sponsor's banners
On the Friday, the amateurs get a turn with sportive, randonee, VTT and walking events available, all using the same start line as the main event. I was entered into the randonee event as there's some kind of licence / medical cert requirement for the sportive. Even these amateur events attracted a full page preview and 3 page report in the Ouest France newspaper.
I opted for the 90km ride but managed to miss the big start (1900 in the randonee) by 30 minutes because I'd got mixed up with when the campsite allowed car movements in the early morning, but the organisers still allowed me to run. Nice. This route was constantly undulating, no real big climbs, but no rest sections either. There was one refreshment point where I filled up with water and enjoyed bananas and madelines. I probably picked off 100 or so riders over the route which made me feel better, given their 30 min head start. Nice weather too, wet roads to start with but no rain nor wind and temps around the 20 mark. Had my first puncture after 4000 miles of puncture free riding on Conti Gatorskins, but it was just over 1km from the finish so I walked it over the line. Good job my French is poor so I didn't have to understand the commentators' sarky remarks.
56 miles in 3 hrs 33 mins including the walking, so pretty pleased with that. Post ride refreshments included the option of a beer!
So that's all my riding done now, next time on the bike will be on the way from Euston to the hotel in London on the night before the first day of L2P. Gulp!
The UCI Pro Tour rolls into the tiny town of Plouay every August for the Grand Prix de Bretagne. It's a 248km 13 laps of a course that has its start/finish line near the town's velodrome. The preceding day sees the junior and ladies races and the major teams usually field strong B teams for the main event. So the likes of BMC, HTC Highroad (with Renshaw), Sky (with Swift, Thomas & Bosenhagen), Europcar (with Voekeler), FDJ, Leopard Trek, Cofidis, Astana, Saxo Bank and more fielding teams gives a mini TdF flavour.
Via Nirone 7 posing next to sponsor's banners
On the Friday, the amateurs get a turn with sportive, randonee, VTT and walking events available, all using the same start line as the main event. I was entered into the randonee event as there's some kind of licence / medical cert requirement for the sportive. Even these amateur events attracted a full page preview and 3 page report in the Ouest France newspaper.
I opted for the 90km ride but managed to miss the big start (1900 in the randonee) by 30 minutes because I'd got mixed up with when the campsite allowed car movements in the early morning, but the organisers still allowed me to run. Nice. This route was constantly undulating, no real big climbs, but no rest sections either. There was one refreshment point where I filled up with water and enjoyed bananas and madelines. I probably picked off 100 or so riders over the route which made me feel better, given their 30 min head start. Nice weather too, wet roads to start with but no rain nor wind and temps around the 20 mark. Had my first puncture after 4000 miles of puncture free riding on Conti Gatorskins, but it was just over 1km from the finish so I walked it over the line. Good job my French is poor so I didn't have to understand the commentators' sarky remarks.
56 miles in 3 hrs 33 mins including the walking, so pretty pleased with that. Post ride refreshments included the option of a beer!
So that's all my riding done now, next time on the bike will be on the way from Euston to the hotel in London on the night before the first day of L2P. Gulp!
En France Practice 3
Posted by Neil
Today's ride felt like great practice for Kent. I didn't want to spend much time looking at maps so I just decided to head out through Carnac and stick to the major single carriageway D roads to the West with the city of Lorient at my halfway point before completing the ride by just retracing my tracks.
Despite holding back on setting off until later in the morning (allowing breakfast with the family) to wait for some showers to pass over, about 2 hours of this ride was spent in fairly significant rain. By French standards these were pretty busy roads and Lorient turned out not to be worth the effort. So good practice for Kent and Dover!
A very robust 61 miles this time, and a For Goodness Shakes vanilla flavour consumed ready for the big event out of Plouay tomorrow.
Today's ride felt like great practice for Kent. I didn't want to spend much time looking at maps so I just decided to head out through Carnac and stick to the major single carriageway D roads to the West with the city of Lorient at my halfway point before completing the ride by just retracing my tracks.
Despite holding back on setting off until later in the morning (allowing breakfast with the family) to wait for some showers to pass over, about 2 hours of this ride was spent in fairly significant rain. By French standards these were pretty busy roads and Lorient turned out not to be worth the effort. So good practice for Kent and Dover!
A very robust 61 miles this time, and a For Goodness Shakes vanilla flavour consumed ready for the big event out of Plouay tomorrow.
En France Practice 2
Posted by Neil
Another 57 miles today, again on fairly unchallenging roads. Great weather though with very little wind but occasional gusts of probably no more than 10 kph. A good scenic route out around the Western edges of the Gulf of Morbihan then over to the rather underwhelming city of Vannes before a lunch break in St Anne d'Auray. Headed back to camp by skirting around Auray on the way to Erdeven and Carnac.
Photo of the Via Nirone 7 at the Gulf port of Larmor-Baden.
Another 57 miles today, again on fairly unchallenging roads. Great weather though with very little wind but occasional gusts of probably no more than 10 kph. A good scenic route out around the Western edges of the Gulf of Morbihan then over to the rather underwhelming city of Vannes before a lunch break in St Anne d'Auray. Headed back to camp by skirting around Auray on the way to Erdeven and Carnac.
Photo of the Via Nirone 7 at the Gulf port of Larmor-Baden.
Thursday, 18 August 2011
En France Practice 1
Posted by Neil
As promised, I got my first of 2 consecutive 60 milers in today (well, 57.6 miles as it happens). We've had fabulously sunny weather so far here in South Brittany - sunny every day with highs of 26 degrees. Nice.
Today though, it dawned rather misty and somewhat cooler - perfect for a decent ride. I headed out of La Trinite-Sur-Mer to Auray, on to St Anne-de-Auray with its spectacular Basilica then Westish through Brec'h towards Landevant then through Nostang on towards the coast at Riantec and Port Louis, completing the loop via Plouhinec, Erdeven and Carnac / Carnac Plage. I snacked on pain au chocolat once, pain au raisin and a banana with a large egg / cheese salad sandwich by the marina at Port Louis for lunch.
The countryside is very gently rolling with little or no hills to speak of, (max speed for the ride was 30.5 mph, so you can see there are no serious hills) but with the dampness in the air and a peak of approx. 21 deg C., it was a pretty easy ride out. There was an occasional headwind, but if it was more than 5 kph I'd be very surprised. Nice countryside and some good views, but nothing particularly spectacular.
I had a "for goodness shake" on my return so hopefully I'll be fully equipped for the second day tomorrow, which promises to be a little warmer. Going to head East this time - hopefully to get some good views across the Gulf de Morbihan.
From today I learnt that a reasonably relaxed pace (averaging 13 mph actual riding speed, probably somewhat lower when you add in the 30 mins or so not cycling) and stopping every hour or so to grab some grub from a shop (we won't be carrying snacks from day 2 onwards) doesn't seem so bad for hitting our daily average distance in good time.
As promised, I got my first of 2 consecutive 60 milers in today (well, 57.6 miles as it happens). We've had fabulously sunny weather so far here in South Brittany - sunny every day with highs of 26 degrees. Nice.
Today though, it dawned rather misty and somewhat cooler - perfect for a decent ride. I headed out of La Trinite-Sur-Mer to Auray, on to St Anne-de-Auray with its spectacular Basilica then Westish through Brec'h towards Landevant then through Nostang on towards the coast at Riantec and Port Louis, completing the loop via Plouhinec, Erdeven and Carnac / Carnac Plage. I snacked on pain au chocolat once, pain au raisin and a banana with a large egg / cheese salad sandwich by the marina at Port Louis for lunch.
The countryside is very gently rolling with little or no hills to speak of, (max speed for the ride was 30.5 mph, so you can see there are no serious hills) but with the dampness in the air and a peak of approx. 21 deg C., it was a pretty easy ride out. There was an occasional headwind, but if it was more than 5 kph I'd be very surprised. Nice countryside and some good views, but nothing particularly spectacular.
I had a "for goodness shake" on my return so hopefully I'll be fully equipped for the second day tomorrow, which promises to be a little warmer. Going to head East this time - hopefully to get some good views across the Gulf de Morbihan.
From today I learnt that a reasonably relaxed pace (averaging 13 mph actual riding speed, probably somewhat lower when you add in the 30 mins or so not cycling) and stopping every hour or so to grab some grub from a shop (we won't be carrying snacks from day 2 onwards) doesn't seem so bad for hitting our daily average distance in good time.
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Loaded, Suited and Booted
Posted by Neil
A busy day today out in the North Wales sunshine of our backyard. In preparation for the L2P ride in September I've done a major service on the Bianchi Via Nirone 7 Alu Carbon (snappy eh?) today. This might seem a bit premature, but the plan is to get a few more 20-30 mile hilly rides and one more 70-80 before we're off on holiday to France(!) for a fortnight. In that fornight I plan to do a few short early morning rides and then 2 consecutive days of 60 miles per day, one pair per week.
So I thought it wise to do the major service now and get a couple of weeks of use out of the bike before we head off to France to iron out any wrinkles. So today we have the following:
2 x new Continental Gatorskin 700 x 23 C tyres
2 x new inner tubes
1 x new SRAM PC971 chain
4 x new Fibrax brake pads
4 x stainless steel retaining bolts for brake pads (original chromed bolts going rusty)
New rear skewer fitted with conversion kit for pannier mounting
Bar tape end tapes replaced
All hub bearings checked for play
BB checked for play
Loosened headset, re-tightened and checked for play
Brakes adjusted
Gears adjusted
All bolts checked for tightness
Everything thoroughly cleaned and frame polished
This means that I'm ready for my trial run tomorrow as I've also packed everything (except my passport and stuff like gels, energy bars etc, as they'll be going in the jersey back pockets) into the panniers tonight and they're mounted up on the seat post mounted rack that Stuart has kindly loaned to me. It was a bit of a shock how much it all weighs and I'm going to re-appraise everything when I empty them out to see if there are further weight savings to be made (for example, there's a pair of crocs in their at the moment - if its going to be dry I won't be needing them as I'll just be able to wear my Shimano M040 MTB SPD shoes for normal walking. The lock is a big contributor, but that's an essential item as far as I'm concerned. Our kitchen scales only go up to 2kg so I can't accurately weigh the panniers. I would estimate 3.5 - 4 kg each and there's 2 of them. Here's the bike all ready to go:
A busy day today out in the North Wales sunshine of our backyard. In preparation for the L2P ride in September I've done a major service on the Bianchi Via Nirone 7 Alu Carbon (snappy eh?) today. This might seem a bit premature, but the plan is to get a few more 20-30 mile hilly rides and one more 70-80 before we're off on holiday to France(!) for a fortnight. In that fornight I plan to do a few short early morning rides and then 2 consecutive days of 60 miles per day, one pair per week.
So I thought it wise to do the major service now and get a couple of weeks of use out of the bike before we head off to France to iron out any wrinkles. So today we have the following:
2 x new Continental Gatorskin 700 x 23 C tyres
2 x new inner tubes
1 x new SRAM PC971 chain
4 x new Fibrax brake pads
4 x stainless steel retaining bolts for brake pads (original chromed bolts going rusty)
New rear skewer fitted with conversion kit for pannier mounting
Bar tape end tapes replaced
All hub bearings checked for play
BB checked for play
Loosened headset, re-tightened and checked for play
Brakes adjusted
Gears adjusted
All bolts checked for tightness
Everything thoroughly cleaned and frame polished
This means that I'm ready for my trial run tomorrow as I've also packed everything (except my passport and stuff like gels, energy bars etc, as they'll be going in the jersey back pockets) into the panniers tonight and they're mounted up on the seat post mounted rack that Stuart has kindly loaned to me. It was a bit of a shock how much it all weighs and I'm going to re-appraise everything when I empty them out to see if there are further weight savings to be made (for example, there's a pair of crocs in their at the moment - if its going to be dry I won't be needing them as I'll just be able to wear my Shimano M040 MTB SPD shoes for normal walking. The lock is a big contributor, but that's an essential item as far as I'm concerned. Our kitchen scales only go up to 2kg so I can't accurately weigh the panniers. I would estimate 3.5 - 4 kg each and there's 2 of them. Here's the bike all ready to go:
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Early Trip to France
Posted by Neil
Stuart and I are off to France a couple of months early - and that's only 2.5 weeks away now. Really looking forward to a lads week away to watch the Tour de France.
The plan is a ferry with cabin then there's 3 days of tour stages within riding distance of our accomodation base. Looks like a couple of 80 mile days and one of about 30 miles, so that'll be excellent training for L2P - it'll be the first time I've done some distance on my bike 3 days in succession.
We'll be seeing the stages that start in Lorient, Carhaix and Dinan which are in the North West. See them on the route map here.
None of these look like they're favourable for Mark Cavendish (with the finish at the seaside in Cap Frehel being the least worst), but we can still hope! It will all depend on the strength and quality of any breakaways that are created by the rolling nature of the climbs in the earlier parts of all three of these stages. If there's a decent and sustained breakaway group and Cav's not in it, then its game over. Brad Wiggins might be in for a shout though. No doubt Stuart will be giving his Union Jack cycling jersey its annual provocative outing.
On a more general point, great to see the team time trial back on the agenda - that's one of the more interesting parts of the event for me.
No doubt the weather is going to be superb!
Stuart and I are off to France a couple of months early - and that's only 2.5 weeks away now. Really looking forward to a lads week away to watch the Tour de France.
The plan is a ferry with cabin then there's 3 days of tour stages within riding distance of our accomodation base. Looks like a couple of 80 mile days and one of about 30 miles, so that'll be excellent training for L2P - it'll be the first time I've done some distance on my bike 3 days in succession.
We'll be seeing the stages that start in Lorient, Carhaix and Dinan which are in the North West. See them on the route map here.
None of these look like they're favourable for Mark Cavendish (with the finish at the seaside in Cap Frehel being the least worst), but we can still hope! It will all depend on the strength and quality of any breakaways that are created by the rolling nature of the climbs in the earlier parts of all three of these stages. If there's a decent and sustained breakaway group and Cav's not in it, then its game over. Brad Wiggins might be in for a shout though. No doubt Stuart will be giving his Union Jack cycling jersey its annual provocative outing.
On a more general point, great to see the team time trial back on the agenda - that's one of the more interesting parts of the event for me.
No doubt the weather is going to be superb!
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