With a start before 7am today , sunday , i was able to ride over the finish line before making a rapid survey of the full parcours and as expected the "gestapo" was in place when i arrived back at the finish , first trying to stop me at 250m and then at 25m and finally strongarming me at 10m , just what is sacred at 8 hours before the racers compete remains a mystery to me !
Since riding the route each day tuesday night through friday the fields have been filling up with tents and camping vans mostly with french plates but the dutch wreck from the giro d,italia is there also . Funnily enough as i went around for a second time a guy in "skil maillot" passed me on the only descent of the course but was unable to hold the speed so i tucked in and let him draught me but after 16km he woke up to the fact i was there . i always check my rear regularly since i seem to be targeted by those who put their bike on the road at the bottom of a climb and expect a tow to the top . "no way jose" !
Les Essarts is a nightmare for those with bikes equipped with panniers since they cannot be easily lifted over the route barriers ! Vince (Aussie from Melb. now riding with Georgethecyclist and others) just came in to say his bike is stranded at the camping ground because the Gendarmerie have closed the roads .
Last night i did a TV program to highlight the message "aider handisport" but whilst people are telling me they saw the program they did not discover why i was there , useless for my purposes but when i get the DVD of the program i will be able to see if it was of any value .
Today i am riding the 1998 frame with the Magna saddle and carbon seatpost being recent additions . Lent the bike yesterday to a guy who has lived in Oz so that he could go with Vince and others others to the finish yesterday , but he had the use of a soft saddle and was thankful for that .
Whilst composing the post last night a lass arrived at the tourist office who had seen me riding the route and of course the staff of the Les Essarts Tourist Ofice saw me on the TV so it is Brioche and coffee whilst composing this report .
No comments:
Post a Comment