The Utah Randonneur

Well, today we packed our bikes and most of our luggage for our trip home tomorrow. That finished, we took one last trip into Paris to visit Notre Dame and the area around the Louvre. Clair had not yet been to Notre Dame so we went there first. It is a short walk from the RER train station and were there in no time. The crowds were as large as ever but it was still very impressive. The stained glass, the carvings, the flying buttresses and the sheer scale of this structure all contribute to the effect. Next, we went back to the Louvre via some small streets a block or two in from the River Seine. Turning each corner brought a new surprise as we explored some new areas. Tuileries Gardens then back on the train to our hotel in St. Quentin. We will leave early tomorrow for our long flight home.

This is one of the last “must do” things on our list. We rented a car today and drove out to the Normandy coast to visit the D-Day beaches and the American Cemetery. We had a cute little Renault Clio which is a 1.5 liter 4 door but it would cruise nicely at 130 kmph on the motorway! We went by almost all of the important beaches including; Sword, Juno, Gold, Omaha and Utah, but I would say by far the most compelling site is the American Cemetery above Omaha beach. It is perhaps the most impressive experience I have had on this trip. It is hard to explain the feelings that this location creates in ones self. It is well worth the effort to get here! After our tour of the beaches we went to the little town of St. Mere Eglise which was made famous in several WWII movies. You may remember a scene of a parachutist hanging from a church steeple. Well, that scene is recreated on the church itself with a parachutist still up there today! Our drive home was mainly uneventful (which is good) with our main challenge being trying to pay the tolls on the motorway!

Chevreuse is the name of the town we rode to today. The best I can tell that translates into Goatville. There is an old castle in Chevreuse on the top of the hill which we walked up to, but it was outside of visiting hours and it was closed. It took us some time to find our own special way up there but once on top it was easy to find the right way down. After all of this route finding we had worked up and appetite so now we had to find an appropriate restaurant. We searched around and could not anything we liked the look of so we rode over to New Goatville where they had a few more services. We found a little Italian place on the town square and enjoyed the Plat du Jour (not goat) which included a main dish, dessert and coffee for 10.50 euro. We had a table by the window and enjoyed our meal where we could watch the citizens of Goatville going about their daily business. People were carrying bread, drinking coffee and talking to others while waving their arms. Everything appeared normal in Chevreuse except one thing. Where were all of the goats?

Can you do that? Well when you are in Paris you can. We caught the Eurostar train in Paris which is a high speed train that goes direct to London under the English Channel via the Channel Tunnel. It travels at 188 mph and is very smooth. The rail cars actually lean into the turns although the chassis remains flat, creating a near zero G at 180+ mph. The tunnel itself is about 30 miles long but you are through it pretty quickly. We arrived at Waterloo Station which is on the Thames River in downtown London and were within a short distance of most of London’s most famous landmarks including; Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Harrods, Hyde Park, Picadilly Circus and oh yes, Starbucks! We just did a walking tour, took some photos and had lunch in Harrods. London is a very busy city and very expensive these days which became obvious when we walked by the Bentley and Rolls Royce dealerships. Us poor Americans with our weak dollar could only peer in the windows in amazement! We had a good day seeing the sights however and got back home after 10 that night.

We went out for a ride on the bikes today out to the town of Rambouilllet. We took a winding route through the forest and several small villages to get there. Apparently we found a popular local cycling route as there were hundreds of riders out today. We must have passed several groups of 50 or more and there were riders in smaller groups everywhere. Cycling is a very popular activity locally and on this Sunday cyclists outnumbered automobiles by at least 10 to 1. We have been treated with great respect by drivers and they give us plenty of room and never crowd us. What a nice change!

On our return from this loop we found our way back to the outbound section of the course. We knew we were on it in some sections because there were water bottles, tire tubes and other debris from the passing cyclists. In the narrow streets through the villages however we soon lost the route and found our own way back. We rode about 80 km today.

The ride is over now and most people have departed or will leave soon. We however are staying a few more days to see some more sights. Today we went out to the city of Chartres. It is famous for a very old cathedral and that is mainly what we went to see. Our wonderful surprise in addition to that was an amazing old walled city within the larger town. The streets were very narrow and there were no cars within the old center of the city. The cathedral was amazing and if you want to know more about its very interesting history then you should look it up. There is too much to tell to put it here. We walked the narrow streets and looked at many little shops selling every variety of merchandise from bread to the latest fashions. An interesting thing we noticed was that there were almost no foreign tourists here. They seemed to be mostly French tourists out for a day trip. I would describe Chartres as being everything good that you expect from a trip to France without any of the bad. Kind of like Paris without the crowds, traffic or high prices!

The stories are still coming in but they are saying that this was the worst weather ever in the more than 110 years of this event. Right now the estimate is that up to 1800 riders had to abandon the event. There may be many others who were still riding but would not make the final time cutoff at the last Controle or the finish. We are almost 24 hours after the event officially ended and people are still coming in. Talking to people who have finished we find that “suffering” seems to be the universal theme. There are many variations on this theme that reflect each riders individual experience, but wet, cold and wind are a constant thread. When I get better statistics on the results I will post them.

P.S.  Now that the event is over it has stopped raining and the sun came out this afternoon!!!

Okay, I think we made a good decision when we chose to abandon the event. At that moment we were simply unable to continue riding. Now we had a new problem, how to get back to our hotel about 300 miles away. This event like all randonneuring events provides no safety net for riders who cannot continue. It is an understood that riders are on their own if they abandon. We found the local train station in Loudeac and inquired about getting back towards Paris. A helpful agent put us on a bus which took us to St. Brieuc. We were grateful to get that bus but we could hardly keep our eyes open let alone sit upright, and that bus hit every little roundabout in France. We kept tipping over in our seats! From St. Brieuc we caught the TGV train direct to Paris which was a 2 ½ hour ride at 100+ mph. We then had to take a local train back out to the suburb of St. Quentin where we are based. There were 15 other riders who came in on our train and there are dozens of trains an hour. This is when we had our first clue that this year would be historic for the event!

For the last 10 kilometers or so I had started to deteriorate pretty rapidly and my stomach was giving me problems. When I arrived at Loudeac the first thing I did was to find my drop bag at the Controle. I found it quickly and although it was under cover it had been sitting in water and my stuff was soaked. What I wanted most at this point was a hot shower, so with my wet bag in hand I headed to the showers. Once in the showers the water felt good but I thought I was going to throw up. I avoided puking in the shower and got outside. After that I couldn’t eat anything so I tried to find a spot to lay down. I ran into Clair again and we looked for a bed together. Most places were wet but I finally found a place under cover and laid down on the walkway. I wrapped up in my space blanket but it offered no padding from the lumpy paving stones I was laying on so there was little rest for me. I did lay there until about 6:00 am when I finally decided that I would not be able to continue. Without eating anything and no rest there was no way I could gather the strength to continue. We had arrived with plenty of time available at this checkpoint but now we were falling behind. We did not think we could maintain the required speed to make the next Controle so we made the very hard decision to abandon the event. This is the first event either of us had ever abandoned so it makes this one very tough.

It was twilight as we left Tinteniac and darkness soon followed so I cannot describe the next section of the course very well. It seemed to alternate between villages and forest, though it was hard to tell in the dark. Here is where I felt the best so far during the event. I felt good on the hills and could hold a good pace on the flats and the miles just melted away. For a time the rain stopped and I even had a tail wind. It was 86 kilometers to the next Controle at Loudeac and I felt great. The miles just vanished under my wheels and I was making good time. Even in this dark section there were people out on the road cheering us on in the middle of the night. Some were even giving out hot chocolate and coffee to the riders, so I stopped at one of these for a warm drink. The riders were quite spread out now and the large groups that were common earlier in the ride were gone. The line of red lights ahead of seemed to lead on to the horizon. At km 75 in this section something happened, though I am still trying to figure out just what. My stomach was starting to revolt but I tried to ignore it. I pulled into the Controle at Loudeac at 1:14 in the morning. I was about 27 hours into the ride, had slept for 15 minutes total, and have come 452 kilometers from the start.

Many cyclists mark their progress in an event with miles or hours or some fixed unit of measure. By this point in the event we are marking our journey with showers and cloudbursts as measurements. A remark like “remember that little village three rains ago” seemed perfectly normal. The rain is relentless. When we pass through the forest we get big drops from the trees, when we pass through the fields we wind blown drops in our face, when we ride through the villages the rain comes up at us from below.

We approach Tintineac late in the afternoon. Navigating to the controle point through these towns is not straightforward but we follow the little arrows with some success. This Controle is very busy like the others and we feel like we are losing time when we try and get food. You must eat first and then rest. Here, we are very tired and after a bite to eat we try to lay down for a rest. Inside the eating area we find a flat spot out of the rain, but that the carpet is wet and a little squishy. However, we are away from the rain and wind so we go ahead and lay down anyway. 15 horizontal minutes is all we can manage but it helps us a lot. 366 kilometers and 19 hours into our event we still feel pretty good.

At the start we had a little bit of rain but no one took it seriously, after all we were all randonneurs and we can handle a little rain right? But about 2 hours into the ride it just started to pour and it did not quit. We have fenders, we have rain-gear, we have good gloves, helmet covers, you name it. We are prepared for whatever weather may come but these rains were approaching biblical proportions. As we entered villages the rain was channeled into the narrow streets. You may have heard that wet cobblestones are slippery, but flooded cobbles are much more treacherous. In the dark streets you cannot see the hazards and there were any wrecks as a result. The rain continued through the night and it was still raining heavily at first light.

The above photo was taken at a little village about 3 hours into the ride where the town was waiting for us. It was not an official control point but many people stopped to take advantage of the hospitability of the locals.

At the Controle at Fougere I was able to eat a little more and started feeling better again. It was mid-day now and I had gotten over my sleepy spell from early this morning. The sun started to come out a little so we took the opportunity to shed some clothes and get down to our base layers. We dried out pretty quickly as we rode and the sun had a good effect on mind and body.

We passed through so many villages whose names I cannot remember but I can still see the faces of the people who came out to cheer us on our way. On occasion the children would hold up their hand for you to touch as you passed. They would offer us encouragement in the form of “Bravo” or “Courage”. It is amazing how helpful these small words can be!

Well, we went down to the Stadium where the riders were gathering to meet for the start of the event. Traffic was tightly controlled and we were directed into a queue which led us into the stadium. We were guided through the document inspection and a brief bike inspection to our start wave. There was an ominous sign for us though as we waited, it started to rain. Not heavy but enough to prompt us to put on the rain gear. We would be in the fourth wave of 500 riders to start the event. Once our wave was assembled at the start line we had speeches from local dignitaries until the cannon shot off and we departed.

The people lining the street to see us off were reminiscent of what you see at the Tour de France. People shouting Bon Voyage, and Bonne Route! It was a wonderful moment that, where at 10;30 at night there were so many thousands of well wishers waiting to see us depart. As we moved out of the towns and into the villages the crowds were just as enthusiastic though fewer in number. Once we moved into the countryside the magic continued as the route was illuminated by thousands of bicycle headlights that in some places you could see marking the route for miles ahead.

One of our last jobs is to get our drop bags checked in and to make sure that they go to the correct locations. We will depend very heavily on the supplies that we send ahead in these bags to sustain us in our effort.

We are heading down to the starting area very soon now. We are as well prepared as we can be and will trust to luck for the rest. We expect to return either late Thursday night or Friday morning some time. Our cut off time is 4:00 pm on Friday so we must be in by then. We will not post any entries until our return but you can still keep track of us as we progress through the ride. If you go to www.rusa.org and follow the links to track a rider you can see where we are on the course. My rider # is 4841 and Clair’s is 4879. You should be able to enter just that to find us or you can put in our names if you have trouble. Wish us luck and Bon Voyage!

Checking in our drop bags in front of our hotel. Friends in this picture include Clair, Karen, Mike, Cynthia, Gerry. Several others are out of photo.

 

Okay, tonight we went back to the Tex Mex place for dinner. We ate fajitas with a French margarita, a Spanish beer, Crème Brule and coffee to finish. That may sound like a strange combination to you but I will tell you that it worked pretty well for us. I know that you think we came to France to ride bikes and we have. All of this pre-ride preparation is a necessary part of the event and will help us in the difficult days ahead.On a less cheerful note we have heard of several people (including some friends) who have had crashed and injured themselves while riding here. Some will be unable to participate and are very sad. We ourselves are being extra careful and hope to avoid their fate.

Today is the first real day of the event and begins with a scheduled bike inspection for all riders. As we go downstairs we see that it is raining pretty hard outside and the forecast is for rain all day. After breakfast we go back up to our room to get ready for this verification that we have all of the required equipment and that our bikes are fit for the event. We do not exactly know what to expect but we go ahead and get our bikes in order and pack our lights, helmets and reflective gear along with us. We go down to the start area which is about 1 km from our hotel at our designated time. Clair is scheduled for an 8:45 am inspection and I for 9:00 am. As we enter the stadium we are told that the bike inspection has been cancelled. So much for meeting this bureaucratic challenge! I guess the bike inspectors had no umbrellas. We are able to pick up our documents however and get checked in.

The document pick up area is quite an international affair. Check in is arranged by country and we are directed to the US table. We are still bumping into people we know from events at home but it is clear this is no local event. It somewhat resembles an international convention for bike geeks. Every known language being spoken and every type of person imaginable is seen. We saw a man carrying a large flag with a Camel on it but it was unclear to us if he was from some middle eastern country or a cigarette salesman. After check in we purchased some shirts and posters, posed for some photographs with friends and then departed.

Our goal today was to see some of the countryside and get some miles in on the bike. We set out on a 30 mile or so loop, plotting a course past ancient churches, castles and little villages. We seemed to have stumbled upon a favorite route of local cyclists and saw many riders out today. About halfway through our ride we stopped at a café in a little village. The sun was out and we were thirsty so it seemed to us that beers were in order. Always happy to try and honor the local customs we enjoyed our drinks and then carried on. Winding through forests and villages we navigated our way back to town without getting very lost. There are now many more riders in town and you cannot turn a corner without encountering dozens of cyclists.

Also, for those who would like to know, I have personally sampled many varieties of wine here so far and all have passed the test. This either means the wines are very good or my standards are very low!

Today was our tourist day in Paris. Just outside of our hotel is the train station, so we only had to walk 100 meters to get on our train. We exited the train at the Eiffel Tower station which by coincidence is just at the base of the tower itself. Basically, from our hotel we had to walk 300 meters or so to get to the Eiffel Tower. The tower along with the Arc de Triomphe were both “must see” stops on Clair’s list. I had been to both just last year but they are always fun places to go. We also walked down the Champs de Elysees to see some of the key points on the last stage of the Tour de France that we have all seen on TV.

Coming back to our hotel, today was a big day as many cyclists arrived for the event. We have bumped into many friends just walking in and out of the hotel and there are wall to wall bikes and bike cases in the storage rooms. We will head out again later tonight and see who else we run into.

We got the bikes assembled yesterday but didn’t take them out for a spin. Today though we thought we should get them checked out on the road and see some local sights in the process. First this morning, we rode out to a bike shop a little west of here to check on and see if they had some items that we wanted. It was a large shop called Mondo-Velo but seemed to be out of many items so we didn’t get what we were looking for. Navigation the local roads was certainly a challenge but we did manage to find our way there and back.

This afternoon we rode over to Versailles to see what we could. Some places around the Palace they would not allow bikes but we did get onto the Palace grounds and see some of it. The place is huge, many thousands of acres with lots of people sightseeing. Not really a good place for a bike because of the people, and you cant go everywhere with it, but the place is so large that it is very far to walk. Hmmm…

When in France one must eat! Tonight we chose to eat where many of the locals dined, at the El Rancho Tex Mex restaurant. It was better than expected and quite busy. Clair had a “Desperado” beer and I had a Spanish brew on tap. Our only complaint was we had a skimpy portion of Salsa, but the rest was good!

It is Ascension Day here in France, apparently that is a national holiday so all of the stores are closed. I do not know what the Ascension is about, maybe someone can tell us.

 

If you detected a note of annoyance in my previous posts as to our experience so far in this trip I must update our condition. Delta has upgraded us to First Class for the trans-Atlantic leg of our journey, and things have taken a dramatic turn for the better as a result. For those who have not yet traveled First Class all I can say is that I can highly recommend it. We are on schedule to arrive in Paris at 6:20 am, one day later than scheduled. We hated to give up the day but this is pretty good compensation for our inconvenience

So, as compensation for our difficulties in our trip this far Delta has bumped us up to Business Class travel. This means we have better seats for our flight and we get to use the special lounge here in Atlanta where we are now waiting for our Paris flight. Drinks are complimentary and we have internet access while we wait. So, we are drinking and surfing in Atlanta!

We had to stay over in Cincinnati and Delta put us up at the Sheraton for the night. They paid for our meals as well. While at breakfast this morning though we thought we would rather be eating croissants in Paris right now!

Okay, things were looking good when we got on the plane in Vegas and we taxied out onto the runway. Shortly later however we returned to the terminal with radio problems. After an hour delay we finally got into the air and were on our way to Cincinnati where we were to change planes to Paris. New problem, we missed our connection. They rescheduled us for a departure tomorrow but now have to go to Atlanta then on to Paris. We will see how it all works out in the end but for now we are still in transit………..

Okay, the first leg of the journey is done and we are at the airport. Our bags passed inspection and so have we. After a bite to eat we have found ourselves some seats near the gate with an electrical outlet for the computer. It took some time to get checked in but we were just ahead of a big rush of tourists so our timing was good. Now there is nothing to do but wait for the plane.

Okay, the bags are packed and anything I could possibly imagine needing for a 760 mile bike ride in France is included. As a matter of fact, my bags are so full that I may exceed the allowable weight limits for luggage! But, I have taken nothing that is un-neccassary and I hope that I have not forgotten anything important. Gone are the days when I used to travel for months out of a single shoulder bag.

I have found a couple of definitions for the word  baggage and I am unsure of which one applies to in this circumstance. First there is the common “trunks, suitcases, etc.,” but then there is “things that encumber one’s freedom”. Until we get to Paris I believe it will be the latter.