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Bike Europe Blog
Day 9: Venarey les Laumes - Nolay
By KevinAnother day, another great adventure. The day got of to a slow start due to the fact that we were walking around like zombies trying to figure out where we were and whom we are. As soon as the porridge and tea were downed with no complaints, we were on our way leaving John and Jules to pack everything into the van. 5 miles into the ride we realized (Daniel realized) we were going the wrong way so we contemplated on what to do for a few minutes and made the decision of going back to the campsite where John and buddy Jules were still packing. Being
the baby of the group Daniel ran to John for directions crying his eyes out....
Daniel-"John we got lost please help us I don't know which way to go" John- "Toughen up young Daniel don't cry, listen carefully this is what I want u to do, march into that van get the right directions and cycle out of this campsite with pride" Daniel-"Ok"
John- "Now go boy!!" Daniel-"AAAAAA!!"
After that scene had ended and started cycling again we stepped into another scene, misty damp lanes which looked like a horror movie. To make things better it started to rain heavily and Daniel (also known as the baby of the group) decided to go for a wee half way up a mountain (not one of his wisest decisions). When we reached the top of the in climb we were at 1500ft(impressive, I think so). As we were going down the descent Daniel realized his brakes were a bit dodgy and reduced his pace to a minimum. As we clocked up the miles in the bucketing rain Daniel realized I had a puncture so we had stop by the side of the road and mend my back wheel within seconds (it actually took a couple of minutes). Daniel feeling proud of himself for repairing my tyre, gets a puncture few minutes back into the action, but luckily we didn't have to stop due to the fact that John was around the corner in Atac (supermarket). I can't describe the feeling you get when your eyes set gaze on the van (and John) in the pouring rain, knowing there is food and warmth (metaphorical warmth) makes you speed up that more. As we indulged (I mean stuffed) ourselves in pain a chocolat and croissants, soup etc I started getting hypothermia I think, all I know is that I was really cold (my muscles were contracting, it was amazing).
Break over and we were on our way, you'll never guess what happened next...Daniel got another puncture just minutes after we left (curse of the baby). As we were zooming along it seemed we were going slower, no one knew why, but I did, because we were riding up WHOOPING HIGH hills. Despite all of that we managed to make great riding time. As we got closer to the site, the group accidentally split. Paul went on ahead and found the campsite, Mathew on the other hand zoomed straight passed the camping sign enjoying the speedy decent. However Daniel and me were cool and calm dealing with the situation well and responsibly (not) Daniel had another tantrum screaming down the phone to John...
Daniel-"We've lost Paul and Mathew, me and Kevin are coming to the campsite so we can and tell you everything"
John-"Pull yourself together lad, Paul has made it to the campsite looks like we've lost young Crisp, I'll get Jules to patrol the area"
Daniel-"AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!,ok"
We were all really jubilant because we all knew the next day was going to be a restful rest day. The campsite was 3 star and had half a dozen tennis courts and smelly loos (great). As Mathew finally made it to the site (one mile later) the team is stretching and talking about Bike Newham and Bike Europe 2 (thinking ahead to the bright and prosperous future). As everybody finished chilling out we decided to partake in some mild exercise in the form of tennis. Some how we managed to lock ourselves in the tennis court and John being the ex marine decided to climb over the fence managing to tear his hideously expensive coat. As the evening dragged on I realized my wallet wasn't in my pocket, so I ran around the campsite looking far and wide (great more exercise) and finally finding out Mathew had been keeping it safe for me (mmmm). As we were getting off to bed we realized we were being taken over by an army of slugs there were everywhere, shoes, tents, clothes, van, chairs etc (I think that's it). We got over that scene of the war of the Slugs and got our sleepy heads to bed without hesitation.
Kevin
Distance: 59.98miles
Time: 4:05:28
Average Speed: 14.66mph
Weather: rainy
the baby of the group Daniel ran to John for directions crying his eyes out....
Daniel-"John we got lost please help us I don't know which way to go" John- "Toughen up young Daniel don't cry, listen carefully this is what I want u to do, march into that van get the right directions and cycle out of this campsite with pride" Daniel-"Ok"
John- "Now go boy!!" Daniel-"AAAAAA!!"
After that scene had ended and started cycling again we stepped into another scene, misty damp lanes which looked like a horror movie. To make things better it started to rain heavily and Daniel (also known as the baby of the group) decided to go for a wee half way up a mountain (not one of his wisest decisions). When we reached the top of the in climb we were at 1500ft(impressive, I think so). As we were going down the descent Daniel realized his brakes were a bit dodgy and reduced his pace to a minimum. As we clocked up the miles in the bucketing rain Daniel realized I had a puncture so we had stop by the side of the road and mend my back wheel within seconds (it actually took a couple of minutes). Daniel feeling proud of himself for repairing my tyre, gets a puncture few minutes back into the action, but luckily we didn't have to stop due to the fact that John was around the corner in Atac (supermarket). I can't describe the feeling you get when your eyes set gaze on the van (and John) in the pouring rain, knowing there is food and warmth (metaphorical warmth) makes you speed up that more. As we indulged (I mean stuffed) ourselves in pain a chocolat and croissants, soup etc I started getting hypothermia I think, all I know is that I was really cold (my muscles were contracting, it was amazing).
Break over and we were on our way, you'll never guess what happened next...Daniel got another puncture just minutes after we left (curse of the baby). As we were zooming along it seemed we were going slower, no one knew why, but I did, because we were riding up WHOOPING HIGH hills. Despite all of that we managed to make great riding time. As we got closer to the site, the group accidentally split. Paul went on ahead and found the campsite, Mathew on the other hand zoomed straight passed the camping sign enjoying the speedy decent. However Daniel and me were cool and calm dealing with the situation well and responsibly (not) Daniel had another tantrum screaming down the phone to John...
Daniel-"We've lost Paul and Mathew, me and Kevin are coming to the campsite so we can and tell you everything"
John-"Pull yourself together lad, Paul has made it to the campsite looks like we've lost young Crisp, I'll get Jules to patrol the area"
Daniel-"AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!,ok"
We were all really jubilant because we all knew the next day was going to be a restful rest day. The campsite was 3 star and had half a dozen tennis courts and smelly loos (great). As Mathew finally made it to the site (one mile later) the team is stretching and talking about Bike Newham and Bike Europe 2 (thinking ahead to the bright and prosperous future). As everybody finished chilling out we decided to partake in some mild exercise in the form of tennis. Some how we managed to lock ourselves in the tennis court and John being the ex marine decided to climb over the fence managing to tear his hideously expensive coat. As the evening dragged on I realized my wallet wasn't in my pocket, so I ran around the campsite looking far and wide (great more exercise) and finally finding out Mathew had been keeping it safe for me (mmmm). As we were getting off to bed we realized we were being taken over by an army of slugs there were everywhere, shoes, tents, clothes, van, chairs etc (I think that's it). We got over that scene of the war of the Slugs and got our sleepy heads to bed without hesitation.
Kevin
Distance: 59.98miles
Time: 4:05:28
Average Speed: 14.66mph
Weather: rainy
Day 10 - Rest Day in Nolay
By DanielThis is my second attempt at writing this as Matthew saved over the previous version - which was of course a hilarious and potentially award winning piece of literature. Ill try and do something as good again but no promises!
Thank you Kevin for that interesting take on the previous day's activities - I'm sure there is some kind of reality filter between Kevin and the real world. I think it strips out all the reality and replaces it with stuff that is far more interesting!
Ok so our 2nd rest day of Bike Europe. We had a lay in this morning as we deserve one - its not easy getting up at 6am every morning!
I attempted to treat the team to a fry up but unfortunately I couldn't quite get the timing right (not helped by the gas running out on one of the stoves half way through) and some people had two mini fry ups. It tasted alright though and it was a welcome change from John's porridge (Which of course we love John).
After breakfast we did what we do best and lazed around. We are particularly good at the dozing and eating part and some of us even like to challenge ourselves intellectually - I'm currently reading the first Harry Potter book, for ages 9-11.
By about 11am I'd got bored of doing nothing and starting looking for something constructive to do. As Kevin mentioned our brakes no longer work in the wet which led to an interesting descent down the mountain yesterday so I decided to change my brake pads. The bike was also looking more black than yellow so I thought I'd treat it to a wash.
The brushes we use to clean the bikes like to flick grease and brake dust everywhere and as I was wearing a white t-shirt I went topless, it was also an opportunity to show off my stripy cycling kit tan - see photos.
Amazingly within 20 mins of starting I had attracted a following of Bike Europe team members all attempting to copy what I was doing with varying degrees of success. There were wheels strewn around the pitch and all brake blocks had been removed. An hour later there are still 3 bikes with no brake blocks and one without wheels but at least one of them is looking slightly more yellow. Another hour passes and still very little progress has been made - I don't know what they were doing but whatever it was it wasn't happening very quickly.
By 2pm we are all really hungry so John and Jules go and get us some chips from the campsite cafe. The plan is to leave for Chagny and Decathlon by 3pm but as the bikes are still in pieces I can't see that happening.
It gets to 3.30pm and we decide to go and finish the bikes later. Kevin gets to ride on Jules' motorbike and he gets dressed up in all the gear. For some reason this makes him stand like a teapot and look very unmanly although it does look like he has doubled his body mass.
During my accidental discovery of the internet in the hotel I managed to make a list of Decathlon stores along our route. I know there was one in a town beginning with a C in this area and we head into Chagny expecting it to be there. As we drive into the pretty rural French town I start to question whether this is really Decathlon teritory... it must be around here somewhere, any way they have a SUPER LAV so its worth stopping.
We park up outside the Hotel de Ville and take our stinky washing down to SUPER LAV. Once its going we wander around trying to find the Decathlon... no sign so we stop in a cafe for drinks. By chance the cafe has free WiFi (apparantly pronounced Wiffy en Francais) and we check football scores, emails and update the blog (in that order, we have our priorities you know!). In the cafe I check my list of Decathlon stores and see that its actually in Chalon-sur-Seine, the next town along. Doh. Its only 20 miles down the road and Chagny is nice so its not a wasted journey.
After a couple of rounds of coke and a chat to the waitor about Bike Europe we collect our washing. The kit is no longer really smelly in places its just quite smelly all over which I suppose is an improvement. I think we'll have to boil wash them when we get home.
We drive down to Chalon-sur-Seine which looks much more like Decathlon country and we find it over the river on a huge retail park. In the store the team find the full carbon top-of-the-range model and ask if we can have that for Bike Europe II. I didn't even know there was a Bike Europe II but that sounds good to me! They all now seem to have a genuine interest in bikes which is really good.
The last few days in the rain have been really cold so we try on some rather fetching base layers and add them to the basket - this does mean the temperature wont drop below 30* again now.
We are all wearing our Bike Europe t-shirts with the Decathlon logos which attracts a bit of interest from the staff and customers.
The boys manage to get themselves told off for playing football in the aisles, you really can't take them anywhere!
Probably the best discovery in the store was a relief map of France. It was very interesting to see what we have acheived and what we still have to do. It was also a relief to see the valley we were aiming for actually exists and we have avoided some serious mountains. We need to get one of these maps and put it up in the Swift with our route on.
After paying for our shopping and trying to explain what a wash bag is to the cashier we head outside into the empty car park. The ideal opportunity for some publicity shots.
By now we are all starving and its 8.30pm so we head off in search of some carbohydrates. The first restaurant we find is expensive, busy and serves no pasta so we resort to the safe option of McDs. They may even have some wiffy for us to borrow. Jules refuses to contaminate his body with non Michelin starred cuisine and heads back to Chagny for some nouvelle cuisine.
After we have eaten the boys get online to check the football results - not good though, West Ham have lost to Man City on the first day of the season. Great.
Anyway back to the campsite in the dark - its now gone 10pm - and there are still bikes that need putting back together. Its only the brakes though, nothing important.
For some reason we are all wide awake now, must be the sugar rush from the McDs, and we dont really want to go to bed. So Matthew and Paul make some pretty long exposure photos with the frizbee before heading off to watch some fellow campers set off fireworks.
The lure of the frizbee is too much for the firework family and the adults join in our game leaving the children to do the fireworks - surely thats not right. We play for a good half hour with my favourite moment being the throw to Kevin that he jumped for and then disappeared out of sight down a ditch. Not long after that the frizbee ends up in the locked tennis court and the French family immediately go into their 'breaking and entering' mode. They round up their family and a couple of us and proceed to tear the fence away from the posts before sending their smallest under the fence to retrieve the frizbee - they've clearly done this before. Hopefully the sound of pinging metal doesn't mean too much damage has been done to the fence - doesn't matter anyway we'll be long gone by the time anyone else is awake. This is a natural end to the night's fun and we head back to the tents.
Kevin wakes John by asking him if he is awake which he isn't best pleased about as its now 11.45pm and he has to be up at 5.30am to do our porridge... its not like making porridge takes much skill! Isn't it just make some wet stuff warm and add the oats?
Or maybe that was Clive's recipe...
Bed.
Daniel
Thank you Kevin for that interesting take on the previous day's activities - I'm sure there is some kind of reality filter between Kevin and the real world. I think it strips out all the reality and replaces it with stuff that is far more interesting!
Ok so our 2nd rest day of Bike Europe. We had a lay in this morning as we deserve one - its not easy getting up at 6am every morning!
I attempted to treat the team to a fry up but unfortunately I couldn't quite get the timing right (not helped by the gas running out on one of the stoves half way through) and some people had two mini fry ups. It tasted alright though and it was a welcome change from John's porridge (Which of course we love John).
After breakfast we did what we do best and lazed around. We are particularly good at the dozing and eating part and some of us even like to challenge ourselves intellectually - I'm currently reading the first Harry Potter book, for ages 9-11.
By about 11am I'd got bored of doing nothing and starting looking for something constructive to do. As Kevin mentioned our brakes no longer work in the wet which led to an interesting descent down the mountain yesterday so I decided to change my brake pads. The bike was also looking more black than yellow so I thought I'd treat it to a wash.
The brushes we use to clean the bikes like to flick grease and brake dust everywhere and as I was wearing a white t-shirt I went topless, it was also an opportunity to show off my stripy cycling kit tan - see photos.
Amazingly within 20 mins of starting I had attracted a following of Bike Europe team members all attempting to copy what I was doing with varying degrees of success. There were wheels strewn around the pitch and all brake blocks had been removed. An hour later there are still 3 bikes with no brake blocks and one without wheels but at least one of them is looking slightly more yellow. Another hour passes and still very little progress has been made - I don't know what they were doing but whatever it was it wasn't happening very quickly.
By 2pm we are all really hungry so John and Jules go and get us some chips from the campsite cafe. The plan is to leave for Chagny and Decathlon by 3pm but as the bikes are still in pieces I can't see that happening.
It gets to 3.30pm and we decide to go and finish the bikes later. Kevin gets to ride on Jules' motorbike and he gets dressed up in all the gear. For some reason this makes him stand like a teapot and look very unmanly although it does look like he has doubled his body mass.
During my accidental discovery of the internet in the hotel I managed to make a list of Decathlon stores along our route. I know there was one in a town beginning with a C in this area and we head into Chagny expecting it to be there. As we drive into the pretty rural French town I start to question whether this is really Decathlon teritory... it must be around here somewhere, any way they have a SUPER LAV so its worth stopping.
We park up outside the Hotel de Ville and take our stinky washing down to SUPER LAV. Once its going we wander around trying to find the Decathlon... no sign so we stop in a cafe for drinks. By chance the cafe has free WiFi (apparantly pronounced Wiffy en Francais) and we check football scores, emails and update the blog (in that order, we have our priorities you know!). In the cafe I check my list of Decathlon stores and see that its actually in Chalon-sur-Seine, the next town along. Doh. Its only 20 miles down the road and Chagny is nice so its not a wasted journey.
After a couple of rounds of coke and a chat to the waitor about Bike Europe we collect our washing. The kit is no longer really smelly in places its just quite smelly all over which I suppose is an improvement. I think we'll have to boil wash them when we get home.
We drive down to Chalon-sur-Seine which looks much more like Decathlon country and we find it over the river on a huge retail park. In the store the team find the full carbon top-of-the-range model and ask if we can have that for Bike Europe II. I didn't even know there was a Bike Europe II but that sounds good to me! They all now seem to have a genuine interest in bikes which is really good.
The last few days in the rain have been really cold so we try on some rather fetching base layers and add them to the basket - this does mean the temperature wont drop below 30* again now.
We are all wearing our Bike Europe t-shirts with the Decathlon logos which attracts a bit of interest from the staff and customers.
The boys manage to get themselves told off for playing football in the aisles, you really can't take them anywhere!
Probably the best discovery in the store was a relief map of France. It was very interesting to see what we have acheived and what we still have to do. It was also a relief to see the valley we were aiming for actually exists and we have avoided some serious mountains. We need to get one of these maps and put it up in the Swift with our route on.
After paying for our shopping and trying to explain what a wash bag is to the cashier we head outside into the empty car park. The ideal opportunity for some publicity shots.
By now we are all starving and its 8.30pm so we head off in search of some carbohydrates. The first restaurant we find is expensive, busy and serves no pasta so we resort to the safe option of McDs. They may even have some wiffy for us to borrow. Jules refuses to contaminate his body with non Michelin starred cuisine and heads back to Chagny for some nouvelle cuisine.
After we have eaten the boys get online to check the football results - not good though, West Ham have lost to Man City on the first day of the season. Great.
Anyway back to the campsite in the dark - its now gone 10pm - and there are still bikes that need putting back together. Its only the brakes though, nothing important.
For some reason we are all wide awake now, must be the sugar rush from the McDs, and we dont really want to go to bed. So Matthew and Paul make some pretty long exposure photos with the frizbee before heading off to watch some fellow campers set off fireworks.
The lure of the frizbee is too much for the firework family and the adults join in our game leaving the children to do the fireworks - surely thats not right. We play for a good half hour with my favourite moment being the throw to Kevin that he jumped for and then disappeared out of sight down a ditch. Not long after that the frizbee ends up in the locked tennis court and the French family immediately go into their 'breaking and entering' mode. They round up their family and a couple of us and proceed to tear the fence away from the posts before sending their smallest under the fence to retrieve the frizbee - they've clearly done this before. Hopefully the sound of pinging metal doesn't mean too much damage has been done to the fence - doesn't matter anyway we'll be long gone by the time anyone else is awake. This is a natural end to the night's fun and we head back to the tents.
Kevin wakes John by asking him if he is awake which he isn't best pleased about as its now 11.45pm and he has to be up at 5.30am to do our porridge... its not like making porridge takes much skill! Isn't it just make some wet stuff warm and add the oats?
Or maybe that was Clive's recipe...
Bed.
Daniel
