Category: London to Paris
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Made it
pic.twitter.com/G2deq0VpGW — DJ Feldmeyer (@djfoheso) May 1, 2016 Made it. By the skin of my butt. I seriously considered retiring after the first day. I was cold, miserable, tired, and I’d been holding the rest of the group back. Everyone was encouraging. “Tomorrow will be better” was the continual litany. Some tough lessons learned: I’m…
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Here’s Al Sleet, the hippy-dippy weatherman
A look at the forecasts today opened my eyes a bit more than I’d hoped: the highs in France (Days 2 & 3 of the ride) are about 5 degrees lower than I’d expected from the long-range forecasts in February. OK, so make that two T-shirts under the (not actually) waterproof windbreaker. Pretty much finished…
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Chris Hoy Shizuoka
My borrowed ride: The size looks just right. It’s ridden on a regular basis, so it should be in good repair. It does look like the chain could use a cleaning and oiling, though.
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32 hours
A flurry of activity, and I think we’re almost ready. I’m leaving for London in 32 hours. I’ll be tweeting from the road: twitter.com/djfoheso
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I’ve got a bike!
Fearless leader Joe has located a bike in London for me, so I don’t need to cart Ol’ Paint half-way ’round the world. This is excellent news! Details to come.
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Brighton microdirections
Ride along Brighton seafront (there’s a cycle lane) as far as the marina. Continue straight through the marina leaving Asda on your left. At the end cross the bridge over the lock and turn right towards the sea wall. Take the path behind the chandler’s inland towards the undercliff path, then swing right and follow…
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How to Travel with a Bike on Eurostar
Friend Jonathan points to this link. If you’ve got a bag and can fit your bike in it at less than 85cm total length (both wheels off, and perhaps the handlebars, methinks) then it travels with you at no extra cost. Options for the bike traveling separately in a box are available for reasonable rates.…
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Practice!
Où est la Tour Eiffel? As the famous joke goes: How do I get to Carnegie Hall? Practice! I had two years of French in junior high school, from an American teacher whose accent was indubitably far from formidable. Since that time, I’ve had a year of college German, and then more than 25 years…
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Hominid vs the elements
It’s a sad commentary on the state of pro cycling that a competitor in a sanctioned race using an electric motor is termed “mechanical doping”. The technology has been around for years, of course, and recent advances in batteries bring us to the point of packing 100W of power into a water bottle-sized package. That…