May 10 2019 Preparing to depart

May 10, 2019


Preparing to Depart for France   


It is hard to believe but I am about to depart on my 2019 bike tour.  It seems like just a short time ago when Robert Dunn a.k.a Aussie Bob, Ken Teague and I were sitting in a pub in Lake Placid when the idea of doing a ride in southern France was hatched.  Last summer we were riding on Coast to Coast ride and had a day off in Lake Placid and what better thing to do than have a beer and talk about rides.

I agreed to set it up and so over the last several months I have booked the rooms, rented a car and built all of the routes.  It has been a lot of work but then it has been fun exploring the area through the marvel of the internet.  The little Google man has been put down in 10,000 spots to look at where to turn, what are the road conditions, does this look like a good hotel, is there too much traffic, and on and on.  So the work is all behind me now and now it is almost time to embark on the adventure. We even have team jerseys for the tour.

The adventures start on Sunday when Agnes and I drive to Vancouver where we overnight before flying to Marseille.  It is a twenty four day tour from when depart to when we return.  There are actually only 21 days in France.  The tour is 1605 kms long and has a total climb of 16,138 meters. This is over a course of 15 ride days, so that the average day in 107 kms and 1075 meters climb.  I had thought this was going to be an easier tour when I started work on it but it looks like it has turned into a tough tour.  The longest day is 141 kms and 2300 meters of climb. 

There are going to be lots of highlights, such as staying right in the castle at Carcassonne, riding a couple of the French Balcony roads and so on but I don’t want to give away too much right now. 

The participants on the tour are Agnes as the driver and Ken Teague’s wife, Judy as the navigator.  This leaves Ken, Aussie Bob and I riding.  We are calling this the Pathfinder tour as Judy’s father served in this area of France in WW2 in Pathfinder regiment.

I am taking my Surly Long Haul Trucker on this tour. Surly is an all steel touring bike which is very well equipped for this tour as it has 32 mm tires, a triple crank on the front and an 11-32 rear cassette.  Surly has been with me on a lot of my tours dating back to my first Coast to Coast. 

But enough blather here is a map:
 

Thanks for following along

Terry