Red terracotta roofs, sun bleached stone walls, dusty vineyard lanes. But the IKEA is still blue. Jenn and I made a multi modal run out to the big blue box in Avignon for some home essentials. Between bikes, trains and deliveries we’re slowly getting the place furnished. The electricity is finally fully functional, but internet service is still in process. Update: The furniture delivery did not go as expected. You see, in the 1400s some fancy this or that built a big wall around their castle and installed a big gate. In 1792, some folks from the next village over decided they'd had enough of that castle and tore it down, though the gate survives and remains the only passage wide enough for a van to drive though. Unfortunately IKEA's delivery partner did not bring a van. No, they brought a giant box truck that did not fit through the aforementioned 15th century passage. They offer that they could either take all the stuff away, or drop it in the street and we could sort it out. We chose the later, and sorted it out.
We’re back, and we’ll be back again, because we bought this house. Perched upon the rampart of Caromb, a lively village between Mont Ventoux and Les Dentelles de Montmirail, it has three compact levels and a cellar. The cellar is, well, rustic, but the rest is nice. Built in 1880, it’s one of the newer structures in the village center. So… what are y’all doing before PBP 2027?
Pre-departure spin on the Poudre River, Spring Creek and Mason trails. We’ll miss summer in Fort Collins yet again, but see y’all in the fall! Updates: We made it to Zurich. The bikes did not. Thanks Swiss Airlines. Sigh.
Kinda the best day of the year in Fort Collins. Made the run out to Costco with a belly full of pancakes, parfaits and breakfast tacos.
A summer solstice campout with some Fort Collins bike folks. Many thanks to Road 34 for organizing and New Belgium for supplying sixteen 12-packs for twenty seven people. Tooled out of town, over Horsetooth, up the steep south approach to Stove Prairie, and onto the dirt turn off of Buckhorn Road. With many stops for swimming, and cold malty refreshment, Saturday didn't feel like one of the hottest days of the year. The decent from camp, a few miles short of Pennock Pass, was refreshing and cool, and our small contingent of early risers was back in town before lunch on Sunday.
Early summer afternoons in the mountains are never a sure thing. Today was no exception. We dropped off the car for service and took the usual meandering dirt way up to Gold Hill, turned onto the Peak-to-Peak and dropped down into Nederland for lunch. The rain started promptly at noon. A "Severe Thunderstorm Watch" popped up a couple times, but the thunder was all-bark-no-bite. Descending Magnolia in the damp isn't my idea of a good time, but we made it back to town only mildly damp.
I guess we’re doing audax now.
I neglected to take any photos yesterday, so let's try that again.
Hit the train yet again, but that forced a detour through Whitewater Park. Perched upon a rock, a migrating cormorant. They fly over the house often, but I rarely spot them stationary in Fort Collins. Also, it’s turns out there are two different Coffee Outside groups that meet at the flower gardens on Friday morning.
Unlike an “allure libre” brevet, the Audax is less of an appreciation of the communal spirit, and rather a demand for it. In the Audax format, riders ride at a set pace with scheduled refuel and regroup points. If a rider needs a nature break, or experiences a mechanical issue, the group does not stop. The route was pretty, and most roads were low traffic, but the real standout was our Kansas City Audax hosts. At every control we found Keith waving and smiling; delivering good vibes, and great food, even in challenging conditions. Despite forecasts, Saturday’s weather was perfect, with rain only in the last few miles. Sunday was another story. The peloton departed late, waiting for a tardy rider and another that missed the “early start” announcement. The rain was steady and the wind came from every direction but behind. As some riders struggled, the rough weather may have contributed to a pair of unfortunate emotional outbursts. Despite that drama, the group worked well together, especially after lunch. “Rando math” and some pace line configuration experimentation established that we’d need to leave controls much earlier if we wanted to avoid DNFs caused by the prescribed pace, sedate as it may have seemed. As we approached the end, one rider contacted Keith to check on a ride leader who had stayed behind at lunch to help another captain: He was only 10 minutes behind the group. We decided to pull into the service station across from the finish, where we sat in the grass to wait for everyone to finish as a team.
