Day 47. 55mi to Goumois, on the French-Swiss border. Tomorrow we leave Jura. Happy to have met this cow.
Day 46. Cool mist turned to frigid rain, forecast to persist through the day. We caught a train to Pontarlier after 20 miles. Yesterday was Champagnole to cheer on the stage 7 start of Le Tour Femme and join the local club for a “Cyclo Rando”, which departed behind the team car caravan. The jerseys were a nice touch too.
Days 42-45. 123mi around France’s strange and wonderful Jura. Mist hangs in mountains and hovers over fields. Despite a holiday festival and a major sporting event, it feels otherwise empty.
Days 40 & 41. 80 miles to Morez where we’ll spend a few days riding unloaded in France’s Haut Jura. The last few days have been some of the best riding of the trip, so I’m really looking forward to fully exploring the region.
Day 39. Another blistering hot day, 43mi cleaved in two by Col du Clergeon. While a stiff climb from the east, the descent packs 15 switchbacks into five breath taking miles, ending in the vineyards below. But now I’m out of @bikesaviours stickers.
Day 38. 55mi to Annecy. Hot, dry, still. Shady trees and a snow capped Mont Blanc taunt me from afar.
Days 36 & 37. 102mi of easy rolling on the Rhône below sun scorched vineyards to Lake Geneva and into France. Funicular at sundown, ferrying sun scorched beach goers back up to town.
This one is for @bikesaviours and @communitycycles After 62 hours and 548 miles, Jenn’s shifting failed. The rear derailleur’s unserviceable parallelogram spring had snapped. This left Jenn with 2 gears, as she still had the derailleur to pull tension for front shifting. But if she shifted the cassette down, she wouldn’t be able to upshift. PBP is non-stop hills, and muscle memory is strong. The first “fix” was a couple bands of old tube. While I rigged the derailleur, Jenn called a shop in Fougeres, 40mi away. A few miles later we switched to an elastic cord salvaged from Jenn’s bag, tied to a brake boss. When we arrived at the shop all they had was a SRAM 1x derailleur, which the mechanic thought he could get working even though it didn’t have the take up for a double. It was a no-go. She could have the big chainring or the small, but not both. We’d been there for an hour, and needed to get rolling. The broken derailleur went back on. Having seen the elastic cord solution, the mechanic dug around and found some sturdy rubber bands that I attached with a zip tie. That gave Jenn 9 of 11 rear gears, which she rode another 215 miles, to the the end of Paris Brest Paris. Nicely done Jenn
Paris Brest Paris is, bittersweetly, over. Finished in 85h05m with a couple nights of pretty good sleep, and more than 2 hours dealing with a freak mechanical. Post on that coming later.
In Dreux. 4am. Mind good. Body good. 20 minute nap. Coffee. 26mi to go. Back on the bike!
