Excuse posting here as not strictly touring, having previously taken my old MTB, this year I took my road bike on the family hols to the Vendee in France and sneaked out for a few early morning rides before the wife and children got up. What an absolute joy - smooth roads, no pot holes (well only a couple of v.small ones in 100+ miles), little traffic, nice fast and undulating routes and lovely countryside. After spotting a Roubaix on top of her car, spoke to a lady leaving the campsite totally depressed at the thought of returning home to pot holes, busy roads, with cars forcing us into the gutter and now I'm feeling the same. As a bit of a coward when it comes to speed, I even managed to nudge 30 mph (well 29.7mph according to the Cateye Velo very generously donated by Jimboalee). Only gripe was that despite my cheery greetings, most of the French cyclists I passed didn't seem keen on returning pleasantries. Maybe cycling is more a matter of course there than here where I find all cyclists I come across at the weekend cheerily greet one another when out for a ride. Or maybe it was fashion snobbery looking down at my modest plain cyling jersey, where it seemed every over-weight, middle aged cyclislt in France was clad top to bottom in lairy team colours :-)
Cycling in France - what a joy
- Thread starter Willo
- Start date
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snorri
Legendary Member
- Location
- East coast, up a bit.
It's not a case of France being particularly good for cycling, it's the UK that is close to the bottom of the cycle friendly league in Europe.
Crankarm
Guru
- Location
- Nr Cambridge
Courage, chapeau!
But don't often do it.
On Route Nationales - yes. But not my experience in rural Normandy.
Not so many 4x4s either ...
roadies are roadies all over the world! !
That's oddly not my experience though. To be fair, it's not that often I meet other cyclists on the road (it's obviously happens more frequently this time of year than during the winter) but, when I do, there's normally acknowledgement of some sort.
I saw a lad in full RadioShack kit yesterday. That did surprise me. It's usually their own club colours, or a pro team jersey. I think this is the first time I've seen full pro kit on anyone outside of the actual team! That said, it was the Classic de L'Indre here on Sunday, and RadioShack were riding... so maybe he WAS in the team!!
Honestly though, it did cross my mind that he was a tourist, and not French!
Have been too depressed being back at work to compound my post-holiday blues by a pot-holed commute after the smooth French roads. Think I'll leave it until next week!
!
That's oddly not my experience though. To be fair, it's not that often I meet other cyclists on the road (it's obviously happens more frequently this time of year than during the winter) but, when I do, there's normally acknowledgement of some sort.
I saw a lad in full RadioShack kit yesterday. That did surprise me. It's usually their own club colours, or a pro team jersey. I think this is the first time I've seen full pro kit on anyone outside of the actual team! That said, it was the Classic de L'Indre here on Sunday, and RadioShack were riding... so maybe he WAS in the team!!
Honestly though, it did cross my mind that he was a tourist, and not French!
In fairness, I let what looked like a local club group pass at a junction during my last ride on Sunday and the lead rider was very cheery in greeting me in French. And, of course, being in the Vendee during August, it's highly possible that others I passed during my 2 weeks were tourists like me. I'm deffo going to get a more glam jersey for next year's hols; I'm usually quite conscious going into shops etc. in my black lycra shorts but the older and, dare I say it, overweight Dutch and French guys on my campsite were happy lauding it in their brightly coloured lycra outfits.
