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A couple of weeks ago Cath and I attempted the French Divide, 2200km of mainly off-road riding from the top right corner of France to the bottom left. (Easier than trying to describe where the start and finish towns are). Limited to 150 entries, Cath was starting on the Saturday and myself on the Sunday as I'm normally a bit quicker than she is. Note the word "normally".
Registration was all quite convivial with each rider introducing themselves and explaining where they were from, etc. Then it was final packing and something to eat.
I got myself some beer goggles
These bikes didn't make it.
The start was at sunrise, 0624!
The first few Km had a lead out car, a Citroen 2CV no less. Christian Prudhomme has let himself go a bit since the end of Le Tour!
And then they were gone. In another 24hrs it would be my turn.
Sunday morning and another sunrise. Shouts of "Allez! Allez!" and we are off. It's a hell of a pace, I'd be happy with it on an unladen road bike let alone an MTB with bivy gear and kit. The lead out car pulls away but the pace doesn't let up. There's no way I can keep this going so at the first dusty farm track I stop and take a shot.
It's the last I'll see of the fast riders. The rest of the day is spent flitting between the tail enders. The route weaves in and out of the French/Belgium border. Not a problem except that this is Sunday and as one lady at a "Surprise revito" (think trail angel with a van full of water and fruit) noted "La Dimanche? La Belge dorme!
At one of the few places we found open
It turned out that I'd ride nearly 150km before finding somewhere open that served anything more than a croissant. A McDonald's on the outskirts of Seclin. It's at this point it's worth noting that this was only the fourth time in my life that I've visited a McDonald's. Fast food? Quite how a pre-packed salad can take 20 minutes to prepare is beyond me. A good job I was the only person in the queue.
Around this point we hit the pave sections used on the Paris-Roubaix race though we were doing them in the opposite direction. We didn't do all the secteurs but quite how you ride in a bunch, at speed, on a road bike along them is beyond me. I recognised a few of the corners as well as the Arenburg section with its cutting and bridge. There was a guy here with a "Allez le French Divide" board on his bike who'd ride alongside you then take shots.
Up to this point I'd been going quite well. Tucked up in my own little world following a track on the GPS screen. Then the heat turned up. While my speed in the morning was reasonable as time went on I slowed and slowed. The last 20Km to the town of Le Quesnoy seemed to take forever. When I get there there's a fair on. I find the campsite and crash out only to be woken by a firework display. ah well.
239km, 1200m climbing, 13hrs moving, 3hrs faffing
Day 2
Up and away by about 0600. If only I'd ridden another five kilometres I'd have had a nice quiet bivy in the woods. There's a lot of woods actually and for much of the day I don't see much or indeed anyone whether a rider on the event or not. Again as the day progresses the heat rises and my speed falls.
As evening approaches I get to a small town, Rocroi, the information sign shows 37C! No wonder I'm struggling. What follows next is an ace couple of km swooping through woods until a long drag up a fire road intervenes. I miss the next turning but pick it up and follow the quad bike track as it undulates along a slope. The GPS trace shows the next bit as turning sharp left. That's straight downhill! So it proved, over a kilometre of pretty steep track straight down the fall line of the slope 😮 Great fun.
Then it's more pushing and at the top of the next hill I decide to skip the last little bit and head into town to the first checkpoint. I'm just in time for food at the bar. My brevet card signed I head for the campsite.
166km, 2100m climbing, 13hrs moving, 2.5hrs faffing
Day 3
Up early again and I'm away pedalling steadily up slopes that yesterday afternoon would have seen me walking. I'm going well as I pass a fancy gateway to a big house. Common style I think, there was one like that yesterday. I look to the other side of the road to see a water storage facility and it hits me. It's the same house! I've followed the route I should have taken into town last night. Back the way I came and start again. What I didn't know was that was just to be the start of my problems for the day.
Having lost two hours I pushed on. It was already getting hot. By 11am I was in need of food. Just off route lay a town, even better there was a big sign saying "Intermarche". Time for some resupplies. I sat in the shade of an old filling station forecourt roof eating my purchases and just getting hotter and hotter. Time to move on. The route lay along the flat bottom of a valley for a few km before turning off and heading up the valley side. Only a slope of 5% but I could only just walk it. That tree at the top's got my name on it. I lay there in the shade exhausted when I hear another rider approach. We sit there numb with the heat. Eventually we push on.
After a couple more hills where the above was repeated I'd had enough. Signs for the nearby town stated that it was home to "The European beer museum". Get somewhere to kip and recharge. Even coasting downhill at 50kmh I was getting hotter. The info sign in the main square stated it was 44C 😯 Even allowing for a couple of degrees inaccuracy, it was hot.
I found a B&B - first thing was to sit in a cool shower for 20mins to try and cool down. I went into town to get something to eat but everything was shut for various reasons. The family at the B&B took pity on me and fed me an evening meal while we chatted in broken Frenglish.
116km, 1300m climbing, 8.5hrs moving, 3hrs faffing
Day 4
I wasn't sure what I was going to make of this as it passed through the battlefields around Verdun. In the event I sobbed my way through the deserted villages, one had ghostly life size images of the families who'd lived in each destroyed house another a simple stone marking the location of a home. The simple white crosses of men who died over an argument over a line on a map were similarly moving.
I arrived in Verdun too early for a proper evening meal so grabbed what I could and headed onward. I found a spot in a field overlooking a valley so settled down for the night. Or would have if half the local village hadn't used the nearby track for their evening walks and goodness knows what.
104km, 1900m climbing, 8.5hrs moving, 2.5hrs faffing
Day 5
Never quit at night, sleep on it and see how you feel in the morning. It was becoming increasingly apparent that the heat had got to me and I was managing less and less each day. With a fifteen day limit you need to be doing at least 150km a day and this first bit is the easy part. I headed back to Verdun.
Unbeknownst to me, Cath had been hit by thunderstorms on successive nights soaking all of her kit including her phone which subsequently had given up the ghost. She couldn't remember my mobile number, who remembers any number these days when the phone does it for you? The only number she could remember was her sisters so the campsite let her ring her sister who texted me what had happened. Eventually I managed to ring the site and speak to her. She was going to scratch as well. We sorted out where to meet and let the organisers know our plans.
We'd still got nearly two weeks' holiday left so decided to do a bit of touring, after a bit of touristy stuff in Reims and Paris.
Shame you didn't make it, but a very nice write-up 😀
Thanks
Love the write-up and pics.
Sounds like you both gave it an epic amount of effort. No shame in not completing it and what memories! 👍
You know what I mean, initially it's "what was I thinking, never again" then once recovered even all the achingly hard parts become a treasured memory.
I had a minor adventure on the south downs this year which I didn't even complete.lol I also managed to back track on the trail and lost hours and miles in doing so. I remember how much that totally destroyed me mentally. The 30 degrees totally killed me.... So how you coped at the temperatures you rode in I'll never know!
Now the memory brings a smile to my face. SDW.... next year you are mine! 😉
You guys doing the Divide again next year?
Great write up. I've no idea how you managed that distance on the first day carrying gear
That was actually the furthest I've ever ridden in one go on any type of bike! Some did closer to 300km.
I wasn't carrying that much kit: yellow bag on the front is most of my bivy kit, the blue strips are a pair of flip-flops; bag on the downtube is mostly spares and tools plus pole and pegs for tarp; grey top tube bag is batteries, first aid kit and a few bits and pieces; saddle bag is spare clothes; trail food in one feed bag, camera in the other.
Less than 5kg in total not including water and food. Given the heat I reckon I could have left quite a bit of the clothing behind.
Brilliant, well done. That's a proper adventure, one where you don't know the outcome.
Inspiring. I need a new adventure / goal for next year having just finished one myself.
*starts looking at maps and thinking
Great write up. You have my sympathy re the heat. We drove down thru France into Spain in our motorhome at the time you were starting and the heat around the central area was unbearable. How the hell you managed so many miles is amazing.
Well done.
A friend gave up after 1300km. The heat of the first few days did a lot of damage.
Great write up thanks - impressive stuff, let alone in the heat. How did you get on with replenishing water?
@cchris2lou - we checked TrackLeaders the other day, about a 50% drop out. Some were technical as some people couldn't load certain GPX files so couldn't follow the route.
@gonetothehills - the easiest way to replenish water was to visit cemeteries! Apparently by French law they all have to have potable water available, most villages have one. After that it was asking homeowners which I did a few times. I went through at least seven litres a day.
I'm impressed you got as far as you did - I once rode 15 miles on road in 42C heat in Australia and got through 3 litres of water. It was, for an unaccustomed Englishman, too much, and I'm normally pretty good in the heat.
There's always next year.
Very enjoyable write up though.
Are the bits you did ridable on a CX bike or does it need suspension?
5 days in the heat around here when you did it would have had me on the train on the first day, let alone 5 days. Don't feel bad, I planned to ride 200km last Friday and had a wobble at about 73, eventually making it to around 120-odd before riding past a train station with a bar and chucking it in.
@atlaz - Had a discussion about this with Samuel (one of the organisers) at the first checkpoint. The route was characterised as being borderline gravel/MTB terrain but his thoughts were that an MTB was far more suitable. The split of bikes was about 60-40 in favour of MTB. My bike is rigid and I reckon it was about half and half rigid to suspension (no FS bikes!). Being able to lock out the forks would be essential as there's a lot of road (20% of 2200Km is 440km plus a lot of the non-road bits such as canal tow paths were tarmac).
On the off-road riding I did suspension wouldn't have made much difference. One or two of the descents would have been eyes on stalks on a CX or gravel bike.
More info here (in French but Chrome will auto translate) https://www.mountnpass.com/en/evenements/french-divide-2018/
That’s brilliant, @whitestone - I’ll log that one! On a tiny scale compared to your epic, I struggled over the weekend finding water on a three day, predominantly off-road tour so am absorbing tips and tricks for next time...
I'll try to get my heroine Mrs Mugsy to write a few words of her amazing ride finishing within the 15 days!!!
With a fifteen day limit you need to be doing at least 150km a day
Does anyone else look at these numbers and think "**** that!" ? Sounds way too much like hard work for me (admiration for those that do it BTW).
I love my (old-school, fully loaded, and on-road) touring, but more than 80 miles just killed the fun for me. Nice to be able to stop and scoff baguettes, wander round any towns/tourist attractions, cook dinner and have beers in the evening.
Am I alone?
Great write up and amazing effort! Well done
This thread I like.
@cynic-al : not at all.
That's basically what we did last week with six days touring around Brittany. About 80-100Kms per day stopping where and when we wanted, usually a good lunch and hopefully an evening meal. The main "problem" was that we were set up in independent "race" mode so had tarp and bivy bag each rather than a tent. These drew quite a bit of attention on the campsites!
Currently looking at getting a new two man lightweight tent which wouldn't come out much heavier than the two tarps and bivvies combined. Add a lightweight cooking set and the whole would only be a Kg or so heavier for each of us.
Sorry Whitestone, forgot the most important: great to read how it was for yourselves and top effort for getting done what you did and then walking away and going to ride round Brittany. I worked out who you were and watched your dots so was interesting to read the account of how it was for you. The first few days were the tail end of the heatwave. I think lots of France (I know I was) was starting to lose the plot!
@gonetothehills - It's worth getting a water filter for this sort of thing. I've used both Sawyer and MSR, we both took an MSR Trailshot with us but didn't use them. The Trailshot is a bit quicker than the Sawyer and doesn't require filling a bladder to use it.
@mugsys_m8 - no problem. Well done to your Mrs for completing. There was almost a 50% scratch rate. I don't think anyone had got far south enough to be caught in the floods in Tarn, Drome & Lot departements - five months' rain in one day! 😮
I'm reading John Metcalfe's 'Dividing the Great' at the moment, and a phrase in there came to mind when I read your post: "Destinations are overrated". Clearly, your adventure was tough and you didn't finish in the way you intended, but it was an adventure nonetheless, packed with experiences both good and bad. Great write-up, and a week of gentle touring around Brittany afterwards sounds just the tonic needed!
If your pockets are deep enough a Hilleberg Akto and footprint will sleep 2 if you dispense with the inner. I suspect there may be a similar Lightwave tent at about 2/3 the price.
If you're going to be spending Akto money it would be worth looking at the Zpacks Duplex.
Thanks for your story, FD is somethings we'd looked at but decided that having to smash out the miles wasn't for us.
I've started a "what tent" thread on the Bearbones forums. My original shortlist of four went up to about a dozen!