Not to familiar with area near Clermont but the south part should be my cup of tea. I live somewhere between Rodez and Millau. My rides stretch to most of Aveyron, some nearing bits of Lozere gard Cantal and Tarn.

Its hilly but lovely cycling teriotority, as while its rarely flat the climbs are not that steep and not that long. You can find the real granny gear stuff and one hour climbs but they are not all over the place. Plenty of options and low traffic as not that densely populated. Some area’s do get quite some tourist traffic in season. So off season is better late june early september. But first two weeks maybe even three has been calms tourist wise the last 2 or even three year so also a good option. Tour the france passing through late june on way to pyrenées and early july leaving pyrenées. Always willing to help.

Oh yeah to more space saving tips, deflate or take these massive tires of makes the fitting a lot easier.

For the hub get some protection caps so that they don’t pierce through the box(bike shops have plenty to trow away).

Did once get it in with the rear wheel (deflated) still in the frame (did drop the forks as said higher) easiest packing.

Other tip might be to get a box from an enduro bike or 27.5 3+ as then tend to be a bit larger in width.

Ha, yeah. That’s where I’m heading. :o)

You don’t happen to have a spare box kicking around, do you?

I don’t think it was anything special though I do think I dropped the forks out to get it all in better.

I did that dropped the forks and put it in a normal MTB box. Make sure you attach all your headset bearing parts very well(I had a pain finding a fitting spare in slightly rural Africa)

Done it several times like that Don’t understand why you should be overweight. My Rohloff adventure machine is 17 kg but still get some spare bits in and stay under the 23 normal luggage weight.

You’ve done a lot of mountain biking and are happy to tackle almost anything. You’re happy on rocky/rooty trails and on moderate jumps/drops. You might draw the line at very steep and technical features with serious consequences if you crash or on bigger jumps and drops.

I liked it except for this part what’s a moderate drop? Thats depends a lot on the preson you ask and their home terrain. 10cm or 1ft? what’s large 1ft ot 3ft?

Have some riding buddy’s you barrel down(20mph) a narrow track and there is a 1ft step up with a wet root at the edge that you approach at an angle(if you miss it its at least a 5ft drop down onto the tar road. I pointed it out as they where trailing me quite close. My mate, said sorry? as he didn’t hear correctly and hadn’t seen a feature anywhere(whilst half the days crowd walked the bit apparently).

Would say for me 3.5 quite confident but a wheels close to the ground rider, not a fan of jumping and certainly not gaps(hence my question higher)? Fitness 5 at least I’d probably quite like PAT

I qualified and entered very late in june but snatched a place in the B group. Chilling near Paris now lacking sleep.

I gave a mate an envelope with lots of bits of a broken lock and a brand new key as a wedding gift.

There is this local tradition to turn over the newly weds house. He suspected we had keys and changed and upgraded the locks the day before. It was our way of letting him know that we had accepted and won the challenge. It took three determined lads half an hour to get in with battery powered power tools. We did board up al the house entrances before leaving and angle grinded the heds of the screws, lucky lad slept at a hotel, took him quite some time to actually be able to use his new keys ;).

My uncle( a car fanatic) was similarly given an envelop with wheel nuts and a map. The map had directions to the bell tower of the local church where he could retrieve the fancy wheels of his car that was standing on a pile of bricks in plain view of the wedding guests.

theotherjonv

Should be quite a bit faster then that closer to one hour 45 minutes. Budget a largish half an hour to Moutiers and then a bit over an hour from Moutiers to the finish.

Rode the stage yesterday with the ladies of https://www.donnonsdeselles.net/donnons-des-elles-au-velo-j-1

Today I skipped out of the office for some air accross the field to have a drink with the big bosses and watch the riders come past. Not the best spot on the route but good for a monday back in the office ;)

Stood behind a women in France who paid for her groceries with a cheque 😩 A lot of places in France, Italy and Spain are amazed when you pay by contactless phone!

Cheques are on the declines by 6% a year but lotsa people feel naked when out and about without a cheque book. Still used to pay for 3 oranges and 5 apples on the market “chukkle” by quite some.

Even contactless cards are quite recent, Phones indeed a novelty I was in the promotional video off this revolution about two years ago. French banking is lagging a bit IMHO

Gonna try for an early night ;) Leaving for a tour of Corsica the next day 600 km would be nice to get near 30 hour as a target time. Max allowed 40 hours in any case so best not to get too sleepy on the day.

Joe Simpson references it a couple of times in his books – basically every mountaineer has friends, colleagues etc who have died on mountains and the general feel seems to be one of acceptance. You remember them for the good times and there’s no real blame or fault attached to anyone. Similar to him being left for dead.

Its as simple as that. Its difficult to apprehend but they just accept it as faith and normal that some just don’t make it back. Cut your losses and save your ass. Its that hard up there that most of the time trying to help makes you risk more dead’s then that you would be saving(once you need saving you most likely are lost in any case) Thats what I read in the book of a seven summiter fellow adventure racer and what another seven summiter that was my room ride mate for a couple of days confirmed.

Gates and fences are to be climbed. Got quite quick at this aventure racing in southern africa they get them 15 to 20 feet high in some places.

But its some of the tiny once that are best left alone ;)

I had low 40’ies wen trained is not that exceptional in fit people. Haven’t measured for years so no clue on current values.

Two mates had low 20’s, one used to make up values not to freak the coaches out on training camp. Both ended up getting à 48h continous monitoring but all clear.

40 ies is not that uncommon, lower 30’s or 20 ies is worth checking thoroughly IMO.

Normal I would say.

I came off my road bike in a corner 5 year ago it mentally blocked me a long time got a lot slower and started riding useless lines, well I stil do.

Long ago I would be able to catch up a 40 sec deficit on the lead group in cyclosportives in a 5 k descent. I went to hitting the descent at the back of the second group and finishing at the bottom behind the fourth group. Took three years to get going and since ast year i only get dropped less than half of the time, lines still pretty rubbish. I had big off’s and scare’s before way bigger even but that time I couldn’t find a reason as I was about 10k/h under my normal corner speed(and I know them by hart).

Purely mental as in the same period I still bombed down on the mountainbike as a lunactic at warp speed.

TimpP has the main information the difference is not that big.

I the 2003-2004 season 8 months like that Campagnolo Chorus 9 speed group ultegra casette on dura ace hubs. Used to replace 2 or 3 from the shimano spacers by campag one(recover from your old casette to get the sapcing closer(the difference is only 1.5 mm to start with.

Never had any complaits won me 6 or 7 races and hilly terrain means the whole casette range was well used.

Not Corsica is it?

Oops that’s the one its in june though.

At 13 stond and over 6 feet I must count as a climber? I know its gona be hard the 265k ride in 2014 had 5000 m of climbing.

The mountainbike race in 2017 had 8500 m in the first 375k’s which took me about 40 hours on very rough african terrain.

I believe in stupid enough too enter stubborn enough to finish.

I do realize its gonna be very hard so not wanting to ad a phone box experience to it.

Great stuff guys lots of interesting info.

Not so keen on going straight through I might try that if I would do the MTB race again. But its a ride and I would like to remember some of the scenery and my own name at the finish line ;).

As sais higher its indeed saturday morning to sunday 40 hour time limit think I should be able to manage 20 average for the moving time. But will adapt sleeping time on progress and leave a bid of headroom for surprises.

I know its PBP this year but multiple injuries meant I didn’t do any official ones last year.
Wondering about the number of participants as. The Audax I took a liking too is on an island so a bit less practicall to get too and would think most would pick the flatter once. I just have this itch to scratch and never visited this mediterranean island so could be a nice double itch.

The other benefit of hiring from the Swiss side is that if you trigger a speed camera in France , the speeding fine doesn’t make its way back to you….

Why the French fines do go out to certain foreign country for years even if small amounts, do the swiss have a special deal?

Any how since Gilets Jaunes there are few operational speed camera’s left in my department last week there where none left i an operational state

Not even forty yet

But 100k lump sum would make me go into retirement.

No mortgage, no kids, downsize to a do er upper in the next valley and of we go……..

chucked out the first big one today with 145K today which should get me around the 400k mark. Was a bit colder in spain then expected. Legs where sore from riding my rubbish bike in the cold earlier on, but they came round after a pizza at the beach. Two days left before I am due back in the office most likely finished tomorrow though.

Had a slow start. Going to my parents place in cold Belgium to find out my spare kit was mostly missing(it was later found at my sisters place an hour away, the place i left in the morning). So went to fetch the old mongrel in the cave it seems my dad doesn’t own a track pump any more….

So a walk to the petrol station made me end up wit 4 bar of tire pressure and still no cycling tops. Of for a 35k suffer stroll. Tuesday left for a nice 80k ride but the below zero temperatures made the GPS only record 53 of it.

Wednesday found a mate to do the same route the other way around so 80 k done but freezing again.

170 on the clock which should be 200. Fed up with the cold already so sitting at the airport should be reuinted with my good bike early afternoon for a little leg stretcher in southern france.

After the i will hop into the car to cheat a bit and head of to Spain.

At least I am better of then last year then I had over 300 to go on the morning of the 30th

Just finshed my training ride 120K between 0 an 3 degrees and a little drizzle one third in for 45 minutes. Survived didn’t stop at the bakery(as I stocked up beforehand) guess I am ready lets hope I can avoid 10 cm deep snow like on one of last years rides.

Gonna have a go again. Last year was very last minute driving to spain on the friday after work through the snow to chuck ou two 100 miler to make it. This year at least I have some leave, won’t be a single day at home though gonna be a mix of belgium and spain again(ma the weather be as nice as last year.

Cape pioneer is a lot easyer then trans provence or definitely beskidy IMO Its definitely an adventure and there are two short days. Not sure of your definition of punter but the field varies from racing snakes to oom and tannies just average people looking for a challenge and not to kill themselves (the real back of the field takes almost twice a slong as the top guys enjoying the food and scenery.

I used to be a race snake but was far from that at 100kg(including the fatbike in 2014) There where for me two 5 hour days, and the short days I pushed a bit and was finished in about 3 hours each. Only the long day was 9 hours, but it rained, So I got bored and spend a lot of time a feeding zones eating and on the bike barely got the HR above 100 beats.

If it sounds too hard and africa tempts you try https://wines2whales.com only 3 days and in 4 hours each day average Joe is finished and klaar.

http://capepioneer.co.za/ try ostrich satés they are lovely they got me through the rainy stage in 2014, though its more likely to be hot then rainy

This is the place where you search or ask https://www.bikehub.co.za/index.php?app=core&module=search&do=viewNewContent&search_app=forums

You might want to read this old thread and the one it links too https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/cape-town-recommendations-please/ . South africans like their trails a bit manicured but you should find some enduro style stuff in Jonkershoek(Stellenbosch) to your liking. Tokai near cape town has reponed in the mean time but not been there since so not sure what kind of riding they focussed on for the new stuff.

Some vittoria Corsa CX III

A bunch of chains

some old stock shimano MT53 shoes, (Very)Old model I know but I really liked mine for the short while i had them before some dodgy african mud got the better of them.

Merlin saved me a pack of money by having sold the last of the Road bike I liked(maybe better so I already have 5 lying around)

replay koppenberg cross (earlier today) now available ladies as well https://www.vrt.be/vrtnu/a-z/sporza–veldrijden/2018/sporza–veldrijden-d20181101-sporza-veldrijden/

sme link hihlights from some other races available as well

Yup, waiting for the exact stage details but seems they are passing close to the ouse again(less then one hour on the bike for me or at worst no more then the 40k to last years stage start).

Not spoilt with a start or finish like most of the recent years though.

You have Nathalie van Gogh riding in the dutch ladies elite peleton since a couple of years.

As you have sevral different kind of assets take very good financial advice as the french tax man has very sticky fingers. I wish I did.

1) investments: you will pay on dividends intrest and so on your marginal rate and on top of that social security tax CSG which is about 17%

They claim that they deduct foreign tax already paid but that’s only partially so. Your investment might be tax exempt in UK law but the french tax man will take its part.

Partial reduction apply but often not or at a lesser rate on foreign assets

2) rental income taxed income tax and CSG again. reduction apply for furnished and so. Check what applies to foreign properties(my second one is in france as well)

3) Capital gains tax on investments and real estate. No clue what uk does but I moved to france from an exempt country. But if i sell investments they want to tax from day one so had it for ten years abroad would have paid naught.Move to france value 3(bought at one) sell at 4 french taxman will want to tax you on 3. And they are very good at finding out whatever accounts and assets you have.

4) Real estate same taxed if its not your main residence. You might be slapped with a hefty bill if you sell uk property check how much and how much time you have to sell when you move here. Exemptions apply in france dependind on period owned. Not sure for foreign property’s I never owned one outside France.

Its better and easier to move to france when you’re just poor and only have cash in your accounts.

Haute Savoie, Beautifull but most parts are very expensive prices driven up by those working in Switserland or those who used to work there and retired over the border. Check rental prices.

Annecy lovely on a postcard but traffic nightmare.

Learn to be very patient, learn french, learn french.

Oh yes lern French

Will you work under French management? They are a special breed, very top down, strick and believing they have the almighty knowledge. They are decades behind in management techniques(I live rurally which adds another decade at least).

Weather and riding is lovely though ;)

Country side is beautifull though.

http://www.veldritkalender.be/ calendar on who broadcasts what

https://www.vrt.be/vrtnu/a-z/sporza–veldrijden/ this should be the direct link first full race on nov 1st

ferrals een VRT do replays to sometimes they come online an hour after the race soemtimes a day later sometimes after a couple of days just have to look in the right spot

The belgian governement channel VRT / EEN has recently opened up most off their live feeds to the whole of Europe. Probably cyclo cross gonna be in it. Enjoy it till brexit and you will be considered non EU ;)

Ladies:

Showed the handsome Chantal Blaak the way to the finish of tour of flanders when she was a bit lost.

Had Andrea Tafi wait for me when I had rubbish legs one day out with some mates.

Turned down Tim Donn ” man with the halo” as a training buddy(my then housemate though we would be a nice match)

Rubbed shoulders with Tom Boonen and blew my engine trying to keep up with Fabian Cancellara.

try my strava profile 5 and 6th of july 2014 https://www.strava.com/athletes/992923#interval?interval=201407&interval_type=month&chart_type=miles&year_offset=4  multiple tracks all from enduro beaufortain.

Its enduro but not hardcore all rideable with the occasional dab and it mostly gets difficult if you go flat out, nothing to scary at reasonable speed(I didn’t do the black descent). I did it all on my fatbike back then.

There used to be a long route from one of these moutains all the way down to beaufort and a bus(with bike spaces) back up twice a day. Never did that one but apparently its a great ride aswell.

Which way did you go up mont nore? Tour the france did it from mzamet nice but the part after the initial kick going into the forest is quite hard at least there is shade. Would consider doing it both ways and count on a windy summet.

@cchris2lou on the Levezou plateau between Rodez and Millau (slightly closer to the first). Its definitely interesting to see the start, but we had Laissac start last year which is basically in my back yard so I had seen the circus recently and have seen regualrly before(I spend some years living near the muur of geraardsbergen in Belgium). But couldn’t pass on the opportunity to just ride out(with heavy legs) and see the tour.

We have been spoilt the last couple of year but might not see them for years at cycling distance.

As cChris2lou went to have a look but at the 10K mark the racing was already full on, quite hot as well. My legs where burning a bit when I dragged my heavy legs back up the mountain to get home(its the second year they put the start in a valley nea me every time I get to suffer to get home).

Actually quite a nice route that stage rode it on satuday with the ladies from Donnons des elles au velo who ride all the stages the day before the race.

Why?

I should rephrase that,tense in the sense that he’d had so many punctures that he ran out of team members to help him.

Naessen brought him back after bringing him back several times he punctured himself. What the two movistart riders hadn’t been able to bridge as a gap in what was it 20 km or more. He gave the message when bardet was in trouble again that he just had to join the slow blue train(where he wasn’t allowed to cooperate before). And whilst we where in the last km he singelhandledly again rectified things and Dragged the sorry asses from bardet and Landa back to the lead bunch. As he brought back Bardet on mur de bretagne. As last year into Rodez he brought him from group three till the lead on his own.