Mes souvenirs les plus marquants :

* English “translation” below! (« Traduction » en anglais ci-dessous )

– Sancerre avec sa montée et sa descente brutales;

– La voie verte entretenue par la nature devenue pump-track;

– Le chemin boueux un peu avant Issoire, où les minis cailloux s’incrustent dans ma chaîne et la nuit qui commence a tomber;

– La douceur du ronronnement de mes crampons à chaque fois que je retrouvais le bitume après une décente dure dans le gravier; 

– Mende, où nos vélos ont eu le droit de dormir dans la salle du petit déjeuner puis la montée Jalabert qui commencent à 50 mètres de la porte de l’hôtel … Boum !

– Nos « frères d’armes » devenue amis des « côtes qui piquent » . La départ groupé début septembre est un vrai plus. Merci à Jean-Marc, Jean-Louis, Marc et aux autres pour les kilomètres partagés; 

 

Ah oui… et soyez préparez a vouloir y revenir !

*

I was new to doing a multi day challenge in an organized event like this. I’ve done long distance triathlons and holidays on the bike before, but the one is hard and fast and is finished in one (long) day, the other, well it’s holiday and the point is not to hurry day after day. This Tourmagne, taken on as the challenge to do it in 6 and a half days, was a mix of these two, where every day you need to keep pushing in order to be in time for whatever is next; a closing restaurant or hotel or in the morning to be on the road early, in order to be in time in the evening and to have enough time to sleep.

 

Strangely enough I experienced the first 2 days as the hardest, after that I got in a flow and then it certainly didn’t come for free, but I didn’t seem to think about it anymore (that, or my memory is set to forget any real hard parts).

We (Joachim and I) had spend 2 weekends doing two days with longer distances on mostly gravel roads but each time we left too late and shortened the first day and also the second day wasn’t that long and the gravel not that technical. So when we started this challenge, I wasn’t entirely sure to be well prepared for it. That’s why we decided to not take any bivouac stuff but resort to hotels so we could be lighter packed. My gravel technique also leaves to be desired so I opted for mountain bike tires which was a good choice.

 

Doing a challenge like this together certainly has its advantages. You can motivate each other at difficult moments, but there is also a disadvantage when you are both failing to see the sun and I often felt burdened because I slowed down the pace, on and off the bike!

 

As for memories … the multitude of events, experiences, landscapes, roads, people and feelings is so enormous that it is impossible to pick out a single one. 

 

OK, some memorable moments…

Sancerre where I had a real hard time going up at the end of day one, and down without the mental warm-up in the morning. “Non technical” as some participants call this event is very relative and depends on your level of experience.

Just before Issoire where my chain gets blocked in mud and we spend an hour cleaning it while the night is closing in on us.

The old train road refurbished by nature into a pump-track.

Re-meeting other riders and become sort of friends in effort with them, and then finding out at the finish that you never saw most of the other participants. The grouped start in the beginning of September is a real plus.

The lovely ronronnement of my crampons on the tarmac after a hard off-road-down-hill.

Mende where our bikes got a place in the breakfast room of the hotel which is 50 meters from the start of the montée Jalabert. Ra!

 

O yes… and be prepared to want to do more of these.