French Life-expat France

Well, happily or unhappily I didn’t do my ‘big challenge’ with the cyclists this morning. Seems there was a mix up over dates, and the event is next Sunday. Fingers crossed for storms, then.

Instead I just went with the usual crowd, but I can’t say it was a rest and relaxation morning - 80 km up hill and down dale through some of the beauty spots of the Dordogne, which would be beautiful if the sweat wasn’t blocking my vision.

We passed through a village called Molieres this morning - a typical Dordogne bastide town although really just a village. I don’t know how I’ve never been there before - it is really not so far away - but a lovely little place it was. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that this afternoon it is a seething mass of tourists, but at 9.00 this morning all was calm.

My cycling colleagues were at pains to point out that the village and church were constructed by my ancestors, Molieres being an English bastide town. I tried to ask why the French had then thrown my ancestors out of France, when they were building such nice things, but I think the question lost something in the translation. Certainly the explanation wasn’t clear.

This week I’ve just been reading an excellent book about cycling, which I think you would like even if you couldn’t care less about cycling itself. The book is French Revolutions, by Tim Moore, who set off from the UK with the strange idea of cycling the whole route of the Tour de France a few weeks before the competitors themselves.

Anyway a very funny book that I read almost cover to cover without putting it down. It is wrirtten in the witty, over-exaggerated style that I try to adopt for this blog, although where I fall rather short of the mark, Tim Moore succeeds admirably. I would have put a little link here so that you could rush straight to Amazon and buy the book, but then you would think I am recommending it because I will get rich on the commission. So I haven’t and you’ll need to find it yourself.

What brought the book to mind was something that Tim refers to in his book that I noticed particularly this morning: because of air-resistance, it is much harder to be the front cyclist in a group than one of the followers. So usually a group of cyclists will alternate roles, with each taking a turn at the front. The upshot is that the front rider is struggling horribly against the wind, the second is cycling normally, and the third can get his knitting out or read a good book as he gets sucked forward effortlessly.

This was seen to dramatic effect in one of the Tour de France days this year, when two cyclists were ahead of the pack. One did all the work for the last few kilometres, while the other cruised along easily just behind him, sipping tea, making some phone calls and so on. Until 100 metres before the finishing line, when number 2, refreshed and full of energy, whooshed out and overtook the poor chap who had been struggling so hard for so long. Seemed mean to me but I guess it’s a tough business.

That also explains why it is so hard for one cyclist to move ahead of all the others. For a long time it was a mystery to me how 150 cyclists can all be so similar in performance, arriving at the finishing line within seconds of each other. But the reality is, to move ahead of the others and cycle faster and alone takes an estimated 50% more energy. Not surprisingly, rarely is one cyclist strong enough to do that, so they all ride together, or split into breakaway packs that have the same advantage.

Final note about me cycling. I seem reasonably able to keep up or do well on the uphills, but find that on the downhills I get lost way behind. Pretty weird, huh. Seems a shame to lose all the time I struggle to gain on the uphills because I can’t roll downhill fast enough.

Strictly, no one rolls downhill, but pedals furiously, but the principle is the same. Apparently in the 1980’s everyone rolled down hills, until some clever cyclist, full of energy because of an enormous amount of performance-enhancing drugs sprinkled on his breakfast cereal, decided it would be fun to keep pedalling. Well thank you very much.

Me, I seem to be overcome with a vertigo / scaredy-cat type of think that stops me going more than 50kmh - I never could go high on a swing when I was small, which I think is the same thing. So this week my new challenge is to practice going downhill faster.

If you want to read more about the possibilities of a cycling trip in France see Cycling holidays in France.