Final preparations

Sunday afternoon; it's raining cats and dogs.....it's pissing down and it's not the first day. We've had rain like this for two consecutive weeks now and although I do not mind to much, it's giving me bad vibes for the 5-day Raid that I am about to embark on.

The last two weeks have been filled with preparations at Sospel. I was sleeping in my tent and luckily I put up the big one. Luckily, because that way I did not bring in the drab, the humidity of my shoes....I could take it off in the 'living-area' and sleep dry and warm, thanks to an excellent silk sheet and down sleeping bag.

We've had fun, held a bbq, yelled and cursed and kept on preparing our raid. Last week we've been busy mapping our routes. It is up to us to find appropriate roads, single-tracks and escape routes, to put it in a road book and to map the direction (compass) and mark each turn, twist and change of surface. Very good practise and I enjoyed it. It's part of the course, because as a guide you may have to map your own itinerary some day and spend 5 days with a group of people and lead them through the mountains and forests.

All said and done, I still fear this thing. For two weeks now I have a nagging feeling that something is going to happen and so I basically decided not to participate. This normally means failing the course, but I rather argue for my life as of why I don't want tot participate, than to break a leg, arm, shoulder or knee only to say afterwards: "didn't I tell you so". The internal battle is enormous. The pressure from my envrironment is hard to take, but this one is up to me. My decision to keep me safe and sound.

The weather forecast for next week, during the raid is bad....very bad. A third week of continuous rain is foreseen....so this means riding and cycling and slipping and getting wet and probably cold and nasty, every day, one hour after setting off in the morning. Is it wise? Is this the right thing to decide by the course leaders? Are they truly prepared to put suffering and misery before the educational benefits of a Raid like this?

Questions they have to answer!! I'm not convinced. Look at the picture of my bikes. My bikes? Yeah, they are there....underneath the sheet, to protect them the best I can againt the rain.

Preparations for a Raid

The course year is coming to an end. The first of 3 intense weeks has come and gone, the group is living under tension and it is gonna be hard for me to finish them.
We are preparing for a Raid; 5 days of tough riding, without support. The major goal is to start and finish as a group and, very important, in one piece. But 'the group' doesn't exist. A few of us are living in or near Nice and go home every night, one of us has a job to do and he has the permission to miss days and weeks....which I am starting to resent.
About 5 guys are staying in a little bungalow on a campsite, where I used to go, but I don't like the owner and I can no longer stay with these 5 guys....the tension is too big, the bullshit they're talking about too stupid and so I moved to another campground, where I'm happily living my life. Boy, it was so nice to be able to decompress at night. To make my own dinner at the time chosen by me and to get some studying and reading in as well. And then there are Antoine and Gaetan, who are sort of squatting on a parking lot, in one of those white converted vans.. They are the 'white van men' but I adore them and consider them my buddies.

We climbed the Turini last week; 24km. of climbing up to nearly 1800 mtr. A big one, my first, and it took me and them 2 hours. But, it will be the first mountain to climb when we start our raid on Monday the 26th. It's going to be tough, very tough, with a backpack on and the pressure of climbing this sucker of a mountain as one of three and the first 24 of 140 km of that day.
However, I did it and I did it in style and the guys were happy for me! Here they are on the Friday, before we can head back home for two days of well earned rest.

I must tell you about Collin and Joanna, an English couple whom I met in Sospel on Thursday. I recognised them as my neighbours on the campground. Because the spaces are big, 'neighbours' is slightly exegerated, but they were the closest by.
Anyway, Thursday night they invited me for dinner and a nice glas of wine. Excellent company.....good, honest meal and a few laughs. It was such a nice way to step out of the Sospel and the cycling circle that I wish to thank them through this entry. Thanks guys...and I do hope that we'll meet up again. Whether it's in Sospel or surroundings or in the UK. Even though the cycling circle will be my future, there is so much more and we tend to forget this, when we are encircled in the group-dynamics. "We" may not be the right thing.....I'd love to be slightly off the beaten track, even when the course dynamics demand total devotion. A lot of guys think, eat and sleep bike and stepping out of their environment is very, very neccessary for me. I believe that Antoine and Gaetan have similar attitudes...why we get along. So, the campground dinner with Collin and Joanna did just that. It allowed me to step out of the glas bowl and be me.....
In about 10 hours time I'll be back in Sospel for the second to none preparations. I'm tired.
I went for a ride last night and this morning. The new tire is enabling more grip and gives more stability down hill, but it's heavy uphill. This morning I went for another ride. Both were just one hour rides, but at 100%. The recovery was good enough this morning and that relieved me. My right leg is tight and tires quickly and I will have to manage this carefully.
See you later.

First bush fire of the year?

I was happily eating a bisquit in the kitchen, looking out of the window to look at the cat, when I noticed this vale yellow haze in the distance. Just behind the Malmont....I was wondering....when all of a sudden it daunted to me; A fire. A big one by the looks of it and not far. At first I thought it was La Motte, as usual, but no...it's closer. Figanieres perhaps.

Merde. With the wind blazing since a few days, it's obvious that this is a tough one to crack for the firefighters. The wind from the Mediteranean, gusty, and sometimes even nippy....up to 80km/h.
It is this yellowish, brown colour that I will recognize forever, after my bush fire experience in 2005, when I had to secure the campground where I was working, where a van caught fire and burned down, because there was no pressure on the waterhose and where we ran from spot to spot with our big extinguisers, because the pine cones exploded and flew tens of metres far away to immediately catch fire on the ground.
It's a haze of clouds that veils the light of the sun and the sky and that turns your environment into an evening of sickening colour; that weighs heavy and that makes you bow your head.

It's the first fire of 'the season'. Coincidence that it happens with this wind? Has somebody been negligent with his or her cigaret but? Somebody burning leaves in the garden....surely, you're carefull with 80km/h blazes around your house. Will we ever know what has caused it...?

It truly is a Mountainbike Paradise

After a weekend of tough riding, I decided to take it easy today. I'm in full training mode for the 5 day Raid which is coming up in two weeks time and I might even overdo it slightly. Next week is a rest week, while I will be in Sospel, for the first of 3 heavy weeks.

I stumbled upon a steep path uphill to the Malmont. It is a on the property of the Domaine du Dragon, one of the many wineyards around Draguignan. They knew I was up there....I had permission to have a look. They had warned me it was a steep climb, but with the smallest and lightest of gear I happily and slowly went up their hill. I cannot judge about their wine, but they sure have the best view and coolest area to grow and nourish their wine. Who does not want to work in a wineyard high up on the Malmont hill, with stunning views and no nuissance of nearby roads. The best thing yet; who would think that high up on the hill there is a treasure of good taste.....It was another wow experience.

They also have holiday homes for rent....Not bad. It's an old bastide, well done up, with a magnificent pool. If you bring your mountainbike along, I'll guide you aroung on the Malmont, on the best tracks of the area. Afterwards...the pool!! What a joy.