Ok so if it wasnt completely clear and you could not quite work the photos out – I was on the turbo trainer and up on the roof of, yes youv’e guessed it, the new terrace! See the trainer on the bottom right hand side.
This was the last time I rode this bike on the turbo trainer!
The next day was due to be 30 plus degrees in the afternoon so I kind of ruled out the Saturday club ride. Graham was planning a ride in the morning so I asked if I could tag along. We met at Marval, a small town and midway point between our houses. We both had to travel some distance to get there. Graham mentioned he’d had a couple of serious climbs to get to the Marval, one of these was called the Puyconnieux. I’d heard of this before, but I could not remember it from previous rides. Graham went on to talk about its gradient and the distance, it kind had me interested. But that’s a ride for another day today were long going down into the Dordogne.
Most of this route was new to me, we headed across some beautiful countryside and the towns of Miallet and St Jory before arriving in Thiviers on market day. After dodging lots of French housewives hurrying between stalls, which just happen to be on either-side of the road were travelling along, we head away from the hustle and bustle toward St Jean de Cole. A nice long downhill run, which normally means there is going to be some penalty later on. Through St Jean and on to Saint-Pardoux-la-Rivière, after this its payback time! A beautiful long steady climb on a quite road, trees shade us from the hot sun as we head toward Champs-Romain.
The climbing over for a while we make good time and cover distance quickly. Its close to lunch time and we still have some distance to get home so were on tghe look out for a shop for refueling. A cyclist ahead of us is spurring us on we aim to catch him before the nxt town. We close the gap but he beats us there, we start looking round for a shop. I look to my left and spot something I start decelerate and take a second look. Graham does the same, I dont notice, bang!
I have hit is back wheel. I try to recover but I’m going over the handle bars. I land hard but try to spread the moment of impact by rolling, but its difficult with feet clipped on to the bike. I sit in the road dazed, Graham says take your time dontrush, my brain is searching out the painful bits, thankfully I’m in one piece, so is Graham. Unfortunately my bike is not, the dropout twisted and beyond road-side repair. Grahams back wheel has a damaged spoke but is just rideable. I then make the first home call for assistance in four years, it had to come sooner or later. I ponder if theres a market for an AA/RAC service for cyclists?
Graham buys some chilled water and we shade under a tree and wait for the pickup. Graham bravely soldiers on having another 30km to cover.
A couple of days later we head to Culture Velo carrying our damaged goods, Graham has built a some rapour with the multilingual dutch assistant there called Flo. However despite best efforts the long and the short of it I need a new frame, should be ready by the weekend. Ok not the verdict I wanted, but as pointed out by Flo it will be almost a new bike.
Roll on the weekend!
