Two weeks on...

Its two weeks since I've returned from my trip, and thought I would give an update about the "aftermath".

An odd thing about going to see Le Tour de France is that (when you go by bike) you don't actually "see" a lot of it. Of this year's tour I saw only the three parts that I was at in person and coverage of the finish at Plataux le Belle on stage 14 (which I caught in a cafe on my way to Carcassonne). Due to my delay getting home, by the time I went to work on Monday I still didn't even know who the winners were. I told my colleagues that I had to catch up on Le Tour, and to please not spoil the ending. I almost got away with it, but as he got up to leave at the end of the day my colleague Paul said "I still can't believe that Cadel Evans won the Tour"; I gave him a somewhat withering look, which led to him apologizing profusely... but the damage was done.
None the less I did eventually get caught up on the tour highlights.


I found my self on the ITV highlights for stage 12.

Back at work, its generally expected that people bring back some sort of confection from the place you've visited. Unfortunately the logistics of this don't pan out too well when traveling by bike... so I made cake instead.


I donned my old Tour de France beret whilst I cooked.


Le Tour cake


Cake of cheerfulness. I took it into the office on my bike, and in the process the smiley face got smashed off :-(


An odd consequence of my trip is that I'm starting to get this odd impression that Bristol is a perpetual festival town. Last weekend, the first weekend back from the trip, was the weekend of the Bristol harbour festival. The weekend before I left was the St. Paul's Carnival... next weekend is the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta :-)

180degree view of Bristol's floating harbour during the 2011 harbour festival.

Whilst I was in Carcassonne, it came to my attention that due to the time that elapsed between blog posts I had been reported as a missing person, and InterPol had been searching for me. (the reasons for my not having posted for a few days were many fold, but I consider it wisest not to go down the line of explanation in this medium).
Since I've been back, as I've caught up with more and more of my friends, details have emerged of the extent of the rumors of my demise and the details of what transpired back home. A few highlights were discovering that the police had been round to my parent's house, that international calls between Hong Kong and Britain were placed by people asking after me. Its fair to say that chain of events is a source of some regret for me.


I've had some good memories to reflect on though.


The trip in retrospect...

My top 5 experiences of the trip

5. The covered market in Paris
4. Racing the tour de France Caravan between stages 14 and 15
3. Towing Chris through the hills in the South of England. Using a bit of rope we had, in essence, constructed a 5 wheeled, 10 panniered pseudo-tandem bicycle. As terrible as the situation was, when it actually worked and we got up the first decent hill I laughed harder than I have in a long time (unfortunately I was too exhausted to laugh on the subsequent climbs).
2. Carcassonne; very beautiful (although a bit of a tourist trap)
1. My top experience was having people run along beside as I climbed the Col-de-Tormalet. As rode up the climb on my 3 wheeled bike, a number of people did the traditional run along side, like they do for the riders in Le Tour. One French gentleman conducted a little interview with me. "Vous destination?" he asked. "La Sommat!" I replied. He went on to ask me where I was from, an after he had jogged about 100m with me he looked at me and said "Are you ready for the Tormalet?". I responded "Oui Mousiour!", he gave me a little push and shouted "Alez, Alez!". It was absolutely marvelous.

Bottom 5 experiences

5. Sleeping under a tarpaulin in a layby in Northern Spain. (although it did add to the sense of adventure)
4. Trying to board the TGV with all my gear.
3. My day 9 puncture. (mostly because of the mental transition from a high to a very low point).
2. Loosing my Duck. I really liked that duck.
1. Discovering that I had been reported as a missing person.

Top 5 quotes

5. The many unexpected chants of "Wales" from people seeing me ride along, such as the one I recieved in central Bilbao
4. Arriba! (Shouted at me, as I passed through a small Spanish village, on an 8% gradient)
3. Oh la la (climbing the col de-tormalet)
2. Oh la la la (climbing the col de-port-de-Aspet)
1. Alez! Alez! (the classic wins out)