Au revoir le Suisse Normandy et bonjour Paris
Today we left Suisse Normandy and are currently sitting on a train heading into Paris. We had an amazing time at Rock n Roll and rode each day we were there covering almost 90km of trails. As with our prior visit, the group was a lot of fun - Russell (as always) was the perfect guide, Chris (another guest) was great fun and added many laughs to our trip, and Dee (Russell’s mum) is fantastic, going the extra mile to make you feel welcomed and at home.
Our first day (Sunday) after arriving from our grueling travel, we did a “short” 25km ride from the house. On Monday, we headed out for much longer ride and were on the trails for a good 5+ hours covering over 30km.
Yesterday we covered 35km with some really extreme climbing. At the start of the ride my knees were playing up but after a brief stop and some Tylenol (never leave home without it), we hit the trails again with gusto. Perhaps with a little too much enthusiasm…
The ride was really varied with lots of ups and downs, tree roots and mud, mud, glorious mud! The mud part was quite fun - my bike was flying from side to side, needling lots of skill to keep from falling off. I’d like to claim “huge success” here but alas it was not meant to be. However, I can say that I avoided the classic full face plant in the mud but it was touch and go for a while.
Now, what do the next two pictures have in common? Answers on a postcard to our mailing address please…
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Remember my comment about too much gusto? Well, I was flying along (aka zooming along at a high clip bouncing the bike from rut to rut) when I heard this huge clang, only to look down and see that my saddle had fallen off. I think some form of primordial survival instinct kicked in which saved my butt from later discomfort and ridicule. I can just see it now “Nige died doing what he loved with a huge smile on his face (death from blunt trauma with a cycle seat post to the butt)”.
The amazing part was that eagle eyed Chris was able to find the missing bolt and parts. Unfortunately for me, the bolt was sheered off and the “tie wrap” solution to hold the saddle on didn’t work out (see upper right picture). There was some good news though… it was only a 4km ride out of the saddle (with no saddle - thank you ProClub for my spinning classes this past year 
) back to home base. Once there cool brewskies, French cheese and bread awaited the hungry travelers.
This was the end of our second trip to Rock n Roll - each time we come here, it feels like a home away from home; great food, great company. Lots of fun and throughly recommended.
Let the good times roll!
Nige.
May 17th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
Nigel and Lynn:
Sounds as though you guys are having a great time. I’m envious as to the type of riding that you are doing however, at my age I think I would break too easily if I crashed. As I said before “older and wiser”. As far as riding without a saddle, I saw the “Patch” mountain bike race in Wendell State Park, when Cindy White broke her saddle about a mile into the race and won. She was an animal, after the race looking for guys to buy her beer to celebrate the win.
Love you,
Ken