Hello everyone
It’s been quite a while since I posted here: for a whole variety of personal and health reasons during the pandemic and since, my Audax has hardly turned a wheel for about 3 years. And as we all know, it is hard to get going again - a ride in May along a Derbyshire old-railway trail left me knackered after 20 miles, and even quite a small residual respiratory deficit can be a problem as we get older.
But in September, we returned to two of our favourite haunts in France - Jura and Ventoux.
First main stop was at a campsite we have visited many times, Domaine de Chalain between Doucier and Champagnole. Sheltered, good lake for swimming, which my wife loves (the warmest ever this year) and good cycling country; good road surfaces, minor roads gradually winding over the hills, quiet French villages. We did some decent rides up into the hills, then mostly coasting back to base.
I plan to attach a photo, Audax in foreground, overlooking Lac du Narlay, Le Frasnois, Jura.
This sort of terrain suits me well now, long moderate gradients, I just settle into Mode des Ploddeurs at the bottom, and keep going up. I never got down to my bottom gear (around 17” I think), but the Audax feels very stable at 3 mph speeds on the steeper stretches.
Another day, we made an early start, rode into Champagnole, local train to Morbier; up on a main road to the top of a col, undulating to the Pic d’Aigle, then a lovely swoop back to the campsite.
After about a week, we decided to move on, to another favourite of mine - the Sault plateau near Ventoux. A few years ago, we did get up Ventoux, it felt a real achievement. My main target was to ride the Gorge du Nesque again; ascending from Villes sur Auzon to Monieux, then on to Sault. This is about my favourite ride ever - the road twisting round the hills, the scenery of rocky scrub and vineyards lower down gradually unfolding as you climb. We turned off at Monieux, and returned via La Gabelle, and did the same route in reverse the following day, seemed harder. About 30 miles, around 700m of climbing, not much by Thorn standards, but enough for us and we felt a great sense of achievement.
The main problem on the Gorge du Nesque this time was the large number of motorcycle groups, and also supercars - Ferraris, Alpines etc. Much more of a problem than when we did it a few years ago.
I think we rather regretted leaving the Jura, but ran out of time and made our way home.
A good trip!!
Lewis
P.S. Tried to post 2 photos, but despite resizing, both still too large. Will work on it.
