A Series of Short Videos of a Bike Tour in Spring 2023.
In this film I continue to travel along the banks of the Loire to Amboise. Some thoughts about the use of Google Maps and a few observations on the way.
Riding my Genesis Croix de Fer 10 2021 bike with flat pedals and a selection of the most inexpensive equipment money can buy, wearing tennis shorts, trainers and a £20 jacket I travel over 100km a day fully loaded to the camp spots and typically complaining about stuff.
#bikeride #eurovelo #biketour
Instagram : @TheGlennJobson
Morning this must be day six I think set off early just after 8:00 not too far to go 80 or so but apparently it’s uh bit hilly so I thought I’d just take my time but I’m glad I’ve set off early cuz it’s ever so windy a really strong wind
From the East I’m heading due east I’m barely doing 20 km an hour it’s quite hard work but anyway onwards to Tour First detour of the day managed to pick up the track again euro6 just seem to be cruising along have to take it really slowly I’ll burn myself out too quick it is it is you can’t underestimate how windy it is coming down the valley amazing anyhow this is where I’m Going There’s a little bit of road back just up there where I had to head back West for probably about only 2 or 300 M but the wind was blowing me along with’ hardly pedaling at 24 kilm an hour so that’s what I’m working against yeah Common Thread really
Battling Against the Wind but yeah it’s quite strong I think I probably about 15 km but I feel like I’ve done about 40 it’s it’s been quite hard work any I’m going to press on there’s another town in about another 10 km I’m going to stop
There and have my uh breakfast and take it on from there but anyway for now here’s this lovely Little River E Right 30k into that headwind only another 50 to go I’m going to stop in this little place there may be absolutely nothing much here at all but I’ll find out but I need to stop pish Shaka Etc oh There’s the Cafe Magic This is a crazy little Bike Shop sells coffee and rents bikes absolutely brilliant loads of stuff just looking around loads of Stuff okay I’m just taking a rest the wind pressure is immense unbelievable I’d much rather be riding up a 1200 M 6% call in the hardesh at the moment that is just ridiculous absolutely ridiculous I’m barely doing 15 km an hour along the Flat and I’m having to Pedal really really hard but anyway I’m taking a little break now just riding down this road to this fantastic Bridge shame there’s a TR tractor in the Way just walking along here because uh I don’t want to ride all the way across but there’s a shadow over there which I just want to get a photograph of just looks amazing in the sun just going to walk past this uh pillar of the bridge and have a look at That So this section here for a few well it’s probably about 2 km has got these ridiculous cobbles and they just impossible to ride on you just shake the bike to pieces I think that’s what broke my spokes in Britany so I’m just going to ride along the side there if I can
If not I’m going to get off and push because it’s just not worth risking it it’s not worth risking the bike this is a very bad idea for a cycle Route All right so this is one of the two or maybe three very steep hills that’s about 30 m more on that Later All right I’m just coming into tour now um by the golf course just need to stop down here and assess exactly where I am because I’m not sure which bit of the city is going to bring me into the lir is right over that way to my left from here quite a way
So I think I’m in the south of the city which will suit me very well I’ll be happy with that there’s a lot of Park land here so yeah let’s have a look at that when I get down Here Makes a nice change just rolling through the Parkland the wind is less of a problem here it’s really nice so I’m just looking for I think there Supermarket on Route so I’m going to take that today more about supermarkets and shopping a bit later um yeah couple little things to say about
That all good so carry on this way I’m just going to stop and find out exactly where the supermarket Is right just had some lunch just trying to find my way out of this little area of tour um not sure how I’m going to get out there’s a bridge over there which I need to find um yeah I can see it on my GPS so yeah
Now I’m going to find my way to ambois about another 25 km I think according to my map not as not actually as far as I thought 25 should be fine despite the 14 mph wind headwind anyway here’s a Bridge So after about 65k of really nice route we’re now on a UK style susr nonsense I don’t wash for a week route oh completely unridable utterly useless susr UK anyway enough of that this is ridiculous I’m doing 8 km an hour I might get off and push this is utter Rubbish so this is now on the way down I think to lulua and then pick up the main euro6 again onto ambis this is a nice little bit but there’s been some crappy bits as Well All right last few CS into ambois oh he’s a little bit downhill but you just slow down with the freewheeling it’s so the wind is so strong it’s been up to 30 km an hour at some point that bit was all right cuz it was quite a
Steep little section oh here comes a car idiot French drivers okay I’ve had to tack to get out of the wind and it’s still windy yeah anyway 7K ambas and then camping on the island in the comping Municipal I think the reason it’s so windy is because it’s actually about 28° today when there’s no wind it’s really really warm really really warm we have my coat on until about 2:00 we ride along ins that wind is actually quite Cold Okay I’m in ambas I’m pushing the bike the surface here on the bike track is unridable on a loaded touring bike You’ be right on a mountain bike but uh me on my touring bike I can’t ride it along here I’d have no spokes left at all they knock it the pieces
So what I’m going to do is walk along here cross over that bridge and that’s where the campsite is so that’s where I’m heading now all right reverting to iPhone cuz the action camera is giving up the action this is the spot for tonight 95
Km from the last one give or take this is 93 something on the machine um not convinced I think it’s 95 but then one or two doesn’t matter um yeah crazy Place really so it’s like rows and rows of motor homes but this will do for tonight beautiful town over there this
Is my Camp spot but anyway uh that was the probably the most difficult day cycling for a long time and I’ll explain why a bit later so a few observations from today I made a few comments on a on a video as I’ve been going along and I’ve had a few
You know thoughts as you do as you cycle along and these just a couple things I’ve been thinking about Google Maps is great for showing you the quickest way to anywhere and I think I’ve um mentioned this before but on the route here today I planned out a 130k route from the
Campsite that I was staying at to this campsite here and Google said very steep hills now those two very steep hills turned out to be 1 11% for 30 m out of the campsite this morning and 1 14% for about 20 to
30 m up to the top of a lock the rest of the way the entire way there wasn’t anything beyond 4% so it wasn’t really steep hills it was mostly false flat so that something to bear in mind it always says very steep hills if there’s anything in the way over a certain Percentage now another thing that Google Maps says is very steep hills or moderate Hills but it doesn’t actually give you an indication other than the very thin line as to whether you’ll actually be going up or down those Hills which does matter on a very longdistance ride it does matter if
You’re going going up and down because today’s very steep hills they were both up but if I was going the other way they’d both be down and it would still say very steep hills so just think about that bear that in mind there are other tools of course there are loads of other
Tools online you can use and everybody will be using their own one and I’m the only person using Google Maps but if you do use Google Maps that’s just something worth bearing in mind the other thing I’ve been thinking about as I’ve been traveling along is supermarkets stopping for supplies etc etc
Now I’m very keen to stop at a supermarket that I find on my way rather than the head to the destination and then find somewhere to buy some food because this destination for example is near a town but the round trip to the supermarket from here as you enter the
Town would add an extra 9 kilm to the journey and I found two or three supermarkets on the way so just something that I do is I stop buy food take the hit of the extra weight and end up where I want to be without having to go and look for extra
Food so that just about wraps up today’s ride day six on this tour um my 94 kilm from the start into a very very strong 14 m hour 25 km hour headwind all of the way heading due East Wind from the East tomorrow I’m doing a similar distance
But I’ve got a southwesterly wind which is actually reported to be even stronger so I’ll believe it when I see It
1 Comment
What a beautiful ambience my friend!