This video series follows my adventure in Sept-Oct 2023, along with 19 other cyclist friends, old and new, with Pedal Britain & Europe cycling from the English Channel at Saint Malo in France, across the entire country to the Mediterranean at Nice 14 days later, visiting the “Beast Of Provence” Mont Ventoux along the way.
A Spine injury has meant my preparation was almost non existent for the preceding 3 months and with Surgery booked for my return to the UK, I was at the start line full of Nerve Blocking medication and full of doubt as to the possibility of completing the full trip and certainly the ascent of Ventoux seemed a forlorn hope when we set off
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Bicycle – Reunited by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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It’s day six of our fantastic Traverse across France and I think I’m actually getting the hang of it now the cruel psychology of these multi-day events is evident is I see this shortest ride so far as an easy one until of course the uphill profile reveals
Itself it is a strange feeling though to see how far we’ve come in just 5 days all plotted on the map we’re just doing the three miles to the hotel where the others are first we did a lot of climbing yesterday and it’s noticeably colder at 8:30 in the morning than it
Has been but we’re in for another blisteringly hot day and Uphill all the way this the first Brew stop the road have you got the Brew on yeah nice cup of tea at this one morning George morning morning ready for more Hills yeah not any more climbing today than yesterday
No and it’s a shorter day I tend to be burning out after 60 mes so that’s just when we’re stopping today so that’s Happy Days oh come on it’ll be the only time I ever take Cliff for the whole 14 days I’m ahead of Cliff it’s all going
Toland cuz George is getting the right way yeah George is going the right way wow well positive today there goes cliff and Olivia never to be seen again until dinner so all Steve’s Bridging the Gap se’s back on it today after taking a rest with us sloes yesterday this newly laid gravel hasn’t
Made it easier but actually it never really got steep almost 3 miles but wasn’t as tough as it could have been okay J again here we go up again 1.6 miles this time starting to lose contact with the group again oh this is beautiful mid morning it’s now really
Hot living there just green you think yeah wouldn’t all these English passing through on their bikes disturbing the piece what a stunning animal that is wow he is right you still wouldn’t go in his field would you I dare you to come over the fence and welcome downhill 4 miles to coffee and
Cake hello folks they’ll be annoyed in a minute when they realize there’s no grub coming sorry guys now we got the geese going mad what a gorgeous morning good morning Fel not to be confused with penel which I believe is Father Christmas oh I flat bit on
Do that big bump in the haze yeah a piece of cake now I was talking about what I’m about to have when we saw this looks this this kind area looks kind of likely doesn’t it here we go cely stretching her legs hello hello hello of building
There is that the start Bell yeah 11 yeah there you go oh God CU they love making their hous they look a bit like a castle don’t look at that thank you yeah yeah I’m good I’m just slow thank you very much that’s great yeah it’s not to much fun on your own
It’s nice that they stopped having a regroup when I was driving I I did the partial deliveries on a class two the old class I lasted three months had a St heads C with it these days oh God thanks for waiting guys thank you I’m a bit slow on ills
Today I’m feeling a bit sick from that Coler crap in me drink miles behind again miles behind again if you t a video of me it won’t be blurred that’s for sure I nearly caught you all back there and then we hit another Hill Jesus is part of the strange issue
I’ve got to up with they’ve all waited for me we’re all standing around having a chat and I can’t stand because of my back problem start getting pins and needles and numbness down my left hand side and into my leg we got a lot of climbing to do buddy clear every Hill a
Struggle and we’ve got a 6 and 1/2 Mile Hill to come thank God for that but sitting on the Hedgehog there’s the church and there’s the van we arrived to learn that somehow Lu and Dave and Steve HS have whisp passed earlier missing the lunch stop completely well they just missed this
Massive white van that is a bit worrying have you sent a message on 360 maybe it’s a bad stop to miss as we have the 6 and 1/2 Mile climb on Mont door to come so an energy boost is much needed so we’ve actually only got 20 miles to go after that lunch
Stop but time wise it’s not going to be that quick because a lot of it is uphill including The Mont door climb 6 and 1 half miles I’ll take more than an hour to get up that I’m in a real Steve in like a cage Panther a cage Panther that’s going
To stay in his bloody cage did you have enough to eat soon as you were had a short lunch break yeah yeah good you might need that halfway up the big climb emergency banana Ste is one of the three that zoomed past the lunch stop and had to be reached by WhatsApp
B you’re really well didn’t probably a bit Dr up and in pain yeah I’ve just miss being theor about finding a chemist we got some really strong pain killers traod dool yeah you can only got on prescription yeah haven’t been using them much recently because the nerve blockers are doing
Their job not been in a lot of pain but I haven’t cycled 6 days in a row 70 miles it’s bothering me a bit I’ve searched a bloody suitcase I can’t believe I didn’t pack any I think everyone’s riding their post Lune conservative pace mon door just come into view there on the
Left little dots of white head and my mates all right this is the start of the biggie time to select an easy gear look to wonder whether I gone the wrong way what nice little spot this little dip into this town is the C before the storm I’ll get ahead of
You cuz you’re all going to overtake me it must be a tough day even Mr gladwin’s with us again it’s a good move it’s a very good move you can always tell it’s a long one in France when you get that sign at the bottom telling you whether it’s open or not at
The top cuz I imagine in the winter often isn’t hello Beauties it’s a fairly horrible looking Cloud up there which could ruin or spoil things a bit for us it decides to drop anything this is glorious just tough but glorious daring in front of me just swearing
Because he’s looked down at the graph on His Garment and saw what’s to come yeah stopped just after the bridge another bum rest stop oh God this is when I realized that not all the roadside stops were just to let me catch up I’ve never seen so much public rubbing of the
Underc I wrote with a guy once who says I’ve got an ass like a Japanese flag are we ready no no is the answer to that it’s a dog kennel it’s a big dog kennel Hobbit hole appr don’t yeah the top half of the graph looks scary as hell oh well
Wow so what you call group suffering suffering suffering remind me why you do this again Richard it’s boming yeah it looks flatter here it is it is it is now look I think where are my bloody having hallucinations it is cuz it’s not Jesus Christ Richard even came downhill to get the
Photo so he’s got to go back up again but look at that beautiful plus it gives you a rest top of the climb well done mate well done well that was a piece of piss and here’s why it’s worth it you see you tell people back home
That and they’ll just say well I didn’t just drive up oh yeah wow look at that cra what you do when you get to the top you go down to the bottom stay at the bot it’s not very uh sporty that is the yeah we went around the bottom of this
Bloody rock over there well done all saw bums and allly hold on seriously oh God big clim hold on hold on well you know guys basically VTO is just two two of those Stevie two of those yeah more or less 14 mile that was 6 and a half so
We’re not far off but it’s the same when you go hi King when you get to the top you think Jesus did we just walk I know yeah exactly exactly did I just cycle up that yeah and I think back to the day when I first started and I planed to cycle to
My brothers and go oh there’s a 5% Hill there how do how do I avoid that 5% Hill and i’ re-root it so I didn’t do the 5% Hill that’s how yeah and then suddenly I’m doing this it’s hard to believe we’re actually cold on this ride all of a sudden it’s
Bizarre get out here yeah mostly downhill to the hotel and it’s a race to get back before it might start raining and Don’t Rain on My Parade watch all the rain was holding off so it didn’t spoil this very fast last five downhill miles right into the center of
Town oh well what a descent that was wow that was quite a descent was it that was I felt like T of France that was L 30 m hour all the way brilliant yeah stunning scenery all day culminating in the summit of montor where Dave was either holding his bike
Triumphantly or about to sling it over the edge I’m not sure which and what better way to refuel in the evening than wood fired pizza all around look out for the entire coverage of this Traverse across France by subscribing for free just click on the yellow icon here and there’s a couple of
Videos here to hopefully interest you ofwa from londor and see you in part seven