The logistics of this trip are like the others we’ve done — we all gather from our respective corners of the globe, gather everything we need for a 10 day bike trip, do the ride (in style, of course), and then return home dreaming of the next trip.
Dave “Directeur Sportif” Evans, of course, plans these trips so that nothing really can go wrong, accept for circumstances beyond our control, but that’s another story…. The first couple of days are spent on trip preparations — one can never be too prepared for a ten day bike trip, or maybe? Since none of us live in France (yet…), we all need to congregate from our own corners of the earth and do these preparations without the luxury of a house or garage for space or base of operations.
Dave and Dick arrived on September 3 and rented the van. Dave had taken the parts from the bike rack we purchased on our last trip home and brought them back for this trip expecting to be able to use them. Unfortunately, Renault changed the roof of the van we like to rent (Espace) so the rack towers didn’t fit. Crap.
They were able to secure a slightly large van — Ford Galaxy with rails already on the roof. Dave and Dick actually found cross rails for this van, but they were too short to hold racks and trays for the five bikes we had. More crap….
Plan C was to use the cross rails Dave brought with him and secure them to the rails already on the van with muffler clamps (U-bolts). That worked. It took us about six hours to get all of this settled; fortunately, there was a large auto parts store just a block from the hotel we used as a base.
The rest of us arrived safely in Toulouse on September 4. My flight from Amsterdam to Toulouse was the only snag in the arrival proceedings. My flight out of Minneapolis was delayed three hours due to a nasty thunderstorm so I missed my connecting flight in Amsterdam. The takeoff from Minneapolis was very, very bumpy. The aircraft wings were flapping like seagull’s wings. The delay in Amsterdam was not a big problem, I just took the next flight three hours later. Everyone else arrived safely and mostly on time.
On Monday, September 5, we awoke and planned our day over breakfast at the hotel. Dave and Terry would handle ‘the shelf’. Since our sag van needed to carry all of us, our five bikes, all our clothes, and then food for the day from town to town, we had to organize a rather efficient storage system in the van. A ‘shelf’ of various lineage has made many appearances on our bike trips — each time customized from scratch for the specific vehicle we had. Here’s the final result:
For the bikes, we each assembled our own. Of course, we had help from the house dog….
Dave and Dick:
Terry:
And now for the bike rack. Once we had all of the parts prepared, it was just a simple matter of assembly.
But by the time we had assembled most of the parts on top of the van, it started to rain. Great…. Well, we were all troupers and worked until the racks and bikes were firmly secure on top of the van.
By the end of the day, we were all rather wet and tired and ready for dinner and beer. But we still had a rather sticky issue to deal with — the bike boxes… Since we were driving to the start of our trip, riding for 10 days, and then driving back to Toulouse, we had to store the bike boxes and two van seats for the 10 days we were riding. Hmmm.
The hotel madame wasn’t the happiest with us so far as we were moving bikes in and out of the hotel but she said she would look into it. The hotel manager was even more unhappy with us…. but in the end they allowed us to store the boxes and cases in storage sheds behind the hotel. Whew. Unfortunately by that time it was too late and too wet for a prologue ride, bummer. We were too tired and too thirsty for anything like that.
Well, thank you for being patient with me while I describe most of the events of these first days. There is one other event that, while did not thwart our trip in any way, caused much consternation….. My bike was slightly damaged on the last trip we took (Tour de Alpin in 2002) en transit to France. Fortunately, it was fixable by a local bike shop.
I was having nightmares about having damaged goods again for this trip, but what I saw when I opened my bike box was rather astonishing. I had carefully packed my bike, including wrapping the chain and rear derailleur in cloth rags and plastic bags — mostly to protect other items in the box from getting greasy. When I opened the bike box, I found the plastic bags and cloth rags removed from the drivetrain, the chain split and removed from the cogs and laying on top of my bike! Well, now, isn’t that interesting?
Could this have happened by merely jostling the box during transit? I’ve traveled many times with this bike box and, along with others I’ve traveled with, not once has any chain spontaneously split and removed itself from the drivetrain.
The only explanation I could muster was, unfortunately, the wonderful folks working for Transit Security Administration who inspected my bike before it was boarded on my flight out of Minneapolis. I know the box was opened because the inspectors placed a nice greeting card in the box… Those who’ve had luggage opened and inspected by TSA agents know what I’m talking about.
Why would they do such a thing?!? Well, I’m going to send a nice letter to just a few people and see if I get a response…..
Consequently, I had to spent some time finding a new chain for my bike. Of course, I have Campy 10 speed components. Campy 10 speed chains are not cheap nor easy to find. Dick helped by calling around Monday morning trying to find an open bike shop in Toulouse. Unfortunately, not many small shops are open on Mondays in France. Double crap.
Well, two blocks from the hotel was a shopping mall anchored by a CarreFour and an InterSport store — the Oshman’s of France. Dick was not successful in finding a shop so we decided to visit the InterSport to see if they knew of any open bike shops. However, when we found the bike section, we found they had Campy equipment.
“Avez vous Campy chains?”
“But of course. 9 speed or 10 speed?”
“10-speed.”
“Ici! no problem.”
Amazing, simply amazing! This Oshman’s-type of store had Campy C10 chains on a shelf. Only in France….. Man, was I relieved.
I also found my chain lube container had voided itself in my bike box. I packed it in a single plastic bag, but it covered most items. Note to self: double bag lubricant and cleaner bottles whilst flying…. Maybe it was the take off from Minneapolis.
We ended up having to leave the bikes on top of the van for the evening as they were very wet and dripping with grease so we didn’t want to impose on the hotel staff anymore by asking to store our bikes in side for the evening. I wasn’t the happiest about that but didn’t have much choice. I supose I could have slept in the van…. I actually seriously thought about it…..
End of setup days. Statistics:
- Start: Toulouse
- End: Toulouse
- Distance: 0 km
- Climbs: on top of the van a few times
- Total gain: 3 m
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