Helll and High Water

Last week I was out all week for business and could even get a single ride in so I told my self that on Sunday I would ride “come hell or high water”. Wish granted.

I was dead set on biking on Sunday because all year I have been running an average of 3 bike outings / week. I am currently ahead as I have biked 146 times vs a plan of 141. As a matter of fact there has only been one week during which I didn’t bike at least once … an that was because I was sick.

So, despite the strong rain, today I geared up and headed to the beloved “point de RDV” … but there wasn’t anyone there! I was quite disappointed the that the VC Senlis would be stomped by such a dismal drizzle. Just as I was getting ready to put my head down and set out on my own the two Romains and Pierre arrived and they pointed out that Pascal was in his car in the parking lot. As Pascal geared up Jean-Philippe and Olivier arrived as well: Vive le VC Senlis!!

So seven of us set out and since it was “que des cousteaux” I knew it would be good. Jean-Philippe pointed out that in the rain the best thing would be to “faire que de bosses” to keep warm, and since I am not one to let people down I took the lead and started joining every since hill and single track that I could think of in Ermenonville.

We started out with “la butte aux gendarmes” and then we took a left at the top of the hill for some tough hills, we then moved to the golf the Montrefontaine, then to Ermenonville, la Mer de Sable where we joined a 2km stretch of sneaky single tracks.

The weather was … well, it was “wet”. However, at one point the clouds thinned out just enough that you could tell where the sun was in the sky and Romain said “il fait presque beau”; and that my friends, is when you know you live in l’Oise.

The group was quite homogeneous and absence of mechanical failures meant that we rode “comme des Sauvages” without ever stopping for at least a two hours. By noon we had pushed so hard that Pascal fell victim of some heavy cramps and simply remained in Ermenonville (that’ll teach you to drink on Saturday night!!). The next victims were the Romains which simply ran completely out of “jus” and was escorted by Pierre back to Senlis.

Jean-Philippe, Olivier and Fred decided to climb a few more hills to round off the ascent at 500m. Jean-Philippe kept bombing down the hills and hopping his bike left and right like he was Bambi. He had the same look on his face that my son has when he gets to play in the “pool full of plastic balls”!! You know what I am talking about right?

How many hills can you count???*

To finish the day off we sprinted though the puddle by the highway at 40km/hr to wash the bikes off!!
What started out as a “tentative ride” turned out to be one of the most technically challenging rides of the year.

Distance: 46km
Time: 3h 45m
Ascent: 510m
Fun: 100%

For those who remained in their warm beds: YOU MISSED A GREAT DAY OF BIKING!!!
Rain? What rain?

Fred

* 18 (enough for today!)