This week sees me back in France with the velo. Not the Roubaix, as on the 2015 Mont Ventoux adventure, not the Crosstrail last seen on the AVP French Foray, but surprisingly the Venge! It had been the Tarmac's turn, but having damaged its front carbon FFWD wheel on my Cheddar ride with Jason and having just ridden the Velothon, I decided to let him take a rest.
I've been musing this week about language, as one would when in another country speaking an unfamiliar tongue. Not necessarily the vocabulary or sentence structure but why would anyone want to give a gender to an inanimate object. French has masculine and feminine nouns, German even adds a third gender, neuter. Why? It then occurred to me, with much amusement, how my velos (I'm in France so I'm being local with my use of the cycling noun) have a gender. The brutish gunmetal Crosstrail is definitely masculine, as too is the silver sleek Tarmac race machine. The Roubaix with added cushioning is more a more delicate looking multitasking workhorse, definitely feminine and the Venge, well she's a saucy little ginger minx, who is skittish and just wants to have fun! So, it was the Venge who accompanied this MAMIL to the South of France.
 |
| The Venge, unpacked & rebuilt ready for het first French outing |
She was carried in luxury within the Yeti, her 60mm FFWD front wheel removed and cushioned in its own deluxe wheel carrier. After the 1,000 km drive down from Normandie she was unpacked, rebuilt and stowed safely awaiting her first outing. This came on the Sunday afternoon, as the heat of the day was dissipating and having spent a day lazing by the pool, I was in need of expending some calories and enjoying a rush of endorphins.
 |
| A few snaps from our Les Baux ride |
Prior to leaving the UK, I had reviewed a number of potential routes I could take straight from the Gite, and selected an undemanding 10 miler to get acclimatised to the area, or so I thought. The route was to take me north towards St-Remy along the D5, before reaching the town centre turning west along a minor road . After a couple of miles of typical French straight, smooth asphalt, I joined the D27 south on the road to Les Baux-de-Provence, a magnificent mediaeval castle high in the Alpilles Mountains. It was this latter designation which did not escape me as we started to climb. The Venge is not an all out climber, indeed even last year I brought the Roubaix with her 50:34 compact chain set and 11:30 cassette for Mont Ventoux, feeling the Tarmac's semi pro 52:36 / 11:28 would be a little too testing. The Venge is similarly blessed but was now being asked to climb what I can only describe as a mini Ventoux. Luckily Les Baux sits on top of a 5km climb, far shorter than the 20km Ventoux and so we managed it with breath to spare, albeit the views at the top were still as breathtaking!
