So Much Action!

 

Rain, cobbles, mud, dodgy hotels, great hotels, fantastic food, historical sites, incredible scenery, really really challenging riding, and a stack.  It's been a crazy few days.

Let's go back a bit....

Sunday 7th - Rest Day in Roubaix

We were so knackered after our epic ride that the following morning we decided to hang in Roubaix for the day to rest, relax, and eat cake (the patisserie next door to the Mercure was AMAZING).  We ate, watched some telly, then headed to Lille for a bit of an adventure and good burgers at Five Guys,  YUM.  

Monday 8th - Historical Sites Galore

We headed off early, a bit of light rain, the place was deserted - 9.30am through the streets of Roubaix and NOBODY was around - it was a ghost town.  We headed out via the famous Roubaix Velodrome, the home of the ending of the great Paris Roubaix cycling race.  And as we're elite cyclists ourselves we had to take a squizz.  That's us above in front of the "pave" (cobblestone) outside the velodrome. 

The Paris Roubaix race is famous for how tough it is - it's done in one day, and a lot of it is ridden over cobblestones.  So, the second tourist attraction of the day was the Carrefour de l'Arbre - which is a crossroads at l'Arbre - and a spot where Mike hung out with his mate at the end of the race when they went to see it.  

Getting ready to leave at our lovely hotel

Roubaix velodrome (in the rain)

Carrefour de l'Arbre

Then the ride continued - we pushed on for a great day of cycling in France where the cars are so respectful we can't believe it.  There were a lot of bike lanes, but we now are faced with riding at times on the road without lanes, and we feel very safe.  Phew.  Here's Roses and I on one of the off-road tracks we took on this 52km day to St-Amand-les-Eaux.

Local farms were dotted left and right en-route offering their local wares.

We arrived at our destination - a pretty good highway hotel, and had lots of yum refreshments

Tuesday 9th May - Rain Rain Go Away

We started out in the rain thinking it would stop.  It didn't.  We did, however, get to see famous Forest of Arenberg - another key piece of cobblestone in the Paris Roubaix ride - it was really something to see after watching it on tv, and hearing so much from Mike.  And even though it was cold and wet, it was special to see it in such condition.  

The Forest of Arenberg

Me and Roses on the cobbles (just posing, not riding)

After the little tourist aside, things went downhill.  The rain was getting heavier.  We were getting uncomfortable on the road.  We stopped at a Leclerc (supermarket) for about an hour to decide what to do.  We were only 12km in.  We were keen to push on, but we were drenched through, cold, and pretty miserable.  

We decided to head for a hotel and call it a day.  So, 6 terrible kms later, we were peeling off our clothes and having hot showers in the dodgiest hotel ever!  Mike set up the Chrome cast and we set about drying all our kit on the boiler heaters.  The highlight, though, was the walk to dinner to a local place, Val'n Frites, where the locals, truck drivers, and tradies hang out...really great food - Roses said it was the best steak she's had so far.

Wednesday 10th May (yesterday) - a VERY BIG DAY

Wow.  What a day.  With one eye on the rain radar, and the other on google maps, our fearless leader managed to get us to this gorgeous place we are now on the outskirts of a cute little French town, Landrecies.  But not without incident.

We waited until after a very long lunch (back at Val'n Frites where the proprietor took a liking to us and sat with us for ages to chat), and finally set off on the bike about 2.15pm when the rain had finally stopped.  We were committed to not riding in rain again, so had to dance around the rain radar.  Miraculously we managed 38km without a drop, and 20 minutes after we arrived at our gorgeous little hotel, it poured!  GO MIKEY!  

But all the action in between.  Crazy cobblestones - which we learnt this morning was 2.3km long and included in the Paris Roubaix race.  Far out man.  I managed to ride about 300m of it, then we all got off and walked.  Man.  Then in between some back roads and a couple of major roads were these cute looking, I-don't-know-what-surface-it's-going-to-become country lanes/paths.  Well, THOSE LANES WERE ROCKY, MUDDY, WATERY, CRAZY paths.  And we suffered.  Bloody hell.  I kept saying "courage, courage, courage, courage" out loud as I slipped all over the place - but we stayed on the bikes.  We made it through.  All those rocks, water, mud, cow shit...we made it through.  Unbelievably.  My swearing was loud and often.  But we made it through.  All of us proud of ourselves, especially Roses and I.  The bizarre thing in all of this was that the scenery was BREATHTAKING.  I'm trying to avoid slipping into puddles and stinky mud, and I look around and it is glorious - yellow canola fields, green wheat fields, purple rain skies, gorgeous cute French villages...just so beautiful.  This is why we're here, to experience and see all of this.  It was magical.  And really really hard.

The bloody cobbles

Finally, after all that hard work, a break, and only 10km to our hotel

So, we were over the worst of it.  I think at this point there was only the final super muddy path that led us to the hotel to go, so we're feeling pretty knackered, but chuffed.  And we'd beaten the rain.

Then the excitement of the day happened.

We had 3km to go.  Just hit a major road which we needed to ride for 600m before turning onto a laneway.  Trucks whooshing past as we wait to turn onto the road.  We're stopped.  Patiently waiting.  Mike calls "GO", I try to go.  I'm knackered.  My gear is too high.  I get the bike going...lose my balance...and PFFFFTTTT over I go!!  On the side of the road into a soft cushiony bed of long grass and MUD!  Of course, my supportive and kind team were just so great and really looked after me with care and concern...Roses burst out  laughing and couldn't stop, and our fearless leader pulled out his camera to take a pic!  So supportive.  

Just zoom in and look at Roses' face - those white pearly teeth are glistening...killing herself laughing (of course, just as an aside, I was laughing so hard I couldn't get up for a few minutes - after all the toughness on the mud and rocky paths I could stay upright, but trying to push off on a road and BOOM!  No part of this body was injured in the making of this pic, just mud EVERYWHERE, which meant I got first shower!).

And then we got to heaven.  Our gorgeous hotel for the night.  A true French place - simple, comfortable, friendly, and with amazing food.  We arrived around 7pm, were at dinner for 3 courses at 7.30pm, and back in bed around 10pm.  So great.

The rain came down 20 mins after we arrived

Dinner!

The mud on my brake cables after the ride...amazing.  Mike is trying to wash it off now as I type.  

We are back from a delicious breakfast, and getting ready to head off for today's adventure.  The weather is ok, our meteorologist suggests only light rain around lunch time - so bring on the next 45km! 

We are only now only about 130km from Claude and Laurence's, so if the weather holds we'll be rolling in there Saturday afternoon.  Fingers crossed.