Random musings & other stuff

Just some random bits and pieces from the last few days, in order of highest tedium first:

1) Roads - how comes the French are so good at maintaining their roads - today was typical - a 30 mile long single track road over Bonette that must carry no more than 30 cars a day (and none in winter when it's closed) and the surface was immaculate, just silk smooth tarmac all the way - how comes our roads back home are so rubbish?

2) Communications - even in the smallest villages and up the Cols there is a near perfect phone signal. Most villages also have free Wi-Fi. How comes our phone system is so rubbish that when you go more than a few miles off the beaten track you are lucky to get a signal?

3) Dreams - been having some weird dreams this week. I very rarely dream but after a day in the saddle I guess I am sleeping more deeply. Wednesdays dream was all about me driving a tractor and trailer full of corn around the streets of Cambridge, going down narrower and narrower lanes. One of the schools dads was also in the cab with me talking to another (random) person. Weird. Last nights was all about tidiness and I recall my lovely wife having tidied all the dirty plates back into the cupboards so the house would look tidy. I went apoplectic...

4) Ventoux / Germans? Met some French cyclists up atop a Col couple of days ago and we were chatting to them. They went up Ventoux (shudder) on Sunday and the weather was perfect (grrr). Then they asked "Are you German" (double grrr).

5) Dinner last night - very funny - Simon, Craig, Louise and I decided to make a break from the pack and go out on our own and have some nice food and wine without having the hassle of splitting the bill exactly into each persons meal, how much wine they've had etc which is what has generally been happening in the evenings. I know it's a generation gap thing but it's still very frustrating sitting around for 20 minutes whilst someone works out what steak, chips and 1.3 glasses of wine cost. So we head out on our own (slipping out the back door of the hotel like true undercover agents), find a nice place far enough away from the hotel so the chances of the remaining group ending up there were remote and hey, 30 minutes later guess who walks in.... quite funny and thankfully they are all still speaking with us today.

6) People - a little bit on the rest of the group, or at least those that I know better:

- Ally - Scottish, 73 years old, climbs cols for breakfast every day back home in Scotland. Abiding memory of him is seeing him freezing cold walking up the last 1k of Ventoux. "I've been colder" he said to me afterwards. Also Bob his friend, 70 years old, another super Col climber, both super guys.

- Ross (one of the organisers) and Louisa his partner. Cycled all over the world, I doubt there are many places they have not been.

- Ken - suffers from MS, rides a trike. Amazing guy, just plugs away all day long.

- Craig and Louise - Craig "the cruiser" just flew past me on both Ventoux and Bonette, both of them super sporty types, into fell-running, marathons etc. Lovely couple, very much in love, I think they should get married and have lots of super-sporty children. Louise apparently sings "I am your sunshine" all day long, thankfully inflicting it mainly on Craig.

- Simon "why cycle up Bonette when you can sit in the van" - super guy, liked waving to us all out of the van window today.

- Andy - the group tosser. There is always one I guess and ours is Andy. Annoyed me within hours of meeting by being highly condescending / derogatory about the fact that I take my bike to my local bike shop for a service rather than doing it myself and slowly but surely annoyed just about everyone else in the group as well. Everyone else in the group tries to hunt him down on the road, taking great pleasure when they pass him.

- Chris - the other organiser. Really nice guy, must be a very boring job sitting around all day waiting for people to arrive at the top of mountains but he carries it off with aplomb. Was a great help in getting my bike fixed.

That's it, love to all.