Paris and Versailles



I've been stalling a bit - trying to get the story and details straight in my own mind.  Funny how the chronology of things gets a little out of kilter through lack of sleep ( and note taking ).

The heading image above was taken at the hotel - packed to the rafters with Italians, some Israelis, Japanese, Thai, Americans and an Alaskan.  The deck was situated right outside the breakfast room, and a bit of a buzz started as our bikes started to come out of their cases...

While I packed away the last of the tools, Andrew ( the silent partner and powerhouse ) took a photograph for posterity, and Gav and Craig went in search of baguettes for lunch.  Then it was into the wilds around Versaille in the afternoon for a trial ride and shakedown.

( after checking out the Versaille palace gardens) We made it back to the hotel without getting lost or crashing and I ended up staying out at Guyancourt, rather than stressing and catching the train back into Paris.

There are very few images from the actual ride.  I carried a camera the whole way, and didn't fish it out once.  I only took this one at the technical inspection with my 'phone, and everyone had moved away from closely inspecting the Malvern Star by the time the camera had sorted itself to take the image.

Not a bad contrast though - titanium Litespeed in front of an 80 year old Malvern Star with wooden rims.  You may also notice the dude in the dark blue jersey - a wollen Molteni number and real woollen knickers !

To say that the tech inspectors were distracted by the wooden rims would be something of an understatement.  They didn't even bother to look at my lighting - they just wanted to know if the rims were real wood, and then turned to call over other officials for a closer look.  Nice to get some more compliments...

The next day, an afternoon train ride to drop gear with Cait in Paris, turned into a mild stress as we found ourselves a little starnded, unable to sight a taxi or the right bus stop to get from Versaille back to our hotel after dinner.  Finally the right number bus pulled up and we gratefully scampered aboard - back to the hotel by about 9 Pm, just in time to receive a txt from Andrew stating the obvious that we should be in bed ( how did he know we weren't ) - only backpack packing and a radio talkback segment to do...

Here we are downing a fruit cake, coke and water, a small pile of spare parts on the floor in the foreground waiting to be packed, waiting for Adam Spencer to call.  By 10.30 he did - mispronounced my name live on air - and it was a good lark to make jokes about our impending pain levels and the logic of riding 30's bikes across France.  A nice experience - but it meant that we were finally to bed by 11 Pm, to be up at 3.45 Am to get to Andrew by 4.45 and into the startline stadium...