Cycling Tour of the Southern Alps 2010: Day 1 - Puget-Theniers

 Tuesday 24th August

My friend Adam and I arrived in Puget-Theniers, France, on the 24th August 2010 to begin a 5 day tour of the Southern Alps in aid of Alzheimer's Society. I ride my bike a lot, but I have never even been close to a mountain on a bike. The whole thing started to seem a little bit daunting on arrival, as the topography literally begins to rise thousands of meters up ahead of you. Adam had only been riding his bike for a month! Unfortunately, we had bigger issues to worry about before we could even consider hitting the road.

There was almost a sense of inevitability about the potentially trip derailing incident that occurred upon our arrival. Not much more than a month after 'chaingate' shattered Andy Schleck's very real chance of peeling the maillot jaune off Alberto Contador's back, it was a chain that nearly cut short out entire trip before one revolution of a wheel.

It was a cruel reminder of the fact that a bicycle is a fallible and vulnerable mechanical object, prone to wear and tear, damage and ongoing problems, much like ourselves. Perhaps this is why we become so attached to our machines as we begin to understand their little glitches like tiny traits or flaws in their personality. They require an unbelievable amount of love and attention.

It was just so inevitable though, that after 3 hours of arduous transit, nearly an hour of setting the bikes up in soaring 37 degree heat and coming down to quite literally the last link in the chain, that link was missing - the quick release link. A tiny piece only 1.5cm long, nowhere to be found among all that metal. A careful repair later and it seemed like disaster had been averted, until a short test ride uphill exposed its fragility and I came crashing down as soon as I put any real force through the drivetrain.

Thank heavens for 'Decathlon', France's answer to Halfords you might say. And thank heavens for heroic hoteliers who are willing to expend the kind of effort that I am simply not used to. I put it down to being a city boy, people just don't have the time to help you out in the same way.  In any case, half an hour after explaining our desperate need for a new chain, or 'shain', we resolved to set off to Decathlon, an hour's drive away, at 8am. With any luck we might still be on the road by 11am.