AUTUMN IN THE PYRENEES: Collioure to Narbonne-plage

Today was a difficult day; we probably spent seven hours in the saddle.  First of all, it was a 64 mile day.  But most important, we had strong headwinds for much of the day.  For cyclists, winds are worse than hills.  On a hill, or even a mountain, you go up one side slowly in a low gear averaging maybe 4 miles per hour.  But from the top you coast and pedal down in a high gear averaging maybe 40 miles per hour.  But wind is often forever. If you're going north all day and the wind is from the north, there is no relief.  It's relentless. The only things you can do are (1) gear down and (2) get as aerodynamic as possible.

We also had about 10 miles - it seemed like a hundred - of very rough gravel roads.  In general, our bikes are not designed for this; neither are our bodies.  After the gravel we stopped for lunch at about 2:45, having ridden almost 90 kilometers.  We were beat.  The 12 km remaining to the hotel were't bad but we were tired and glad to get to a fairly nice hotel with air conditioning, wi-fi (which just stopped working) and a Guinness.  We'll sleep well tonight.

Because of the difficult day I didn't take any photos except this one of my bike which I took while we were eating lunch.

Independent Fabrication Club Racer

This bike is 12 years old but I wouldn't trade it for any bike on the market today. (Sorry Jim and Woody).