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@edscoble
Day Five.
Had a great night sleep, I woke up feeling really really good with the sunrise shining through the window, did not made the mistake of unpacking all the shit from the panniers, although I did spend 10 minutes using the hair dryer to dry my sock, very important, socks tell people how serious you are.
After a light breakfast, I check over the bike, the cassette was loose, so tighten up the lockring, felt like it’s not getting tighter, bit worrying, I’m using a steel narrow lockring on an alu free hub body, not a good combo.
Hopefully it’ll hold on until I find a bike shop with a 11-32 cassette with a wider lockring.
I am looking forward to this day, I’m in a picturesque Spanish village, heading toward the Pyrenees again through a huge valley where a vast glaciers once reside on.
It was also crisp and dry this morning too, the further I go into the valley, the wider it get showing the scope of the old glacier, I can also see The Wall, where the road head straight into, then fork 90 degrees to the left to start the climb alongside the mountain, it was a textbook climb, long road with small switchback at each end, making light work of gaining attitudes.
The Wall.
Halfway through the chain jump behind the cassette.
Feck.
It mean the lockring is loose again, got off, adjusted the cassette and tighten it with hand without removing the wheel, I just need to ride carefully.
The view of the valley, Isaba is hidden 20km away.
The landscape changed, it gotten rockier, less vegetation, trees are sparse out, it’s like a different country straddled between Spain and France, it’s also almost white, the sun was quite bright that day judging how dredged my cap is.
The road straddle between the border of Spain and France for quite some time until France come into view after reaching the other side of the mountain, the weather look a lots better than a couple days ago, at that point, I did a quick search on the phone for the nearest bike shop and ride toward it.
The road is closed, apparently there’s an event for people going down the mountain on a longboard, the switchback is littered with hay to stop the poor sod from disappearing into the oblivion if they mistimed their corner.
It also mean I get to break the 60km/h barrier of my touring bike, with a dodgy lockring, I managed to get all the way down to Arette at 2pm, too early, but really don’t have much choice, but to pitch up for the night and go into the bike shop the next morning.
France being a bit French, they’re obviously closed on Sunday (I did check, while spending 10 minutes looking at a €10,000 LOOK masterpiece from the windows).
Pelforth is lovely.
6/10 would be great if the lockring didn’t fail and cut the ride in half.
http://ridewithgps.com/routes/5880047
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