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Published: March 26th 2018
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When I say "first the bad news" it isn't just a figure of speech or rhetorical convention - the first news really was bad, as upon waking I discovered that my tire had once again gone flat overnight. The good news was that there was a bike store a few minutes' walk from the hotel. That news got better when I got there and not only found it to be open (I had anticipated having to wait until 10AM) but discovered that unlike yesterday's outpost it was a *real* bike shop, complete with high end offerings. And things got even better yet when it was determined all I really needed was a rim strip of the correct size, as it turned out the rural whiz who had worked on it yesterday had used one that was ridiculously small. A mere 2 Euros later I was out the door, although I ended up returning rather quickly to borrow a screwdriver (caution: bike tech-talk ahead), as distracted by my glee at having finally found a solution to my woes, I had neglected to check the tire's orientation before mounting it. I knew enough to rectify this by simply reversing the quick-release axle, but
I had forgotten that the latter resulted in the magnet for my computer now being on the wrong side. This, of course, came to my attention as I sped away at an indicated 0 km/hr.
At any rate (get it?), I soon headed out thinking I would do the optional loop around Ciboure before continuing on to St. Etienne as today's distance, despite including our first named cols, didn't seem that daunting. I guess without the fear of flatting I must have been enjoying things too much to pay attention, because I inadvertently turned onto route D404 instead of D304 and promptly (if that's the right word) ascended the Col d'Ibardin, only to be told by the group of Bretons I met at the top that I had no other choice but to descend in order to continue my journey. This after getting a "replace battery pack" message when I tried to use my camera, hence the dearth of photos today. This seeming setback (a.k.a. bad news) soon turned into a blessing, as having already done some unexpected climbing I decided to take a shortcut back to town. This resulted in my being near shelter when the rain started,
and I was able to turn into someone's driveway to take refuge under an obliging tree as the heavens opened. It was a little while later that I turned and noticed that the gate across the driveway (that I hadn't even noticed on entry inasmuch as it had been open at the time) was hydraulically operated, and now closed. In other words, I was being held captive, although to be fair when I emerged and pointed this out to the homeowner, she immediately opened the gate and released me. I walked across the street and took advantage of the overhang of someone else's roof until the rain eventually stopped.
And then, following a few false starts, I managed to get myself back on route and left town. Although I felt stronger than I had previously, I knew I didn't yet have my full climbing legs back; fortunately the two official 'warmup cols' on today's route weren't too bad. I did, however, suffer the same frustration on both of them: I had to brake on my descent after having caught up to some cars (and with only so much brake pad material left, I would prefer to keep it for
when I really need it).
I will say this about today's climbing, though: I certainly noticed the stairs in the hotel (much more so than I noticed today's white highway reflectors effectively camouflaged by the lines on the pavement).
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Tot: 0.226s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 52; dbt: 0.1601s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb