MARCHE J MOREL PONTPOINT

bonsoir,

Pour dimanche j'ai rameuté les troupes, Jacky, Florent et moi méme seront là, je motive Bruno!

RDV 9h00 sur place , on fait 50kms?

@+ Fabrice

To Forget...

Today we set out in remarkable good conditions after all the snow and ice and snow. Contrary to weather forecasts it even stayed dry and we spotted the sun in the end with a nice temperature. We went for a classic Ermenonville-outing with a nice mix of using existing trails on the, meanwhile inevitable Garmins, and exploring new yummy stuff. So we covered all today: fast single tracks, painful climbs, brilliant drops and beautifull scenery. Having a nice excercise as today, allows a man to forget everyting around him. So Dave forgot to take it easy as initially planned for January, Bruno forgot the reason why not to buy that nice used bike with full suspension, Patrick forgot to clean his bike after a brave lonely outing last week, Fred forgot that he was actually just recovered from being sick this week and I forgot..... I already forgot again....

Sortie - Sunday January 11th

Today was brisk!  -10C, and that, I guess is beyond the tolerance level of our Velo Club de Senlis.

I showed up at our beloved departing spot at 9:00 sharp and waited around for 5 minutes but no-one showed up so I took a little ride of my own.  I went into Ermenonville and followed the highway South up to the second bridge, then I turned West, crossed the highway and pedaled into the Chantilly forest to finally come back home through downtown Senlis.

It was more of a Balade then a Moutain Bike Ride, but it felt really good to be pedaling in the middle of the thick snow.  The forest was really white, quiet and sunny and you could see all the animal tracks everywhere.

My beard had a huge icecle hanging off of it and my jacket was full of snow that was produced by my breath.  You should have seen the look of disbelief in people's faces as I biked through the city center!

In the end I did 15 km in 1 hr and kept the heart rate at 130 the whole time.  Once I got moving the cold was no issue at all as I went slow and the thick snow kept the heart rate high enough to keep me warm.

... I am glad I got out of bed, but it would have been a lot more fun if someone had joined me!!

Cheers,

Fred

MTB Outing - Dec 30th 2008 - Tour d'Ermenonville

... well, if yesterday's ride was all about flat and fast, todays' ride was not. A 38km rollercoaster garnished with rain, sleet and snow, 3 spills and 580m climbed in a mere 2:38mins.

'Tis the season to be jolly.

Harry, Romain and Fred set out at 14:00 towards "La Butte aux Gendarmes" which today seemed to be steeper than usual. It must have been due to the fact that it was humid on top of freezing. At the top we took a left to go through a little technical trail with a couple of rocky descents and steep ascents. Harry hadn't been on this VTT for a couple of weeks so he was charged with a lot of extra "invincibility hormone" ... and going down a very steep and rocky path it was he who took the first spill of the day. You should have seen the smile on his face!

Next, as we climbed a long hill it began to sleet; tiny little ice spheres about 2 mm in diameter. They made the climb pretty, but when it came time to blitz down the hard-earned descent we were dismayed to find out that our fun was slowed down by the sleet, which was painful to the eyes at high speeds.

Next stop: "La Mer de Sable". We must have climbed 400 of our 580m around here, zig-zagging up and down and up and down various single tracks all around the park. To our surprise we were all able to climb some steep sections that have forced us on foot these last couple of weeks. Mostly due to fact that the mud was completely frozen and offered awesome traction! We are definetly improving our technical riding skills. Cool.

From "La Mer de Sable" we headed South towards Ermenonville. Now, most people would have taken the asphalt road, but no, not us, not today ... up and down and up and down some more through some cool little technical sections that Romain used to call "home". We didn't dwell long, but there is definetly a waypoint on the GPS!! We'll have to come back and explore.

To finish things off we hooked into the track from two weeks ago and blazed along the barb wired fence all the way to "the golf course". Harry was unstoppable!! (except for a little face plant as he missed a corner)

By now two hours had gone by and we hadn't put our feet on the ground yet, it was wet and cold ... time to go home. We decided to take the B-Line and follow the highway. As we were going down the asphalt at about 23kph we hit black ice on the road and Fred went down. Hard. The rest of the ride was a total white knuckle experience as the path was completely covered in ice and it was very hard to keep the bikes going straight, even on the dirt paths.

I really enjoyed the ride. It was fast, hard, techinical and quite unusual, but I must admit that the best part was when I opened the door to the warm house and smell freshly baked apple pie!!

But that was about 5 hours ago ... now I just want to go on the next ride!!!!!!

Cheers,

Fred

New Bike

Ok ... after much laboring it is finally all together!

Tomorrow we are biking, come hell or high water!

New frame, new fork, new wheels, new tires ... oh, if I could only get a new set of legs!!!

Fred

Sortie du 23 novembre 2008

Déjà en ligne ! Le temps "frais" puisque la moyenne était de -O°C et la neige n'ont pas empéché cette sympatique sortie.
Ernesto, c'est promis, sera devant la semaine prochaine.
Attention, certains dont nous tairons ici le nom (!) commencent à se relacher....pas bon l'absentéisme pour tenir la distance dimanche prochain à Frépillon.

Sortie du 16 novembre 2008

Nuageux, humide et pluie fine sur Chantilly

Attention aux chevaux, et à ceux qui les montent ...

Terrain gras, comme à l'accoutumée

11e Bourse aux vélos de Baillet-en-France

Salut,

J'ai vu dans un magazine de velo cette information:

"Dimanche prochaine au Baillet-en-France (95), au croisement de la N1 et de la Francilienne. De 9h à 18h.

C'est un des plus importants rendez-vous en la matière. Les professionnels et particuliers se partagent les emplacements. On y retrouve des vélos, des accessoires, de la bonneterie, des livres, photos, reveus, collections... 100 exponsants seront présents, 7000 visiteurs et 300 vélos à vendre."

Je ne sais pas si c'est vraiment intéressant, mais peut-être on peut y aller en groupe...?

harry