I haven’t been enjoying myself much that past few days. Mostly due to the the mechanical issues I keep suffering. I started the day of outside of Adance at a wonderful campground. I followed some backroads including passing over several dedicated pedestrian and train bridges. I also went over several one lane bridges with significant amounts of traffic that required me to sprint or get squashed by trucks.
The riding wasn’t great it was mostly just in heavy traffic. It felt a lot like being back in LA but having to do it with an extra 80 lbs of crap and not quite in the alert and ready state I needed to be in. It was 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The humidity was pretty high as well. I actually developed a heat rash on my right thigh above my knee.
I went out to the confluence of the Rhône and Saône. A twelve year old (or maybe 20 year olds just look younger to me) asked me for a light. I told him I didn’t have one and he didn’t believe me as I was loaded with camping gear.
When I turned my bike around my front tire was flat. Dear reader, I didn’t tell you I had patched my tire two hours earlier in the day. I rolled the old bitch over to the shade of a tree and collapsed. This time something had got through the tire. The tire was shot. I looked up a bike shop a half a kilometer away, patched and filled her for the walk. This building I saw from the tree.
I walked. I made some wrong turns. I walked through a student protest so thick that someone was almost hit by the light rail train. I made some more wrong turns. I found the bike shop and he agreed I needed new tires. The wonderful gentleman at VéloSuperStar was able to accommodate me. They didn’t have 38mm Schwalbe Marathons like I wanted but he talked me into Panaracer GravelKing. He kept warning me they were expensive, but installed it came out to €110. If that was a payment for my peace of mind it was money well spent.
It took an hour. I strolled and got a sandwich and pastries. I was wearing my biking shoes which are quite a bit more walkable than I remember.
At this point it was about 6:30 PM and I didn’t feel I could reliably get out of town in time to where I was planning without still being in the exurbs. I found a hotel but couldn’t book it online. I biked to it and then said merci eight times, agreed to put my bike in the garage (oddly not a single hotel in France has allowed a bike in my room…all four), and paid €90 for a room and breakfast.
I type this from that room incredibly overheated and about to shower. My legs still have poplar seeds from this morning woven throughout the hairs. Lyon seems lovely and a very livable city, but I do really want to leave it.
There is some bad weather on the horizon which should be hitting just as I’m getting into the mountains 🥳. Switzerland day after tomorrow.