Day 4
An eventful ride, but glad to say that both bike and rider are in good (ish) shape and the show goes on with another long stage tomorrow before the Rest Day.
The first surprise of the day was the set of large paintings which suddenly appeared either side of the path at the village of Les Rosiers, just before the bridge back to the south side of the Loire. There were more than 20 of them, very different styles and subjects, each about a metre square. I’m not very arty and like my pictures to resemble reality, so my favourite was of a river scene.
The path under and then back up to the bridge would have been easier without two large vans parked on the path, leaving a very narrow and rocky way past right on the edge of the bank. I just managed to avoid coming a cropper there.
Once across the river, the route returned to quiet roads and well maintained paths, and was very pleasant. Then, after re-crossing the river, my route took me further inland on my way to Angers. This involved crossing the Authon River on a small, self-operated, chain ferry. Crossing the river was easy, but getting on and off, with steep concrete banks, especially solo, was ‘interesting’. Watching later cyclists crossing, it became clear that the optimum number was three. One to hold the chain tight to keep the ferry still, and two to maneuver each bike front and back. Controlling such a heavy bike, with the ferry not stable, was disastrous. I ended up horizontal on the ferry with the bike on top of me getting on, and the bike ended horizontal on the other side getting off. Grazed legs for the rider and handlebars knocked out of line for the bike.
I had my lunch break to recover and to watch other people display how it should have been done. When I came to set off, after adjusting the handlebars, the chain didn’t seem to move properly and it looked to the untrained eye as though the derailleur was crooked. I managed to get to a gear where the chain seemed roughly straight, and went gingerly on my way, afraid to change the rear gear again, and with a worrying noise coming from the back wheel.
When I reached Angers, about 10km from the ferry, I was fortunate to find a bike shop along my route. I managed manhandled the bike up two steps into the small shop and the very helpful assistant took me through to the workshop area and, eventually, between us. We managed to get the bike up on to the stand. He couldn’t see any obvious damage, and whizzed through gear changes up and down very successfully. Reassured, I was able to continue riding normally, but could still hear the noise. Then I discovered that the mudguard had come unclipped fron the central stem with the falls and was bouncing up and down off the tyre. I also realised that the original problem with the seemingly wonky chain was that, with the handlebars taking a whack, the gear lever had moved, such that the chain on the back wheel was in a very different gear to the derailleur. Mystery solved, bike feeling better and so is the rider.
Angers was very interesting, with an amazing château, and the path along the Mayenne river was far better than I had been led to believe.
So now to get some sleep and try and set off a bit earlier for what will be a long day.
