Day 2 - Clermont-Ferrand → Lac Chambon

Before the ride even begins, one lesson of travel always applies: stay flexible.

When you travel, flexibility is essential.

For this trip, I'm riding a rental bike, and it's an impressive machine. It features electronic shifting, hydraulic disc brakes, and, most importantly, fits me well. To make it feel even more like my own, I brought along my preferred saddle and pedals. After a few minor adjustments to the seat position, it fit me like a glove.

Many thanks to LaRébenne, our tour operator, for providing such outstanding equipment. If you're interested in cycling or hiking tours, I highly recommend checking out this personable, human-sized company.

Now for the flexibility part of today's story.

As we began our first climb this morning, I discovered that the front chainrings wouldn't shift. That instantly turned my beautiful 24-speed bike into a 12-speed. Worse yet, if the problem had been the battery powering the electronic shifting system, there was a chance I could end up stuck in a single gear—not exactly what you want with a day full of climbing ahead.

About eight miles into the ride (see the Ride with GPS map below), we caught up with our two support vehicles, which were parked along the roadside monitoring our progress as we tackled the first of several climbs. I flagged them down to see if we could figure out what was wrong.

The decision was made to load my bike onto one of the support vehicles and take it into town, where a mechanic at Decathlon—a massive sporting goods store—could have a look. Fortunately, the diagnosis was simple: a connector for the front shifter had worked itself loose. Once it was properly reconnected, everything functioned perfectly again.

As an added bonus, I was able to pick up a Garmin accessory that I had forgotten to pack. With the bike back in perfect working order, we returned to the route and managed to catch up with the rest of the group at the lunch stop.

The lunch stops are a high point of the ride. With just the right variety of food to keep you going when you are burning energy on the bike. Being Fance, you gotta have great bread and a selection of delicious cheese. I'm not a nutritionist, but it all seems pretty healthy to me

While having my bike worked on, I missed some of the more challenging parts of today's ride. but I wasn't going to miss the final 12 miles of the ride that included almost 8 miles of downhill into Lac Chambon. The climb to the top of the col provided many breathtaking views. During the final descent you passed through several microclimates and you could feel warm air flowing over you followed briefly by cool air, all while traveling at 35 to 40 MPH on skinny tires. It's all so much fun!!

Today's photos

Happy Biking,

Brian