Monday, June 4, 2007

week 2

One of the Johns is spending the month of June working as a cycling guide for VéloSport Vacations in France at its Provence Cycling Camp. You can find regular updates here about his experiences.

That's my official VSV mugshot so the clients can remember (and avoid) me.

Here are the guys I am working with. Chris, on the left, is the boss. Jef (yes, one f) is my French roommate and co-guide. He used to be a fireman in Paris.

So it's my 7th year working for VéloSport Vacations but I normally work the Tour de France trip, so I have had to learn new some new roads and the weekly program of the Ride Provence. Clients arrive Sunday afternoon, put together their bikes, then go out for a quick shakedown ride. I set up a well stocked Service Course at the hotel where all the guests stay.

It's got all the comforts of home and any tool or spart part necessary. That is, unless 8 of the clients are on tandems. That's right, I mean we have 4 tandems this week. 1 s&s coupled Seven, 2 Comotions, and 1 Bike Friday. The bike friday is by far the most complicated rig with all sorts of coupled tubes and cables joined with special fittings. Plus it's go an 8sp SRAM rear hub on top of the triple change ring with 9 speed cassette. Crazy!

We did our first real ride today. a 60 k cruise with a few 3± k climbs. What I quickly realized as the head guide is that the tandems can go really fast down straighter descents. I gave the 11 tooth cog a workout today. Up hill, not so fast. So we've got 8 people on tandems and one poor guy on a single. Oh well, we'll give 'em hell up the Ventoux on Friday.

Speaking of the Ventoux, we may have a few in this group who try for the three-peat. There are 3 routes up the Ventoux. If one can ascend all three in a 12 hour period, they gain membership into the Club des Cinglés du Mont Ventoux. Roughly translated as the "sillies" or "nuts" club of the Ventoux. You get a time card and have it stamped at each starting village and once at the top. Some of the tandems are threatening to do it. I'll take pictures.

This client made only one ascent last week.


Here are some happy clients on their way to dinner the 1st night. We'll see how they look after the Ventoux.

Ok, that's it for now. Provence is awesome. The weather has turned warm. The mistral has stopped blowing. You should be here.

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