July 2022 (Page 2)

The Tour de France is in full swing. One of the stages, the individual time trials, will take place on July 23rd between Lacapelle-Marival and Rocamadour. It’s mere 25km from our house and I intend to go see it.
Even better, today The Department du Lot organized time trials on the same route for anyone willing. More precisely – willing and able because one had to present a doctor’s note stating that they are in good health in order to participate in time trials. I didn’t bother going to the doctor, therefore I was only allowed to partake in the peloton. I didn’t mind. At the beginning I was thinking of cycling up to the starting point, do the stage, and then cycle back home except it would total 90km, which I didn’t feel like doing; I am still recovering from my recent three-day trip to Cognac. So, Julie drove me to Lacapelle-Marival where I joined a few hundred participants. Most were on road bikes, some on mountain bikes, and others on electric ones. I was the only one on a Brompton.
At 10am the peloton started to move. Although it wasn’t a race and there was no time keeping, my competitive side kicked in. I wanted to see how far I could push myself so I began pedaling at full steam and I didn’t stop until the finish line. Of course, full steam proportional to the smallest set of wheels amongst all riders. I usually compete with myself but now there were others who, unbeknownst to them, participated in my race. Here and there I would overtake someone but those were mostly elderly, handicapped or pregnant women. At the end I wasn’t the first to cross the finish line but neither was I the last. We were all greeted with music, beer, sausages, ice cream. My legs were burning but I had fun cycling through the 20th stage of the 2022 Tour de France.

This period in numbers:

40.7 km – distance cycled
1h 48m — my own “time trial”
430 — participants in this randonnée libre
3 349.8 km — total distance of the 2022 Tour de France