May the bicycle have slept badly?
As soon as I started off, the bicycle started again with the same problem as yesterday! The chain had no intention to keep still on one of the crowns fixed to the behind wheel …
The about four kilometers from the pass passed quite quickly … I was even chased by the house keeper of the refuge because I had left the keys in an unconventional place, then down to Lanslebourg Mont Cenis there is a bicycle mechanic, but he tells me that it is too complicated for him … I have to go to St Jean de Maurienne 57 kilometers far!
The bicycle is holding up, my patience too, I cannot push, I cannot stand on the pedals, I go down passively without much fun … the mechanic of the Sport 2000 … using following approximations changes the derailleur, the wire of the gear and the chain again since the one of yesterday was making a not very assuring humps … at the end the bicycle is working it is the third derailleur I change since I started off … this one is the best one … the bamboo frame is holding up … but many of the components have arrived to the end …
When I start off again it is already four, Annecy my destination is still very far, 80 kilometers, the road goes down almost imperceptibly for a driver but in an encouraging manner for a cyclist, I grind the first forty kilometers fast, before Albertville, I have an uncertainty on the itinerary, a mountain shortcut does not convince me … so I go ahead … road forbidden to bicycles … I pretend not to see up to 3 kilometers from the centre of this city which hosted the Winter Olympic Games in 1992 … there are still 45 km to do for Annecy … here too the bicycles cannot enter on the state road I pretend like it is not there up to 25 km from destination where the forbidden signs are so clear, repeated and visible that it would not be possible to make up any excuses … it has been so that I bumped into an enchanting cycling route long more than 30 kilometers which among pine forests, mountain villages and the Lac d’Annecy on my left takes me to Annecy … the route is accessible only by foot or on roller blades … I met a lot of people, some also heading to Annecy … with a difference with Kenya or Tanzania we travelled together until destination … because almost everybody saw me as an opponent … a overweight big belly too who must have started doing sports the day before yesterday and the heart monitor ringing like an alarm … he started pushing like mad after I asked him if the road was right … I took all of them … a part from a very fit with a racing bicycle … I had fun … but in Africa it was a different thing …
When a kind of punk from the other side of the Alps lost his Rottweiler … who maybe mistook the bamboo of my bike for a bone … I truly understood that our body always keeps some left energies to spring at 45 km/h even after 180 kilometers …
Annecy looks like one of those Swiss lake city, as a matter of fact Lausanne and Geneva are not very far, arrived to the hotel I delayed a bit on the internet, when I went out just before eleven to eat something … I found all the restaurants closed with the chairs piled up … goodbye typical Savoy dishes! … I had to make do with two excellent doner kebebs … I never took them in Egypt … I found them here …
London is close, but still far!
The Grande Scala along the uphill at the Moncenisio mountain border post N 45° 21.863’ E 6° 95.722’ – Annecy N 45° 89.924’ E 6° 12.938’ 192 km