The behind wheel too has left me …
The first kilometers pass by among the country side, houses with pitched roofs so much to almost reach the ground, many posts ‘a vendre’ on houses and businesses, many petrol stations, I do not know if it is the crisis, but since I entered France this is a constant, many businesses and houses are for sale … I assume they are good deals for who buys and sad stories, or relief, for who sells … between the Italian and French farms and the African ones there is the same difference between the room of a very tidy child and a messy one …
A bit before Dijon all of a sudden on a flyover bridge the chain falls down … I get off and put it back on … I do three meters and it falls again … I try again two more times with the same result … I realize that the behind wheel is screwed up and some spokes tangled on themselves like snakes … it is not possible to pedal … after a couple of kilometers when by then I almost reached the suburbs of Dijon a couple indicates the road to a bicycle mechanic placed in the ‘centre de la ville’ … they tell me that it is a couple of kilometers … but that ‘bon courage’ added at the end … seems a bit exaggerated for just two kilometers … at the end they will be at least four!
This mechanic has a boutique with beautiful bicycles at crazy high prices, they are three, father and two guys who could be his sons, they are very busy each one fixing a bicycle, the older guy understands the emergency and takes charge of my bicycle … we have to change the behind wheel … according to the two previous mechanics ‘it was not a big problem and it would have reached London …’ … at times I get pissed off for the accuracy of work in Africa but I must say that often when I come back I have negative verifications in Europe too … for 79 euro I change the wheel and the free wheel (the behind crowns) because the one I bought the other day is not compatible … with the same amount in Zambia you can buy a low quality Chinese mountain bike, which needs a serious service before the use …
It is almost six in the afternoon and I am missing 68 kilometers to destination!
‘I willed, and always willed passionately willed!’
… I want to reach Langres because the bicycle does not leave calm, from there I will miss 480 km to Dunkerque to cover in four days before the last stage from Dover to London …
So like Alfieri used to tie himself to the desk, I glued hands, feet and bottom to handle bar, pedals and saddle of the bamboo bike and I started off along the D674, a road which was inspired by a roller coaster … uphill of few hundreds of meters alternate themselves to downhill, on the uphill you suffer at 12 km/h on a downhill you go past the 65 … the road goes through the countryside, the train on the right reminds the road to Cairo, I also have the time to take some pictures and at the end I reach l’Hotel de la Poste just after nine …
Giorgia has booked a nice place and she managed to have the restaurant open for me … in France it is not easy to eat good carbohydrates a part from chips and cakes in the morning … without the logistic support of Giorgia in this journey everything would have been more complicated … she has a patience, with me you need a lot, and a consideration for me … which at times make her forget that I was never a professional cyclist and I ride a bicycle made in bamboo not a Vespa … but I know that this overestimation is because of an excess of love … I pedal alone for 8 hours per day but without Giorgia for the logistics and the translation of the blog in English, and Serena for the contact with the media … it would be a different story …
From Lons le Sauniers to a bit before Dijon life seems to pass very slowly, this morning I entered a bar, ordered a coffee, the barman received a phone call which lasted until I left the bar … so he gave charge with signs, while speaking on the phone, to a old man who was there with the grandchildren to make me the coffee … it was terrible … then when I paud himself gave me the change from his own wallet … when he asked me if it was good … my face must have communicated that it was disgusting … because all the other people in the bar and himself included blasted out laughing vociferously …
Lons le Sauniers N 46° 67.353’ E 5° 55.492’ – Langres N 47° 86.683’ E 5° 33.429’
171 km