Day One which became two. If you are reading this, you must be a bit crazy tuning into the day-by-day detail pages. Thank you, welcome there may be a few of them.
Monday, Sept. 29th, the adventure began. Although I have been planning and training for this for over a year so maybe it’s a 365-day adventure. All about the process and if you don’t love the process, the final results can’t justify the time invested.
Departure is part of that process that starts a few weeks before boarding the plane. To be successful, whatever that means, I need a bike, spare wheel sets, bike tools/pumps, gearing options, just a lot of stuff that hopefully fits into one large bike specific piece of luggage that weighs less than 23 kilos or 50 pounds. Then there is a second bag that has a bike specific trainer, this year it is a Feedback Sports roller set, (It’s a bit lighter than my usual 10” Kreitler rollers I’ve been neglecting to ride for 5-6 years) daily clothes, race kit/clothes, personal items, etc. All the things a normal traveler would bring plus. Also, I am hoping to keep the bag at the max weight of 23 kilos/50 pounds. It is a process, pack, weigh, repack, weigh, adjust items, weigh, try different bags, weigh, etc., etc., etc. . Lastly, a personal size carry on back pack.
I always get a bit stressed arriving at the check-in desk with over 100 pounds of gear and oversized bags. The airport check in went as good as possible with both bags at 50 pounds, the max limit. The bike bag of course was an additional $100 as a second checked bag. Could be worse, I’ve paid as much as $250 one way. I always arrive and check in very early to avoid the possible chaos that bike bags can cause. Bag check at the counter and then collect the oversize bike bag and walk it down to wherever the oversize bag drop off happens to be and then head for security lines.
I’m in section 5 of boarding so eventually I get on, walk towards the back. I thought I picked a better seat but, oh well here I am. Rack my carry on and sit down only to find I sat one row back of my real set. I apologize to the traveler who’s seat I took and an easy move one row ahead. I am in the aisle seat, a young guy stands next to me, putting his battery powered backpack into the bins, two big red led lights glowing. Humm, is that really allowed? Then he says his seat is next to mine. He sits down and spreads out, taking the center arm rest and then some. I don’t say anything, but my elbow pushes his arm off my side, something I need to do repeatedly the entire flight. I am trying to not be that guy! An attendant comes by and asks him about the backpack as battery powered ones are not allowed, I believe. He of course lies and says it works off his phone, sure the phone is the backup battery for the backpack, right. A second attendant comes by and believes the BS story and leaves the back pack in the overhead. Hope we don’t all die from a battery failure. Not much more to do. Attendants need better training! Delta!
The flight continued without any issues, two movies and approx 2 hours of closed eyes, not really sleep. A small pasta dinner and a glass of wine. The 7 hours went by quite quickly, a meager breakfast wrap is served and then we land, 45 minutes early, about 6 A.M. Paris time. The bad, we had to disembark via a stairway from the plane onto the pavement and get a packed bus to the terminal. So much for Delta being a big deal in Europe.
Tuesday, which really is just a continuation of Monday because my body has no idea what time it is, 11:00 or so Mpls time but 6 A.M. Paris time. Onto the packed bus from the plane and into the busy airport to clear customs. That went as smooth as a busy bunch of lines could. No rush for me so not much stress. A long walk following the crowd to find the baggage carousels. I found the “smaller” checked bag ok as well as a free roller cart, yes I said FREE!! cart, yeah! Now, time to wander and find the oversize bag area for my flight, walking first to one end of the area and then of course it is at the opposite end. Again, no rush as I built lots of extra time into today’s schedule.
Now, where is the rental car office location? Ahh, there it is, go outside, cross a busy car lane, get to a curb where you can see the office but can’t get there without walking down the car lane, make a u turn and then head into the office. Budget is at the end as I lug the bags in without the cart. Bonjour! Parli vous anglais? Sara, who speaks English says yes, of course, yeah! Easy check in but then the description of where to go next is confusing at best. Out the door, across another car lane with 130 pounds of luggage into another building, locate an elevator that is not where I expected it would be, down 3 flights, in I go down 3 to get to car garage. Aisle 15 and then slot 57, there it is way down there? Yup! A Dacia “Duster” Hybrid SUV. Along with a handful of others just figuring it out, I drive from the parking slot into the drive and pack all the gear. Figuring out the shifter was interesting as it is very dark in the garage, and the shifter works quite strangely, I finally get it into some kind of gear, and I guess I am ready for more “learning”!
I carefully and slowly wind my way up the ramp making only one wrong early exit and eventually out to the A1 highway using the in car Nav, thankfully understandable. I’ve had some that were set to a different language that I don’t speak and had to ask for assistance to change it.
2.5 plus hours of easy driving to get to Roubaix. Trying to not exceed speed limit and stay out of the way of aggressive drivers and lots of truckers. Just getting used to aggressive but sensible drivers. I spot my “fill with gas before returning” fuel station on the other side of the highway, will I remember it in 2 weeks? One thing to know in Europe, don’t block the left side fast lane!! I keep looking out the window, it’s a beautiful day, and keep asking myself, Where am I? Oh, yeah, I’M in France!! Repeat again, I’m in France!
I drove to Airbnb, very early so I could at least get my bearing in Roubaix, it’s about 1:00 P.M. or so local time and check in isn’t until 5 so plenty of time to find the velodrome which is about a 10-minute drive away. The championships don’t officially start for 4 days so parking is easy in the small lot at the velodrome. In I go and wander a bit and then use their free WIFI to find a cell phone store. Manon, a nice young lady at the velo office helped me find the shopping mall where there is an Orange Cell service provider to help get my Euro phone active again. (If you don’t know, using an American cell service runs up outrageous fees when out of the USA) Sebastion at the Orange Cell store sorted out the SIM card issue, yeah! Only wasted $50 on a prepaid ESIM order, can only blame myself for that. My phone can’t use ESIMS. Back to the velo, dropped and assembled bike. I found an easy slot in the USA pen. Hoping I picked ok. Not a lot of racers here yet so I had plenty of choices, the place is empty except for a few racers doing a warm up session. Easy way for me to feel at home. On the drive back towards the lodging I found a great pâtissier and finally got some food, last time I ate was a mini breky on the plane at 5 am. I bought a wonderful sandwich, two croissants, one other chocolate thing. Not good going into this place very hungry.
Eventually back to lodging and it’s soon 5:00 so I can do the self-service check in, somewhat easy, one code to get from the street into an enclosed hallway and a code to access the door key lockbox and then into apartment. It looks ok but cozy, meaning small, right now I don’t really care, I am totally confused about the time. Near as I can tell, it’s Tuesday about 7 p.m. France time, so maybe noon USA time which means I’ve been up for about 30 hours!! I need to sleep, now! Restless at best and I finally wake at about 1:30 p.m. Paris time on Wed. Yikes, I have a 3:00 training session. I grab a coffee from a Bosch Tassimo machine, not sure of that thing, and eat one of the croissants I bought and that will have to do as breakfast and lunch for now. Welcome to Wednesday my first ride the track day in Roubaix France!! I may be getting excited!