Wednesday, 30 April 2014
Jane's GTL
Creuse Oxygen’s Grand Traversee du Limousin 2014
It’s a last minute decision to revisit the GLT which we last did in 2008. This 3 day event normally encompasses 1st May but this year was being held over the Easter weekend so needed minimal time off work. Hence early Good Friday morning we bundled all our stuff into Paul’s van and headed for the EuroTunnel, we were a little early but got bumped straight onto the next freight departure. We follow lines of massive double trucks onto the flat bed of the open train, once parked up a shuttle bus comes along picking up all the passengers and transferring us to a train carriage at the front. A quick safety announcement and we’re off, disappearing almost immediately into darkness and a mere 30mins later we emerge in France. Another shuttle bus drops each driver at his cab and we drive off into the countryside.
I invariably take the p*ss when I read of people following their satnav’s into ditches and onto railway lines but I have officially joined their ranks. I have googled the route to Limousin: 2 options skirting either above or below Paris taking 6 hours or a circuitous route along the coast taking 9 hours. Looking at the road, we are on the below Paris option. All my instincts say avoid Paris but google says it’s 3 hours quicker, google’s directions are concise, our map is outdated and very basic. I fall into the trap of trusting technology, besides we are skirting around Paris, it’s not like we’re going through the centre..... The peage is quick and clear until we are told to head towards the capital, the traffic mounts until we join a gridlocked 6 lane mass of Parisians heading en vacances. It’s too late to try to track an alternative route so we continue to follow the GPS further and further into the centre. So much for ‘skirting’! We crawl along the inner periferique, an unnerving experience as the faster moving motorcycles beep and forge their way between the lanes of almost static cars. An eternity and several sense of humour failures later we spot an early exit route that is actually marked on our sorry map and make an overdue decision to abandon the GPS and make a break for it. Hurrah, the D road is clear and we revel in the heady experience of getting out of 2nd gear for the first time in hours. On we go, debating whether to risk getting back onto the peage and back on track for the GPS, we take the plunge in order to try to make up lost time and as we take the roundabout off the D road we pass a dead lorry, lying on its side having overcooked the bend and being inspected by nonchalent gendarmes.
The sun is starting to set and we still have quite a way to go to get to our hotel in Gueret, on checking the booking I spot rather belatedly that check in closes at 9 unless previous arrangements have been made – there is no way we’ll make it. Instead we continue to the next biggish town and find a Premiere class motel, here the check in is entirely automatic, insert credit card, out pops room key for 3 bed pod-how space age! It’s a cheap and cheerful triple room complete with bunk which I end up with. A good night sleep and we wake to a beautiful day. Our destination is only an hour away so we head off to the start village of Dun Le Palestel and park up in the town square. We find the sign on tent and collect our race numbers and goody bags, outside is a well stocked buffet of meats, pasta, cheese and bread. Back at the van cars have gathered and we meet some guys from Paris doing the randonee – Peter, Didier, Denis and ? The transport lorry collects our belongings, we are allowed 2 bags each, and these will be taken to the finish ready for this evening. Midday sees everyone gather in the square for the team presentations and race briefing.
Dun Le Palestel – Bourganeuf 62km, 1450m elevation, 3hr43min
1pm start and a 2km neutralised start behind the van on a gently climbing road, the van pulls off and we swing off onto dusty farm tracks, these vary from gravel double tracks to dirt tractor tracks. In contrast we also encounter very wet drainage ditches which provide the technical aspects, a combination of flowing streams with rocky beds, treacherously deep puddles, and thick muddy trenches crisscrossed with slippery roots. Some gulleys are barely wide enough to get your pedals around in. Every farm has a gnarly farmer gazing benignly at us as we pass through, one farmer is clearing the deeper of the gulleys with a hoe, I swear I was cycling behind a swimming shrew at one point! The course is extremely well marked with marshalls at every road crossing stopping traffic and cheering us on and feed stations every 20km. The countryside itself looks very English with plenty of bluebells and a mixture of coniferous forest with twisting pine-clad single track or deciduous woods floored with crunchy beech nuts. The course tends to climb on wooded trails and descend again on fast steep lanes which keep the average speeds high. We pass through some quaint little hamlets spot a fabulous view of a imposing double turreted church/castle and we ding our bells at children waiting on corners. On the steep final drop into the finish I squirm as we round the bend but it’s not until later, when the bikes are in the parc ferme, that Raymond discovers I have a front puncture which he kindly changes for me.
At Bourganeuf we are spending the night in a large sports hall, we ask one of the lady officials where the showers are, she catches my arm and bustles me through a door which opens on to 20 naked men, she squeals and yanks me back out and pushes Raymond into the melee instead. I am escorted to another shower block, devoid of men and with individual showers that are clean and have hot water. I’m mid lather when I hear Raymond calling my name, the podium has been announced and I’ve been called up in 3rd place! Tea is chicken with carrots and mash, and cake with custard, all we can eat is the carrot, by the time we reach the end of the line the organisers realise we are veggies, supply us with more carrot and find us some oranges and bananas. After eating we settle down on our mats for sleep, this is vastly helped by the use of earplugs, 9pm and it’s lights out. The hall universally wakes at 6.30am, we pack our stuff up and have breakfast, traditional bread dipped in bowls of coffee. The forecast today is more overcast but we were not expecting frost on our saddles and a current temp of 2’! I add leg warmers and gilet to my kit then load our bags on the truck and gather for the briefing.
Bourganeuf – Gueret 85.3km 2185m 5hr 53
This is the queen’s stage: another neutralised start through town but then we’re immediately thrown into climbing wooded singletrack, the bottleneck means a bit of walking until the trail clears and then we’re off on fast flowing bermed, bone dry trails with only a few boggy low lying parts. The terrain is much more undulating today with longer climbs and more off-road descents through villages and farmyards straight from the 19th century. We have 3 feed stations today each stocked with cake, chocolate, fruit, orange juice and water. After leaving the final feed station we enter the woods and spot trails to either side of us with mattresses wrapped around the trees, we appear to be temptingly near a downhill course but we meander around it. As if the organisers knew how tantalising this would be they finally merge us on to the course, whoops and squeals all aroundJ The final descent into Gueret looks familiar and we finish at the same place as we did 6 years ago, we’re even staying in the same gym. It has only squatting toilets – how are knackered legs meant to hover over those?? Tea is in a school in town just a short walk away, just as well as it has started to rain. Paul has found a new friend and introduces us to Thomas, an American who lives in Switzerland. We chat over food, they have hastily rustled up some boiled potatoes, plain pasta, lettuce and oranges, and realise that he is a very competitive ex-road racer recently turned mtber, who freely admits to having more speed than skill. Lights out at 8.45 tonight and I sleep well. It’s still raining by morning, we dress accordingly and have breakfast and load the truck. During our final preparations the organiser comes in displaying a pair of cycling shoes, I think someone has just forgotten that they’d left them outside but it appears someone has taken the wrong shoes, the culprit comes forwards exchanging a completely different sized pair for his own provoking a hall full of jeers.
Gueret – Dun Le Palestel 50.5kn 1300m 3hr 36
After the briefing we follow the van around a lake and out of town. It is lightly raining and there are puddles on the roads, the squeal of hundreds of disc brakes sound like wailing banshees. We turn off onto open farm tracks and soon turn onto forestry trails, the open ones are quite slippery but under the trees the pine-needled trails have just been dampened by the rain and have good traction albeit with tree roots that are a bit greasy. Through the typical farm countryside, more swooping bermed undulating singletrack. We face another drainage stream with thick mud, hidden patches of deep water, slimy stones and roots then a long technical climb crunching through beech nuts under a lime green canopy of bright new foliage. A super steep tarmac section completes the ascent then it’s down all the way to the finish line in Dun Le Palestel.
Our luggage has been deposited near Paul’s van we shower and change then head off for lunch in the local theatre. The organisers have pulled out all the stops for us today, asparagus, tomato and rice salad followed by potato and green beans in tomato sauce and fruit salad for desert – fabulous. During this comes the final presentations and prize giving. As is often the case on the continent there are heaps of catagories each with loads of prizes. I came 3rdagain on today’s stage so collect a bouquet of flowers. The mini GTL for the youngsters see kids being presented with bizarre collections of union jack cushions, rolled up rugs and clocks. The overall classifications are getting electrical goods, we are facing the stage and can see these but Thomas can’t and thinks we’re teasing when we mention the white goods. Then he’s called out for 1st place and gets presented with a microwave, he’s so startled I do believe he actually curtsied when presented with itJ We are in hysterics! Next comes the women and for 3rd place overall I get a trophy and a raclette – what the hell is a raclette??? Thomas enlightens us – it’s a traditional Swiss contraption for cooking cheese. The microwave was way out of my league but if only I’d known that coming 2nd would have got me a toaster...........Various other prizes included a pair of footstools/pouffes in denim for the guys on the only tandem, umbrellas and rugs, clocks and cushions. One lucky chap got a laundry basket, another a flat pack box, finally an old guy gets up, cries a lot and gets a standing ovation for who knows what – brilliantly bonkers.
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