Time to take out the bike again and explore the beautiful Massif d'Esterel (as my colleague D.B. would put it - the most beautiful place in the world). Our rendez-vous was at the Col du Testanier - like last time. My colleagues Philippe, Gilbert and D.B. joined (in order to protect the identity of D.B., I have used all the digital photo postprocessing skills at my disposal to blur out his face, to prevent any possibility of identifying him from the photos on my blog).
This time, the plan was to cycle around that impressive peak, Mont Vinaigre (which we cycled up last time), the highest point in the Massif d'Esterel. The beginning of the bike ride was all fun and games, the vistas across the Esterel and towards the Mediterranean were beautiful. Until disaster struck.
First, I had a puncture. OK, that happens in mountain biking - I was even prepared, I had two spare tubes in my rucksack. No tool box though, thankfully Philippe was better equipped than me. So, we manged to (or rather, Philippe did, bless him) get the tube changed, allowing me to carry on. For about, hmm, 20 meters, when disaster struck again! This time, my rear gears got stuck in my wheel, leading to rather more serious damage - as in, the bike wasn't going anywhere.
I was despairing a bit at this point, as the damage done was way beyond my capacity to repair. But thankfully, Philippe rescued me again, and managed to fix my bike sufficiently to allow me to continue (avoiding a rather long 10 km or so walk with a broken bike). The quick fix meant I couldn't actually put in the two lower gears on my bike - so as an added bonus the rest of the track provided with a bit more exercise than necessary.
Boy, did that beer at Philippe's place afterwards feel well rewarded. Merci Philippe! ;-)
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