Raid Corsica Stage One

To fully understand today’s stage, we have to start last night. Before dinner, the 19 cyclist participating were gathered for an orientation session. The normal rules of cycling were discussed followed by a question and answer session. The first and only question asked was, “we understand there was a crash last week, what can you tell us?” Without going into details, all I’ll say is that when the answer was given, the room went quite. No gallows humor, no jokes, no nothing. On that not so happy note, we left for dinner.

Today’s ride was beyond comparison. Michael, Steve and I have ridden in some very sketchy conditions, but, nothing compared to today. Yes, the views of the sea were spectacular, red poppies were everywhere, goats gathered on the roads, sheep rang their bells, and cols were high and challenging.

The day was spent either ascending from or descending to, the sea. But, the real issue was the wind. Not just any wind, but, a times, gale force wind that wrapped around the island like smoke from a bon fire. No matter which way we turned it was there. Either beating us in the face, forcing us across the road, or making us pedal on even the steepest descents. It was unrelenting for the hours and hours it took us to complete the stage. As the Brits with us said, “it beat us naked.”

Normal humans would have called it quits about 30 minutes into the ride. But not us, we’re cyclist. We love what we do and we love the challenge. Although, even we at times were saying, “I want off this bike.”

Up next, stage two.

http://www.strava.com/routes/244950