VecchioJo gets his gravillon on
It was a case of perfect gravel and imperfect weather as VecchioJo got his gravillon on at this popular festival-style cycling event in and around Angers
This just shows that you can do everything absolutely right and yet have no control over the weather, and even with it turning up to literally piss on the parade of the fourth edition of theBased in Angers, a town about 300km southwest of Paris at the confluence of the Sarthe, Maine and Loire rivers, the festival stretches over a long weekend with a selection of rides to suit any level of gravelisteur.
We’ve chosen to do La Bikepacking event, which is 280km in total with an overnight stop about halfway in Fontevraud-L’Abbaye, where we’ll camp out in the grounds of an abbey. Fancy. We don’t get to experience the snack stops, but luckily Angers is a busy place with plenty of food options thanks to a large student population, so we stuff our faces with boulangerie buns when we get back which gives us time to ponder why on earth such a nice place is twinned with Wigan.
We join 150 or so of them for the start of the bikepacking ride, having just dodged the spawning salmon of the 200km riders making their way out along the river.
There are no gates to negotiate, we haven’t been routed through any bogs, down any rock strewn bridleways, had to fight along bramble overgrown paths or been directed up any hike-a-bike climbs for fun, which is the bread and butter of any UK gravel course. Because the tracks are actually nicely graded, proper gravel and the roads are so quiet, we haven’t had to wait for a gap in the endless flow of cars at every junction and road crossing, which saves an enormous amount of time.
It’s been a perfect day so far, the sun’s out with just enough freshness in the air to keep things cool, but we haven’t spent all week refreshing the Angers weather page for nothing. Just as we reach the top of an open windswept vine-lined hill, there’s the sudden punchy gust that precedes the rain. It puts on a proper show, forcing us to suddenly stop under the only available shelter of an insufficient tree and quickly struggle on waterproof jackets.
The weather forecast for Sunday has never looked good, and the hammering 4am rain wakes me up, not filling me with much joy for the ride back. By breakfast it’s eased off, and we at least break camp in the dry which is always better. We fail to secure supplies from a weird Api shop that you have to download an app to enter and buy stuff from, but bump into Emma and Iza, two Dutch riders who we were introduced earlier and shared supper with last night. They have found shelter in a portico with a useful adjacent toilet, and got their mocha pot out to make coffee. I’m sure that wasn’t in the kit list, but we’re not complaining so we make sure to swap stories until we’re offered a coffee and agree to ride together to the finish.
Trains in France are generally okay with bikes, although some of the high-speed options demand them to be in bags. As mentioned above it’s easy to extend your adventure and ride from Caen-Ouistreham to Angers via the La Velo Francette cycle route, which is about 300km.
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