Stayed in a little place called Plerin Sur Le Mer. Now, I just happened to have checked out that their local bike club run was on Sunday. I also just happened to be in the town centre when they returned from their clubrun to the cafe where I introduced myself and got invited to join said cycling club for a ride on the Weds morning, much to my wifes dismay.
Well, 8.30am I rocked up in the town centre and was introduced to Le President on a Colnago. He looked me up and down and said I could join in, he did not look too pleased about a roast beef joining in. After 5 minutes about 30, yes 30 on a Weds morning set off. As we went down the road I checked out the bikes, a lot of Looks of varying ages, as were the riders. There were a lot of retired riders, but also a few younger lads. As we came to the outskirts of the town the two riders at the front pulled over and I found myself on the front. I decided to up the pace a touch to see what would happen.
Well, no problem, all were doing fine, then the next guys came through and they started to up the pace a bit more. I then realised that within about 20 minutes there were only about 6 or 7 of us taking turns on the front, but looking behind nearly the whole group were hanging on nicely. As we went on the pace started to get quicker and quicker, I was not fussed and was really enjoying it. All the guys were holding on well, even on the hills. A couple of occasions I started to put in some quite big digs but the main guys were holding on well. It was not long before it started to get silly, we were flying along, a number of occasions we were going over 30mph on the flats in a long line. We were losing the odd rider here and there, but La President was still hooked on so all was ok.
Into the ride a couple of other riders joined in, one of which spoke good English. He went to the front and then came back to me. He said he had asked the guys at the front if they were late for an appointment as they were going so fast, they indicated that they were trying to shake off a pesky Englishman. I thought this was quite funny, so went to the front and put in a big dig off the front, just to wind them up a bit more. Now it went super bonkers, we were flying along, with attacks on every hill and the flats were super speedy. It was great fun.
As we came back into the town there were now only about 6 of us left, the others had their legs ripped off like the legs from the frogs they love to eat.
We did 85km and as we came into Plerin to the cafe La President came up to me as we were riding and offered me a shake of the hand, I think he quite enjoyed it, I certainly did. A few shakes of the hand after a coffee (I was the only one drinking coffee they all had a beer), and I headed home.
An excellent mid week blast in a non-cycling holiday.
Cheers
Marek....
Rule 1 has got to be always make sure the car you have is big enough to fit the bike inside nice and safe and warm, in addition of whatever else needs transporting 
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