I have been in Bordeaux(France) for about a week already and am enjoying quite abit here. Got our bikes a week late due to volcano ashes in Northern France resulting in closure of some airports in Europe.
Cycling here is really nice. Nice weather, nice scenery and friendly people, although I'm still unable to speak French, I can feel that the people here are pretty decent. Our new club here is CAM de Bordeaux, and we met the president of the club, Sylvain, who looks like a climber and use to race with Damien when they were junior cyclists. Sylvain speaks quite good english and tries really hard to talk to us. Really appreciate that!
Damien has really made us feel at home. He brought us to take the city train and rented bicycles for us and rode around with us when we didn't have our bicycles. He also bought us nice food and even cooked for us. Also, he gave us his house keys so we can access internet from his place and watch TV as well. What a nice guy and I will definitely bring him around Singapore when we're back, to find nice food of course!
On tuesday, we went to the Bordeaux velodrome to do track riding for the first time! It felt really different, because you have to keep pedaling even when you don't want to, and to stop will cause some damage to the knees if not done properly. This velodrome is a world class one and riding on the 45 degree bank for the first time was quite scary. Really good experience overall and will want to do it again!
That aside, I think I injured my knee slightly from the session at the velodrome, and it hurts when I stand on pedals and when I use heavy gear. So I guess I should take it easy for now and spin more. Au Revoir!
Check out the club's blog at:
http://camdebordeaux33.skyrock.com/
Our names are in their roster already.
