With my brother still in town after our ski trip, we continued to explore the city a bit. Of course, no better way than to get him into the kick of the Tuesday/Thursday/Saturday market near our place. He now fully appreciates the Sausage Man (and the 1 Euro sausages we’ve come to love). My understanding is that his stock of 1 Euro sausage links did not make it the full journey back to the US before being consumed (which is good, because otherwise CBP would have done away with them). Below, is the fruit man. Not as exciting as the Sausage Man.
Though, the cheese folks are on par with the Sausage Man.
After grabbing lunch, we got on the Velib’s and headed out. The weekend had awesome weather, and no better way to wander around the city than via Velib.
Here’s him, happy to be going downhill. Though, unhappy about the cobbles. He declared it was absolutely nuts that people actually race skinny road bike tires on cobbled streets. I agreed.
Speaking of which, I continue to wait for sign-up of the Paris Triathlon (in early July). They appear to be pending administrative approvals for it, as sign-up was supposed to open back in early January. Now I suppose this is positive in the sense that unlike certain WashDC triathlons, the Paris folks at least wait until they have permits before taking your money.
In addition to doing some cycling of our own, I was happy to see that one of our favorite street performers was doing his act this past weekend. This one even involves a bike. Well, two bikes. And a fuzzy hat with a red bulb nose. And inverted riding. It’s awesome.
Unfortunately by Sunday morning I had dropped my brother onto a bus to the airport (the trains aren’t running these days on the weekends), headed back to Seattle. He’ll finally be landing about 10 minutes before this post publishes. Eek!
After getting him on his way, and then helping out in the CupCakery in the morning, I headed out for a mid-afternoon ride. No particular plan of action, other than collect some data and get in a sufficient ride before it got dark out.
As I noted on Twitter that I had three power meters, but was collecting data cross six bike computers (head units)…plus two heart rate straps (ANT+ and Bluetooth Smart). Three bike computers attached to the bars, and three in my jersey pockets. I haven’t analyzed the data, as I’ll do that sometime this week once I download, align data sets/etc… Why double the number of head units? Because quite frankly I trust no single head unit these days to not screw it up. Plus, I’m interested in seeing what the variances truly look like across two head units collecting data from the same exact power meter.
For my ride, I headed out towards the Longchamp area, which is a horse racing track with a nice loop around it for uninterrupted circling (and cycling).
Along the way though I rode on the now-permanently closed road along the banks of the Seine. Over the coming months this multi-mile stretch of roadway will turn into a park of sorts, with the work having already begun. It closed down about two weeks ago, but with my recent two weeks of travel I hadn’t ridden it since.
Unfortunately though while it’s still fine for running and Velib bikes, it’s a bit wishy-washing for road bikes and triathlon bikes now, depending on the weather. This is because large chunks of it have mud in them due to construction. Plus there’s a section you’ve gotta portage at the end for about 50 yards of wonky spikey concrete.
Once the river-road section ends, I usually pass the Eiffel tower and then cross over to the other side. I don’t use the GPS for any of this, but instead, just my internal compass. Sometimes said compass doesn’t exactly remember which roads are the most direct, as you can see below. One of these days I’ll figure out the most optimal route.
Once there I did a number of loops. The first few were by myself, and then some folks latched on. It’s common there. Despite some fairly solid wattage numbers, I wasn’t dropping them easily.
Interestingly, at one point (after about 2-3 laps of them holding off the back), one guy jumped up front (ahead of me), and then proceeded to go aero position (he was a triathlete, the giveaway being his triathlon team jersey – along with his TT bike). Rules of the pack generally state aero position (for any riders) is frowned upon.
On the flip side, I’ll definitely give props to the kid off the back the held on for dear life for all those laps. He was probably only 16 or 17, and at times sounded like he might die (I could see his shadow repeatedly standing up and pushing hard). But, he never game up, just kept on ticking. He’s below, sporting the red pants as I let up prior to leaving the park.
On my way home I passed the Statue of Liberty. Or rather, the little liberty.
I ended my ride as I often do – back at the CupCakery. Regrettably though there was only three lonely cupcakes left. And while I could have reduced the count to two cupcakes (or, perhaps to zero cupcakes), I decided to let some other lucky ducks have them. Speaking of which, we’re super jazzed that this past weekend we were approved for Trip Advisor (did you know you have to apply to Trip Advisor?). So, if you’re one of the many awesome readers who have stopped by the shop (thank you!), and are partial to Trip Advisor, a note is always appreciated it. Or, you can just keep eating more cupcakes. Either way is good with us. :)
Finally, after I was done with our ride, we headed out for dinner a bit later. It was a nice night (read: not raining, albeit cold) so we decided instead of just walking somewhere nearby, we’d take the Velib’s all the way across town. Quite a ways across town actually, just under 5 miles each way. Including up, across, and through the Arc de Triomphe crazy traffic circle.
We took the Velib’s instead of our own bikes so that if we wanted to walk around any later on, we could easily just drop them off and walk – versus having to chain up our bikes and circle back to them.
The Girl picked out an Italian place (Fame da Lupo), which is known for its risotto. As you can see below, they have eight kinds on the menu! Brilliant! Oh, and it was delicious. Though, we’ve established a rule that anytime we go there, we must bike there. In an attempt to even out any caloric impediments.
Though, given the upcoming Monday night long run at 3 hours…I think it’ll even out.
With that, thanks for reading! And have a great week ahead!
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…with all the loops at the Hippodrome, you´re like 40-60k when you hit the ‘stop’-button?
Hey Ray.
You wrote: “Rules of the pack generally state aero position (for any riders) is frowned upon.”
Could you elaborate? What’s wrong with an aero position outside of a triathlon?
“Rules of the pack generally state aero position (for any riders) is frowned upon.”
Huh. I was taught that it’s ok for the leader to be in aero but everyone behind her had to be sitting up, since the leader wasn’t going to run into another rider if she failed to stop quickly.
Ray, Fame da Lupo is great. Another good restaurant to try is link to lespapillesparis.fr . Not too far from you with great food, and good little kitchen condiments to pick up as well.
Ray, likewise on tribars for the tri club I used to belong to.
Rules were not to use aerobars or position when on a club training ride with the club pack. Rule was for a couple of reasons, but all to do with safety and awareness of others around you. 1) it kept everyone together and stopped “racing” between individuals in the pack 2) allowed for better bike control and reduced propensity to “go down the road”.
Those who had a road bike as well as a TT bike tended to leave their TT bike at home for club rides.
I for one was happy for this club rule as riding in a pack with people with their heads down on and on the aerobars is not as social as everyone goes in their own “zone” and its more individuals riding together rather than a group ride, and they tend not to signal holes and glass etc etc etc
Hi All-
For those that asked about aerobars in group rides/pace lines, yup, MG pretty well summed it up. Pretty common for group ride rules. Obviously, doesn’t apply to non-group rides (by yourself). But any congregation of cyclists (intended or otherwise), it comes into play (at least in my little mind).
Here’s a bit more to think about: link to bamacyclist.com and link to beginnertriathlete.com
For the Paris Triathlon, it seems they are having trouble getting a permit for the swimming part (in the Seine). After last year’s triathlon the Paris “Prefecture” has denied any Seine swimming authorizations, so there’s actually a chance the Triathlon won’t happen this year… even if we all hope it will!
Eek! Any idea if that also applies to the 5K/10K swim that’s usually done?
As always I am still locked at the cupcakes :) will be hopefully in Paris on the 24 feb so any time after that straight to the cupcakes ! looking so forward to it .
Nice! We’re closed Monday/Tuesday, so definitely swing in on Sunday (usually close around 6PM, but earlier if we sell out!).
I see you’re doing more riding on the Stages Power Meter. Any improvement on the data consistency with the firmware update that has been talked about for the production units (assuming you did your testing on pre-production firmware)?
At present I’m holding off on publicly putting anything else out there until I have a larger body of data from the new firmware versions.
That said, I am working with the Stages folks closely, and they are getting all sets of data and we’re working through any items that arise.
Do you find it funny/cool how you can just nonchalantly write ” I usually pass the Eiffel tower” like it’s no big deal you are PASSING THE EIFFEL TOWER? Because I think it’s very cool!
:)
Sunday we will be in Paris after 6 pm so hopefully on wednesday :)
Awesome!
Ok finally in paris and the first place we went to last night was Fame da Lupo and really enjoyed it so thank you so much for a great recommendation :) And tomorrow is the big day to try the cupcakes , I guess we will be at the shop around 11 am. :) :) :)
Awesome! While she opens at 11AM, the peak of all flavors being available typically happens a touch bit later around noon. :)
then we will be there around noon …. don’t want to miss out on any of those wonderful flavors :)
I just picked my computer to write a note about our visit to your shop and found your kind mail. It was wonderful visiting the shop , meeting your lovely wife Bobbie and of course tasting those amazing cupcakes. They can be a reason on their own to come back to Paris for. Hope next time we get to meet you too :) The internet can be a wonderful place sometimes when it gives a chance to meet such wonderful people as yourself and your lovely wife… Also good luck for the half and full marathon…. keeping our fingers crossed for excellent PB ;)
Oh also if you come to our part of the world again ( Istanbul ) please let me know , would love to welcome you for dinner if you have the time or be an assistance in any matter .
ps . if you see messages in FB from a user called Agudi Bey , that is also me as I don’t use my real name there ;)
by the way… do you perhaps know the status of Paris Triathlon? I planning my race schedule for summer, but still waiting for the date confirmation of this event… it was supposed to be on 7th July 2013, but now even that date is removed from the website…
Paris Triathlon has been cancelled for 2013, due to sanitary issues with swimming in the Seine river
Really? I can imagine being that the main issue, though no info has been given on the official website.
My GF who lives is Paris, already asked me whether i was crazy to swim in that murky water… :-)
Any nice triathlon recommendations in June/July around Paris?