Vaucluse Dreamer

You could never say that the planning for this trip has been easy – from the logistics of pulling it all together, to making sure we have all the right equipment even making sure we can transport bikes around whilst our main car is  in France. That should be enough to worry about, but no ….

The last few months have been rather interesting with buying a house in France, which means Julie will no longer be riding, but acting as a support vehicle if needed (at least she’ll be available in the right Country) although it could be a long drive if she’s needed in Brittany !

We have also had our eldest son suffering long-term consequences of concussion, which had also thrown into doubt whether he would be able to do the ride. Happily after approaching 6 months of illness he has really turned a corner & is fighting his way back to full-fitness & really looking forward to the challenge now – so after that all was looking good.

So what else could go wrong? How about our youngest, Tom, re-dislocating his shoulder on Easter Monday – He wasn’t doing anything extreme, he just moved his arm slightly awkwardly when getting off the sofa! 

A couple of trips to the hospital, a physio appointment & the last few weeks with his arm in a sling have had us wondering whether the cycle ride would even be possible this year. 

However we seem to have come across a very sensible Consultant who has assessed him as needing an operation, but has said that as it will take 4-6 months for this to happen that he should go ahead & do the cycle, just being aware of what actions cause his shoulder to ‘collapse’ and avoiding them at all cost.

It sadly means that he hasn’t been able to do this year’s Ten Tors event after having worked really hard to win a place in the team. It also means that post op he won’t be able to mountain-bike & he’ll certainly cement his role as ‘water-boy’ not centre for his rugby team next season, but at least he’ll be able to join the ride this summer and as you can probably imagine, he’s really happy

Needless to say we’re hugely relieved – the ride is now back on & after a few weeks of being housebound Andy & Tom went out for their first cycle together today. Hopefully the first of many as they start training in earnest for the 1500km ahead.

So hopefully now we’ll be able to put the worry of the last few months / weeks behind us & the 3 of them can really start to turn the pedals ahead of their start date in July. Keep your fingers crossed that nothing else goes wrong.