Cyclotouring was (past tense) guys on lightweights or light as mechanical skills would allow, the art of travelling morning to dusk on low gearing, just spinning away all day long, taking the back roads, seeing places. Cyclotourers weren't muscle bound sprinters, the guys were light and lithe, and hard as nails. And they had fun. They were the subject of great mockery by a lot of has been or never will be small time racers. They are a dead race. Extinct. Any cyclo meets I see nowadays over here in France, it's all geeks on carbon racing toys. You try get them to cycle more than 100 km on small roads, they're dead beat. You give em' a map and a sandwich, a kick off in the right direction, next thing you know is they're in hospital through bike failure, or exhaustion. Or they're lost, which is fine by me. Mainly the guys travel in big groups along a course with signposts, it's just like a race, and mostly they are failed racers trying to make a win in the small fry.
The men I knew ate on the bike. They didn't have Herses or Singers, they weren't rich enough (please don't get me wrong, a Herse or a Singer is a real cyclo machine). The only cyclotourers I see nowadays are dutch madmen on modern steel with a 50 kg load of saucepans and camping gear. The way I hear it they catch the train in Holland from somewhere to somewhere in France, then they ride all over the countryside.
Then you have the collectors and nostalgics, guys who have oldtimer machines, they go out for 100 km paddles and take plenty of photographs of themselves which they then post on their websites. I guess they are the only pitiful remanants of the art.
Then you have the cyclorandonneur events: gimme a break, see above about carbon freaks and failed racers doing peloton stuff.
So it boils down to this: there is no longer such a thing as a cyclotourist.
Nick March Agen, 47, Lot et Garonne, France
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