Season 5. Episode 5. Sorry Charlie!

Season 5. Episode 5. Sorry Charlie!

August 18, 2025. Bayeux to Avranches. 70 miles. 5,301’ of climbing. 

Bayeux was a great 2-night base for visiting Normandy D-Day sights, as well as a wonderful place to visit on its own. 

The Bayeux Cathedral sound and light show on a few nights of the week.

And the cathedral in daytime.

After another scrumptious breakfast at the boulangerie, marveling with wonder how they get their moan-worthy croissants so flaky, we began riding south. 

I was on the side walk, bike path trying to figure out which way out of the roundabout, and I looked down to check my navigation on my phone and then BAM.  

Sorry Charlie!

(For those younger or from overseas, Sorry Charlie was a famous advertising slogan of Starkist tuna that our generation grew up with.)

Heather shouted out at me something like “what the hell” and then “are you okay?” 

Riding into the light pole was now my second impact with an immovable object in a course of 3 days. Maybe Heather and the kids will be telling me I should give up my license? 

Thank goodness Charlie was again ok. Somehow when my handlebars hit the pole, I was able to embrace the pole to keep from falling over. I took a bit of the hit to the shoulder but dodged a bullet. This could have been really bad. Definitely a lesson learned. 

It seems the worst of it was a bit of a sore shoulder and some chain rash - and some more bruised ego.

It turned into a beautiful day, with great cool riding temperature most of the day in the 60’s and 70’s. Only late afternoon was it a high of 81. We rode terrific country roads through a very green Normandy, passing farms and old stone houses. 

They do serve up lots of steak (with frites) plus of course delicious fromage (cheese). Btw, we even speak to (more like shout at) the cows in French.

In many places, the trees from each side grew up and over the road to meet in the middle and form the effect of feeling like we were cycling through a wind tunnel.

The French do such a great job of laying out bike routes on small, older secondary roads. These were at one time likely cart paths before automobiles. Thus they are fairly narrow by today’s road standards and even though they feature two way traffic, cars in opposite directions can barely pass by. We got so comfortable on these roads, thinking we were on dedicated bike paths, we’d be surprised when a car came around the curve at us. 

This happened to be the biggest climbing day so far of this trip with over 5,000’ of climbing. That’s a significant amount for us that we work hard to avoid such days. So it was a very poor day for Heather to have trouble with her gears such that she couldn’t access her lowest gear, aka the granny gear and necessary for long climbs. 

With incredible determination, Heather powered up every climb. In some cases, like here, she rode in the style called delivering the mail. That is from side to side, traversing the climb to cut down the steepness. Going from left to right and back and forth. Notice she is on the wrong side of the street against a blind turn. I’m just saying.

Happily no cars came around that turn!

We made it to Avranches and found online a great Trek authorized store. It was on the other side of town, past our lodging and down a steep hill that we’d need to come back up. Heather being superwoman rode directly there with her panniers. I dropped my panniers off at our Airbnb so it was easier to ride the extra 6 miles with that climb back. 

I was skipping one gear in one direction but nothing like Heather’s. It turned out we both had bent derailleur hangers that the mechanics knew exactly how to quickly repair.

My night routine includes making sure I’m properly charged for the next day. Left to right: electronic shifting battery (for those unfamiliar, this is NOT an e-bike), back up battery pack (I run a cable from this in my handlebar bag by to my phone for most of the afternoon), rear light, electric pump, iPhone.

Heather’s morning routine includes foam rolling.

© Copyright Mark Segal 2025.