CYCL1N’s Neighborhood

First, we're happy to announce that the team has identified and fixed the issue with the YouTube conduit; you can now find and add videos from YouTube to your library and posts. As always, thanks for your patience!

The other news we have today is about a new addition to the Six Apart family: TypePad Micro, a new free level of TypePad that is streamlined for microblogging. We see a new form of blogging emerging that lives between the quick status updates of Twitter and Facebook and the long-form posts of "classic" blogging; TypePad Micro is designed to meet that need. You can read more about TypePad Micro in Chris Alden's post on the Everything TypePad blog.

A lot of the new capabilities we've added to TypePad this year were actually inspired by some of the best things about Vox: favoriting, member profiles, a dashboard to follow other bloggers, and easy ways to post content from other social media sites. But the things that make Vox different from TypePad are still there: Vox has always been -- and still is -- the best place for "friends and family" blogging, where you're in control over who sees what. TypePad, on the other hand, is built for the blogger who wants, no, craves, attention.

Do you have a passion or interest you want to share with people beyond your Vox neighborhood? If so, we'd love it if you tried out TypePad Micro. Maybe you've always wanted to start that obsessive blog that's just about waffle restaurants. Or want a place to share videos of your favorite band (Jonas Brothers, anyone? Anyone? ...). TypePad Micro's great for those topic-specific blogs. Take it for a spin and let us know what you think.

On the Vox front, our designers are working on some cool new themes (coming soon!). We'd also love to hear your thoughts about where we should take Vox in the coming year. What are the key things you'd like to see for Vox? If you've had a chance to use TypePad this year, what are the features there that we should bring over to Vox? And, if you're thinking big thoughts, how could we connect the Vox and TypePad communities in order to bring together bloggers and their shared passions? Your feedback is really important to us, so please leave a comment here, or shoot me a message.

And again, thanks for your patience as we found and fixed the YouTube bug!

~ daisy

 

As many of you have noticed, the YouTube Conduit is not working. I am so sorry about this; I know how frustrating it is.

The team is looking into how to get this fixed and I will update you as soon as I hear something. In the meantime, not all is lost... There is a work-around for posting videos.

When you're in the Compose Screen, just click on "embed." Ignore the fact that it says "Widget" before everything because you can definitely use this to embed videos as well. You'll just need to input the embed code from the video, enter a title (if you want) and hit OK.

It might not show up perfectly in your compose screen, but when you hit "Save," your video should appear just the way you wanted it to.

Hopefully this will allow you to keep posting videos while we figure out what's happening on our end.

As always, thanks for your patience.

~daisy

Go forth and fill your libraries with media.

Seriously, thanks to everyone for being so amazing and patient. You are the reason I love Vox.

~daisy

I was just told that the Amazon Conduit will be fixed by tomorrow. I will post here as soon as I get word that it's back up and running.

I know this has been frustrating and I am sorry there wasn't more I could do to make it less so. I really appreciate your patience though.

Cheers,

daisy

Bad news. As many of you have probably noticed, the Amazon Conduit was not fixed in the last week's release. Unfortunately, there was an undetected bug that is preventing the conduit from working.

We are working on this bug fix and hope to have the Conduit back up and running this week.

I will keep you posted.

Thank you for being so patient.

~daisy

Blog Action Day is every October 15th, when blogger are asked to post something about a single issue to show our strength and conviction as an online community. It's a great way to feel connected to the greater good, and the participation of so many bloggers to support the world's leading non-profit organizations is something you can do to help, right now. By blogging today, you're supporting some of the world's leading non-profits and sharing your voice for change.

This year's topic is climate change, and we'd love to read your thoughts on the topic. If you participate, leave us a link to your post in the comments, so we know to check out your post!

Go to www.blogactionday.org to learn more, get a badge for your blog showing your participation, and see some ideas for your post on climate change.

Can't wait to read your posts!

~ daisy

 

Day 2 in Barcalonette.....

 

Still suffering from my Stomach bug I had planned a large loop ride taking in 3 Col’s of the area, but as soon as I got on the bike I knew that was not possible. So I cut it back just to the Col De Cayolle at 30-odd K’s…. My legs did not have that empty feeling, just my body and mind. Despite drinking a lot of carbs the night before and on the bike I had no real punch, and indeed I kept getting off to pee!  It was a shame as it was a magnificent ride, taking in a narrow road on a 31k climb through the National Park of the area. Marmots, crickets, birds, butterflies all scattering as I pedalled through the lovely sun and surrounded by mountains and forest. I was wearing my TEAM SKODA top, and it was ok, the difference in temperature between the sun and the shade of the mountains was significant now, sending serious chills through the body before suddenly getting too hot. 

 

At the top of the Col, I was disappointed in my effort, but knew the reasons why, I don’t think I was absorbing any water I was putting in, just going right through – I was constantly thirsty yet nothing I did could change it, and I just end up peeing every hour – very frustrating – concerned it was killing my riding effort....

 

I headed back to the Hotel and enjoyed an afternoon on the balcony, reading in the evening sun with views of the mountains and the smells of the pine forests….

 

Day 3 - Final Ride

So today was my final ride of the holiday – A combination of factors cutting my stay here short by a day, 1 wanting to get this infection sorted out, 2 my travel and overseas breakdown cover was up, 3 the temperature was dropping right down to 15 degrees over the next few days, I was already chilly in the shade, and up high it was freezing…I would need some proper winter gear to stay for a while longer, and 4 the ferry price across the channel was 50% cheaper on Friday than Saturday!

 

So with a heavy heart I went out on a little ride through some French villages on a minor back road, not looking for climbs or speed, just to potter – and indeed that’s what I did- again a nice sunny day, and magnificent views of the mountains and the valley – I took some pictures, and quite sad – with lots of memories flooding back from the past few months - I made my way back to pack and grab some lunch and pack.   

 

Tomorrow was a 10 hour drive to Le Havre , ferry crossing overnight, than 4 hours on the UK motorways. I called in at the local store to stock up on driving food- diet cokes, biscuits, crisps and chocolate, oh yeah and petrol ;-)

 

I’ll put up a post later about my holiday reflections, after I return and process it all …. Its been a fantastic time……

 

Col De Bonette

 

This one would be a monster – straight out from the hotel door would be a 23k climb, with a massive profile – and I wasn’t exactly at 100%…. I was hoping it would be raining when I awoke, a good excuse, but it was bright and sunny, so, and perhaps secretly happy, I prepared – porridge and honey first, then clothing, then the bike, it needed some attention – the headset needed cleaning and re-oiling, but I would do that later, instead I changed the now worn rear tyre for a new Continental GP4000S with sticky chilli compound… it went on easy… as I did that on the balcony I noticed plenty of cloud coming over, so quickly rushed to get ready….

 

Out on the road I had planned a 20min ride along a flat road away from the climb to warm up, and then back , and then into the climb, but the clouds and knowing what was ahead wouldn’t be pretty in the wet, I headed straight up.

 

There were signs every K’m as per the usual French way, telling you distance left, % upwards and what you were riding (as if you’d make some kind of mistake!) . The road surface was unbelievable – totally smooth, as you’d expect from a recent Tour climb, but that didn’t help with the incline.   The sun though when it broke through was nice and warm, and I ploughed on up at 12k an hour, drinking as much as I could as I knew I had not drank water in a while.

 

I met a French rider riding up on a mountain bike on thin road tyres – we chatted for a while and I left him behind to fight his own battle with this monster.    The road increased in incline, as well as the wind, barrelling down the valley, hitting you on one side of a twist – making you freezing cold, then helping you on the other as you turned your back on it. The brake levers were already freezing cold, as were my knees and fingers…. On a relatively ‘flat’ section I put on some long fingered gloves and that helped, my core nice and warm from the Rapha Winter jersey…. If it were a woman I’d marry it!   At half way I was pleased with my speed, 12k’s an hour average, but trying to keep that meant I was getting a stitch as % grades went as high as 9% consistently K after K.

 

Only a few cars passed me, mostly it was motorcyclists, who amazingly waved at me – and as I passed some roadworkers, they too waved and cheered – how I loved the French attitude – in the UK I would be jeered and picked at.

 

Even with the fantastic views and the amazing snow filled barren landscape - I mentally left the road and thought of other things to take my mind off the effort, the pain in my stomach and the pain from my left knee…. It worked for a while, enough to get me to the 5K to go sign, which really pushed me on.  The wind getting stronger so I put in more effort, looking at the time, I could perhaps still make it all within 2hours!  I pushed hard ignoring the stiches in my stomach.

 

As you headed to the top, there was a shortcut you could take to drop down the other side, but it wasn’t the ‘real’ top, so I pounded up the last 900m at about 13% incline onto the circular tarmac road littered with snow and fallen rocks – but it was worth it, done inside 2hours!!!  The monument of the ‘point’ surrounded by fantastic landscapes and views – and of course a few cars and dutch motorcyclists!   I took the pictures, put on the windproof coat for the descent and headed down.

 

In a matter of seconds I was off the bike and changing the rear tube after a puncture, only my second in over 3 months of riding in Europe – and indeed before that, I could not remember ….  The French rider on the bike checked to make sure all was ok, and we chatted about the view – as I went back to the tyre as he headed down, a driver stopped and asked if I was ok. Nice.

 

I headed down, freezing cold, despite my coat, and my windproof overshoes and my gloves, everything was frozen – the icy blast from the wind as well as your speed of over 70k’s an hour at places also froze your cheeks, face, and scalp…. But , slowly as you headed into the valley it warmed up a little.

 

I rode straight into the hotel room and into a hot bath…. 2hours up, 30 mins down – 46k’s done. Not much in terms of time / K’s but so much in terms of up.

 

Big lunch – then I headed into Barcelonette for a mooch around – but it was all totally closed, seems Tuesday in this town was its day off. So I stopped at a piazza for a coffee and chocolate mousse then headed back in the lovely afternoon sun….

 

I decided to head out for a flat recovery ride, and it was pretty nice, just on a flattish road for a round trip in the sun of another 45K. It was rush hour traffic, but in this area of the woods, that meant few cars, a few trucks, and plenty of respect.  The ride passed quickly and thoughts were already on what to ride tomorrow as I tucked into a big pasta meal back at the Hotel, along with some nice Corsican Wine that I traded for my Tent – I wondered what adventures that tent would have – hopefully treated better by its new owners than how I had.

 

I also noted on the news the weather forecast for Corsican area – ooooohhh nasty – I was glad I had left when I had. Glad to be back in the alps / mountains – glad to be back in real France….

1st pics is the description of Col de Bonette as per an article in a cycling magazine rating the top 50 climbs of the world (of which i had done about 7 now i think, maybe 8...mmmm maybe 9 will have to check...

Profile :

Pictures of the Ride:

Genoa

Up early – I packed and paid the bill at the hotel, bargain and money well spent for the amount of food and coffee I ate there, and its fantastic location and views…

 

I was on the road heading for Genoa (Genova) to catch the ferry to Corsica. I booked it on the web for the Italian ferry company ‘MOBY FERRIES’… but with its early sail time it meant I had to stay over in Genova, well actually up a mountainside at a village rather than in the City.  On the way there the Dolomites was covered in thick grey clouds, but the sun peaked through and planted its rays in spots across the mountainsides and valleys – making for a nice initially start to the journey. I was sad to leave the Dolomites and thought about staying longer, but I wanted to see Corsica and hopefully enjoy better weather….

 

After the mountains disappeared the views were of farmland and dilapidated buildings, and back of cars and lorries cutting me up on the autobahn’s… the road cutting through major farmland and through swarms of flies, splattering the window – I hoped the 3 quid washer fluid would work its magic, but it seemed to clean just the same as before….

 

I had to stop a few times for pee’s, my bladder still giving me grief, despite me cutting back on water intake….

 

I made good time, so decided to headed straight into Genova and find the ferry port and check my online booking was ok. OOOoomistake,  chaos chaos chaos – I almost ended up boarding a Ferry to Tunisia after getting lost around the massive port area…. Finally I found the service desk, everything was fine… and now I knew where it was for the morning….so I headed to the village and the hotel room.

 

When I say hotel, it was basically rooms in someone’s house, but it was pretty nice and ensuite bathroom and everything inside was brand new. The village was pretty basic, but next door was restaurant and I headed down for a quiet pasta meal…. As I entered there were a few people already there, Tatayana an adopted Russian to the Italian Owner and her friends, including a funny guy called Serjey – who, using an iPhone and Google translator made great conversation…. Over beer’s and then invited to their family meal, we talked about the usual – Moto GP, Football, drinking, cars etc… a great time – he showed me his Fiat 500 Arbarth and took me for a spin with the stereo blasting – a fantastic car, and it loved the twisty tight roads much better than my more sedate Merc!

 

Saying goodnight to everyone in broken Italian and terrible Russian, I collected email addresses and Facebook details and slept well until 6am when the alarm went off.

 

 

2 ferry’s, 2 country’s, 2 days….

A quick dash to the ferry port, I queued up and checked in, trying to calm down a little from the frightening thunderstorm that had dumped so much water onto the Italian roads that the car was swimming most of the way…. Still I was glad it was so early as to avoid most of the traffic.

 

The ferry was bloody awful, lots of dodgy people via foot passengers, smelling of booze (at 8am!!) crowding the alleyways and seating areas. Most of the decks closed now in the off season sailing but still enough people packed into what was left open to make it uncomfortable.  I had numerous arguments with the staff behind the coffee counter. You had to order at the till first, get a bill and then show it to someone else before you got your food/drink….First the Latte I was given had no coffee in it and was cold, so he dumped an espresso shot in it…I pushed it back towards him and in broken Italian made sure he knew I wanted a proper HOT latte – was it too much to ask… then when I went back later to order a sandwich, he just plonked it on the counter to the nearest person and walked away – as it happened it was one of those bums!!! And he was about to walk off with it, I collered him and dragged it away from his prying hands – the guy was English and said ‘ooo sorry mate wondered why I got a free butty’ – I turned to the guy behind the counter and held up my ticket and told him to bloody well check them before giving out food….

 

As the Ferry began to pull into Corsica – the town of Bastia – the rain started – the town looked pretty nice as I drove through it, using the sat nav I had plotted a route around the back of the city to avoid the ferry traffic – some sides of the town not so nice, but I ended up where I wanted to be, on a mountain pass road, cutting about 30 mins off the main-road-route – that was surely chocca full of campers and cars off the Ferry.

 

I was heading to Calvi on the other side of the Island – despite the rain the coastline and sea looked fantastic, the traffic heavy once I had returned to the main road. I was feeling extremely rough by the time the 2 hour journey was over, just generally rough all over – I got to the 3* campsite, to be quite disappointed by it. A sandy based site, with a funny standing water smell, and quite full (as they had closed half of it for the off-season) most with old caravans that had been there a while, occupied by less than savoury characters – I found a spot that was not underwater, and quickly put up the tent in the drizzle. The tent by now had seen better days, and packing it away wet last time, meant there was plenty of mould and dodgy smells in it. It turned my stomach a little.  I unpacked and the rain eased for the evening so I headed into Calvi as a glimmer of sun broke through as I walked the sort distance across the beach. Calvi was ok, a little harbour with boats, and then 3 streets of tourist shops and/or bar’s – food here was super expensive! I texted my sister to hopefully use the net to find some better accomo – but most were expensive – even in the off season – there are only so many Hotels on Corsica!

 

I headed back to the tent just as the rain started again and not feeling very hungry, tried to sleep as more and more people crowded into the site, and the disco’s that lined the main street behind the site began to pound out the beat – at 2am I got to sleep.

 

The morning was bright and sunny and so I headed into Calvi again on the beach for coffee – as my coffee plunger had broken – at 3quid for a coffee it was pretty expensive, but it was dam nice, so I had 2 , and a croissant, even though I was not hungry.

 

I prep’ed the bike for a long ride and headed off – the sun shining – and the ambient temperature much hotter than the Alps/Dolomites. I was still pee’ing for too often, and now it seemed it had spread to the more solid (or now less solid!) area’s of the latrine use…. Ughhhh  

 

The ride gave fantastic views as I spent 3 hours climbing out of the seaside campsite up to the mountains through little quiet villages – the roads though were pretty rough, sand washed out from side streets and houses across them, water filled potholes, rough patchy tarmac – and I was not in the best of shape on the bike either – not drinking, not thirsty etc… but the roads were pretty quiet and I enjoyed the morning on the bike – even if I didn’t pound out the ‘K’s’

 

I decided to take in a drive in the afternoon to see the rest of the island. The weather forecast was for thunder and heavy rain over the next few days, and indeed it was raining now, and so I wanted to see if it was worth staying around in the tent , moving to another part of the island (again in the tent as accomo was expensive) or leaving the island all together.  

As much as the island was pretty, the landscape was quiet barren and mostly sandy scrub land, with only the mountain area giving forest and diversity, yet the roads were pretty poor.

 

Back at the tent I decided I would leave the island. If I was going to ride in the rain, I would want to ride on decent roads, and I didn’t really want to move around the island from one campsite to the next in the rain either – yes maybe it would not rain all the time, but Corsica was pretty much an outdoor place – beach, riding, or walking, and so when it rained there was nothing much else to do, but sit in the tent or some bar…plus I was feeling dog rough and didn’t enjoy being in a tent when sick….

 

I booked the next ferry out, (8am from Bastia) and some accommodation – a studio room in a castle for 5 nights above the Cote D; Azur – near some great riding locations, for half the price of a Corsican hotel - and as I packed everything away a dutch couple pulled into the pitch next to me, surveying the water logged site from the windows of their campervan.

 

I thought about how I could pack the wet sandy tent away – in the morning at 5am or tonight and sleep in the car. As I would probably not use it again (it was a tent that got very cold very quickly and was essentially too big for just me, and yes… It was mouldy and smelled), I had an idea… I said hello to the couple next to me and explained the tent and the situation, saying that I was not going to use it again. The guy was keen to take it and would take it down after I had left in the morning – he said he would clean it up and get rid of the mould and give it to his 2 sons who wanted to tour around next year. Perfect – I would sleep in it tonight and just leave it up tomorrow – as I sat and read my book the guy came back over with a bottle of wine and insisted I take it in exchange for the tent. Very nice of him. A bottle of Corsican Red! Lovely

 

Trying to push my earplugs further into my ears to block out the disco music and get some sleep between pee’ing I thought about what was next after I got back to the UK….trying to make a mental note of things to do, options and plans…..

 

4am the next morning I got up and quietly as I could, washed up and headed out – the roads quiet apart from the noise of thunder in the distance. I got to Bastia quite early, and parked up near the Ferry terminal – which was clear and easy to find this time – and walked around the promenade and the streets – it was a nice town and a café on the corner near the terminal was open – the croissants were fresh out of the oven, and the coffee ground fresh and from a proper machine – and it was cheap – it perked me up in time for the Ferry arrival, which coincided with the arrival of the rain from the thunderstorms.

 

This Ferry was French, and you could tell, its interior was decked out like you imagine cruise ferries to be , gold beams, wooden decks, nice lighting – and all the shops and café’s were open – serving fantastic food, cooked, breakfast and coffee, all at cheap prices – lounges with big screen TV’s and piped music kept everyone relaxed, staff in suits collecting rubbish and trays - and it was much more an enjoyable experience.  I still didn’t feel like food, and just had more coffee and a yoghurt.

 

As the 5 hours went by I felt more and more rough, stomach ache and headache too, I decided to grab more food as the restaurant opened for lunch, as I wouldn’t get chance to eat on the journey to the hotel. The frites and pork chops was pretty nice and I also had a full sugar coke. It didn’t really help my mood, and neither did the twix bar and final coffee before setting off. The ferry docking into Nice, and the view of the coastline was impressive, Monte Carlo on the horizon, but also I never realised that it was so mountainous – yet heavily built on.

 

Nice was packed, top to bottom left to right packed! I plotted a sat-nav route through the city then back onto the coast-line road to see what it was like. Nice was impressive, bring grand buildings and churches, and also similar on the coastal road, although this was a 6 line highway of chaos, people trying to park, change lanes, come out of parking places, scooters everywhere – the building getting slowly more and more touristy the further you went away from nice – but in all cases there was plenty of shops and bar’s to take your money. The actual sea-side of the highway looked ok, a cycle lane for ‘city’ bikes , but also running on, as well as the long stretch of golden sand…. 

 

The route to the hotel was nice and lifted me no end, as I saw the oncoming mountains and into the typical gorges roads and then climbing on a road etched into the mountain side… the 2 hour journey going quickly, so I headed to the local tourist info office in Barcelonette before the hotel, to pick up the details on the 7 big mountain passes (Cols) to ride – 2 of the biggest names in the Tour de France – Col de Lombarde and the Col de Bonette – the highest road pass in Europe (although every country seems to claim that one ! – scroll back to see Austia’s – the GrossGlockner, and Switzerland too…) . I had driven oven it to get to the town, and it was an utter monster – at 2860m and on a single track steep road into baron un-hospitable mountains – sounds great!!!

 

Barcelonette was a real French town, on the outskirts large 3 story mansion’s once (and perhaps some still) owned by the French aristocracy, now mostly offices and museums, and then into the town with the high 4-5 story terrace houses, little bars and markets, and central square with a  fountain , the WWI and WWII memorials and farmers and workers rubbing shoulders with pretty women with small dogs. I took to it immediately!

 

The hotel was a huge castle, although that only houses a restaurant, the out buildings held the studios that I was in, at 200E for 5 nights with 2 floors, 2 bedrooms, and a fully equipped kitchen it was a major bargain, and with fantastic views of the Valleys –this region being known as the Ubaye Valley.

 

Fairly exhausted now and feeling the effects of my food / water poisoning I had a simple meal (porridge and honey) and headed to bed, thinking of that Col de Bonette and hoping for sun tomorrow.