Cycling Vocabulary (French)

robkit

Myth or not, its fair enough that when English folk such as myself journey to France we tend to be a bit lazy when it comes to speaking the language.

I'm visiting several times this year, for the raid pyrennean, tour and for the Etape du Tour, and would like to improve my French (about 2 years study at school) specifically in the area of cycling.

Can anyone recommend any online resources to learn, for example, how to describe how one is feeling, cycle components, etc

And finally - what is the literal translation of riding "a bloc"

Merci beaucoup!

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MadDaze

[QUOTE=robkit
And finally - what is the literal translation of riding "a bloc"
[/QUOTE]

I live in Bordeaux and would be happy to help, only I don't know what 'a bloc' means in English, let alone French.

Harvey the White Rabbit

drewdoddy

hello boss,

would be happy to help with any language bits, am a bit new to this vélo lark and this is my first post! am currently livin and workin in Lourdes in the Hautes Pyrénées and the cols for this years etape du tour are about 15 mins away. 'à bloc' more or less means going all out in this sense. good luck on the col d'aubisque, it was still snowbound as recently as a few weeks ago but think its open now.

MadDaze

Got it. You mean 'à bloc', as in ' il est gonflé à bloc' => 'he's all psyched up'. By extension 'courir à bloc' means 'give it all you've got'.

drewdoddy

do you get down to do any cyclin in the pyrenees MadDaze? just out of interest is all, dont wanna be nosy, just only been cyclin bout 18 months but has kinda become an obsession, maybe its livin round here! just wondered if youve done any of the cols.

MadDaze

The closest I've come is doing the ride des Côtelettes last October during the Fête des Côtelettes (at Luz-St-Sauveur in the Midi-Pyrénées), a gain of about 600m in 20km. Nearly killed me! I'm from Houston, TX -- the only hills there are the overpasses for the expressways.

I'm spending more time in the hills around Bordeaux this year. Maybe the ride des Côtelettes will be less painful this year.

Harvey

drewdoddy

I'm spending more time in the hills around Bordeaux this year. Maybe the ride des Côtelettes will be less painful this year.

if you dont mind me askin boss, i dont live far from luz st. sauveur, whats the cotelettes? have been cyclin more and more lately, work permitting, and was wonderin about maybe joinin a club or somethin, maybe see if i'm upto speed, the competitive spirit in all of us... what route did the cotelettes take? hope you dont mind my quizzing! just that i cycle to luz quite often amongst others. cheers.

MadDaze

Every year at Luz-Saint-Sauveur there is a festival to celebrate the descent of the sheep and shepherds from the mountains. It's called the Foire aux Côtelettes. The highlight is a chance to eat all the barbecued lamb chops you can handle. Here's a link giving the date this year (I think):
http://www.luz.org/luz.org/sorties/...878a80b06e57dff
In connection with the festival there is ride part way up into the mountains, hence the pun 'côtelettes'.

Last year my wife and I belonged to the chapter of the Fédération français de cyclotourisme in Langon. The president of the club led a handful of members on their annual sortie to Luz-Saint-Sauveur, and we went along. Saturday morning the ride des côtelettes took place - lovely and hard work for a flat-lander like me. Sunday morning some of the Langonnais then cycled up to the Col du Tourmalet -- without me! We're now members of the Gradignan chapter of the FFCT. Someone here owns an apartment in Luz-Saint-Sauveur. I'm sure we'll try the ride and the lamb chops against this year,

From my experience bike clubs are wonderful. I'm more motivated to get out and ride and more motivated to push when riding with a group than when riding solo. Good luck at finding one.

Harvey

drewdoddy

right cheers then boss, might see you tuckin into your lamb chops in october!

Saeco Pink

I wonder if you're still looking at your post replies here. Anyway, I've been living in Paris for just about two years. Before I moved from the US, I did some internet checking and found this guy's super helpful website: http://www.mayq.com/French_biking_nomenclature.htm

Sheldon Brown also has a ton of information. You'll find his stuff through Google.

Bring your rain gear and elbow pads. It rains a lot and there are cobblestones everywhere. Also, drivers do not grant bicyclists a wide berth, and I was seriously injured by a driver who passed me and cut me off w/out signaling. Lost my road bike because of it and received a broken wrist.

NOT a road biker's city, although there are competetive road bikers here. The local crits are held in the much nicer border cities (Lavallois especially).

MadDaze

Cool link!

Here in southwest France (Gironde), drivers are much more respectful of cyclists that what you describe (however it's also true qu'il y des cons partout), and there are few cobblestones and the few there are for decorative effect. It rains a lot in the winter and early spring, but after that the weather is generally nice. We have hundreds of kilometers of bike paths and bikeways and thousands of kms of quiet country roads. Having come from Houston, Texas, the most bike-unfriendly city in America, I think I've died and gone to heaven.

Harvey the White Rabbit

drewdoddy

aye i second harvey the white rabbit. i too am living in south-west france near the pyrénées and find most motorists respectful with some cycle lanes provided and roads marked for cyclists on climbs mais c'est vrai il y a des cons partout, i have had the odd incident but have found it was mainly due to the us postal jersey i've been wearing!

Espada9

Lying cheating dope fiend and fraud in French is Great French Champion (see Richard Virenque). Just thought I would clue you in on some good English to French translation.

gclark8

I spent some time in France in the 80s with my GF of the day.. her grandma lived near Nantres, she taught me to say thank you to her by saying "merci beau cu", instead of Merci beaucoup, she thought it was hilarious, boy do us aussies get wound up by you frogs...

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