Tour de France
BICYCLING | Peddling past the vineyards and into another time
Greg Borzo is a self-proclaimed bike nut.
The 54-year-old Borzo, who lives in the North Park neighborhood, rides his seven-speed GT Rapid Transit for fun. He rides it to run errands. Sometimes he'll ride it to his job at the Field Museum, where he's a science writer.
(Sun-Times)
For Borzo, translating scientific jargon into plain old English was easy compared to getting his friends to hop on the saddle and take a spin with him.
"I was always trying to get people to ride to work with me, bike for fun," Borzo said. "It usually didn't work."
Until Borzo said the magic word: France. More specifically, a week-plus cycling excursion with tour operator VBT Bicycling Vacations, pedaling a modest 19 to 35 miles a day through the Loire Valley. Nights would be spent in a 15th century chateau, a former convent and an old wine merchant's house.
This got their attention.
Without too much arm twisting, Borzo recruited his wife, sister, college roommate, neighbor, lawyer and dentist -- 12 people in all. They practically had the trip to themselves, minus two other couples who'd signed up with VBT. The strangers quickly meshed with Borzo's posse.
Borzo and his friends flew to Paris last September and took a train down to Tours, a charming, historic city on the Loire River. From here, they biked up and down this vineyard-filled valley, usually spending two nights in each hotel before moving on to the next locale. People often split up to ride in smaller groups depending on what time they woke up and how many miles they felt like doing. If someone didn't want to ride anymore, a VBT van was never far behind, ready to sweep them up.
This was no Tour de France (which happens to start this weekend). The pace was leisurely, with plenty of time built in to stop and smell the proverbial roses.
"You'd just ride through a town and stop at a pastry shop to try a little something," Borzo said. "One time we sat down and watched a game of rugby just because we were riding by and saw it. You just make it up as you go along."
Before the Loire Valley trip, Borzo's experience with organized bike tours was limited to RAGBRAI, a massive, weeklong bike trip across Iowa held each year during the last full week of July. RAGBRAI riders camp in tents and pump out an average of 68 miles a day -- not quite the same as pedaling through the French countryside and dropping in on wineries to sample the sancerre.
"We learned a lot about wine along the way," Borzo said. "We learned some practical things, too. If you have to put your chain back on your cog and your hands are greasy, grab some green grapes that aren't too ripe. They work like soap."
Good to know.
With the exception of lunch, most meals were included in the trip's price. The food -- as you might expect in France -- was fantastic. Borzo and his friends didn't have to feel guilty about digging in, thanks to the miles they were logging on their odometers.
"You'd bike your 30 miles and then go into town, check into the hotel and then walk around to do some exploring," he said. "Between the biking and the walking, I don't think anybody gained weight."
The historically rich Loire Valley has plenty worth exploring, like a castle in Chinon where 15th century heroine Joan of Arc had her famous meeting with King Charles VII, setting the stage to liberate France from Britain.
"We were able to stand in the spot where this happened," Borzo said. "We rolled into this little town called Amboise, and it happened to be the place where Leonardo da Vinci spent his last 10 or 15 years. We visited this beautiful mansion where da Vinci lived, and in the backyard were re-creations of many of his inventions."
Even the hotels they stayed in were steeped in history.
"It's a real kick to stay in a former convent," he said. "The rooms were small and kind of cell-like but the grounds were beautiful and peaceful. The last couple of nights we stayed in a chateau built in the 1400s. They had a hunting estate on it with wild boar, which are huge and scary. We ran off. They didn't."
Borzo noticed a big difference in the way cyclists are treated in France compared to Chicago.
"People over there were very courteous to bikers," he said. "Cars would stop and let us through. We were treated like celebrities in some cases with people coming up to us, asking where we were from."
The overall experience was so good, some of Borzo's friends are well on their way to becoming bike nuts themselves.
"They've bought their Spandex. Joined the [Chicagoland Bicycle] Federation. Bike to work," he said. "They're hooked."