Cycling Cavtat (Croatia) to Muo (Montenegro)

Waking up to overcast skies and wet sidewalks is never a good start to a day of cycling. Today was the first cycling day of our three week tour. All of the contents of my suitcase had ended up outside of my suitcase by breakfast. I ran downstairs, inhaled some food from the buffet, then, returned to squeeze everything back into my carryon suitcase and squish it into zippered closure. Then, we dropped off our suitcases at the van, pulled our bikes out of storage to load water bottles, pump up tires, attach cycling computers, and stuff our bike bags. It started raining. The tour guide gave us a briefing indoors.  By the time she’d finished, the rain had mostly cleared to heavy humidity. Off we rode!

Diane and I at the start

First we climbed back to the main road and turned toward the airport. That was a stressful ride on a wet, two-way road with no shoulders and much traffic due to the airport. Finally we turned off onto a quieter road. I felt pretty strong at the beginning of the climbing. However, it was getting tougher and tougher as we kept going. Eventually, even my bike was making sounds of protest. Then, my radar light fell off. When I stopped to pick it up, I noticed that my under saddle bag was rubbing the back tire. Upon assembling the bike yesterday, I hadn’t tightened done the seat post bolt enough; and, the saddle was slowly sinking. Had a good laugh about that while fixing it on the side of the road!

The wet roads made me paranoid about falling. In my training, I never cycled when it was wet or raining. Unfortunately, that meant that I was braking even more than usual and falling further and further behind. In addition, after spending so much time on Garmin Express to download European background maps on my cycling computer, none of them were working. Often, my computer simply showed a blue arrow in a blank background, without even a red line to follow. Thankfully, for me, the sweep and my friend fell back to cycle along with me. 

Our border crossing between Croatia and Montenegro was uneventful. Then, we cycled on to meet the rest of the group at the coffee stop. As we pulled up, I was so grateful to be off the bike after all the wet roads, that I absent mindedly leaned the bike against myself while attempting to take off my rain jacket. BAM! The bike fell on the pavement in the derailleur side. Picking it up, I stashed it next to a planter, then went to use the washroom. All the other cyclists had been sitting around for ages and started packing up as soon as we arrived. My friend and the sweep slurped their coffees; and, then, we were back on our bikes, too. Unfortunately, at this point, I started to realize that something was wrong with my shifters. Shifting down to climb, my chain fell off into my wheel. I stopped to get it back on, but then it happened again a bit further on. By then, I’d lost everyone; and, the Garmin was a blank screen. I started walking the bike to the upcoming roundabout, decided to turn right and hope for the red line to reappear on the Garmin. Then, the sweep came back down the sidewalk to find me. 

We made it to lunch last, got my bike on a stand and assumed it was a bent hanger. Ate lunch, biked back to the ferry, crossed over and then biked the final 10 km to the hotel in a narrow road wide enough for one car that was actually a two way road. Near the end, it started to rain. At the hotel, one of the other cyclists was nice enough to try to fix the bent hangar since this tour has tools that we can use but no mechanic. Unfortunately, once reassembled, the gears were still wonky. The tour leader then sent me to ask the receptionist to find out if there was a bike mechanic in town. The receptionist was very helpful calling and texting around. However, she couldn’t find anyone, not even in nearby Kotor. It’s Saturday; and, the bike shop there had closed at 4 pm today for the weekend. The tour leader asked if I couldn’t just cycle to Podgorica tomorrow (2500 meters climbing) where there’s a bike shop. It is a frustrating set of circumstances caused by my own folly, yet, I’ve learned now that I won’t book another tour without a mechanic support person.