Semaine Federale 2010 Video

[Exit Stage Left]

A 4.47 treatment of footage from the French Cycle Touring Federation's annual bash. This years venue, Verdun, made it a must for students of military history and lovers of pork products. The usual supplies of Beer, Chips and Casse Croutes fortified riders who could choose to do a ride of 100 miles on most days.

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[thing1]

Excellent! Great footage, nicely edited.
I really got a feel for the atmosphere watching that. Definitely on the list to do one year!

(But, wow, what was that brass band wearing? Makes an italian ski-suit look somber and understated)

[Exit Stage Left]

Excellent! Great footage, nicely edited.
I really got a feel for the atmosphere watching that. Definitely on the list to do one year!

(But, wow, what was that brass band wearing? Makes an italian ski-suit look somber and understated)

Every town likes to put on some form of entertainment, the opening ceremony had the brass band dressed as clowns, I walked into one welcome point to the sound of 'Smoke on the Water' from the local disco. Country and Western seems popular in the Meuse region, we were treated to a number of displays of line dancing by persons of a certain age, once to a medley of Irish folk tunes on accordion.
It's possible to tolerate a lot of unintended surrrealism when beer and chips are on tap. It's like a series of village fetes 30 to 50 km apart, with good catering and a handy supply of chain gang trains passing at five minute intervals to carry you between them.

[Tail End Charlie]

Excellent! Great footage, nicely edited.
I really got a feel for the atmosphere watching that. Definitely on the list to do one year!

(But, wow, what was that brass band wearing? Makes an italian ski-suit look somber and understated)

Another  for the clip. And another who'll be finding out about next year. Nice one.

[tatanab]

Definitely on the list to do one year!

I've been meaning to go for many years.  Next years' is Flershttp://www.sf2011-flers.org/  , 2013 is Nantes 72e Semaine fédérale internationale de cyclotourisme , so like last year at St Omer they are very close for the English contingent.

[bloomers100]

Thanks I enjoyed that.

I had a look thru some of your Mersey Road 24 films too, I think I would be the bloke hanging off his Mrs grizzling after doing that.

[Exit Stage Left]

Thanks I enjoyed that.

I had a look thru some of your Mersey Road 24 films too, I think I would be the bloke hanging off his Mrs grizzling after doing that.

The Mersey Roads films were just to show the people involved what I took on the day. The bloke grizzling, John Warnock, has just completed the second longest distance recorded in the event, 516 miles, the only person who has gone further is Andy Wilkinson, who I interviewed while he was marshalling, he went 9 miles further in 1997. Standing next to him was another Port Sunlight club member, who I  met on the Semaine Federale too. I also met Gethin Butler there, who is another one of the elite of riders who have ridden more than 500 miles in 24 hours and holds the Lands End-John O Groats record.
I'll probably make a couple of more explanatory films about the two subjects and put them in the cycling groups on Vimeo.

[thing1]

Next years' is Flers http://www.sf2011-flers.org/ ...

(FTFY)

Thanks for the links.
So that'll be a familiar part of the world for anyone also doing PBP next year!

[JenM]

Nice write up of the current Semaine Federale by Dave & Jo Whitney......although incomplete - last couple of days to be added


http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=RrzKj&doc_id=7344&v=E5

[aregister]

(But, wow, what was that brass band wearing? Makes an italian ski-suit look somber and understated)

I realised halfway through the video that the clown band are playing a rowdy "Rivers of Babylon" by Jimmy Cliff.

[Exit Stage Left]

I think they're trying to murder the Boney M version. I like it because it has a resonance for the soldiers who lie in a strange land between two rivers, albeit the Meuse and the Moselle, rather than the Tigris and the Euphrates. That's why I put German and American graves in. The French lie in their own land.
You're probably thinking of this version of Psalm 137 by the Melodians
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/o-5E6_qtXAw&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/o-5E6_qtXAw&rel=1</a>

[aregister]

You're probably thinking of this version of Psalm 137 by the Melodians

You're right. It was on the soundtrack of the film "The Harder They Come", along with two fantastic tunes by Toots and the Maytals, as well as others.

[Exit Stage Left]

You're probably thinking of this version of Psalm 137 by the Melodians

You're right. It was on the soundtrack of the film "The Harder They Come", along with two fantastic tunes by Toots and the Maytals, as well as others.

You've got the Rivers bit and Jimmy Cliff from 'Many rivers to cross' from the same soundtrack, I used it on a video in 2007   <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/AuZiRgPYKl4&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/AuZiRgPYKl4&rel=1</a>

We recalled it when we came back to England from the Sem Fed thanks to the perplexing reference to the White Cliffs of Dover in the lyric.