Evening Loop

Initially finding a bike shop on Monday proved to be a problem here in Basel. I intended to take the bike to an Italian owned shop on Shonausstrasse, and noted that they open between 10 and 12, and 2 and 6 so I would have to plan my day around these times. Only after waiting for several minutes passed ten did I read the signs further and find they are closed on Mondays! Fair enough I suppose, they get a 2 day weekend like everyone else. But it turned out that all the bike shops, and many other shops in KleinBasel were closed on Monday as well, it really is quite traditional in this respect.
In the afternoon I focused on shops close to the university. I visited an interesting place I think is called the Bike works on kannenfeldstrasse. A nice leafy garden area where you can repair your bike using their tools, if you buy the parts from him. This will be a good place to take my militar velo if things go wrong in the future.
Next was the Giant shop at the end of Colmarstrasse, which is the most promising shop I visited so far. Seems to be well stocked and with good mountain bikes and road bikes. They dont have the tools to deal with my bottom bracket, so send me to Maglia Rosa on Mittlerestrasse. Seems like a shop has to be Italian to deal with Campag parts, I am sure to be back here in the future.
In the end the bearings were replaced on Wednesday and although they're under 3 year waranty, Ribble would only be interested if I took the bike to them, or at least the whole bottom bracket unit which isn't going to happen.
So back on the road Wednesday evening and this evening, it really is nice to get the evenings back when its still very warm and light.
I've noticed the riders here are much faster or at least more competitive than the average rider in Japan. Must be all the hills here, but most likely its much more cycling culture in central Europe there are many more fast riders. I've closed down several on recent rides and when they realise they are being caught, they somehow find an extra gear and up the pace. The ones that have done this so far have all managed to keep a distance from me, but its all good for training I suppose.
On Wednesday night a guy descended from Gempen behind me, must have caught me after the junction as I had to slow down for traffic, but anyway he somehow was there at my back wheel. We worked together for a few km, then its a very gentle but fast descent down to Seewen. Here his skills at descending were obvious. He was getting into that really low tuck when you sit on the crossbar and balance the arms on the center of the handlebars, it always looks so dangerous, but here it clearly was an advantage. He wasn't pedalling at all, but whereas he could pick a very fast line around the hairpins, I was hard on the brakes and losing meters every corner, it was impressive to see someone descend with such skill.
Its going to be a whole lot different down the Galibier on Monday, I just hope to get down safely never mind descending with the fastest lines around the bends.