I leave for France today. Trying to get used to the new timezone, I have been waking up at 4AM-5AM for the past week. Today was easy, the excitement is hard to contain.

Finished packing last night, and that was a more involved job than I had anticipated.

Usually when I travel, it is one destination or two. So you pack, get where you are going and unpack. All the stuff goes all over the hotel furniture. Then you do not have to worry about this until it is time to leave. You deal with how to fit all the stuff back in the suitcase at the end of the trip.

In this case, I will have to handle this suitcase every single day. Every night will be in a different hotel pretty much. For 23 days, I will have to open the suitcase, take the things I need and repack it again in the morning.

And because it is riding in any weather, the amount of clothing adds up (gloves, long finger gloves, arm warmers, leg warmers, shorts, rain jacket, etc). Then there is the casual clothing, although that is at the absolute minimum. I do not even have the whole team clothing yet, the jerseys, vests and jackets are not given to us until we arrive; so I will need to fit that in the suitcase too.

Anyway, I think I have a system going now. I have ziplock bagged everything. Gloves, headbands in one zip lock bag, arm warmers, leg warmers in another, then shorts in another and so on. I am not sure it will work, but it is a plan.

I tried packing and unpacking and it seems easier. I will hopefully only have to handle the zip lock bags I need for that night and morning. As to having to haul this to the hotel room every night, after being on the bike for 8 hours, that is another thing.

But enough about packing. I will be glad if that is my main concern once I start riding.