The whole experience, at nearly three hours, was at once an aural blast, a near relentless bucking-bronco ride of non-stop activity, and a demonstration of how music and text really can, in the right hands, come together as one.
While the actual pitched battle was short, the French infantry, under Marshal Marmont, and most of all the cavalry, under General Emmanuel de Grouchy, launched a relentless pursuit that rode down the enemy.
The climbs demand low ratios and high effort and, for long periods of the ride, are relentless.
People willing to part with good money who were also willing to accept low-slung seats, a hot cockpit, relentless noise and the ride of a Radio Flyer wagon were a self-selecting lot, indeed.
One piece contains a "massive indulgence"; the music is "relentless -- a wild ride...that leaves you feeling like you're driving down a road, hearing people's porch chimes shatter to the ground as you speed past".
I usually temper my challenges -- I have done lots of cycling but always with a day off for volunteering to recover from 50-60 miles -- this ride was relentless: "The 2014 route will see participants pedaling 55 to 62 miles each day (with daily options for increased mileage) and climb more than 23,000 feet in cumulative elevation".
The second season of Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen's rigorously lo-fi comedy "Portlandia" arrives on IFC on Friday night riding a relentless wave of hype.
This 2006 ballet rides the (sometimes) relentless dynamic of its Michael Nyman score with unflagging invention, but the best of its choreography comes charged with a mysterious power of its own.
And oxygen, I have discovered, is a good thing to have in abundance when riding a bicycle up a relentless incline at high altitude.
