We had a decent breakfast and there was a good coffee machine which always works for me, although I did incur the wrath and the death stare of a waitress as I placed my tray in the wrong place whilst doing the breakfast buffet walk.
The briefing was at 8.45am, it was a shorter ride today just 52 miles, at this point the rain had stopped and it was brightening up, we had a lovely rolling ride and we arrived at the Viaduc de Garabit, designed by Gustave Eiffel and built in 1884, it was lovely...I do like a bridge! The cycling after the viaduct was alright but was running next to the autoroute so not quite as scenic as usual.
We had a brief picnic lunch stop where we huddled under the gazebo eating Sam's sarnies, it had started to get a bit damp again at this point.
We headed off again and had some lovely ascents and descents through more scenic countryside. There was a long ascent up to the afternoon brew stop where Isabelle was, she had found a lovely spot for this with plenty of tree facilities!!
We then started on the route to Mende, and then came the rain, spikey rain that hurt my face. Unfortunately this sort of spoilt the descent into Mende as the roads were slippery and brakes never work to full effect in the wet, however it was still a good down if not as fast as it would have been in dry conditions!
This was the first time I have totally navigated myself through a finish town to our hotel, usually I am in a group but the final climb of the day separated us! I found the hotel, garaged the bike and then found the lovely hotel cat, I then had a wet wander around the historic town which was lovely.
https://www.strava.com/activities/364089911
Miles - 52
Ascent- 1370m
Rode with - Zach, Becky, Fran, Jen, Rhys, Bob, Dan
Cols - none...although I feel short changed about this today as there were big climbs!
Weather - A bit crap...20 degrees, some rain
Extra interesting bits - The Viaduc de Garabit was amazing, and the hotel cat was a pretty baby.
No comments:
Post a Comment