Day 12 – Barcelona, such a beautiful horizon!

Finally, we’d got to the border with Spain and a mere 112 miles down to Barcelona. The morning started in a very scummy border town (could have been third world) with some lengthy descents and some pretty easy riding down to Figueres and Girona. With not having any punctures until Day 11, it was always going to be a day of hissing, but three in the space of a few hundred metres was a little excessive! A detour after lunch meant that we had to take a slightly hillier route than planned out towards the coast, but with everyone focussed on the finish line it didn’t seem to affect us. Poor old Nick had managed to pick up a nasty cough and sore throat, which meant that sounded as though Barry White was cycling with us!

News of flight delays from the folks heading to Barcelona to meet us led to a Top Gear-esque race to Icaria beach. Inspired by the finish line, the final 30 miles were hammered hard with Dave & Simon even racing moped riders off of traffic lights as we headed through the streets of Barcelona. We made it to the beach to find Mummy Mould and Auntie Jack as well as Jen’s good friend Anni to greet us. Not long after we were swamped by some people who seemed to think that they’d had a tough journey to Barcelona!  It was great to see everyone and we'd certainly missed them loads. 

The day's ride was really tough, and went on for a long time (7 hrs 10 min of riding) but we realised as a team that we have become really strong riders.  Inspecting the climbing data we were surprised to see 5,400 ft of climbing, as it certainly didn't feel that much.  112 miles would have been daunting a fortnight ago (indeed, it was!) but this morning it was just another pleasant ride on the wrong side of the road!  It's amazing how an epic trip like this can change your perceptions. 

Some much appreciated beer & tapas on the beachfront, with some very relieved, tired, elated and proud cyclists heading off to our lovely casa for some well-earned sleep. As for the journey to get there… well that’s another story for another time! 

Route details can be found here: we recommend reading them whilst thinking about the patatas bravas that you have most definitely earnt…

https://www.strava.com/activities/308803874 (Sinéad)
https://www.strava.com/activities/308808027 (David)

Day 11 – Well, that was unpleasant!

If Day 10 had felt a little low key, then Day 11 definitely had the feel of the penultimate day (and our
last day of cycling in France). Motivation was a little hard to find as the clouds came in and we headed off from Agde. With a strong headwind and rain coming down, the morning’s coffee stop couldn’t come soon enough. And when it did come, we didn’t want to leave as the rain had a distinctly horizontal look to it!  So we didn't for quite some time.

Battling on through the conditions was made harder when Dave managed to get the 1st puncture of the trip, followed a few miles later by the 2nd! Excellent teamwork got him back cycling quickly and this enabled a change of scenery as we cycled through Perpignan. A quick stop in a lovely coffee shop to shelter from yet more rain gave us the energy we needed to make the final small climb up to the border with Spain. We were all delighted with the decision that we’d made the previous evening to do the extra 20 miles to help today's ride, as this had been 90 very tough miles today! 

We stayed in the beautiful town of Céret, where the only restaurant was a “poncy” one (according to Uncle Bazoit). Gladly, the service was wonderful, the wine fantastic and the food even better. Four tired cyclists went to bed to prepare themselves for the final assault… spurred on by a beautiful sangria made on our insistence.  We were all ready to finish this bad boy off now.

Route details can be found here; we recommend reading them whilst shivering after spending too long in a cold shower and then putting some wet clothes on afterwards…

https://www.strava.com/activities/308803778 (Sinéad)
https://www.strava.com/activities/308807915 (David)

Day 10

Day 10 – A bit of a cycling hangover!

Day 10 felt a little low key compared to the previous day; especially as we had the most delightful evening in Avingnon with the lovely Maryse and her freezing cold swimming pool! We like to think it was an attempt to be more like the pro cyclists and their post ride ice baths, but I doubt they spend as long getting in as the Mould brothers…

Anyway, back to the cycling. Day 10 had us heading to the seaside via some lovely cycling down country lanes a few cycle tracks. We got our first views of the Med at lunchtime, and we took full advantage with lunch in the sunshine by the yachts in La Grande Motte. We made a new friend as we headed out for the afternoon, Nick was no longer the senior statesman as we were taken down the coastal cycling tracks by a 60 year old who could put us all to shame. 

The afternoon was pretty difficult as we headed into a headwind coming off the sea, thankfully the minor incident with a metal plate being flicked at Simon from a police van wasn’t too serious and only a small amount of blood was spilt. The bogey coloured paintwork survived sadly.  We were all cheered up by some cycling-focused road signs encouraging us to bunnyhop the speed bumps as fast as possible.  By the time we arrived at Crossroads Hotel in Balurac we had decided to try and take a chunk out Day 11’s mileage and do the 20 miles to Agde that evening.  Might have been something to do with not wanting to hang around at that place. With Simon putting in a monstrous turn in the front and a rendition of Agadoo (with dance moves!), four tired cyclists were delighted to find Uncle Bazoit on the side of the road. Turns out that Uncle Bazoit was also pretty pleased to see us too, having already waved an earlier cyclist into the layby. Thankfully, we managed to get him away before the local police turned up and make it into town for a pizza.

Route details can be found here; we recommend reading them last thing at night, after an exhausting day with a large fan on full blast…

https://www.strava.com/activities/308803781 (Sinéad)
https://www.strava.com/activities/308807911 & https://www.strava.com/activities/308807868 (David)

Day 9 – The Big One!

We awoke bright and early on a sunny Sunday morning to set off up the ginormous mountain overshadowing the house. With it being a beautiful May morning, there were a few other cyclists out on the road doing the same thing. The team splintered off as we all developed our own rhythm to get ourselves up the hill. The awesome Uncle Bazoit (his new French name) was up and down, taking photos of us all gurning as we worked our way up the mountain. It was very hard work and just kept going – relentless as Filipe had warned us. 

We all made it up to the top to find an amazing view and smug sense of satisfaction. Things got even better as we headed down the mountain, flying past the other cyclists who hadn’t been quite so keen to get up early and get on the mountain!  That descent was ridiculous – hard earned and amazingly good fun.  Brakes were wearing out quickly, and we were knocking on the door of 50 mph. 

After some well-deserved lunch in Bedoin, we had a relatively short journey to the beautiful Avignon where a very cold swimming pool awaited some tired cyclists!

Route details can be found here; I’m really not sure how you can recreate the experience of immense pain, so maybe you could just bang your head against the wall for a bit and then jump out of a plane, followed by a bike ride along a big river.

https://www.strava.com/activities/306440150 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/306437981 (David)

Day 8 – 4 seasons in 1 day

We had learnt our lesson from the previous day and wrapped up in our thermal gear to head out into the mist and sleet. It was a chilly 3.5°C as we climbed nearly 1,000 ft in the 1^st 5 miles of the day. Things got better as we headed down a rather large hill, 1,000 m drop in 10 km… We all enjoyed it immensely! After a quick coffee at the bottom to warm ourselves up we headed down (not quite as steep, but yes, still down!) the valley towards Aubenas. Lunch was eaten outside in roughly 20°C sunshine and we headed out to do some of the hills, after a few of those with the temperature rising to 26°C it was decided that the thermals from the morning were no longer appropriate and a roadside costume change was in order. Summer gear on and local drivers traumatised, we continued on our merry way.

I think it’s fair to say that we benefited from a favourable tail wind, because as the roads flattened out we were still easily hitting speeds of 30 mph on the flat. This made our 113 mile trip seem a whole lot easier!  Speeds in excess of 40 mph were achievable on the flat with some effort. There were a fair number of cyclists coming off Mont Ventoux, heading in the opposite direction who didn’t seem quite so happy with the condition!  The shadow of Mont Ventoux and it’s legendary status in cycling history loomed large as we headed into Bedoin for the evening. We hit the pasta hard in preparation for the big day! 

Route details can be found here, we recommend viewing them initially in your winter thermals and then change into your summer shorts halfway through in public, whilst not giving a damn:

https://www.strava.com/activities/306439902 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/306436130 (David)

Day 7 - Il A Plu

The morning of Day 7 found us in a damp Issoire; we may have slightly underestimated just how chilly it was going to get as we climbed up to over 1,000 m! Fair to say that by the time we got to Siaugues-Saint-Romain we were tired, wet, cold and hungry. We piled into the only restaurant in town and had a quick change into dry clothes before tucking into an amazing lunch of chicken & lentils (a Le Puy delicacy)… Obviously, the plan was to power us the remaining hills in more than one way!

At the top of the hill, the rain was whipped into our faces so they stang, which was nice after a massive climb!  With the help a reasonably strong (mostly) tailwind we made it into our accommodation in Les Marconnes just before the rain came down to find the most wonderful hosts, Luc & Karen, who lit the fire and washed all our wet stuff for us before producing an incredible dinner of gratin and veal as well as some local fromage (mange tout, mange tout). We met up with the fifth member of our gang, Nick; whilst the wind and rain might have terrified him, the food and wine helped ease any worries!

The route details can be found here, we recommend sitting in a cold, windy shower, with someone slapping your legs whilst viewing to recreate the ride:

https://www.strava.com/activities/305033501 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/305035411 (David)

Day 6 – Brutal beast

Day 6 was always going to be a bit of a challenge, so we got ourselves out on the road nice and early. With it being a bank holiday in France, it meant that we didn’t see anyone else on the road until about 11.30… The day was just over 100 miles with over 2,000 m of climbing, thankfully we did get to do some downhills too, made even more fun by overtaking combine harvesters and people on tandems with small trailers behind them to give them extra momentum. The route might have been a bit shorter if we didn’t have gps units attempting to send us up dirt tracks only suitable for mountain bikes and goats.

The tough day meant that an afternoon stop in Nébouzat was perfect for fuelling us up with coffee and flapjacks for the last of the big ascents. Above all else, 2 things got us up the big hills:

1. The huge amount of money that you have all been donating (thank you!)
2.  The lovely text message that we got from Nick (who heads out here to join us tomorrow evening), half way up a beast of a hill, reminding us that what we’re doing is helping out people who really do need it

The song stuck in Nobby’s head for the entire day was, of course, The Climb by Miley Cyrus. Safe to say counselling is required for all concerned.

Route details can be found here, we advise sitting on a rock hard saddle for 7 hours before viewing to try and recreate the ride:

https://www.strava.com/activities/304420029 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/304418435 (David)