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)
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