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)

Day 5 - Scorchio

Following on from the perfect day on day 4, day 5 started with a lovely breakfast prepared by Debs at Molante Farm in St-Pierre-de-Maillé. The sun was shining down on us as we headed out to roll through the beautiful French countryside. The temperature continued to rise throughout the day, hitting 33°C after lunch and staying that hot until the end of the ride… This meant that when we were sent on a diversion around Guéret (where we could actually see our hotel, only to be sent in the opposite direction!) the tar on the road had actually melted, which made cycling somewhat interesting. Eventually we decided to suck it up and sneak around the road works, where they had kindly left us a small patch of road!

Route details can be found here, we advise looking at them in a sauna to try and recreate the ride.

https://www.strava.com/activities/303763795 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/303768593 (David)

Day 4 – quite frankly, it was (relatively) easy!

After a couple of monster days, we were looking forward to a gentle 70 miles with very few hills. A little morning fog meant that we didn't quite have the perfect conditions, but apart from that, pretty much everything else went our way. Flying along at an average speed of 20 mph following the River Vienne, the sun came out and the miles flew by. We arrived at our beautiful gîte to find a swimming pool, incredibly accommodating hosts and an amazing pizzeria for dinner. All in all, a great day!

Comedy moment for the day was provided outside the café by a chap nearly falling out of the car as his friend tried to start it in gear. I think we managed to stifle our giggles… Kudos to Dave and Uncle Bazo for removing a stone in the brakes of the car which was making the strangest of noises.  Bikes serviced too. 

Route details can be found here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/303016718 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/303041596 (David)

Day 1 and the Grand Depart seems so long ago now.  One third down, and building momentum.  Thanks for the kind messages.  And happy birthday Edward!

Day 3 – Simon giving us all heart attacks!

Thankfully, the previous day’s wind had died down significantly and we had a gorgeous sunny morning start. Day 3 was always planned to be a reasonably long one (105 miles) and a bit of a diversion around Mayenne, meant that we expected it to be even longer still. But it did come as quite a large surprise after 40 miles when Simon announced that there was 85 miles to go. So heads down and some epic team cycling meant that we got to lunch feeling that we had at least taken a reasonable amount out of the total. It was at this point that we discovered that Simon had no clue how to use his GPS unit and we did not have to do 125 miles! Another minor diversion meant we cycled 112 miles, with temperatures hitting 31°C we needed to take on lots of fluid… unfortunately the only bottled water available at the supermarket was a lightly gassed number; which, when loaded onto bikes and shaken vigorously gave our legs a refreshing wash at unexpected times, or exploding bottle lids into our faces!

The evening was brightened up by the news that we’d hit £5,000 in donations; thank you all, you wonderful lot! Accommodation in Les Loges was generously provided by the Hull family, thank you!

Route details can be found here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/302453124 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/302667514 (David)

I realise it may seem that most of our time is spent in cafés, but I promise we spent quite a lot of time on the bikes!