View Day Eight - 72Km's in a larger map
“a tail wind component all day”
A tail wind to look forward to – hoo-bloody-ray!!! After all of the advice during our long planning phase to expect the prevailing winds to be up river at this time of the year – they finally seemed to have arrived!
I have to say at this time I have taken a small amount of stick from young “D” about the prevailing winds.
D still denies the tail wind we had today, he thought “we were going down hill all day”. It was a great ride!
Breakfast at 6:30, on the road at 7:00 and an easy ride out of Orleans on made and unmade bike paths, probably the warmest start we have had. 20 kilometers up before we knew it. A combination of parkland and old sand quarry's that are now recreational lakes. Lots of boating (man powered) and fishing going on, it was a very enjoyable and beautiful part of the days ride. We rode close to the river for most of the day.
Today is the first day we have come across anyone moving along at our pace, we had to hold D back as he was anxious to run them down. We had a small detour at this time, D&J navigated our way out of a small village back onto the levee bank of the river. After a couple of kilometers K pointed out that the river was running the wrong way!!! The nuclear power station that we were riding towards looked very similar to the one we rode passed 30 minutes ago! It was a good day, we found a short cut (a bit rough), back to the bike track (going in the right direction) and only did about 4 klms more than we need to.
We had a variety of road surfaces today, mostly provisional bike paths (sign posted but road surfaces not upgraded), smooth asphalted lanes, narrow (450 mm wide) tracks on top of the levee, rough stony track (about 2 klms), smooth well graded gravel and a short burst on a busy N road – the full range in the one day . We all felt great about the days ride, my legs were the best they had been for a few days, felt strong all day.
We arrived in Gien about midday – rooms not available until 2 PM! Did a partial change out of bike gear and headed downtown to find lunch. Having had lunch in Gien 4 years ago at a great brasserie, I knew exactly where to go. Failed to take into account the French holiday period – chef on hols, back in two weeks. We walked past a busy cafe that appealed and settled in. We all had the same fabulous salad and yet another rose'. K in particular liked the rose' and insisted we have another, D as usual put up little resistance! We talked some other punters into the same wine, they didn't drink all theirs so passed the unfinished bottle to us when they left. PHEW!
An afternoon rest and a walk about town. Gein is a very attractive city right on the Loire and a famous centre of ceramic manufacturing. Aperitif's and an excellent dinner at the hotel. We were ready for the last days ride, hoping the legs will stay strong for another 60 kilometers.
GREAT DAY
No comments:
Post a Comment