Blog from riders prospective:
Day 1
-set off cycling on the left side of the road out of roscoff.
-very hilly and rural, off bottom of a farm track got confused then joe ran in to jake. Gears nearly fixed joes wheel not quite straight.
Day2:
-red hot.
Got up way to late.
Proper hot. 20m/hr average for 25 m afternoon. Hard
Had the choice to either ride far south to a bridge, or take a short trip on duel carriage way, so did that instead.
There was a diversions and roadworks, so thought it safest to go flat out fast, averaged 25 on the flat. Jake hit a drain.
Met Emma for lunch at Mont at Michel and saw the castle.
Saw castle at distance, it looked close so did massive prelatron.
Free camping and beers.
Swim fajitas.
Day 3
Early start today!
Efficiency coming along but still taking far too long.
Jake farts a lot
Great roads, started off well rolling country side. Then came to a dual cartridge way. Instead of 2 miles on that, we took a 10 mile diversions. Road of bones. Jake fell off. James rode down a ditch.
After lunch in laval went to camp site. No one around so free camping at Mesley du Maine, and had a BBQ. Joe addicted to energy gel. Jake went for full on nudity in the Ladies showers and got caught.
Day 4 - ton day. A long flat day that we decided to put on an extra 15 miles to avoid Tours. This turned out to be a great plan, giving us a 50miles rest day on day 5 and the roads kept flat all day. We racked up the miles early by keeping to main roads for a while averaging near to 19 miles an hour until the first patisserie break. We then cruised down to the loir valley, which was really nice riding. We pulled off the main road and through French Henley-on-Thames and past some massive chateau. The only down side was the 15kt headwind for the last 10miles to lunch, in La Chartres sur la Loir. We got into full pelatron mode and made it there for lunch. After lunch it got real hot and we continued to tap out the miles to Amboise where we stayed in the middle of the river. Nice. Good achievement on day 4.
Day 5. Another flat day in the heat. We suffered from a lack of Cruisely for breakfast and had to have a few breaks in only a 50mile day. Ended up at Leveoux for the night in a small campsite. Generally a tough day without much banter on the bikes. Our rest day turned a bit full on with our first major mechanical. After getting to our destination for lunch we chilled out for a while drinking coffee then at 1800 joe discovered a very loose spoke on his front wheel. Panic. We had to then rush into action with a back up plan and drive 18km to chateauroux. After driving around some closed down bike shops at 1850 we found a motorbike/cycle shop that closed at1900. Winner. We still thought we would have to come back and get the wheel the next day but the guy was a wizard in there. Fixed the spoke and trued the wheel in 5mins. And another bonus, joe found a 1990s cycle jersey for 16euros. Turns out it's a French lottery jersey! Not so much of a rest day after all.
Day 6 not much to report. Flat and up hill after lunch. Levroux to Gouzon with lunch in La Chatre. Camped in Gouzon.
Day 7 and we started climbing. Gouzon to Clermont Ferrand via Manzat. We thought we might be getting into the massive central, then after 50miles if gentle climbs (by Devon standard, not London-poor jake) we saw a faint out line of a few peak hills on the horizon -day 8 could b hard.
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