Champ du Boult Ride 3

The word for today was "iffy" again. Weather forecasting here has been extremely accurate. If it says it will rain, it rains. If it says rain is unlikely, it has not rained. Today's forecast was cloudy, but no rain. So our hopes were high that we would get out early for our planned ride through the local countryside. 

However we woke up to a thick fog and damp roads from the overnight rain that stopped only a few hours before. Okay, we would wait until 10 AM before venturing out. 10 came and went but conditions still seemed "iffy". We were all dressed and ready to ride, took the bikes outside, looked around, then decided another pot of coffee and some more logs on the fire was a better choice. By 11:30 we were overloaded with coffee and antsy to get started, so conditions be damned off we went.  

We headed up the road to the local town and were surprised that the road was damp, but not wet. With all our riding clothes and initial up hill we warmed up quickly. 

Our first town along the route. I reversed the course direction which would get us past the Gathemo patisserie and heading to our coffee stop earlier in the ride.

Our hosts told us that the local shop in town was closed on Mondays, but failed to mention that the one in the next town was also closed. Actually we did not ask. 

With no pastries we could at least stop for coffee and the biscuits that come with it. 

Regardless of weather conditions Kim can not resist photographing all the funky stuff people display on their front lawns. 

This is especially true when it is cycling related. 

Well we arrived at our "coffee town" and guess what, the Tabac in that town was also closed. While Tabac translates to tobacco it doubles as a "watering hole" for the locals. 

No pastries, no coffee, what a bummer. 

We pushed on realizing that it was already lunch time and failed to bring anything to eat. Since we did not expect to return home until around 4 we could always have snacked on the biscuits we collected over the four weeks of coffee stops. 

Today's ride took us up, over, and around this hilly terrain so vehicle traffic was minimal but sharing the road with these farming behemoths was daunting. This guy was stopped when we rode by, but we passed a number of these tractors passing in the other direction on frightfully narrow roads. 

The tires on some of the harvesters seem enormous especially when passing no more than a meter away. One slip and we could be "pavement pizza". 

Today's ride was 37 miles long (not the longest) but required over 3100 feet of climbing (most so far). Fortunately the grades were humanly possible topping out at round 9%. Had we done the course in the original direction we would have encountered a 12.2% grade which was more fun as a downhill. 

The longest climb and most elevation gain came at the end of the ride as we were cruising (well maybe grinding) back to town. 

Kim looks happy. Wonder why. 

because we are turning into our driveway and the end of the ride. 

All in all it was a pleasant ride. Not the best of the trip, but with no rain, a bit of sun, few wrong turns, and warm enough to shed most of our clothes it was better than expected.

Tomorrow is a "rain day" according to predictions. Hopefully we can get in one more ride on Wednesday if we drive to a location with a dry forecast. Who knows.