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Today it was a transition day for me. Riding from sweet potato and corn country back to vineyards. Getting closer to the departure point of the trip.
Woke up at 7.20. Quick shower, tent was pretty dry so I could start packing very early. Took my time. Slowly, enjoying the sunny morning.
I was out of the campsite at 9.20. I knew that the first bit of the route will be tricky on busy road. To my surprise I had a massive hard shoulder to myself. It was a proper cycle paths along the road. I got really quickly to Mont-de-Marsan and from there I took the route to Roquefort. The first 10 kilometres on the D932 were a bit scary. Loads of traffic to get to the motorway. After the 10km it was really nice to cycle on that road. Very little traffic and beautiful scenery of the Lands. Before Roquefort I took the wrong turn and cycled passing by the town without entering it. Shame but, with the kilometres I was going to have ahead I didn’t dare to go back.
Google maps was sending me all over the place. So I stuck with my map and went ahead. After passing through Captieux I decided to take the N524. Could have been another busy stretch but just a few moments in the road I found a cycle path to Bazas. Google didn’t even know that it was there. I checked couple of times and on Google maps I was in the middle of nowhere.
By the time I got to Bazas I had already 97km done. My destination was La Rèole. Again Google was sending me around the blocks. Again with the maps I found nice straight route from Bazas to La Rèole.
Again on this route I realised how much I enjoy going up and down the hills. The first 97km apart from a short steeper moment just on the outskirts of St-Sever was pretty much flat. Well. It was going up very slightly and I had a head wind as well. My legs couldn’t decide what to do so I was between gears all the time. Don’t want to kill my legs by making them push too hard or just kill them with number of strokes per minute.
Out of Bazas I was a happy bunny. Going up the hill was slow and the sun was relentless but I got to the top and then for the first time today I had a moment of freewheeling. I could stand on pedals and my bottom was very grateful for the moment of respite. Then there was the second uphill to Auros. Good 2-3km kilometres of ride up and up. In Auros I even took the picture of the name of the town to remind myself of the road in the future.
From there it was a nice up and down road to La Rèole. Found the campsite, washed my fear as the very strong sun was out. Set up the tent and I was up to do some shopping. As I went into the town I realised how beautiful it is. Tiny old roads with old houses. Proper medieval place. Will have to read up a bit tonight about the history of the place.
Sausages and salad for supper. By the way, my legs were black from the road today. I had to shampoo them twice to get rid of the muck.
Cycling Adventures 