Today marks the start of my second week which looking at the data is light both in distance to be covered and the amount of ascent. Indeed I reach my destination today at 13:30. Oh, and yes I survived last night's storm.
There are many forms of cycling and many reasons to enjoy the activity. The thrilling rush of the downhills that often have a corner to navigate at the bottom. The high effort and pain of a climb and the rolling along the flat enjoying the scenery. I very nearly described today as decidedly average but then realised how much I enjoy all of the above and the freedom of the open roads and the feel of the pressure on your feet as you rotate the cranks. Pedalling is just such a smooth satisfying motion. Being so lost in hypnotic pedalling I didn't take any photos but here is my end point. I would later use the viaduct as a short cut to get from the campsite to the route.
And here is the view from the top of the viaduct with thanks to Ross for letting me know you can get up here though it reminds that increasingly I am not a fan of heights.
A couple cycling the same route stopped to say hello as they saw me on the roadside engrossed in the book France En Velo. He said they were doing the same route in 3 weeks with 65 miles a day. I am no mathemetician but that is 1,000 miles divided by 20 making 50 miles a day. Sounds like typical cyclist talk. Anyway, it was good of them to stop and chat. There was a brocante market and I stopped for lunch; a simple wrap and chips from a van. I covered brocante and other topuxs French and cycling in my notes on last year's tour here:
Today's campsite is pretty standard and reception on a Sunday doesn't open until 6pm so I pitch the tent so it can dry out and go for a wander round town where I'm approached by a man doing the same route and asking for help finding his hotel. I couldn't find it either but with local assistance he realised he had booked accommodation in a different town of the same name. The local spent a good amount of time getting him and his wife organised with local accommodation.
The post title tells you which town I am in but a number of people have asked where I am in France in terms they might understand. In simple terms I am in the Poitou-Charentes region but as that may not be recognisable I will be heading south, always south, to the Dordogne and will be there the day after tomorrow, Tuesday. I have already overheard some home counties accents and the Dordogne itself is a hotbed of Brits abroad so I expect to hear more in the coming days.
Some are also confused about yesterday's talk of camino routes, after all, you say, aren't they all in Spain? I am headed south from Poitiers and as I reach the Lot valley around Figeac (roughly east of Conques) will track east to Nice.
Clearly a slow news day. I have stumbled upon one of the EuroVelo routes near the campsite. This one is, maybe unsurprisingly, the pilgrims route that travels 5,600 km from Norway to Santiago in Spain.
Thinking about the 65-mile a day cyclist from earlier I've often thought that it is a particularly British thing to have a curious approach to competing such as competing when you're not competing. Or, not fully competing when are competing for your life. The best example comes from the time when pistols were introduced and took over from swords in duels. It was considered very bad form to practice your shooting in advance of a duel and a real no-no to actually take aim when conducting yourself in a dual. If you have ever watched the film Chariots of Fire you might remember one character being chastised by his Oxford Don for (quite legitimately) using a professional coach at a time when the Olympics was only open to the amateur sports person; the stuffy Dons changed their viewpoint when he won of course. We can see this notion of sportsmanship and the quirks it spawns when we look at the greatest race in cycling, the Tour de France. If the leader (the yellow Jersey) crashes then usually the peloton will maintain its pace, rather than making use of the leader's misfortune to launch an attack. Once the yellow jersey is back in the race the normal rules of racing can resume. This was highlighted in around 2020 when the Movistar team did launch an attack when the leader was down. Even though this was not an infringement of any formal rule, after the race they felt obliged to justify their attack by presenting evidence that it was always their plan to attack at that point in the race.
