Stage Distance: 190km
Total Distance: 2259km
Today started with a bus transfer, which though none of us were pleased with as always, did afford us some amazing morning sunrise vistas over the mist covered fields. Everyone was awake, snapping away trying to get good pictures of what we saw.
Today’s ride was significantly more lumpy (as Phil calls it) than the previous few days with five Cat 4 and two Cat 3 climbs. Though still not good at hills, I was surprised however at how much less these smaller category climbs frighten me now.
Today was hot though so was pleased to get it over with. None of us were quite as pleased however with the somewhat contorted route through Lyon to our accommodation. The final climb of the day was impractical to do so Phil tweaked the ending to end up at our hotel, though kept the general form of the route the same. What this ended up with was cycling into Lyon, then taking a hilly route round and back to the outskirts of the city to where our accommodation was. What accommodation it was too, all that was missing was ‘red coats’, so much did it remind me of the holiday blocks of Butlins in the late 70s and early 80s. With the temperature and humidity high, three to a room also didn’t lead to the most comfortable night, so much so that we slept with the door open all night and took our chances with the mosquitos.
[gcmap act="338565970" class="aligncenter"]