Bourg d’Oisans to Bristol Day 4, a set on Flickr. Day 4 Saulieu to Troyes – 155km
Todays ride looked fairly easy – the profile suggested it was all down hill to Troyes – so definitely a stage for the sprinters.
How wrong could I have been.
The first 40km to Avallon proved to be fairly pleasant and after a coffee stop in McDonalds and (finally) a grocery shop in a supermarket I set off for the next 110km.
What came next was 80km of non descript rolling hill farmland and a cold headwind. It hurt, I ran out of water while in the middle of nowhere and started cramping in my left calf. After what seemed like an eternity I emerged back into civilisation refilled my bidons and dropped down into Troyes – just in time for rush hour traffic.
My flat downhill stage ended up including 1356m of climbing which got me to thinking; how much climbing am I doing a day compared to my local climb Alpe d’Huez (1071m gain)
- Day 1 – 0.36
- Day 2 – 1.08
- Day 3 – 1.16
- Day 4 – 1.26
There is a pattern developing there.
So far I have ridden 532 km .
Good effort sir and I can certainly sympathise with a day spent riding into cold headwinds! Keep pushing, there will be easier days ahead, I’m sure (but not on the cobbles of the Paris Roubaix which sounds hideous. Not helping am I!) A curry is your reward on 10th April.
I will probably eat 2 curries !!. Looking forward to it