Europe 2024

Today had everything you come to expect from the Tour de France (apart from the people running beside you waving signs) - quiet country roads, busier towns, fabulous scenery, lots of history, a spill and of course a f***ing mountain.
We woke up to heavy rain, which was not good. Aquitaine Bikes dropped our near new bikes off - still raining. Ran through the maps and info - still raining. The rain stopped for a minute so we were off. Two minutes in - started raining.
The ride to start with was lovely, riding past beautiful old houses and abandoned farm buildings. We rode through many beautiful little towns and stopped for lunch and an explore in Limeuil. I will do a separate post for this.
After lunch we heading off again to find the start of the mountain. There was a lot more pushing of the bike than riding, that's for sure. Were very relieved to come over the top, only to find another huge hill waiting. It was about then that I lost my sense of humour.
We were not quite sure what direction we were meant to be heading (pretty much every corner) so stopped suddenly. I stood up and went to unclip, and couldn't unclip due to some tweaking of my pedals and fell. Thought we may have an early withdrawal from the tour, but Graham has patched me up and we're all good to continue on tomorrow. There might be a bit of complaining.
Finally arrived at our BnB in Cadouin. It's a beautiful old three story building with stone walls and wooden beams. The owner is a chef and so we are eating here tonight. We are starving after today's ride.
Apparently tomorrow has an even bigger mountain than today. Give me strength.Läs mer

Limeuil - a beautiful medieval town built above the Dordogne River