The Rains Came

At only 37 km, today's ride should have been a real doddle. Under normal circumstances it would have been, but today was not normal. As I have been reminding the readers over and over again, we have not seen rain since we arrived in France about 6 weeks ago. Well that changed today.
The local weather experts had been predicting that it might rain today, and their predictions were not unfounded. When I looked out of my hotel window in Angers this morning, I was greeted by a really unfamiliar sight - wet roads. "Well I never", I was tempted to think. That was an unfamiliar challenge.
When you are on such a ride, there is no "Plan B" under these circumstances - you just have to buckle down and face the weather head on. On went our wet weather gear and we made our way unsteadily out of the large city of Angers. The addition of water to the streets had made them potentially slippery and dangerous, so we were very conscious of being cautious at every change of surface.
Once out of the city, I was happy to hand over navigational duties to David. He seems to enjoy the job, and I was certainly happy to sit back and follow. The drizzle was not heavy, but it was persistent, slowly working its way into gloves, shoes and cycling shorts. At least it was not cold, and at one stage we stopped to remove our jackets. They quickly went back on again went the rain started to fall more heavily.
Faced with the watery deluge and the fact that just about everything is closed on Mondays, we decided to skip morning tea and just ride straight through to Montjean, The rain kept us company for the entire distance, and I felt sorry for those in the other groups who were facing much longer rides today.
It was a relief to find that our rooms were ready when we arrived, so we were able to quickly check in and get changed. Since Montjean is such a small town, and since today was Monday, our only option for lunch was the tiny kebab shop around the corner from the hotel. The chicken burger, chips and 2 drinks was great value for 12 Euro and, so far, there have been no evil after effects.
This evening we have dinner in the hotel, so we don't have far to walk,

Editor's Note - With the wet weather, there were few pictures taken of the day's ride.Read more