By way of example in 2011 on an UK end to end ride with my wife we had planned a day leg in the Peak district of 85 kms and booked accommodation accordingly - to cut a long story short the 85 kms took us nearly 2 days to cover because of very difficult terrain and bad weather requiring us to play catch up for the next 4 days as we had also booked accommodation for the other legs
It was a similar experience today !
Without terrain maps our leg to Le Puy didn't look all that difficult and a quick calculation figured the distance to be between 80-90kms and easily achievable.
With the food thiefs scoring a good deal at breakfast and self securing supplies at the local bike shop we headed
straight into a gut busting 3-4 km climb with some of the steepest sections we've so far covered on tour !
While Ross cycled the hill the Aussie boys contributed by taking numerous photos - possible because we ended up walking most of it !
Some nice scenery followed although black clouds in the distance indicated we would most likely score some more rain in the afternoon !
We caught up with Ross who'd rode ahead to Satillieu taking on board some filling pasta from the local bread shop.
About to restart after having only covered 29 kms i noticed yet another slow leak puncture (my 6th on tour !) causing a further delay.
An inspection by Dr Henley revealed a broken nail buried deeply in the tyre - the same nail had been removed the day before (puncture 5) but it appears a section remained only causing a problem when the tube was fully inflated !
The climb after lunch was a 12 km grinding climb - climbing the length of the valley to a Col at 1055 metres at Lalouvesc a rise of 600 metres over the 12 kms causing H to become fat-i-gued !
Having equipped ourselves with warm clothes and a couple of cakes we set off for the expected descent now in rain !
The descent in fact went `upwards`100 meters over a couple of Kms before going up again150 metres causing us to think that this climb was never going to bloody end !
H in particular was suffering feeling at one point that he might pass out until he took on some food !
With Le Puy out of the question, us wet and the temperature now down to 10 c Ross rode ahead in search of accommodation while the Aussie boys followed
Finally we arrived at Saint Bonnet le Froid with Ross having secured a lovely 3 star hotel just out of town that had the feel of a ski hotel with its exceptionally warm rooms !
Dinner was boutique like, lovely tasting food in minute portions - Henley had to settle for left over sandwiches to satisfy his hunger !
We head off again to Le Puy tomorrow now only now 55 kms distant !
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