Day 21: Tour de France

Estancarbon

Today was a much easier day than Day 19’s climbing in the mountains. We rolled along short foothills and climbed gently over short distances. The highlight of the day was the stunning temperatures which peaked at 32 degrees as shown on the town temperature gauge that we biked through. Unfortunately, there were many punctures and mechanical problems however both of us were fortunate to escape unscathed from this. With the new members having joined the group the bunches were bigger. There were two detours taken by respective group members which added significant time for one person and several additional kms for several other group members. The towns are increasingly less populated and distinctive in that each has a church; bakery and often a chateaux. There were less cattle than in the Pyrenees and a continuation of many of the corn fields that had been passed earlier in the tour. It was sad to farewell Kiri at the beginning of the day in Lordes and an early 2pm finish at Estancarbon as we were in the first small group of cyclists for the day who chose to skip lunch given it was within 20 km of the final destination for the day. All up some more beautiful riding along rural country roads many of which were no wider than a goat’s track. Exciting to reach Estancarbon and sit down to watch the first day of the Tour de France on television – interestingly starting in the UK this year.