St Ybard 2008 Tuesday

We started with good news from Belgium. Barry reported that the Barclay Boys won the young rider jersey, they had a stage win and won the team prize in the 4-day. It’s good to know that we are not the only ones sacrificing our young bodies for the reputation of the nation. Poor old Mick O’Brien had to wait 4 hours to see a doctor at St Georges yesterday.

We awoke to another damp and chilly morning which dampened our ardour for the 30 mile bike ride to Suc-au-Mey which was on our menu for today. By 11 o’clock we had at least got our kit on, but decided to revert to the lunch menu at Le Dolmen at Espartignac, our favourite local restaurant. Trevor devised a “loop” via the Cascades du Berliet and Vigeois that would see us arrive at Espartignac at 1230. So it would have, if it hadn’t been for three punctures in 15 miles. The weather was improving all the while and Denbo rode Trevor’s mountain bike directly to lunch and had an hour to wait for us; not that he complained – much. The Big Eat started at 1.45 and finished at 3 o’clock veg soup, croque monsieur, steak and herbed chips, a massive cheese board, varied desserts, coffee and Vin de Pays rouge ad lib later. Paul wishes it to be recorded that he did not eat any meat and Martin that he only ate fruit. We rolled back into Uzerche along the old railway track where Norman and Den climbed straight back to HQ and the rest retired to the “Bowler ‘at” for a beer and to watch the tour’s TT on TV. A couple of hours later they clambered up out of the Vizere valley homewards. Trevor and Mick stopped for a nice talk with Gerard, the farmer, who assured us he would come tomorrow to mow the field and filled us in on the local wild life, He is the President of the local hunting society, a true man of the country and very interesting too. We had been very impressed yesterday with the numerous sightings we’d had of buzzards and we returned to the cottage to consult the dictionaries to verify that Gerard had been telling us about pointers, retrievers, the use of Airedale terriers to hunt foxes, wild boar, hares, rabbits, deer and Ardennais working horses. What a marvellous thing a bicycle is for getting around.

For Bryan Staples, 2hrs 25 mins, 25.1 miles, 10.5mph, 1435 calories, cad 57, av bpm 122. No metres of climbing recorded but, whatever it was, it was too much.