St Ybard 2008 Wednesday

Lizards everywhere today, it was their sort of day, hot, sunny and dry, hooray, very good for riding a bike too. Everyone was up and jumping into their kit at sparrow fart, tyres pumped up, charts consulted and we were off shortly after 10. Norman decided to have a solo ride west to Pompadour, a round trip of about 40kms, which must make this his highest weekly mileage for a year. Mick O’Brien sent him a congratulatory text message. Denbo busied himself around the estate all day doing good works, delivering barrels of rotten apples to the peasants, that sort of thing. Trevor, Paul, Martin and Mick set off north and after the first long steady climb out of the village towards junction 44 on the motorway they enjoyed the good surface and modest gradients of the old main road, now virtually free of traffic. At Masseret we detoured up into the village to show Martin the tower and the hotel where Mick is always saying he is going to take Sheila but never has. Then it was onto the D20, another beautifully surfaced main road without traffic, to Meilhards to the café-restaurant we found the other day for coffee and Diablo de Menthe. The owner recognized us, the family think they’ve recruited some more regulars. There are two perfectly good yellow road routes from here to Treignac but that was much too simple for Tracker Trev. Before we knew it we were off the beaten track again, up hill and down dale, through no-mans-land until we finally emerged north-east of Treignac. We descended to the big roundabout then did a few kilometres on the D940 to the Lac des Barriousses for an excellent lakeside snack lunch. Mick had had enough by then and since he had a feeling that the tour stage finish at Chateauroux might be young Mark Cavendish’s best chance of a stage win this year he took the main road back to Le Lonzac then crossed to Eyburie and down past the prison to Uzerche – the road he had raced along with Terry Pearce in the Tour of Correze 46 years ago! Sad bugger. Still it was all for a good cause. He was installed in front of the TV in The Bowler Hat bar with a beer in his hand with just 40kms to go to the stage finish. What a thrilling finale it was and the old chap had the feeling that he was influential in Cav’s fine win. Well done my old son!

After that exhausting afternoon Mick limped back up the hill home to arrive only a few minutes before the return of the All Stars who went straight for the water spring (see pic). The house was silent, Norman and Denbo were resting their eyelids for a few minutes – but not for much longer! The big hitters had headed north from the lunchtime lake into territory previously un-pedalled by the Clarencourt. As later described, this involved two climbs like White Downs only unsurfaced which led up to Lestards and finally up to the day’s target of Suc-au-Mey at 908 metres. Then it was back home via Chamboulive and Espartignac at a hell of a lick with several stops for Trevor to check their whereabouts. Now they are Barbying the duck for supper before the evening's Tour programme starts on the TV. They haven’t been told the stage result yet. Don’t miss it lads. There will be a few glasses quaffed tonight eh?

5hrs 27 mins, 65.9 miles, 12mph av, 3630 calories, 130 bpm av, cad 61, 5,200 metres climbed.