Roadkill

Day 7 - Beuil to Vence

Dinner last night was a very unique affair, we went to a local guest house (where the other half of the group were staying) which was owned by an expat Brit, Trevor. Now, Trevor likes the odd glass or two of the booze and by the time we arrived at 7pm he was already totally slaughtered - but he was not just the proprietor, he was also the Barman, Chef and Waiter. We all sat around a big table as out Trevor repeatedly came with large trays of food and vegetables, swaying across the room from the kitchen and on spying an empty space on the table made a bee-line for it, depositing the tray down with a drunken slur of "theere yuuu goooo" before setting back off on a drunken walk back into the kitchen for the next one. He was also serving us beer that had clearly been watered down and was also well past its sell by date. He was offering at the special price of EUR 2 per glass, no doubt to try and get rid of it - the stuff was vile. Maybe you had to be there to experience the evening but I think Louise summed it up best "I think it may be a while before he gets his Michelin star...".

So onto today's ride, best labelled as "Jim Davidson's Career", subtitle "What goes up must come down". We had generally been climbing day-on-day all week and today we set off back down to Vence, descending around 1,000m over the course of the day. The first 14 miles were a 30mph blast down a gorge, then a 5 mile cruise along a valley, so almost 19 miles had passed without any real work being done. There were two ascents over firstly Col de St Raphael (876m) and lastly Col de Vence (970m). Craig the cruiser started at the bottom of Col de St Raphael just before me, had time to stop for smallish detour into the woods (Louise has banned me from saying any more than that) and still cruised past me just before the top. He also cruised past me going up both Ventoux and Bonette. Mustn't forget to mention Bob, he also went past me going up Ventoux, and he's 70...

Played a very childish and cruel game of roadkill today with Andy the Tosser - he had freewheeled past me on the initial descent and then when I saw him a bit later in the distance I decided it was time to have some so I hunted him down gradually over several miles on the gradual climb up the river valley and then blasted past him and roadkill #1 was in the bag. He went back past me later in the day whilst we had stopped to fill our drinks bottles & have a drink and I couldn't resist having another go, this time on the way up a 5 mile long hill just before Col de Vence - so again I hunted him down and then sat 10 metres behind him for a couple of miles, waiting to pick the right moment, whereupon he saw me coming and took the easy option and stopped mid-climb by the side of the road just as I passed. Roadkill #2 in the bag. Big high fives at the top with Simon - Chris the tour leader was also at the top in his van having passed us up the hill and had also worked out what was going on, congratulations were passed all round. Me man, me make roadkill out of Tossers. Trailing someone who is obviously slower and cruising along behind them for several miles is quite cruel as they try and go faster to try and stay ahead / get away but invariably they will (sooner or later) just do what Andy did and end up blowing up as they can't maintain the higher pace - childish and cruel it may be but so very very satisfying, particularly when they just pull over and stop.

Then all that was left was a 10 mile blast down into Vence and into my bright yellow bed for a snooze.

So, that's it for another year. So was it fun - yes hugely enjoyable with loads and loads of fantastic climbs and descents and amazing scenery. Only the ascent of Ventoux (shudder) marred the experience, and that was down to the weather. It was also incredibly tiring, 450 miles and 36 hours of pretty heavy going cycling in the last week. Very interesting to compare the overall average speed of the trip - 12.5mph - versus the 16 or 17 I normally do at home on a one-off ride - the significant difference no doubt being partially down to the terrain and partially the day-on-day fatigue.

So what next, hm, not sure. Bike Adventures do a tour called Raid Pyrenee which is an official cycle challenge, going over 28 Pyrenean cols within the space of 10 days. Next years is camping (me not do camping) so maybe in two years when they do the hotel version again. So long as my long suffering wife says OK of course...

Love to all

Stats for the day:

Mileage: 64.4

Time: 4hrs 20

Average: a downhill 14.8 mph

Max: 42mph.

14 miles down this lovely gorge at 30 mph, awesome: