Day 5 – Decize to Sarcey

A tale of more than two parts to be honest…

I can’t remember if I mentioned last nights hotel yesterday, but if not; it was weird, let’s just say that. They did however offer breakfast at 6:30 so I was hoping to get an early start. This didn’t happen unfortunately, took a fair amount of time getting myself sorted this morning and I was pretty reluctant to leave the warmth of my room. Once I did, I had one of the hardest hours I’ve had yet. My head was not in the right place and the little niggle I’ve been having in my knee really started to hurt.

I took a break after an hour, told myself to man the f**k up and got myself in a good mental state. The weather was cold but ok and the next two hours flew by.

The following 4 hours after that passed by in a fairly average/boring way. I stopped for lunch but that was pretty much all that broke up the monotonous scenery.

The final 50kms were a different story all together. I hit the first proper climb of the trip. Not too steep but around 20km long. The pain in my knee got even worse – I’m not sure what it is but hopefully it’s not serious. Anyway, it started snowing about half way up and by the top it had started to settle and the visibility had really closed in. The way down the other side was sketchy to say the least and by the bottom I was cycling through a substantial amount of snow. I don’t want to make this overly dramatic so I’ll cut to the chase.. I’m at the hotel, in one piece, so all is well.

As for tomorrow, hopefully I won’t be snowed in or I could be looking at an unscheduled rest day!

Distances and other stuff:

Distance: 110.79miles / 178.3km

Riding time: 7:46:38

Av. speed: 14.2mph / 22.9kph

P.S: any cyclists who were jealous of me when I set off… you have missed nothing so far