Day 7 – Le Pouzin to Salon-de-Provence

I’ve come to the realisation that I’m going to have good days and bad days… but never easy days. Today was a good day though.

I set off eager to meet Dad at the half way mark and with a howling tailwind. I was being pushed along at a very decent pace. The only problem came when the road changed direction and I was smacked in the face by the wind. As I got past the 40mile mark, the road did just that and instead of cruising along, I was fighting to keep moving and keep the bike upright.

Long story short, I met my Dad and he took the rear panniers from me which had been acting as sails for the crosswinds. We had lunch and afterwards I forgot to restart my Garmin for a while which is why – if you follow me on Strava – there’s 20km missing.

The scenery was great today paired with the sunshine it could not have been more different from the rest of the week (although it was still cold). The second half of the ride passed by switching between motoring along with a tailwind and fighting for survival with a crosswind. I genuinely nearly got blown off the bike on numerous occasions which made for a tiring day and thankful that Dad had the panniers because I’m sure they’d have taken me over.

Was great to cycle past the monolith that is Mont Ventoux. It seemed to follow me for most the day and looked incredible in the sunlight. Dad suggested I take a detour and cycle up it – idiot. I’ve already been there, done that and won’t doing it again.

Since finishing today I’ve had my first ever massage in an attempt to ease my knee pain – which still hurt today. It was painful… but hopefully helpful. I have another booked for tomorrow evening and I think a rest day will be coming either on Sunday or Monday depending on how I feel.

I apologise for not replying to many emails, I hope to be able to catch up on them on my day off. I’ve been completely overwhelmed by the support and I can’t thank you all enough.

In summary: Physically, a demanding day. Mentally, not too bad
Stats are a bit off because I messed up:

Distance: 101miles / 162km (at least)
Riding Time: A bit over 5:50:00 (not sure)
Av. Speed: 17.1mph / 27.4kmh (at least)