First off, I had to pack my bike, which I hadn't even started yet and took two hours. Secondly, we had to have breakfast etc. and with everyone hanging around, that takes time and lots of visiting. Thirdly, we had no idea where we were going next/first, hadn't even discussed it.
Sandy had a loose idea that we'd head towards Porto, Portugal,which would mean hugging the north and west of Spain as we crossed the Pyrenees. I was interested in going to Barcelona .... sometime .... not necessarily at the beginning. Sandy looked at a route to Barcelona through Andora, which is quite long. A direct route is shorter. We played around with the map and eventually came up with sort-of a loose plan.
This is very tentative but we're on the way, now at Clermont-Ferrand. We have a booking for tonight at Barcelona.
The other thing that held us up getting out of StQ was laundry. Tempting to procrastinate, I still had wet stinky things. The hotel room smelled and that would be transferred to the car. Shab and Hamid had just come back from the coin-op and gave us an address. Ok, let's get this over with. My undies etc. went at the same time as did Sandy's. We're now set for at least a week.
The trip from StQ to CF was pretty easy, mostly Autoroute. 33 Euros later we left the Autoroute. The roads are good, but they should be for that kind of money. However, to put this in perspective, it would have been much more expensive had we traveled that distance on the 407 north of Toronto, but of course the 407 doesn't go that far.
So, one adventure completed, another beginning.
PBP was tough, however, Hamid made it. Titanium backbone and all, torn groin muscle and all, knee problems and all, he made it. It was very emotional. Jerry did not. It was so tough leaving him but there was nothing that we could do about his achilles issue that cropped up. We'll never know how he irritated it, but he couldn't even walk without almost crying out and he's no wimp.
I will do a full blog; there's a lot to tell. Kathy's success; Dick's close call; Vaune's now-finished business; Guy the Good Samaritan ... I'm not sure that I can remember it all but I'll do my best.
My completion time was 87:36, I think. Last time, I made it in 83:something. Why four hours slower ? Well, I spent more than that much time waiting for others in Controls and on the road, while they ate, while they slept, while they limped along. I'm not making excuses, not "blaming" others; I was doing what I wanted to do. It's about finishing, not about the finish time, and that was never in jeopardy.
I was also slower. I was talking to Bob and Jean, who are also on low carb and they too find that while they don't ever bonk, they don't have the same burn rate on climbing etc. Loss of strength is not quite the proper term but there is definitely an impact. I'll have to try adding in some carbs on the next long ride.
Anyway, there will be the long version of this story written sometime over the next few days. Today we're getting out of Dodge / France. We'll be back in France in a couple of weeks.
Onward !
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