Day 6: The (metaphorical) ascent

Day 5 was labeled "a bad day" by me (Sergio): fell multiple times, reopened my wounds and lost confidence on the clipping pedals.

How did day 6 start? With an extra dose of exactly that. Within the first second of riding my bike, a still sleepy me fell... again... on my bad knee. And it hurt. A lot. So much for trying to start a day on a different note.

But it changed, oh how did it change. Multiple climbs were just what I needed, alongside my 2 blood-bonded companions, we climbed and climbed. And we even told stories while we did it, including my former flat mates' drama (hope they don't read this). Contrary to the norm, ascents were for sharing, descents for speeding and staying silent.

The day just got better and better, meeting friendly fellow bikers at the one-horse town fountain, taking pictures on a bridge until an unidentified animal screech frightened us away, more ascents - more stories, you name it.

We did arrive to a few points that threatened the day to take a negative turn. After a considerable descent, the way was shut due to risk of fires. We hesitated, as moving forward would only make us travel 2 km in the perilous direction while going back would entail about 6 times that, including backtracking upwards the slope we had just gone down. We went for safety but that just added to the experience. We then had lunch with "a view" (see pic below), I learnesd how to change a tire myself (taking the positives from a second day straight flat tire).

But the spirits were too high, even to the point we took a longer road just to go through Cannes' fancy beaches and enjoy cote d'azur's breeze. Just like that, we finally (120 km to be precise) arrived to a beautiful camping with amazing hosts, we decided to take a well deserved swim in the ocean and end our day going through a 6-8 people serving of chile con carne (spoiler alert: we were not satisfied). 

All in all, a fantastic day, we even high fived at the end of it to show our satisfaction. Few times have starting a day on such a low note have taken such a twist (including my personal record). Happiness and smiles all around as I'm writing this before taking a well deserved sleep.

Day 5: when everything goes slightly off

Day 5 started with great optimism. The road we took during day 4 had been great, the campsite we stayed at was nice and we had decided to wake up even earlier to save some time. 

 Our first 50 km or so went quite well even though we had to heavily interpret both the EU's idea of a cycling road and Google maps. Here I need to explain that, theoretically, the EU has decided to create some cycling routes, one of which should be capable of getting you from Spain to Greece. If you ever see this advertised, beware. The best thing I can say about this is that it sometimes uses departmental roads, which are quite good for cycling at a good pace, providing you don't mind the cars. If the EU bike road ever recommends going off the departmental (D) roads, take a hard look at your day and see if you have a couple of hours to spend negotiating either incomplete roads or useless detours and climbs.

So, first 50 km go by and we're feeling quite happy with ourselves, stopping in a small but quite nice town called Varages for a quick croissant and pain au chocolat (or chocolatine) and a water refill. However, just as we start to leave, we find out that Sergio's tire is now flat. We stop at a park and attempt to repair it for a while (until we are successful... of course) and Franco starts calling some campsites to see if they're open and have room. As soon as we get the tire installed, Franco confirms there's a campsite available but they're specifically asking for a pass sanitaire, which one of us doesn't have (Sergio, it's Sergio).

This requires us to find a place where we can get him tested. Thus, we continue and start looking out for pharmacies in the next town's. When we finally find one (in a town called Barjols), they tell us they are just closing for lunch and to come back later. We decide to make the best of our circumstances and figure we'll have lunch here in Barjols, since they claim to have, among other attractions, a mushroom shaped fountain. One thing about this town, city center is at the bottom of the hill and the pharmacy is at the top. The hill is also very steep and the temperature is now about 34°C. You probably can figure out the rest but let's just say this was the day we climbed the most.

Some time after, test completed (passing grade) we head up to our camping. I say up because we really had to climb a lot at this stage. This you can also try to imagine but it will be difficult, you really had to be there. After much climbing, through nice scenery mind you, we reach the descent and limp to our campsite.

Scenery wise, I'd really like to make justice to the sights. We crossed wooded hills, crossed channels and small rivers and passed through extremely beautiful towns perched in the aforementioned hills. If you're lucky, there will be some pictures of some of these sights below. Otherwise, you'll have to picture it in your mind from my not remotely competent description and wait until we can upload some pictures.

Day 4: good day

A good day starts always with darkness at 5 am somewhere in the middle of nowhere.

It follows with a regular breakfast and some flexing, as part as a 2-hour ceremony.

In a good day, the morning is spent doing 80 kilometers while eating croissant, cereal bars and drinking flavored water. Also, (almost) nobody falls from the bicycle during a good day.

A good day is slightly less hot than other days. And, sometimes, the wind actually helps. 

There are many things that can still go wrong during a good day. Like for example running out of water in some town at 14h with 30 C. Or calling 5 campings and getting excuses like "there is no space" or "do you realize this is a nudist camping?". Or even some chain deciding to go wild. 

Still, a good day means that many kilometers are done (sometimes in the wrong direction), that the final camping, who does accept us and is very very far, is super nice and welcoming. 

A good day ends with good food (galette bretonne + half a kilo of pasta) and ends early so we can wake up at 4:45 and start what can then become a great day.