September 10, 2018 Baron to Evreux

This morning was foggy and cold which was a marked difference from the weather we have had so far on this trip.  At the last minute I pulled my safety vest out of the luggage as it is quite warm and I was really glad that I did.  Even though were working pretty hard I felt that without the vest I would have been cold.  I had fingerless gloves and my hands were cold for the first 25 kms. 

The fog lasted all morning although it lifted and was not really ground fog.  However it was thick enough that you did not have a shadow.  The morning traffic was pretty busy as we were just north of Paris and there were a lot of commuters, and work trucks on their way to work.  Although we were on some secondary secondary roads I was still surprised by the traffic.  This lasted until about 9:30 am when it started to thin out. 

At the 60 mile mark Juerg, Ken and I stopped for coffee and were only there for about 10 minutes when Earnie pulled up.  We were quite surprised to see him as we had been speculating on where he was.  Earnie felt that he was too slow to ride with us and had insisted on riding by himself. Earnie didn’t join us but kept on riding.   

The country side was totally amazing and seeing the small villages close up was a great opportunity.  The route was considerably hillier than I had expected and I was taken totally off guard at how many times I was in my bottom gear. 

As we pulled in to the historic town of Magny-en-Vexin for lunch we caught up to Earnie who was headed into a shop for a Coke.  He had made a sandwich from some of the leftovers from last night’s supper so he didn’t hang around but rode on.  As today was Monday pretty much everything was closed. So the three of us went into a Middle East place where we got these marinated chicken sandwiches which were the best.  We sat in the middle of the town square and took in the atmosphere while we ate.  While we were eating the high fog cleared off and the sun came out and it turned from chilly to downright warm.

After lunch the hills never let up and we had the two largest hills of the day the first was out of the Seine River valley.  It was a big long climb of about 10 kms at close to 5%.  The second was out of the Eriwin river valley and while only about 4 kms it was much steeper.  As the fog had lifted we discovered that it was really the wind which had blown it away and we were now faced with a 15-25 kms/hr head wind. There is just nothing like a head wind to sap your energy levels and I was starting to feel pretty punk by the time we hit the 120 kms mark.  However we never found a single place to get a coke or anything else until we were only 2kms out from the hotel.  I stopped any way and got a 1.5 liter coke just to get out of the wind and off the bike for a few minutes. 

We followed the Garmin route and rolled into Evreux and straight into the hotel.  Agnes had checked in around 1:30 and she and Betsy and Sally had been out for lunch and exploring the city.  As we were putting our bikes in the storage room they rolled in.  We were surprised that Earnie was not in as we had not passed him after lunch.  As I was showering Earnie rolled in. He had been riding around the town looking for the hotel.   

We were off to supper at the place where Agnes, Betsy and Sally had been for lunch and it was excellent. 

Today’s route had been scheduled for 140.9 kms and 675 meters of climb. My Garmin recorded 141.3 kms and 981 meters of climb.  Close on mileage but way more climb which explains why I thought it was so hilly.

Tomorrow is 149.9 kms and 625 meters of climb.  These are the two biggest days on the tour by a long shot. Fortunately we have a double rest day in Banville as we are off to see the Normandy Beaches. 

Terry hot biker