October 5 2018 Romilly-sur-Seine to Soissons

Today’s ride was one of the longest rides on the tour and had the most climb of any ride on the tour.  We had 134 kms and 1341 meters of climb.  We also had one of the major WW1 sites on the tour, that being the American Aisne Marne Cemetery and Belleau Woods Marine Memorial.

As Earnie wanted to spend extra time at Belleau Woods and so he elected to jump in the van and take a bump. The van was actually going to Chateau Thierry which is where the Marine Corp monument to the American soldiers who died in the third battle of the Marne.  The monument is kind of hard to reach by bicycle so it was not on the ride.  These sites were all at the 90 kms mark on the ride so they were quite a way into the ride.

Ken, Juerg and I set off at 7:50.  As we rode through Romilly-sur-Seine the downtown area was all closed off for a Saturday morning market but we zipped right through the barricades and past the vendors who were setting up their table. Some of whom shot us dirty looks but we had lots of miles to cover and never slowed down.

Once out on the highway we picked up a very decent tail wind and just flew down the road.  It was a pretty busy road which had a lot of very large dump trucks.   While they were very respectful and gave us lots of room the bow wave of air combined with the huge tail wind,and nearly knocked you off your bike.   The busy roads lasted from km 8 to 22 and then again from 31 to 60.  The only great thing about the road was most of it was out in the open and with the blasting tail wind we were really moving.  At one point I was in top gear of the bike and I looked down at the Garmin and saw I was doing 52kms/hr and hardly pedalling. 

The road from 22 to 31 was this tiny road through a dense forest which was barely 8 feet wide and all downhill.  The surface was absolutely perfect and we just flew down it.  We covered that section in just a few minutes. 

When we arrived at the Aisne Marne Cemetery at 1:00 pm we ran into Earnie who was just completing his visit.  He was pretty pumped as the local host at the visitor center was a Navy Seal and they had spent over an hour talking.  Earnie was on his way to the Belleau Woods Monument.  Ken, Juerg and I ate our lunch before we visited the cemetery and Earnie finished up and was on his way.  Ken Juerg and I spent about 1.75 hours visiting the American monuments and then we road down the road to visit the German cemetery.  The American cemetery had 2950 and covered 42.5 acres while the German cemetery had 8700 and covered less than an acre. However the Germans had been fighting at the Marne for four years and the Americans less than five months.

We still had 45 kms to go and a lot of hills to climb.  However our tail wind was still working for us and if anything was coming on even stronger.  The three of us were really flying along and even on the steepest of pitches I don’t thing I ever hit my granny gear and 90% of the time I was in the big ring of my triple.  You would hit the top of a large hill and the view would be absolutely stunning but I never took my hands off the handle bars to grab a picture.  Then it would be down a roller coaster though a tiny village at break neck speed.  Stop signs flashing past with someone yelling clear as though they actually looked.  What a ride.  We covered the 45 kms in under 2 hours including the ride through Soissons which as considerably slower.

There is really nothing like a howling tail wind to make you feel like your bike riding talents are wasted and you should be riding in the tour.  

Terry