May 23, 2019 Cahors to Aurillac

I am too tired to write a lot to day as it was the longest day of the tour at 140 kms an 2300 meters of climb.  So just a few highlights and a few pictures. 

We started off along the river valley and the first climb of the day followed a natural draw in the the valley.  It was about 12 kms and 250 meters of climb.  Some gorgeous views along the way however as it was right into the sun I never got any pictures.  My Surly Long Haul Trucker is ideally suited to this as I have a triple crank and an 11-34 rear cassette. 

Lots of lefts and rights down these wooded lanes all of which had almost zero traffic it was absolutely stunning.  Through several tiny little villages and in one villages all the roads were torn up as they rebuilding all the streets in town.  The Garmin route didn’t exist anymore but we knew we were headed east so we just picked one and a few kilometers we picked up the route.

The second big climb of the day was about 350 meters and was pretty much in the open.  As it had gotten quite warm is was a sweat fest.  There was a tremendous down hill right after the summit and then we were at the last major climb of the day was 550 meters. It was up this deeply incised creek which was flowing in the valley.  It was really steep in several section and I had to stop and catch my breath.  Then even after a person got to the top there were a lot of smaller ups and downs .  The views at the top were just extraordinary and I stopped to take a couple of panoramas.

I had a lot of fun barking at sheep today.  As they were bolting away you could almost see the little thought balloons coming out of them. “Génial! Maintenant, les chiens ont des vélos.”

Terry