May 25, 2019 Issoire to Roanne

Today was a really interesting and fun day.   Ken, Bob and I rolled out of the hotel at 8:00 am under heavily clouded skies.  The forecast was for temperatures of 11C and no wind in the morning with a 20% chance of rain.  However it really felt like rain as the humidity was close to 100% and it just felt clammy.  This didn’t last long as we were immediately challenged by a long sustained climb and any clamminess was replace by perspiration.
  

At the 10 kms mark we turned off the main road which wasn’t all that busy but the road we turned on to had no traffic at all.  I had been worried about the day as it was another big climb day with 2200 meters of climb for the fourth day in a row and although shorter at 111 kms it was still a big day.  There were two very large and very steep climbs. The first at 70 km on the route and it was 300 meters of 8-14%.  The second at 84.0 km was also 10-16%.  These two climbs constituted about 700 of the 2200.  I had set Agnes up with an away point at the base of the second climb in case we needed to sag.   

After we turned off it hit me why not meet Agnes and Judy for lunch at the base of the first spike and get Agnes to boost us the 14 kms up the two spikes.   Jump out at the top of the second spike and then have a 27 kms downhill into town.  I phoned Agnes and explained the plan, so she wheeled into Roanne and dropped the luggage off at the hotel and drove back to the little village of Chabreloche which was at base of the first spike.

Meanwhile Bob, Ken and I had about 60 kms to go and some serious climbing to do.  The little road we were on was really nicely wooded and took us up a narrow canyon to a main road. The main road was quite busy but fortunately we were only on it a few kms before we were on a secondary road with no traffic.  

When we got to the 55 km mark we needed a break but no coffee shops presented themselves so we sat on some steps and ate snacks we had picked up off the breakfast table this morning.  From the 55 kms mark it was all up hill and the first part was really steep.  We rolled into the city of Thiers and the route took us up this 12 km section of tight switch backs.  On the uphill side were these ancient old buildings and on the downhill side this deep gorge.  The climb was a lot of fun.  The views were spectacular. In the gorge was a rail line which had a lot of trestles and tunnels. The rail line would appear out of a tunnel cross a trestle and enter a second tunnel right below the road.  

When we got the town Agnes and Judy had found a local eatery.   Absolutely no English was spoken but Agnes had figured out that the Plat du Jour was some sort of beef and potatoes. It was about the only thing on the menu.  Sounds good bring it on.  As it turned out the Plat du Jour was a three course meal with the appetizer being this huge platter of ham, sausage, pate and dill pickles served with huge chunks of bagget. The main course was beef tips in gravy and mashed potatoes with cheese.   It was so delicious and such huge portions we could not finish it.  No one wanted the desert except me.  However I twisted the rubber arms and the desert turned out to be fresh strawberries which had been drizzled with a slightly sweet sauce.   What a meal.  This was the highlight of the day.

Bob and I waddled out the car and loaded our bikes as we were to be the first to go.  The car can only load two bikes at a time so Agnes would drop back and get Ken and Judy.  It only took a few minutes to get to the top of the second spike by car which would have taken us 3 hours by bike as we would have had to walk most of it.  Of course it was pouring rain at the top of the second spike but we pulled on our rain coats and were off on a downhill splash.  The rain only lasted about 8 kms before we got into bright sunshine.   
  

 We got to within 8 kms of the hotel and my rear tire was soft.  Bob said let’s just pump it.  I hate this as very seldom does that work.  Sure enough about 5 kms later it was real soft again.  We were right beside a park so I said I am changing it.  It turned out there was bad spot on the tire where I had skidded the tire and torn a hole about 1 cm across.  I pulled my spare tire out of my trunk and changed tire.  While I was changing tires Bob looks at his rear tire and it is below the wear bars as well.
  

The last three kms rolled by and we found Agnes waiting at the door.  Bob ran across the street to a bike shop and got a new tire.  What a fun day.  Great climbs, marvelous scenery, a really authentic local meal, a little car ride over some nasty spikes, and a downhill splash.

terry hot biker