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<div class="MsoNormal">Although not a long ride distance-wise, the heat, headwind and acute slope of the climbs made this probably the most physically challenging ride so far.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">We had a very much needed picnic lunch in a park just as we entered Roucy.<span> </span>From there, it was another climb like that in St Gobain, except longer and a little steeper.<span> </span>Just at the base of one particularly steep section of the climb, we stopped to get water at a home.<span> </span>That allowed us to be as heavy as possible for the climb as well as made our legs feel that much more the lactic acid as we pedaled immediately into the climb from the home’s driveway.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">Today and yesterday I’ve seen how much stronger Helen has become.<span> </span>She’s riding, and especially climbing, much faster using harder gears than previously.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">With the exception of the roads once we got into the Reims area, the route was all excellent road…just a lot of it challengingly steep.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">As we rode along D28, a farmer operating a huge harvesting machine on what we assumed was a field of wheat did us a very much appreciated act of kindness.<span> </span>As we very slowly approached him (uphill with a strong oblique cross-wind), there was a heavy cloud of dust and whatnot blowing obliquely toward us across and along the road from the work he was doing.<span> </span>It was so thick we couldn’t see through it.<span> </span>Very kindly, the man stopped his machine well before we were at the dust cloud so we were only hit by some flying loose wheat and no heavy dust.</div>
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</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">During the day, we passed from the Aisne Department in the Picardie Region to the Marne Department in the Champagne-Ardenne Region. </span></div>
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My wife and I have been doing self-supported tours in Western Europe (a majority in France) since 1993. This series of rides covers our 2009 4.5 month route through parts of France, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and then back to France. Our beginning and ending point is near Chadurie (south of Angouleme) where our friends have a farm with Gites and Chambres d'Hotes.
We rode our Dawes touring bicycles purchased in 1993 heavily loaded with 700Cx32 tires. All of our riding was on paved roads, mostly with very little traffic. Pretty much the only unpaved sections were some bicycle paths in Germany and Austria. Sadly, that wasn't so great as Helen fell a number of times on the unpaved paths. Fortunately, though, no serious injury.
If any questions, feel free to email me at jeffkadet@netdiving.com
Jeff
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