2009 Euro Tour -- Ride Day 22 — 18 July 2009 — 76230 Isneauville (Rouen) to 60120 Breteuil-sur-Noye

There are times when the wind is your friend.  Today, with the continuous threat of rain, we had a strong wind at our backs for the entire ride.  On one downhill, the combination of gravity and wind had us going at over 40 mph. The first two-thirds of the ride were on “yellow” roads.  Nice, but not the greatest.  The last third was on excellent “white” roads.

During the day, we passed from the Seine-Maritime Department, which is in the Haute-Normandie Region, to the Oise Department in the Picardie Region. Background: 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.comJeff