65 miles ridden – 6000 feet climbed – temperature 20C (not trusting Garmin on this!!)

Today is supposedly one of the toughest days of the tour. We were warned about the first 5 miles and actuality matched our worst fears. The climb started approximately 2cm from the hotel gate and lasted all the way to the top of the Col.

Not only did we have the climb but it was quite chilly. Not only was it chilly but it then started raining. Not only were we climbing, cold and being rained on but at the edge of the tree line we entered the clouds over the summit. What a thrill, especially for Sue who just loves climbing. Still the view at the summit was its own reward:

The sweeping descent was bitterly cold and because the visibility was poor we went down on brakes so we had all the negatives of climbing with none of the positives of descending. Lovely.

First tea break was just off the side of the road in the cold wind under a gazebo. Also fun….

The weather improved slightly as we travelled to lunch at Marcenat. The sky did look a lot brighter and it was getting warmer as we got lower but the road to lunch was full of long climbs and many cows.

After lunch we had a pretty much constant descent – not fast but a gentle freewheel. Lots of interesting villages to see especially the dryer ones.

The final section involved a long climb up and over a Col before a long drop into the valley below St Flour. In the middle of nowhere we came upon a road closure which we assumed was a hole that made it impassable to cars but in this case the road really was blocked and we had to lift our bikes over large concrete blocks before the final ride into St Flour and our overnight stay at Hotel Les Planchettes – an old monastery which reminds us of what monks have to put up with!