La Coucourde to Chuzelles

Sunday December 12, 2010

My campsite for the night in La Coucourde, France. Note that the tent was positioned purposefully to minimise it's resistance against the strong prevailing wind, which is coming from the direction the camera is facing in this photo. The road (the N7) is just off to the right.

After a long day yesterday, and a late night, I slept in until 11 am this morning, and it took me two hours to get going. It was still really windy, with a headwind again of course. 

It's hard to gauge the temperature from the photo, the sun is still shining, but it was actually 4 degrees Celsius here. This is taken on the N7, Les Blanches, between Saulce-sur-Rhône and Loriol-sur-Drôme, France.

Those clouds are looking very ominous! On the N7, Les Blanches, between Saulce-sur-Rhône and Loriol-sur-Drôme, France.

On the N7, Les Blanches, between Saulce-sur-Rhône and Loriol-sur-Drôme, France. 

My very low average speed during the day of 14.3 km/h attests to the strength of the constant headwind I had - I can jog at that speed, although probably not for eight hours and forty minutes.

It was another boring day of riding; at least the roads were quiet. I stopped in a town called Valenze for the usual lunch of sandwiches with salami, cheese and tomato. 

The park I stopped in for lunch. Note the park lamps are on as it's starting to get dark. In the Esplanade Champ de Mars, in Valence, France.

I was pretty happy just relaxing there for a while, but it started getting dark, so reluctantly I had to keep going.

I was about due for a puncture today, since I didn't have one yesterday, and sure enough as I rode along, I noticed my front tyre was slowly going flat (such lousy sub-standard tyres!) What a drag! I was nearby a town though, so I thought I'd try and keep it going until I found somewhere to eat, and then repair it after that. So after a few quick stops to pump more air into the tyre and keep it going, I stopped in a town called Saint-Rambert-d'Albon and since all the pizzeria's were closed by that time (about 9 pm when I got there), I went with a kebab instead, since that was about the only thing that was still open. I think it was the first kebab I've eaten on the trip so far in three months, and it was only €4.50, delicious! I don't know why I haven't been eating more kebabs before, they would be tastier and easier than the salami, cheese and tomato sandwiches I've been eating! I think anything would have been delicious at that point though, since I was so hungry.

A kebab for dinner. I had the newspaper to read too but it was all in French, so I just looked at the pictures. In Saint-Rambert-d'Albon, France.

Repairing yet another puncture, it's become quite a routine. In Saint-Rambert-d'Albon, France.

After fixing the puncture, I continued on and rode really late into the night, and ended up stopping at a sub-standard campsite because I couldn't find anything better, and I didn't have the energy to keep looking for anywhere better. The spot where I stopped seemed to be a truckies rest stop, there was one semi-trailer parked just nearby. I couldn't find a smooth patch of ground to pitch the tent, it was all lumpy, but I figured it didn't matter because I wasn't going to have any trouble sleeping anyway, when I finally laid me head down at 4:30 am.

The route for the day, La Coucourde to Chuzelles

Overview of my route from Rome so far.

Ride Stats:

Distance: 124 km
Average: 14.3 km/h
Maximum: 40.9 km/h
Time: 8:39:58

Total Ascent: 798 m

Total Descent: 623 m