Two Days of Rain; 265 Kilometres

Saulieu to Meursault

In some ways, the less said about today the better, but on the other hand it was quite a memorable part of our epic journey.  We left the Champagne region and moved into Burgundy.The weather for the first couple of hours was atrocious and a few people pulled the pin there when we were having morning coffee. The next hour and a half to lunch at the famous site of Bibracte (where a major battle between the Gauls and the Romans under Caesar) was just about as bad and another group stopped at that point. In the end, only 6 of our 19 punters and the two guides on the bikes rode all the way into Meursault, the charming village at the heart of the Meursault wine region and our port of call for the night.

During his reconnaissance of the route, this past winter Sam was looking forward to this day's riding most of all. He stopped to take a photo of this view ...

What a lovely, winding road! On this day we could barely see the road ahead but still enjoyed winding our way up the hill.

The vineyards here, spread across hillsides, are just gorgeous to look at and ride through ...

Sadly, these are not the conditions we experienced either through the day or when we arrived. (It would be good to come back and cycle the same route in fine conditions because the riding was sublime.) The hotel however was wonderful, with lovely spacious rooms, and we had an excellent commentary from Bruno on the wines of the region along with a little tasting, followed by an excellent dinner.

Here's an image showing our route for the day ...

We could have gone from A to B on a shorter, much more direct route but had it been fine this route would have probably been the best day's ride of the entire tour, taking in magnificent terrain, great scenery and the ancient battle site of Bibracte.

Meursault to Champagnole

With rain forecast for the entire day, the fact that all 19 riders fronted up with cycling kit on, ready to get on their bikes, is testament to the fortitude of this group.  We set out pretty much together but due to operator error with the Garmin, I pulled over just on the outskirts of Meursault to try to figure out what I was doing wrong. Di pulled over to keep me company. Still not able to sort things out, we set off relying on Di's Garmin to guide us as everyone else had now passed us. We managed to latch on the the Wagga Wagga quartet and rode along with them for some time.

By the time we arrived at the morning coffee stop we were ready for a rewarm and a hot chocolate. The first riders in had left but most of the rest were still there. Tony and Patrick were getting warm ...

... and Don arrived in his usual wet weather Caesarian battle dress of rain jacket, shorts and sandals ...

Unlike yesterday when she really suffered with the cold, after a hot drink Sharon was looking rosy-cheeked and ready for more action on the road ...

To avoid getting a cold shock when we got back on the bikes Di and I didn't linger, setting out alone. After about 10 kilometres of flat riding we found ourselves riding through lovely, short undulating hills. I shot this video of Di riding in front of me (you might want the sound off for this one) ...

Soon after we were riding through larger, more rolling hills and into the mountains of the Dura department, with its own attractive vineyards.  Here is a panorama of some of those vineyards (worth looking at in a bigger view) ...

... and a photo of Di from the same spot ...

Almost before we knew it we found ourselves ascending the wonderful climb up to Chateau-Chalon, the designated lunch stop for the day. The village is perched at the top of a hill. Richie had been there for quite a while and had endured worse weather than we'd been getting lower down on the flats. Kudos to Richie for his stoicism. It was a very scenic spot and as we were leaving the village I paused to take this panorama looking across to it and hills behind (again, it's worth looking at this in a bigger view)...

About 12 kilometres before our destination we crossed a bridge where I had to stop to record the river  in spate below ...

It didn't look like it was far off breaching its banks. All day we'd been crossing waterlogged fields and rivers and streams that were near to bursting. It was pretty clear evidence that it had been raining pretty steadily over at least a few days in this part of France.

We rolled along quietly the rest of the way into Champagnole where we were greeted by Bruno, who  was waiting as the punters arrived, directed us to the drying room where we parked our bikes and hung up our wet gear.  We were  immediately  reminded yet again of how well selected the hotels have been and how helpful the guides are.  Our room is spacious, the bed fantastic ... it sounds like dinner is going to feature local cuisine and be absolutely delicious. Tomorrow we will cross into Switzerland. Things are looking up.