Le Tour de Med ! : Day 23 - Lalinde Dordogne 99+4 kms

It might have been expected that the boys (Rick and Noel) would have had an early morning conference about the calibration of their map reading devices but not in the middle of a roundabout with peak hour morning traffic trying to get round them as they "debated" about which of the 7 available exits we should be taking !

Still the drivers were courteous enough to allow our 2 key people to finally agree on a direction and we were soon off on an foggy / overcast morning with conditions threatening and peak hour traffic now on the move !

We pulled off the road for an early mornjng sqiz at a nearby abbey before rejoining the road and making our way back on to the Roger Laperbie bike path for a lovely 10km ride including a 200 metre section of rail tunnel complete with sensor lights that only switched on when you rode into the tunnel.

We'd no sooner exited this beautiful trail to go on road when we noticed that Noel was missing.

Kev riding back found him on the side of the road repairing puncture no.2 on tour more than a little worried thinking that we'd ridden off onto the distance without him. His fears weren't allayed much when Rick told him that his phone was on silent, while I said that mine was buried in my pannier somewhere with Henley also indicating that his smoke signalling equipment had been left behind !

Puncture no.2 !

With the puncture repaired we soon enjoyed some beautiful early views of the Dordogne region with its autumn colors and vineyards dominating the landscape.

Crossing the mighty Dordogne itself was a moment for celebration as we took on coffee before following the river as best as we could do including our usual foray up one way roads the wrong way!

The dream ride ended when we jumped on to the main road to Bergerac with its high speed traffic and numerous trucks including B-doubles. While motorists generally gave us plenty of room they often did so crossing the white traffic line causing us to hold our collective breaths as oncoming traffic bore down on them !

One of the days more challenging crossings !

After a good high speed cycle spell we lunched at a lovely town (name forgotten) where our main individual challenges were initially to find a boulangerie, ask for a baquette type in French then work out how to get out of the towns automated toilet (it's complex buttons ranged from locking the toilet door to I suspect launching an array of nuclear weapons !)

Lunch time !

Leaving town we abused a couple of motorists for not giving way then jumped back on to our busy main road riding to the centre of Bergerac.

At one point we lost H off our Peleton and unlike Noel who we noticed missing immediately with H we had no idea he was missing until we'd stopped at a corner (not that we didn't care about H it's just that Noel had the coffee kitty money with him !)

After heading back 400 metres we finally found him coming the other way having stopped to clear a wire that had become entangled in his gearing !

Stopping in the middle of Bergerac for coffee our conversation subjects included Australian politics (Rick), the Bulldogs 2018 draft list (guess who) and why you need a masters degree in rocket engineering to work out who owes whom regarding our accommodation costs (Noel!)

Our exit from Bergerac provided some magic views of beautiful half timbered buildings and the stunning mirror like surface of the Dordogne.

Lovely Bergerac

The boys looking for a freebie !

Cycling to Lalinde was equally picturesque along with the Lalinde canal lined with beautifully coloured autumn trees and according to Henley, some of his body parts which fell off on the bone jarring (as described by him) surface !

Lalinde Canal

We were pretty elated on arrival after a long distance day until Rick told us that we still had 2 kms to go with most of our predicted 600 metres of climbing still yet to achieve !

Sure enough the short ride included a couple of very steep roads but we eventually road up to our accommodation beautifully located on an estate where we quickly offloaded and showered knowing that our dinner was still waiting for us back down in Lalinde ... yep those 2 steep kms we'd just ridden up !

With Noel saying that he was coming down with the Ebola plague and unable to move and with Henley starting to think about using the same excuse, Rick and I quickly galvanised forces and headed off to the towns local boulangerie while also adding supplies at the local supermarket for our quickly fading colleague (Noel)

Heading back up the steep hill sans panniers was much easier the 2nd time round and it wasn't long before Henley was spoon feeding a mix of Youghurt, Cheese, Banana and a baguette coated with butter and strawberry jam (yummy) to our fast recovering patient !