Il pleut comme vache qui pisse

l pleut comme vache qui pisse!!

Well, just as forecast, the weather was as good as it said it would be….shite! I woke to a very wet tent having got completely waterlogged over night (tho I slept very well apart from that bloody wasp sting). It was a mad panic to get things put away dry, but I gave up in the end when I discovered that I had forgotten to put away my winter rain cycling jacket I had hung on a nearly tree…to dry! It was soaking ….nothing says ‘let’s go cycling today’ than putting on wet cycling gear! Not that it made a blind bit of difference as within 2 minutes I was soaked anyway. It wasn’t ‘cats and dogs’ rain, but a constant fine rain which gets in to your clothes in minutes. In Ireland, they’d say ‘tis a grand soft day’! Feck ‘soft’ it was bloody wet…full stop! But it was actually quite warm -around 14 or so- so whilst I was pretty soaked I was never really cold. That might have something to do with the heartbreaker hills in Brittany ….short, 12-15% ers that sap you of energy but keep you warm! On a few I was in my granny gear and struggling to hold the front of the bike down. But even these stinkers gave way eventually to more reasonable roads. My ‘Maps’ set on ‘cycle’ mode delivered again…delivered me to dirt tracks, footpaths and deviations which took me through every small hamlet and god forsaken hole on a mistaken belief that cyclist love nothing more that adding countless kilometres to their trip by sidetracking you in to these lost worlds ….via goat tracks, farm yards and orchards! But…don’t tell Maps, but it was actually very interesting and did keep me away from…well, from civilisation actually 🤣🤣!

I eventually made it to St Briuec (too many vowels to know which order they come in!) to find that the owner of the Air BnB I was due to stay in had forgotten to put the keys in this state of the art digital key holder! After sitting around in wet gear trying to think what to do (as I don’t have wifi) I thought ‘ I’ll just check under the door mat’ 🤣🤣….yep. All that wanky digital thingy and the keys were under the mat!

Breezing along in Brittany!

I had a shite night….the wasp sting was so irritating I couldn’t sleep. At around 4, having tried everything including putting my hand in the freezer, I remembered I have anti histamines in my magic medical kit! That helped!

I set off before sun rise here (like the French it arises late here – 8:32!), and was treated to a lovely sunrise. Today was one of those days where you smile at the joy of riding. The roads were exceptional, the landscape stunning, and when Maps took me off road it did me a real favour-15+ kms of dirt track cycle path which is stunning. Apart from having to learn how to ride over the fallen conkers and acorns- that was like riding on marbles or ice but I worked it out quick enough – you just belt over the top of them as fast as you can!!

Todays ride was 112k of glorious riding. I arrived early in Rennes, which couldn’t have been more of a contrast to the preceding 112k – a concrete jungle devoid of any character (though I’m staying on the outskirts so the city might be better…I’ll pass through tomorrow so I’ll let ye know!!)