To Vienne - Keeping up with Rudolf - CycleBlaze

June 20, 2024

To Vienne

One of hardest days we have ever had

It’s so nice for us to be reunited with the family.  When Matthew wa 7 we took the family for a cycle tour on the Hauraki Rail Trail for their Xmas present.  It is so nice to be cycling with them again 13years later though we wish Carlotte and Jacob were here too

!3 years ago on the Hauraki Rail Trail
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Lyon main square
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Cruisers on the Rhone
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Across from our hotel. I do hope I dont have to cycle on a road with tram lines on
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This is we we ate last night
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I was worrying last night about a number of things   Firstly it said it was going to rain most of the day and secondly what our route would be like.  I knew it started doing complicated things in tunnels but in the end turned out to be the least of our worries.  YR said that there would be rain from 10 till 11 then be fine until around 2.  We decided the best thing to do was to leave at8.30 and hope for the best.  It proved to be a good decision and although we got a bit wet it was never too bad

Through town was fairly hairy but we managed OK. Then  we came to a small town and the others spotted a coffee place.  I didn’t see it and went on over a couple of bridges and I think that was when we lost the track. A man in a van  saw us and gave us some directions. We misunderstood them and set off on a small road that almost straight away became a terrible rocky track but we persisted

We came to the end pushed through the grass and this is what we found. It looked as if it was a way out
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We came onto a road and congratulated ourselves thinking the worse was over but it wasnt much worse was to come

It seemed so promising at first we followed the little road  through a tunnel under the motorway then over the railway line and saw a sign. Via Rhona Provisional Route (My hint for today never follow a sign like this)  a lovely little road led us up the steep hill into a tiny village but then it stopped and became a single track.  Surely this wouldn’t go on for long.  It did , it was steeply up and down hill. The rain had made it greasy and the track was deep.  I fell off, then Mark fell off twice. After that everyone walked. This meant of course someone had to keep coming back to push my bike as there was no way I could have.  It went on for 2 or 3 k and never has a road been so welcome to see.  There was absolutely no way Ken and I could have done it without our powerful supporters

It’s not quite so bad here
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It gets worse!!
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Put of order. The start of it
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After that life returned to normal. We crossed the motorway, railway and river again. We found some lunch then got onto a beautiful track that led us to Vienne and our hotel

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Lunch
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A car free bridge across to Vienne
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Across we go
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Today's ride: 36 km (22 miles)
Total: 614 km (381 miles)

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Scott AndersonI’m sorry this was such a tough day, and that you had the support you needed. Some of these branded routes have perplexing spots alright. A few years ago we rode a stretch of the Claudia Augusta south of Munich that I described as the most frightening road experience we’d ever had in Europe: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/europe2021/to-bad-aibling/
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6 months ago
Tricia GrahamYes I know that part exactly. We did it a few years ago but had been warned and got a shuttle over the very scary bitp
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6 months ago