June 30, 2023
Day 14: Friday 30 June 2023 - Nissan-lez-Ensérune to Canet-en-Roussillon
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route planned 93km https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42604399
An excellent nights sleep, probably the most comfortable bed and the best air-conditioning so far. Up in good time for a late breakfast, but my stomach was hurting again, and I quickly realised that I could not ride until I had had a lie down to settle it. I then left with Steve in the van and drove to the first coffee spot at 34 KM, feeling a lot better. We spotted massive amounts of wind blowing sideways across lagoons onto the roadway, and it looks quite dangerous to be frank.
At the coffee stop, the Norwegians kindly bought me a small piece of tart, which was washed down with two coffees, and nice to have a chance to relax a little bit on the road for once. Cathy, Dave, Denise and Jim all turned up and we pretty much immediately set off for the next stage of the ride. This was a combination of tiny little country lanes with very poor surface, wind varying in direction, interspersed with spells of a few hundred meters on the old RN9 which I had been on in the 70s before the motorway was built. There was a hard shoulder, but very gravelly, so we had to stay on the road with the risk of being blown in passing traffic by the side winds.
After about 15 KM, we passed through town where there was a substantial hill leaving to go ahead. I was in the lead, and when I got to the top of the 1 km Hill I turned around to find none of the others behind me. They had decided to stop for lunch, and I was quite happy to go on my own pace. This involves another couple of miles of hilly N9 action and I actually walk for a few hundred yards to avoid the wind blow me onto the carriageway.
Lovely descent down, brand-new tarmac to the coast of a mile or so, with a tailwind, at which point, I met up with Caroline, Julia, Paul, Geoff, and a German neurological researcher called Manuel that we had met the previous day. He was also cycling to Barcelona!
Lunch stop at Leucate was a bit of a shambles with the first restaurant, not even taking our drinks order after 35 minutes, and tables and chairs and parasols being upended by the wind, so we moved to a different restaurant who at least made an effort to speed things up, but were stopped for at least 1.5 hours. To be honest that was a good rest to have and great company.
From then, on, in spite of the strong wind it was mainly on the rear quarter, or even at some point, a tailwind, with lots of cycle paths and quiet roads. They were very supportive of my slightly slower speed and we took our time.
We took another decent break at a lovely beach, bar, protected from the wind, and several of the group had a quick swim.
From there, it was only 15 km, mainly wind assisted, to the hotel, although I did have some ongoing stomach pains towards the end, which required a rest stop. Again, it was great to have support of the team members.
The hotel is quite a nice modern out of town place, and Cathy, Dave and I went to the convenient to the next to a pizza place which was pretty good
Tomorrow we have a big climb over the border into Spain, and we are planning an early start try and get ahead of the game. The wind at Best looks like a rear 3/4 affair. But at least not a full on headwind.
Two more days to go, and I can rest for a couple of days!
Today's ride: 56 km (35 miles)
Total: 1,196 km (743 miles)
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