September 22, 2021
Lannion to Morlaix
We did it! We conquered EuroVelo 4 from Mont St. Michel to Morlaix! We celebrated with a bottle of Bordeaux and a very heavy meal. I'm certain that, this time, we still ran a calorie deficit for the day. The climbs weren't as long, and often not too steep, but there were a lot of them today.
Thankfully the unplanned hotel stay helped us rest well. There was a little song and dance involved in repacking some of our panniers in the parking garage, but it all worked out fine and we departed at 9:45. As has been usual for this week, we saw some spectacular ocean views. There were far fewer resort towns on this segment, however, and we actually came very close to being deprived of lunch! We counted on fate to bring food our way, but in the end we had to scramble for a little epicerie that was closing at 12:30 for their lunch break. Hey, we need lunch too! It was a formidable struggle to crawl up the hill leading to the place, but we made it with a few minutes to spare.
It's a good thing we ate well, too, because just after lunch, Marc, a road cyclist, joined us, and started chatting with Sunyoung. It was good practice for her to have a conversation in French, and amazingly, she was able to do that and spin the pedals at the same time! Marc, on his endurance bike, pushed us to ride faster than normal, and surprisingly, we were somewhat up to the task. Because of this, we managed to make good time in the afternoon. I sent Marc a link to the journal, so if you're reading this, merci for the motivation!
This day stands out among the others on La Velomaritime by virtue of having some of the worst pavement, and some the worst dirt tracks I've ever witnessed. 80% of it was fine, but that other 20% was bone-shattering. We even had to walk a couple stretches:
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With a few kilometers to go, I announced to Sunyoung, "I've got maybe one more climb left in these legs, and that's it!" Well, we did have one more climb. Although my calves were burning the whole way, I think we could've gone a bit further if we had to. We rolled in to Morlaix right at 5:00, punching our timecard promptly despite the late start.
We found our little apartment for the next two days, and parked our bikes to start unpacking:
Our steeds, after having taken a beating today, are enjoying a well-deserved rest in the little courtyard:
Tomorrow we will take a day off to explore Morlaix. I'll report on that, and also muse a bit on what we've experienced so far and what lies ahead, in the next installment.
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Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 958 km (595 miles)
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