Condom to Cahors
83 miles 4236 ft climbed
We were coming up the our tea stop which was perhaps a couple of miles away when Nick saw a cyclist turn round in front and start pedalling. Dangling a carrot like that is all it takes Nick to accelerate and try to catch that cyclist. Chris thought who’s Nick after as he quickly caught this cyclist and then ran alongside him. In fact he only found out who it was when Nick and Nigel turned into the car park next to the Mairie ! Unfortunately we don’t have a photo of Nigel’s brief escape onto two self propelled wheels and hope he doesn’t like it too much as we would lose our expert support driver.
Leaving the campsite at our standard time of 8.30 we went out over a lock and then into the town and had a Quick Look round its magnificent cathedral.
Running along a square out of town we saw the Tourist Information Office lady go in to open up and I was cheeky enough to ask if she would stamp our credencials, despite it being advertised not to open for another hour. She was only too happy to help. Just leaving town we saw the camper outside a patisserie so we dive bombed them to check out what we had for our coffee stop.
Swiftly turning off the main road there was a concern as the road turned into a muddy track. Although Chris had a minor stop all was well and the mud only was for 500m before it returned to tarmac as the last thing we wanted was a repeat of yesterday’s dramas.
The route then went up and down several river valleys passing small deserted towns and villages. Our favourite for this leg of the route was La Romieu which was an original pilgrim town in the Middle Ages and still boasted the original college and its cloister.
It was not warm for much of the day with showers around. Whilst we did cycle on wet roads a couple of times the water from above only gave the briefest of splatters – not enough to worry about or require rain jackets. The coffee stop was chilly but dry and we set off still on schedule for some more up a hill, down a hill and over the river riding.
The lunch stop was at Astaffort which appeared a poor town in need of money. Some fresh bread mated with yesterday’s excess bolognese went down well.
The next section was probably the most interesting and included the pretty village of Caudecoste and its wooden colonnade framed square.
Shortly after this we had a great off road section running alongside a canal for a few miles. The most extraordinary thing we saw were two fully bike pack laden chaps on unicycles going the other way. We just hoped they wouldn’t get a wobble on and fall in.
We also saw many orchards of plum and apples draped in anti bird netting as we are in the Pruneaux d’Agen DOP area.
Going through the town of Valence d’Agen where the market was closing and the tourist office closed, Dom decided to go in the fountain!
Coming up to the tea stop we then met Nigel on his bike and had a swift stop where Chris decided his bottom needed saving so stayed in the camper whist the other three of us continued up the river valley before enjoying a super 4 km descent towards Cahors. The only let down being that we then had a steep climb to avoid the main road and had to come into town another way.
Calling into Cahors to get our credencials stamped, the army were putting on some sort of parade as a helicopter landed in the town square and they appeared to be trying to devise a display in front of the top brass ad hoc whilst we were there for five minutes. I’m sure it will be fine but it looked like typical French organisation. Great idea but a bit last minute.com.
A short ride back to the campsite and a duck and chicory salad for dinner awaited so the cyclists as ever enjoyed a top evening.
As we had for once had a reasonably speedy day with fewer stops enjoying the quiet French roads we finished before 6 so there was time for extra cards where there were signs of improvement for Nick.
Only three days left to get to Le Puy and the weather forecast appears to be improving slightly.
Another good day where the final Pilgrimometer only got to 11 which was equal to Nick’s dog count.
I leave you with this picture of Chris being pinned down by the tips of the musketeers swords in Condom.
nbjtours 