Day Four

Guipry to Sablé sur Sarthe

84 miles 3634 ft climbed

Nick & I had just stopped next to a horse racing track which was filling up with spectators when Nigel let us know that we needed to get to our lunch stop by 13.00 at the latest as the roads we were due to ride were being closed for a bike race. We easily got there in time and tucked into our lunch, ready to have a longer than usual break.

Having chatted to the locals we established that there were initially two youth races over 5 and 7 laps on the 7km circuit before an adult race afterwards. We watched the youth races but Nick was keen to have a go as he felt some of the competition looked a bit old and grizzled. Unfortunately when asked for his UCI accreditation Nick was only able to provide his NBJTours stamped passport and they refused to let him play.

They wouldn’t let us ride against the race so we had to add a few kilometres to join our route by following the circuit round for about two thirds of the lap. As we peeled off the course the marshals seeing such fit and athletic cyclists mistook us for the leaders in the main race and told us that the lap continued to the right. We had to explain that we were cycling to Luxembourg so Nick was pretty made up anyway and got over not being able to race. ( Note : some of this may not be entirely true!)

As Gill was leaving us today she was up pronto to pack her motorcycle to get back to Caen and the ferry home. Pretty amazing considering that it’s her first trip abroad on a motorcycle at 76 years young!

As usual we left at 8 ish with the route almost a constant heading eastwards. Today’s route unlike that of the previous days was mainly on the road apart from a couple of short stretches on old railway lines.

The first town we went through at Bain de Bretagne had not woken up so we sped through. After the first of many straight roads where Nick pulled me along we wanted to continue straight on but the signs showed the road was closed.

Luckily there was a house by the junction and the lady of the house was having her morning coffee on the front patio, so I asked if the road was passable on a bike. She told me it was closed for bikes as well as cars so we’d have to go round. Pressing her on whether the road was fully accessible she accepted that it was but there may be police at the other end. We said we’d take that risk and we able to ride on a pristine newly tarmacadamed traffic free road for the full 4 km to the next village. Nick was sure it had been done especially for us!

En route we ended up being stopped on the road for a motorcycle rally – there must have been at least 200 bikes. Almost at the same time Nigel & Monica in Broomey also had to stop for a bike race.

We continued on to our coffee and croissant stop but firstly called into the attractive town of Martigné-Ferchaud whose large church we saw from several miles away.

Riding past a boulangerie the smell proved too much so knowing it wasn’t far to coffee I popped in to get some local specialities from this award winning baker.

As we left Martigné-Ferchaud I noticed another cyclist appear behind us and warned Nick ahead. Little did I realise that it was Nigel who’d come to find us and lead us onto the coffee stop which was in the middle of the local keep fit running route judging by the number of runners we saw.

After this we had a short stretch of railway which was varied gravel but made a change from tearing along the almost empty roads. The temperature had eased and was much cooler than yesterday. We stopped at this old station where the once garden flowers had gone wild and were frequented by many butterflies.

After riding through a very disappointing Craon we had our fun at lunch watching the cycle race at Pommerieux. How many UK villages could do this we wondered. No doubt the mayor is a cycling fan.

The next town we rode through Chateau Gontier was most remarkable for being where we watched Spurs lose the 2019 European Cup final on a previous tour- sorry Chris.

The roads from now on were excellent and we were able to power along mostly with a cross tail wind at 30-35kph but still managed a quick drink stop as we continued to get through our water at a rapid rate.

We had to do a little main road but were able to hop off and go through a couple of small villages no bigger than Hadlow but having churches big enough to be in a city.

We reached the campsite not long after 5 and were able to enjoy a quick swim before our salmon and coleslaw dinner. The campsite next to the river was excellent and once again was very reasonable 28 euros for the night.

I’ve been able to return to writing the blog in the comfort of the camper as Monica has been introduced into Nick Cabrera’s version of Shed on the new card table. Where are you Chris?

The weather remains dry and warm, rather than hot. Tomorrow we will try to cycle a lap of the Le Mans 24 hour race track. Tune in to see how we get on.