A Day in Bordeaux

Every year, usually on the second or third day before the Tour de France arrives in Paris, we take a day off from following the Tour and spend some time experiencing the French countryside. Today, our second day in Bordeaux, we took a ride of just a bit over 70 km from Saint-Emilion to a restaurant in the town of Monbazillac, which is east of here. Here's the map and data for today's ride. The first photo, by the way, is our hotel here in Saint-Emilion.

The terrain is gently rolling, and we encountered only a few long, relatively steep hills. For the most part, however, the hills were gentle and the descents were long enough to be fun but not terribly steep. We rode through endless vineyards and fields of sunflowers; through shady woods and several little towns. For the last 20 km or so we settled into a nice steady paceline, averaging around 25 mph or so for mile after glorious mile – a regular "bullet train" streaking across the countryside. It was one of those exhilarating, exciting rides that we dream about: working together as a team, and rejoicing in the speed, the beautiful scenery and the inexplicable sound and feel of the road under our wheels.

We stopped only once for water refills, but also made two unscheduled stops: to fix a flat tire and then a blowout that surprised all of us, sounding as if a big firecracker had exploded in our midst.

Finally, a series of pretty steep climbs took us up to the restaurant, which had a spectacular view and was perched atop what appeared to be the highest ground for miles in every direction.

The lunch was lavish and every course was a work of culinary art, delighting both the eye and the palate. Of course there was plenty of wine too, and we were all happy to relive the morning's tough ride. A short bus ride, less than an hour, back to the hotel, and we faced the unhappy task of packing up our bicycles, which will be transported to Paris tomorrow while we are at the Time Trials in Bordeaux.

We all went into Saint-Emilion, which is about 3.5 km from the hotel, and 12 of us had wine at one cafe before going down to another outdoor restaurant for a long, delicious supper. I think between breakfast, lunch and dinner today, we spent about 7 hours today eating and drinking.

Tomorrow we will make a short drive to Bordeaux, where we'll visit the starting village, then watch some of the time trial starts. We'll get to see and drool over all the TT bikes up close, and with any luck we'll get to meet and talk to some of the riders. Eventually, we'll go to a different spot along the course for lunch and to watch the riders come by one by one.