Moirans to Annonay

A gloriously glorious day of riding today!

I’d decided last night that I was going to the town of Annonay about 80Ks west of here. Of course it’s not going to be that easy! I plan to wiggle about a bit near the start end and hoover up a few Cols. In theory I could get 6 today but that seems unlikely.

I partially packed then went down for breakfast at 7:30. I was hoping for some riz au lait, but alas not for breakfast. I ate as much as I could stuff in as I expected the day to be at least 100Ks today. They had some mini crepes which was nice and I thought I would have some yogurt but I am not keen on Natural Yogurt, so I got Natural with Pomme. However it turned out it was just Natural Pomme, so apple sauce. I ate it anyway of course.

I finished packing, paid and headed out at 8:08; a pretty good effort for me. It was already warm and quite muggy from the humidity. The area the hotel is in is an industrial estate so I had gotten a route off of Google Maps (and photographed it) to get me out of here and down to a town to the south called Tullins. I was secretly hoping it would be quiet enough that I could jump on to the red road, D1092, heading south as it would save a lot of time using back roads. Of course it is Sunday and early, so not a soul around! So red road it was and in no time at all I was turning off and heading up my first Col!

I’d already made one choice here; I could have taken a right turn and gone to one Col and then after it done a dog leg up to a second Col, or I could turn left and just do the second Col. I chose the latter as I was concerned about how hot it would be today. Good choice!

The Col was a stiff climb mainly in first gear of the granny (two chevrons on my Michelin map). The road was really quiet, just the occasional cyclist coming down the other way. I made the top in about an hour and was pretty chuffed with that.

Of course the next thing was a nice descent and I was hoping it didn’t descend too much as I’d just be climbing again to get to the second Col. Fortunately it didn’t seem that long and then I was on a gentle incline towards the second Col. The incline was so gentle I did most of the climb in the middle chain ring and only switched to the granny for a pinch in the last K or so, and even then I didn’t need first gear. This was another lovely stretch of road, again just the occasional cyclist and one or two cars. Only half an hour later I topped my second Col. WooHoo!

From there a lovely looooong descent which had me a bit concerned of course about the next Col. About half way down the descent something flew into my helmet and didn’t want to come out. I stopped and it was a bee! He’d gotten stuck in the lining of the helmet so I had to flick him out with a pen; he wasn’t happy. I was paranoid all day long after that.

I then turned onto a new road and started up the next Col. And yet again a lovely middle chain ring climb (the entire way) with still barely a soul about. The road signs here show the altitude each Km which is handy. In another half hour I’d done my third Col (although this one has no sign) and then continued on to the fourth; the third and fourth are on the same road. The road steepened up a bit but still not first gear in the granny. Then, only another half hour later, I had my fourth Col for the day and not even lunch time yet. Yay!

From there I turned off the road I was on and finally started to head west. This road, like the last few, is part of a cycling route and this one had a guide that indicated that it was going to be climbing a bit more. Bugger. Oh well, onwards and upwards. No Col but a nice rolling road, basically 2Ks up, 2Ks down, repeat a couple of times. Then I came to where I’d planned for lunch and had a stop, just on midday.

The town, Roybon, didn’t have much open (remember it’s Sunday) but the Boulangerie was open so I got a bit of a bloat up; a humungous bready pizza slice, an éclair chocolate, a coke and a bottle of water with gas. I then sat across the road under the town hall and ate them. Delicious. I’d bought so much I couldn’t drink the water so I just took it with me.

From there I set off through a group of lovely towns heading mainly west. One of the things that made it lovely was that most of the route was gently downhill, <1 a="" and="" around="" barely="" being="" going="" it="" just="" kept="" on="" soul="" span="" style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;" sunday="">J

If I hadn’t already booked a hotel I would almost certainly have stopped in Hauterives. The town was nice and it had a lovely stone Logis de France with a lovely looking restaurant. (What’s a real bummer is that I checked that evening and I could have got a room!)

The route I was on finished in the town of St Villier on the Rhine. The last bit of the road was through a very nice gorge. I knew after such a long descent, like 45 Ks, that I was going to have to pay for that, but it had been worth it. There was still hardly any traffic around either; just a great day to be about in this area which I know is the Drome as I crossed into it earlier.

From St Villier it wasn’t so obvious what the route would be. I crossed the river and then followed some bike signs but they were following the rather busy D86. I had picked a different route when I was looking at lunch and almost missed the turn off. I ummed and ahhed for about 3 seconds before I turned into the Vallee de Cance.

I knew almost straight away this was going to be good. A few hundred (?) metres in there was a series of signs saying 15 Ks of winding roads with falling rocks and no trucks! WooHoo! These sorts of roads are often the best that you can find in France and this one did not disappoint in the slightest.

This was a really magnificent section of road, winding roads meant narrow roads and they were, falling rocks meant steep sides and they were, and no trucks meant no trucks and almost no cars as well! The only risk was the amount of climbing which was unclear. As it turned out the road climbed up the valley for the entire 15Ks but it only gained 200 m so it wasn’t much steeper than flat. I did the entire valley in the middle chain ring in about 1 hour. Just a lovely stretch of road!!

At the other end the road came out onto a very wide road with a wide shoulder that was also deserted! This took me almost directly into town and there I was at the hotel before 3:30pm. Such a good day.

The town is quite large and the hotel is right in the central square which is a great location. The only thing is that this is France, it is July and it is Sunday. Almost everything is closed! Fortunately not the hotel so I checked in and they said I could take my bike up to the room which was fine with me. I showered, which I sorely needed as it had been a hot day, 30C. Then I stretched and had a walk around town. Sigh, not only is everything closed but nothing is open tomorrow either, hotel breakfast it is. I did get a nice chocolate ice cream; he wouldn’t give me two boules as he said the top one would fall off…

I went back to the room to watch the Tour but being the final day it hasn’t even started yet. So I did my washing and looked at the map for tomorrow; I am going to St Etienne. The Tour started and I was watching that and falling asleep. So I set my alarm for 7 pm which should give me an hour nap and leave the last half hour of the Tour to watch. Glorious. I really needed that.

The finale was won by Bossan Hagan and the Tour was over! What am I going to do in the afternoons now? By the by Michael Mathews won the Green Jersey (Marcel Kittel crashed out). Landa did not do anything to try and claim 1 second from Romain Bardet. I watched the after Tour ceremonies and then went for dinner.

Hmmmm, dinner. There are so many choices in town: pizza, pizza, pizza, kebab and kebab. Even the Chinese restaurant is closed! In the end I picked a pizza place that had a free table and ate there, no knives and forks. Either I was really hungry (I was) or the pizza was Really good (it may have been). I wolfed that down with most of a litre of water and then went in search of dessert. Given the choices I went back to the bar from earlier and got a second ice cream, citron this time. Nice.

Then back to the room to write this diary while watching Tintin (in French). Then I watched another Midsomer in English before bed.

The only slight blemish on the day was when I got the Annonay and realised I’d lost my bike lock L