Eight of the rest of us left the venue at 8am after some confusion by the hotel about paying the bills. Initially we were just asked to pay our bar bill (which were rather high as we drank the hotel dry of beer) and all the rooms and meals were on the organisers account? We took the rather wonderful D996, a snaking road with fabulous tarmac surface. French road builders really deserve medals, apart from when they resurface with the dreaded Gravillons. The temperature rose higher and higher as we descended into the Rhone valley, from a bearable 32 to a horrible 40. The side wind coming up the valley was incredibly hot as it gusted past us. As we started to climb into the Vecours it dropped a little but we got stuck in slow moving traffic through the gorges. The hotel had a nice garden and the clouds had built up, combined with a decent breeze it was an enjoyable post ride beer and meal. Today we will do a loop of the gorges before splitting up to head home.
Final leg today, by the time we get back it’ll be over 4000km in 10 days. I can’t tell how much life the rear tyre has left in it but there’s a fair bit. Have to say the Dunlop Sportsmart IV’s have been really good but in the temperatures that we’ve had I’m sure the harder wearing Roadsmart IV’s would have been super sticky too. Out of curiosity I bought my temperature sensing gun with me, the rears have been up to 58 degrees while the fronts have been 60 degrees. I should have tested the tarmac temperature but as I’ve said before in France it was melting although not so much in Spain.
We stayed in Albacete and I’m glad we did. 10 am is 29°. 11 am is 31°. Then in the afternoon you have to cut your way through it with a knife, the air is that thick you definitely have to keep your visor down.
And 4,040 Kilometres later we’re back. More updates about the trip later, including way there. Riding in the heat and being with other people i found I just didn’t have the time or the steam to do updates.
