Road Climber: N2A - day 7: Sault to Tallard

Following the excitement of yesterday's first major mountain climb up Mont Ventoux, today we ride through rolling countryside, olives, rolling hills and quiet historic villages. While the ride is in excess of 100km, it is apparently relatively straight forward with a couple of climbs to keep people like me happy.

After leaving our hotel in Sault we rode mostly downhill to Montbrun-les-Bains an old hillside village positioned beneath castle ruins which was, apparently, once a popular spa town. On leaving Montain-de-Bains we undertook our first major climb for the day over the Col de Macuegne (1,068m) at the 22km mark and descended into the small village of Sederon. It was from here that anyone who wanted to avoid the second major climb of the day could take another route.

After leaving Sederon at the 27km mark we undertook the second major climb for the day to the Col St. Jean (1,158m) which was reached at the 42km mark and from which we descended to the small villages of Laborel and then Orpierre at the 56km mark. Orpierre is built into a narrow gap surrounded by steep mountains and is apparently popular amongst rock climbers.

At the 72km mark we passed through the larger village of Laragne-Monteglin. This region is apparently the kingdom of air sports and attracts fanatics from around Europe, particularly those into parachuting and paragliding.

We crossed the Durance river at the 85km mark and again at the 102km mark to enter Tallard. The camping ground, Camping Le Chene, where we are staying tonight is a little way out of Tallard. This camping ground has mainly squat toilets much to the dismay of some fellow riders. We have to carry our own toilet paper as the French camp grounds don't supply it which can catch one out at times! The camp ground does have a swimming pool.

After setting up the tent, bed, having afternoon tea, washing clothes and having a shower, headed into Tallard to find a restaurant for dinner. There was a nice little bush track to walk along into the town.

I had my second bad service experience. I joined some fellow riders who had just ordered their meals and warned me about the waitress. She was so bad it was laughable, she just didn't want to there. As we were eating outside, I went inside to order, which I managed to do after being ignored for some time. I asked for an "Orangina" drink and she advised they had none at which point I pointed to a number of cans in the fridge we were standing next to! While the service was poor the food as usual was very good. It really is a pity the French don't know how to make coffee as they do everything else in the food line so well.

It had been another good day's riding in hot weather. The climbs had probably been a little harder than we had expected based on the morning's briefing. I thoroughly enjoyed them.

I take a lot of photos each day and today was no exception. However, for some reason the majority of them seem to have disappeared so will not be putting many up today.

STATISTICS

Distance ridden today: 106.3kms. Cumulative total: 578.9kms.

Vertical metres climber today: 1,663. Cumulative total: 12,223m.