Day 2

Sunday, April 30
Calais to Abbeville
134km

First real day of cycling today.  It was WONDERFUL!  Exactly the experience that I was hoping for....well...almost.

I had a decent sleep last night.  My roommate's occasional snoring woke me up a few times but I was pretty tired so I slept well anyways.  They rotate roommates each night, so tonight I'll have someone new.

Breakfast was plentifull. Corn flakes, baquette, crossant, fruit, yohgurt, and cheese.  I hope that continues.  They didn't have peanut butter for my toasted baguette though.  (The Brits think that peanut butter is disgusting.). I had to use Nuttella instead.  Yum.

The forecast called for heavy rain, and there were dark clouds in the sky and puddles on the roads as we left the motel.  I packed my full rain gear iin my truck bag, so as to be ready for any bad weather.  It was about 10 degrees, so I also needed my arm and leg warmers and vest.  Luckily, the weather stayed dry all day and even got quite sunny at points...even though the wind was still chilly.

Right off the bat, we started cycling along the English channel and up some of the large cliffs.  These are the "sister" cliffs to the white cliffs of Dover...only on the French side.

There was a long, steady uphill and a few of us separated from the pack.  Then the road really became steep.  After a week without cycling, my legs felt very fresh and I maintained a very aggressive pace.  All of the other riders quickly fell well behind.  About halfway up the hill Iit leveled slightly, and I stopped to take a photo of the riders behind me.  It was tough to build momentum again, and I really had to push myself to get to the top of the hill.  When I got to the top, I slumped panting on my handlebars.  I felt a little dizzy and the next thing I knew I had fainted.  Not exactly behaviour befitting the new "King of the Mountains" I realise.  Luckly, everyone who saw me fall from a distance assumed that I had gotten stuck in my clipless pedal.  Not exactly a cool thing to do either...but perhaps not so bad a losing consciousness.

I sat by the road for a few minutes and caught my breath.  Soon my group had caught up with me and we were off again.  No more trouble for the rest of the ride and only a bit of a bruised knee to show for my fall.

The other side of the climb was a glorious descent into a little village in the hilly fields.  It was lovely...and very steep.  Its a good job I remained conscious for those hairpin turns!

From that point on, the ride was just fantastic.  The roads were so quite that we only saw a few cars all day.  And its a good thing too, because the entire road was only one lane wide.  There were no sholders or gravel at the sides either.  Just fields, road, fields.  It really felt like someone had laid a lovely bicycle path meandering through the fields and forrests and over the hills and streams.  The roads were never straight.  The constantly snaked left and right and rose and fell.  With mostly smooth pavement - except for some cobble stones in one little town - it was the perfect cycling route.

I road with many different groups throughout the day.  For a while, I sprinted ahead with Chris but he broke a gear-cable and stopped half way for repairs.  I joined up with several other groups after that.

We stopped for lunch at a little pub.  I had a big baguette with hame and cheese, while most of the Brits had a beer and some Mars bars.  I found most of the coffee shops too smokey today, and since I don't even drink coffee I was happy to contiune cycling or wait outside when other people stopped.

I think that today was the longest ride of the trip...but it certainly won't be the hilliest.  I am very much looking forward to tomorrows ride...and hoping that the weather continues to hold.