St. Rémy day 2

The Mistral was blowing and will be blowing for the rest of our bike tour. Winds will be about 25 mph in the morning, 35 mph in the afternoon from the north today.

Breakfast started at 7:30 am, it was busy right away. 9:00 am on the bikes.

Back up and over the little alps to the south of St Rémy. It was easier this time, as we had the mistral wind at our backs.

Mostly flat the rest of the way to lunch. Passed by lavender, olives and small feedlots.

Lunch was at the square in Eygalieres, a ham and cheese sandwich with some pretzels and chips for added salt. There is a church off the square.

We walked up to the ruins of the old church on top of the hill.

I had a flat right after lunch about two blocks from lunch. One of our guides, Garath, changed out the wheel for me. He was going to swap with his, but the cassette and free hub fell off his. He got me going after about 7-8 minutes after the support van arrived with a spare wheel, then took another 6-7 to get his bike back together. There was a long climb into the wind that was slow going for everyone. Garath said he couldn’t catch me on that climb. I didn’t catch Donna on her e-bike, but did catch a few others on regular bikes.

The wind got worse in the afternoon, but we didn’t have any climbs, and just a few miles directly into it.

Distance 38 miles, 3:15 moving time. There was an option to extend to 50 miles, but we didn’t take that and the few that did turned back because of the wind.

Donna and I got bike locks and biked to the old Roman town of Glanum just south of St. Remy.

Glanum had a sacred spring on the south end of town that drew visitors with it’s reputed healing powers.