What comes down must come up

---

After the marathon we managed to sneak a one day break. Well sort of.... we packed up and drove to the beautiful town of St. Emilion. This is a town we visited on our last visit and is well worth another look. From there we transferred to our oasis in Dordogne region. The Inn we stayed at was an old farmhouse that had been renovated into the most amazing little hotel. The hosts here were gracious and lovey and I think I speak for all when I say I would come back in a heartbeat.

The first day of riding started with a pretty steep descent which is always a bit difficult on a new bike and unfamiliar narrow roads. We all convened at the bottom and started to sort out the various bike issues. The e-bikes are restricted by law to 25k an hour so on the flats Jean Philippe tried to hold the speed to close to that. Lots of the time we went faster and the ebikes were pushing without power and their 55lb bikes.There was a fair amount of climbing in short bursts and those with ebikes were concerned about burning too much battery to complete the day so I’m sure there was a lot of extra energy expended by the time we arrived back at our hotel. .

Day two we transferred to our starting point in the beautiful “Red Town” Collonges-la-Rouge. We also had 2 separate cave tours which were quite interesting. We shorted the ride by 18k or so to fit it all in. I didn’t hear anyone complaining ?. The last bit of our ride was a 9k climb. As there is no way I can keep pace with the ebikes Kevin and I dropped back... then I dropped my bike still clipped in. No real harm done and it hurt my pride mostly but I do have a few “raspberries” to remind me that asphalt is hard when you meet it.

We are all starting to get comfortable on our respective bikes and had a blast riding as a group.

---