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Published: June 28th 2017
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The traditional final day shot (Carole is hiding the fact she is out of uniform) Well the cycling part of the trip is over, and despite some very foreboding (or should that be portentous?) skies I am pleased to report that I arrived without getting rained on; whether or not others did as well is yet to be determined, as only 5 of us have arrived so far - but the sun is out now, so perhaps we all will have emerged unscathed.
Because the forecast had called for an 80 per cent chance of rain by about 1:00PM I had elected to follow the Garmin-equipped people out of Draguignan to make sure that I got through the urban mess as efficiently as possible (in retrospect, having only just now reviewed our directions, it turns out the latter really weren't complex at all and would have been quite easy too follow on my own) but that proved to be misguided as
• I had to call out that they had already missed a turn almost as soon as the ride began
• We didn't seem to be able to keep a constant speed as they kept fussing trying to get the damned devices to work
• They had a different cycling rhythm/approach than I wanted e.g.
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N7 was not a fun road attacking hills before a decent warm-up
Nevertheless, we did manage to climb out of Draguignan and eventually got to enjoy a lesser-trafficked long downhill into La Motte, At that point I was pretty sure I would have made better time on my own, especially because we kept slowing down so often, and I finally got so frustrated that I surged ahead - only to guess incorrectly which direction to take at a busy intersection I hadn't prepared for. Ironically, this caused me to get caught at a light that the rest of the group made, and rather than race to catch them again I opted to stop and buy some fruit in Le Muy since I found myself riding right by a Casino supermarket. There my hopes of still arriving in Nice before the rain were further dashed when I ended up having to wait in line about 10-15 minutes since there was but one cashier open, and there were 'issues' with several people ahead of me that took a while to resolve.
Today's route took us through several built-up areas and had us on the very busy and shoulderless N7 for far too long; to
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D100 was much better make matters worse, I also encountered not just one but two vehicles that had stalled in separate roundabouts, further holding up the already-heavy traffic. It was thus a relief when at Saint-Raphael we turned off onto D100 for a more bucolic and peaceful ride into Agay, where the sea suddenly appeared, and I stopped to enjoy a beachside banana. It was still sunny out.
There followed 20km of delicious seaside swooping and diving as I wound my way along the coast, leapfrogging and occasionally joining other riders as we collected memories and photographs, again threatening the notion of getting in ahead of the rain. Getting through Cannes wasn't pleasant but the ensuing path to Nice more than made up for it; even the directions to the hotel were easy to follow.
And the only drops we saw were tears of sorrow that the day and tour were ending.
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