6th October 2023 Moustiers-Ste-Marie To Castellane
The slog of yesterday was forgotten very quickly this morning. This ride has to be one of the most beautiful I’ve ever done and boy do we deserve that after all the hard work to get here, at least for me anyway. And the hard work continued right from the off as we had to get to the top of the Gorge du Verdon first which involved a climb of 7 miles but after Ventoux, this intrepid bunch took it in our stride, it wasn’t easy of course but after the experience of Ventoux we just got on with it Summed up by a quote from George, ” I’m a changed man, I used to think 6% was steep !!”
Before we even began any serious climbing you could tell we were in for a scenic treat today, quite soon we cycled past a huge lake which in this bright sunshine, looked glorious and crossing a bridge which showed off the gorge that fed the lake provided a plethora of selfies !
The Higher we cycled the more dramatic the vista was. It wasn’t an easy climb by any means but the frequent stops for photos kept minds off the hard work and on the natural eye candy.
As always, the brew stop was in a beautiful location although that wasn’t difficult to find today and it was there for us today after just 11 miles so there was always a huge hint that the morning stint was going to be a tough climb. While we were there we had a marvellous surprise with a low fly past by a French Air Force Fighter Jet !
A Rare Flat Bit Through A Village
<<— Richard & I Making Progress
Onwards and Upwards
The distances between stops were not huge but the time between them was getting longer and longer as none of us really wanted this ride to end, including me, which was such a contrast to the day before when I was wishing the day away, so there were plenty of group photos going on with the gorge making a fantastic backdrop
The road was not only remarkably well kept, pot hole free and often newly laid with fresh tarmac, it was not particularly busy so when the roar of engines was heard in the distance we knew something interesting was on it’s way so cameras were switched on and a string of souped up 1970’s BMW’s gave us a drive by !
Some action shots here of different kinds. Left to right we have Darren Beaver on a glorious part of the route with overhanging Rock, then Darren and Craig swooping round a hairpin bend and finally Steve Gladwin…… well let me tell you about Steve. Very competitive shall we say? Backed up by his wife Debra who has joined us along the way showing various photos of Steve “blowing out of his arse” ( Her words) !! He’ll race anything that man, usually egged on by his good pal Craig who knows Steve will take the bait, so here we have him trying not to be outdone by the “Brew Wagon” – clearly he was p****d off about the size of the cake slices or something , but I’m afraid he was left again blowing from you know where , BUT he does love a challenge, I’d even say can’t resist it .
After a long and glorious descent which included the middle photo above, we completed the day alongside the river at the bottom of the gorge with the sides looming high above us on both sides and as with other days the peleton broke up into various groups and George and I spent the afternoon together on this section allowing me to get some actual “George in the Gorge” photos
We finally arrived in Castellane and predictably the very first bar that you see is where the Pedal Britain group were , so we sat and had a beer and puzzled on just why that Church was built right at the top of that rock. Attending on a Sunday took some commitment – a bit like some of the routes we’ve encountered and by the look of the uphill bit at the start of the last days cycling tomorrow, maybe we are cycling up to that church !!
So it really was a dream day for cycling and after all the hard work and slog ( well for me anyway) it felt like a delicious reward that many of us just didn’t want to end and on the subject of things ending we have the last day of 14 tomorrow into Nice on the Med, completeing the Coast to Coast route from St Malo on the English Channel 2 weeks ago
The route map is shown below and if anyone reading this wishes to support me and Zoe’s place Baby Hospice as I try to complete this challenge my fundraising page can be found by clicking here. What a day !!
