Stage 9 Issoire to Saint Flour

Rain hammering on the tent woke me at about half past six followed by thunder, lightning and then hail. Looking good for today! The flood warning sirens sounded a few times but no one came round to evacuate so things were looking up.

The Tour was coming close to the camp site and going off on a loop so I could catch it twice in a day. First stop was the tiny village of Lanau. I had missed the caravanne so just managed to get some video of the breakaway and then the peleton as it squeezed over a narrow bridge.

The area here on the border if the Haute Loire and southern Auvergne is beautiful. Mountains, plains, rocky out crops with churches and chateau that appear to grow out of the rock. Black Kites, Red Kites and Buzzards are in abundance here. You'll easily see 20 or 30 in a day. The Kites are in groups of 3 or 4.

Second stop after a great drive along a winding gorge was Murat. I had my eye on a category 3 climb that would have been a good spot for an attack about 50 km from the finish. However, to get there I had to cycle against the flow of traffic and the gendarme said NON! This time I caught the caravanne a whilst I have been bemoaning it I was standing on my own on the road into town and did a little dance for each of the floats and the gifts rained down on me. I feel a bit dirty now having danced for cheap plastic gifts but I have enough Haarribo to last me a couple of days. I'm going to distribute the booty to children big and small when I get back. In the meantime I'm addicted. I'll be dancing on the outskirts of many more French towns before this tour is out. Oh! and some cyclists came past quite quickly about an hour later,but that's not important. I've got seeties, hats, a bag, a plastic clapping device and a yellow back pack!!

Back to sensible things. There is a great 7 km climb with about 500m ascent up to the campsite and I managed this in about 45 minutes this evening. So I just need to do that 3 times over and contend with whatever weather Le Mont Ventoux decides to chuck at me.

Anyway the reward for the climb was this view and a fantastic down hill roll. Loose gravel lead to a few hairy corners and very hot disc brakes. Need to find another one for tomorrow.



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