Day 09 Anatomy of a climb.

Next morning the simple version continental breakfast – 2 pastries, jug of OJ, jug of coffee, no complex decisions to be made at the elaborate buffet. Ah the simple life. And here outside is the Market just getting going. This feels like real France at last, I buy tomatoes, cheese, brioche.

Now having descended to this town I need to climb back up to the route, so today is all climbing, hardly a downhill kilometre.

I have planned a route going steadily up the side of the valley, on a not too busy road (hopefully).

I liked Saint-Claude, it has character and the bustling market topped-off the good experience, I went spinning out of town feeling good.

I started steadily up the hill, felt I was going pretty well. Didn’t want to overdo it, after 20 minutes stopped for a rest.

But look how far I’ve got, in the diagram at the top of the sat-nav I am the little red dot bottom left – hardly started it seems.

There are ways to get up a hill like this without losing heart and collapsing wrecked at the side of the road. First thing is to switch off the sat-nav screen, forget about distance and time, just pedal slowly along in bottom gear. At about 4 miles an hour, just progress. But don’t think about progress. Think about something else, muse, the plot of a book, poems, current affairs, political developments, what’s the point of an energy price cap if it keeps going up (rather stretches the definition of “cap”), is white wine good with cheese? Is football better than rugby? Is Baseball better than cricket? What is that squeak coming from under the saddle?

One of these helpful little signs pops up every kilometre to tell you how far to the top and at what altitude you are.

Then at some point you will feel your head going, the weather is heating up, to about 25 today, you have put on plenty of sunscreen, but – dehydration. Don’t forget to drink water. When you stop thinking straight, stop, drink, eat something with sugar and salt in it – Chocolate chip cookies! From my bag of emergency rations, also some half-dried prunes from the market – so nice.

For most of the way the road is pretty much cut into the steep valley side, there is no room, a cliff on one side and a steep drop on the other – difficult to find a place to pee, there is nowhere to hide!

And when a bit of space apears they build a house there! Nice begonias in the window boxes.

This telegraph pole is sanded and varnished, lovely job, weatherproofing?

Maybe have a sneaky look at the satnav – ooh, over half way now. Take it steady,don’t push on or you’ll conk out. Actually it’s going well now, I’m in a rhythm and rather enjoying the scenery, rocks, flowers, quite a few butterflies, not many cars.

This one precedes me for a while, fluttering ahead then landing then fluttering again as I approach, it takes a few tries but eventually it stays still on this flower long enough for a blurry picture.

And then I reach the turn-off point, 2km from the top of the climb, but I need to turn off to re-join my off-road route. 11a.m. and I’ve done more than half the day’s climb. Not bad!