For Stage 6, we woke up and got ready while it was still dark as usual. Day bags down to the van at 6:30 and into the coffee machine line. Thankfully, it was dry outside. Cool, but dry - a welcome treat after yesterday.
With so many riders new to the CCC routine, there was not much thought about today (6th day of the event) being a rest day as has been typical in past CCC events. But just like in CCC Cantabrico, there were many tired eyes and bodies; mine included; this morning. Yesterday’s rain was very wearing. We were somewhat lucky though, being higher up and not near the coast meaning we had been spared worse weather. Nice to our south on the coast of France had massive flooding.
We rolled out of Annonay while the town square was getting setup for a Sunday open market. Other than some tricky navigation through alley-like streets, we made our way out of town and up. I had to chuckle when the street CCC arrowed for us had a gradient warming sign of 18%. Don’t think many others caught site of it, but I knew what it meant - steep in places. After getting out of town, we were rewarded with sunrise views of the Ardeche region. The air was fresh (aka cool and crisp) but skies were blue.
18% means only one thing - steep
We passed a few cols and climbed and descended for a bit and the roads still had reminders of yesterday’s rains with dried-up run-offs in many places.
As I entered one small town, it was still cool so I needed to make some clothing choice adjustments, so what a better time to stop and duck into a Boulangerie for a fresh warm crusty French baguette - totally worth it and for less than 1 Euro. Plus it was fun to feel like I was at home with a baguette sticking out of my CCC carry all for a while.
Totally worth the stop, can't beat a warm baguette
As the morning rollled on, we climbed higher and rose above a cloud layer that had formed over the river valley. It’s become more and more apparent each day how this really is a journey of bridges. We are rolling over them, descending down to valleys and doing it over and over, but with the views, it really doesn’t get old. However, it does require caution on narrow single-lane shaded roads with views which are not very far ahead in spots.
After lunch we had some rolling terrain and then a descent leading up to the Col de Serre-Mure which Phil had deemed one of the harder climbs of the trip - meaning double digit gradients in many places for the 8 km climb. He was right on the mark and it was a challenging climb, partly for gradients, but also partly because it was day 6. After the climb we were rewarded with a flowing descent followed by some rolling terrain and more descending. But today we were ducking back into some gorges with epic ravine and river views. It made it hard to focus on the road ahead, so I had to timeshare views ahead with views below. Totally worth going a bit slower to do so.
Jen rounding the last steep switchback near the top of Col de Serre-Mure
There were a few more climbs that afternoon, but we were greeted to a smooth wide open 8 km descent into our rest day down of Privas!
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