Stage 3

Another "flat" stage with 3000ft of climbing.  I guess it just adds up over 200km, but most of it came towards the end and it kind of hurt.  Mostly because I thought the end was sooner.  Then I kept going around a corner to find another climb!

The day started near the beach and I think I spent the fist few hours within sight of a row of wind turbines.  It was possibly the windiest day I've ever had.  It wasn't even so much the gusts of headwinds or crosswinds, but the absence of any tail winds to even the score.  So at around 4 hours I sacrificed some lunch meat to the wind gods in a church parking lot... seemed sacred enough.  Unfortunately it only lasted about 30min and I was back in the worst headwind I've ever had.  I guess lunch meats are no iphigenia... if anyone knows where to find pure humans for sacrifice in France, I'm all ears.

As you can see from a couple of the pics I posted, France seems to shut down on Sundays.  The streets were empty and I think we only passed about 3 open restaurants all day!  The upside was the lack of traffic.

As for the ride itself, lots of rolling hills, but nothing very long or steep.  My started to bother me around 180km, so I eased off a bit and it sort of went away.  201.89km in 7:42:17 for an avg speed of 26.8km/h and avg power of 140W (162W normalized).