Got up a bit earlier than usual so I could go on my ride before it got too hot.  I had loaded a course into my Garmin GPS last night so was all ready to go.

It was a longer route than yesterday and headed east first to St. Front, than back west along mostly very small side roads that I never would have chosen myself.

It was very quiet on the back roads – just past St. Front I was overtaken by a group of riders (12 or 15) heading towards Romefort – they were going up the slight hill much more quickly than I was.  Just before Romefort Miss GPS directed me to turn right onto a very narrow road – at one point I passed a man taking his dog for a run – the man was driving his car slowly while the dog jogged beside it (no leash).  The road was so narrow that I stopped riding at the nearby ‘intersection’ where the car turned – the dog, in the meantime, had come over to slobber on my left leg, then went back to his run with the car.

A little further on I rounded a corner and startled two animals at the edge of a field next to the road – I think I was almost as startled as they were, actually.  Thru the trees and from the corner of my eye they looked almost like two of the same animal – one much larger than the other. I realized, however, that although they were both a reddish-brown with big ears and a white tail, one was a large rabbit and the other a small deer.  The rabbit flew forward and then cut onto the track I was on before bounding off across and into the woods on the other side. The deer, meanwhile, had jumped (like a bunny!) across the entire field to the woods on the far side. The barley was up to its chin but it leapt up and over very quickly.

Shortly after that I got onto a road I recognized and was back at the house in Mansle in a touch under 2 hours total – tired and sweaty.  Had a quick, refreshing shower and a cup of tea, followed by a bite to eat, then went with Colin to follow the local cycling club on a ride.

We drove behind them with the flashers on and Colin honked to warn them whenever a car was passing us.  We carried extra water for the riders, and ended up picking 3 of them up one-by-one as they got too tired.  The ride was around 80 km in all in very hot conditions – I was kind of impressed with the younger fellow that made it the whole way.

Ended up eating the rest of my leftover pasta for dinner – it was too hot to think of cooking.

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