Velo Marin: Recovery Day

After several days of hard riding in the heat (and a lot of travel before that), today was a recovery day. Most of us slept in (relatively speaking), and then a smaller group went out on a shorter flattish spin to St. Hilaire. Due to a map error, there was a bit more climbing than we wanted. Matt had a puncture and tire failure after just a few miles in Pieusse so Martin went back to fetch the "Limoux-sine". The rest of us continued on for a total of 23 miles and 1K of climbing. Nice and easy. We finished with a pizza on the square.

Riding out of Limoux again

How many brothers does it take to change a flat tire?

Climbing out of St. Hilaire

After lunch we retired to Montfaucon for some time out of the sun. The hotel arranged for a massage therapist to come over -- one that has been doing massage therapy for pro and amateur cycling teams for over ten years. It gets no better.

For dinner we drove into Carcassonne and had a great meal in the old walled city. En route, we stopped off at the Decathlon store to pick up some additional supplies. Matt had to buy a new tire to replace the blowout, and he managed to pick up some gorgeous baby blue ones to match his bike. Matt also managed to surreptitiously insert a mesh-front jockstrap into Martin's shopping basket, who didn't notice it until he pulled it out and handed it to the cashier.

We parked several miles away from Le Cite and walked past about 273 empty parking spaces before we finally arrived at the restaurant to meet the others. It was worth the walk, as I was finally able to get a fantasic cassoulet. For dessert, Robert ordered something called "Fruit Soup", which was not as bad as it sounds.

Martin testing out the new Do Rag from Francais Des Jeus