Today's two biggest mistakes

While the journey overall was fine and we really enjoyed the improvement in the weather. We really felt the distance and the stage, after yesterday was too long.

When planning the tour I was basing the stages on those in the guide book. This made it easy to calculate the distances. But two long stages at the start of the tour was a mistake. But it would have made sense to stay in Gien, about 25 km less than planned. Friday's stage to Orleans wouldn't have become too long and we'd have a had rest day anyway.

And the first mistake almost certainly contributed to the second. I somehow missed a sign in Briare telling us to cross the bridge. And there was no other bridge before Gien. I checked the map and saw that it was possible to cycle to Gien but some if the roads weren't paved. As things turned out, we should have simply cycled back to the bridge. We had a similar experience this morning where there were two confusing signs telling us that we could go left and right, with the right turn taking us to Bonny, which I'd suggested as a place for lunch. But it turned out that we'd already passed Bonny and were heading back towards the mucky nuclear power station there. We turned around and took the left turn.

I should have suggested this in Briare but I didn't want to force extra miles on us, especially with time getting on. But this was my mistake.

While I'm happy enough bouncing along on unpaved, grassy paths, it does take quite a lot of experience to keep pedaling through the ruts, and the bounces always carry the risk of "snakebite" puncture, especially if you're carrying weight. And so it proved. Replacing the tube only took about 5 minutes, but I was already going much faster than Astrid and Kerstin, who had to push several times. Pushing is always harder work than cycling.

I don't know if Kerstin's puncture was picked up there in a similar way, because it didn't become clear for about another 25 km, but it certainly didn't help.

I think the last 5 or 6 kilometres were the hardest for us all. Harder even than yesterday.

But at least tomorrow is a rest day! I think I got that right! 🥵