"Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." Hebrews 11:1
- Introduction
- The statistics and metrics of the day
- The most memorable occurrences, moments and thoughts
- Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 15, from Péronne to Trefcon
- Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 16, from Trefcon to Tergnier (and further to the Auberge de Villequier)
- Pictures of the day.
This post complements the post I published on the 10th of August 2016 in which I described the experiences I had while riding between Péronne and Tergnier, including the additional (and unnecessary, might I add) ride from Tergnier to the Auberge de Villequier, where I spent the night. I am not going to repeat the contents of that post in this one again, but I will add a few highlights for each stage below. I encourage you to read the previous before continuing on this one.
Statistics and metrics of the day
- Date: Tuesday, 2nd of August 2016
- Route: From the Municipal Camping site in Péronne to Tergnier with an additional (and unnecessary, might I add) 8.3 Km to the Auberge de Villequier where I spent the night.
- Distance: 59.6 Km
- Departure time from Péronne: 10:56am
- Arrival at Tergnier: ~4pm (~5pm at the Auberge de Villequier)
- Duration of day’s Journey: 4h 55min
- Expenses this day: Total = € 89.00
- €26.00 – Food (dinner at the Auberge de Villequier. I had purchased my breakfast the day before)
- €63.00 – Accommodation (Auberge de Villequier)
- €26.00 – Food (dinner at the Auberge de Villequier. I had purchased my breakfast the day before)
- Overnight Location: Auberge de Villequier, +33 3 23 39 98 34
- Type of Accommodation: Hotel
- Lightfoot Guide Stages:
- Physical and Body Stats: Link to the Garmin Connect Page for this ride
- Duration: 4h 55min
- Moving time: 3h 51min
- Average Speed: 12.2 Km/h
- Average Moving Speed: 15.4 Km/h
- Max. Speed: 40.7 Km/h
- Total Elevation Gain: 346 m
- Average Heart Rate: 132 bpm
- Max. Heart Rate: 160 bpm
- Calories: 1,885 CAL
- Number of Pedal Strokes (Cadence sensor): 13,831
Most memorable occurrences, moments and thoughts:
- To go or not to go? Woke up many times during the night to the sound of heavy rain. In the early morning I decided to wait in the tent to see if the rain would stop. It meant that by the time I was done with breakfast and packing it was past 11am in the morning, but I think it proved to be the right decision this time (aided by some weather forecast on the phone). Wasn’t really looking forward to packing my gear under rain. The rain resumed just after I left, so I guess I can consider it a lucky dry window, just long enough for me to pack my gear.
-
Château de Péronne After leaving the Camping Site the first stop was at Péronne’s tourism information office in the town centre to collect a stamp on my Pilgrim’s Credential. As I was late I couldn’t really explore the town. As with many other towns and villages I’ve been through, Péronne looked like it would have been worth at least a few hours, if I had time to spare.
- Again and again, Google Maps is good, especially to those like me that are “navigation challenged”. One problem for cyclists is that it tries, as much as it can, to guide the cyclists away from heavy vehicle traffic. Yes, this is good, but it also means it guides you to paths that during or after heavy rain might be very challenging to transpose. As I left Pèronne Google Maps instructed me to leave the “D” road I was to some dirt paths that were very muddy, only to guide me back to the same “D” road about 1.5 Km later. When you don’t know the way, the decision is not always easy. Overall Google Maps helped me more than it hindered me though.
- The ride to Trefcon was uneventful and the village itself is tiny and it appeared to be completely deserted.
- It rained basically all day that day (on and off) and after leaving Trefcon the route was mostly on good roads up to the town of Montescourt-Lizerolles, where Google Maps instructed to take a path alongside the railway. The terrain was somewhat challenging as the Swalbe Marathon tyres I have in the bike are not really suited for them. After overcoming the path, I decided not to follow the route Google had planned and take my chances on the major “D” road, the D1, that took me straight to Tergnier. The traffic was intense and the road had guard-rails and no hard-shoulder. I don’t recommend this route, but on hindsight I believe it was the right decision, albeit somewhat riskier than to stick (no pun intended) to the dirt paths.
- Riding under constant rain is not really fun, but the main challenge, besides the muddy paths, was the strong wind which slowed me down considerably and took away the high visibility orange flag I had in th back of the bike. I arrived in Tergnier tired and feeling a bit ill, probably due to the wet conditions (I am slightly asthmatic and humidity is not a good thing for me). The town hall was closed, so I turned to Google again for a place to sleep and the 1st option Google gave me was a hotel / hostel in the nearby village of Villequier.
Dinner at the Auberge de Villequier The concept of “nearby” changes when you are travelling on the bike though. It took me almost 1h riding in the wrong direction (as I found out the next day) to get there, but the Auberge is lovely and the owners were very nice to me. The room was small, but big enough to wash and dry my wet clothes and dry the tent and camping equipment. Also enjoyed a very nice meal that night, my personal reward for a hard day of cycling under rain.
- Took very few pictures during the day. The rain was the biggest contributor to this, but in all honesty I did not feel like there were a lot of picture worthy moments anyway.
Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 15, from Péronne to Trefcon
Video Length: 4 min and 45 sec
To skip introductions and recommendations jump to time stamp 0:40 in the video timeline.
Video of Lightfoot Guide Stage 16, From Trefcon to Tergnier (and further to the Auberge de Villequier)
Video Length: 9 min 42 sec
To skip introductions and recommendations jump to time stamp 0:38 in the video timeline.
Pictures of the day.
Click on any picture for full detail
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