Stage 8: Tour De France

The heat my oh my!!! And not just that, the boring farmlands didn’t help either. Sunflowers and wineries are awesome but not while suffering in the heat. And certainly not after tens of them.

After the long stage full of heat

While that’s the pessimistic angle, the optimistic side is that cycling through farmlands is also symbolic to the reason we are cycling - bettering the lives of farmers in Uganda. Without planning it, I have worked in different size farms in Uganda, Norway and USA. To say the least, I have tremendous respect for the grueling work they do to get food in our markets and eventually our tables.

Back to cycling…stage 8 should be a good one for sprinters that can hold onto the high pace in these annoying rolling hills. 201km with 5,000+ ft of rolling hills can be challenging.

For Javo and myself, hydration was crucial. We stopped three times and I drank more water than I thought my body can hold. Initially the plan was to catch up with our newly found friends of donnonsdesellesauvelo (incredible group of women also cycling the TDF route) but having started one hour behind them and with the heat, we couldn’t catch them.

By the time, we rolled into Limoges, we were beat. Thankfully, the drive to stage 9 was only 21km.