Paris Dakar Stage 5 to Le Puy en Velay

Stage 5 of 60, Day 5 of 71: 110.9 km, 1489m, 4:56, 201 shifts, ave speed 22.5, max speed 65.8

It was another 5:30 alarm, 6-6:30 breakfast, leave just after 7 morning. Rob the guide asked a few of us the night before if it was too early but we said no. Starting in the cool air is just great. It was 17°C down in the village soon after starting. This was the first day I didn’t use sunscreen on my arms – arm protectors all day. Right when we started out there was a little drama. Andrew’s derailleur was not shifting; the battery was dead. Due to various packing errors, none of us were carrying our spares [that will not happen again]. He did the first climb “single speed”, but it’s not really possible to do a whole stage this way. The SRAM system shifts to the middle cog with it’s last gasp of battery power and there you sit until you recharge. Thanks to Kris carrying the charger, he charged for an hour at the first stop and was good for the rest of the day. Meanwhile I rode the first climb with Daniel, the sun came up, the climb was easy and it was beautiful and fun. The descent to the town at 32 km was fast and smooth and the town below had a great bakery. Well, maybe it was only average, who knows? But to an American it was exceptional.

We headed on and made it to lunch pretty easily, just past the top of the day’s first summit, our highest point yet, over 1060m. Ype had a perfect spot, a shaded, grassy pull-out, and served up the standard (excellent) lunch.

We had done 57 km at this point, just over half. Today was a relatively short and easy stage which absolutely no one complained about as we’ve now ridden 650 km and climbed nearly 7000m in 5 days. The temperature and weather have been constant since we left Paris: hot and clear.

After lunch, we had another 30 km to our next stop. I really enjoyed our first “real” descent, twisty, fast, a little bumpy, 10% down for quite a way. It was super fun but I took it easy since crashing is truly not an option. At the coffee shop at the bottom, Wytze went in and ordered immediately: ‘Trois Perriers, trois orangina et un Perrier au citron frais s’il vous plaît.’ The 3 of us like Perrier with orangina and Daniel likes it with fresh lemon. We have it down.

We soaked our heads and arms in the fountain outside, to the amusement of the locals, then headed out, with only 32 km to go. It was hotter down here but still lots of downhill. I struggled slightly on the uphill sections since the guys were starting to put the hammer down. It was almost comical the last 2 km…we were blasting at over 30 slightly uphill, then Wytze briefly bumped it to his true speed. I immediately dropped back as it was impossible, but he noticed and slowed to a semi-sane speed. We made it through town to the campground, arriving sweaty and happy, and it wasn’t even 2pm. A short day in the office, just under 5 hours moving time.

We found nice shady spots for our tents, took showers, shared a washing machine and hung out the laundry. Then a huge amount of soup and snacks were consumed. The afternoon whiled away nicely, and I got a nap in. I got to talk to Katie and she said hi to Jan and Wytze and “met” Andrew over the video. I woke up at 5, with my derailleur batteries charged, then relaxed until dinner at 6. We had a veggie Italian dinner, delicious pasta putanesca, fennel/veggies and panzanella salad. With chilled French wine. Chocolate pudding for dessert, then Daniel pulled out the most amazing chocolate torte he had carried all the way from the bakery at 32 km! We shared it and c’était magnifique.

After dinner, Ype kindly fixed my headset for real, then we had a little treat. There is a light show in town this summer and we could practically see it from the campground. It was fun and there were nice patterns but I think most of us were pretty tired – I didn’t watch until the end.