Paris Dakar Stage 6 to Villefort

Stage 6 of 60, Day 7 of 71: 101 km, 1630m, 4:43, 239 shifts, ave speed 21.4, max speed 64.1

It was nice to sleep in until after 6, especially with my new pad. The night was cool and I slept under my sleeping bag for a change. I packed up and breakfast was in the light, at 7am. We headed out in a group at 8 in nice cool weather. Today had about 1600m climbing, but most of it was in the first half. We rode up and down, ever higher, and pulled over after an hour at a café. I am spending a lot on drinks during these rides but that is a great thing.

We did a few more short and medium climbs, then hit our high point so far on the tour, almost 1250m. Soon after, we found Ype and the lunch truck in a typical beautiful and shady spot and enjoyed another great lunch.

After lunch, I headed off in a group of 7, all drafting behind Rob. He was in a fast mood, so even drafting in a pace line required a lot of work. After about 15 km of this, Andrew, Liz and I let ourselves be dropped – better to have fun and relax at 80% effort. We’re in this for the long haul. We did catch up to them again soon, stopped at another café. The owner gave us lots of ice, which was a perfect addition to our water bottles after cooling our drinks. Then it was time to crank out the last 20 km or so. There were a couple of small climbs and lots of nice downhill.

The track ended at the entrance to the campground at the shore of the large beautiful Lac de Villefort. The only message from the crew gave the WiFi info, so we explored the steep, large and complicated campground. We found lots of lost riders – Rob had no idea and just stopped for a swim. Eventually we passed a bar by the lake and I suggested that someone else should find the camp while we had a beer. Quite a few riders agreed with this idea and we sat on the deck, in a nice breeze, overlooking the scenic lake, swilling large beers. I was just about to finish mine when Jan suggested a second round – he was buying. After that we were in an even better mood and cruised down a dirt trail and eventually found camp.

Our tents were crammed together but it didn’t seem that bad. I had some soup and bread, set up my tent, then went down to the lake for a swim with Wytze. We brought our pads to try and find the leaks in the lake. The swimming was great, but no luck with the leaks. So we used them as floats and paddled around for a while. We stopped at the swimming pool on the way back up and sure enough, the small pool (about 40 cm deep) was perfect. I found my two leaks and he found one. Next up were showers, laundry and relaxing in the shade.

Dinner was a Dutch mashed potato dish, with delicious salad and strawberry pie with cream. I had a nice video call with Katie after dinner, then finished this entry and have plans for a great sleep.