Paris Dakar Stage 8

Stage 8 of 60, Day 9 of 71: 126.9 km, 2007m, 5:56, 306 shifts, ave speed 21.4, max speed 64.8

The 8th stage was fun, just over the average distance and over double the average climb. But today’s post is about food, not riding. It’s not because the food was amazing or anything, in fact it was quite ordinary for the tour. But I felt like concentrating on something other than riding. Well, first, we did ride under the tallest bridge in the world. So that’s worth mentioning. It was in the morning and it’s technically a viaduct: the Millau Viaduct. Its height is 336m (1104′). It was built from 2001 to 2004, and it’s awesome. It’s so tall that from underneath, you can barely hear the traffic driving above. Under it, we tried to guess the height and my guess was 150m, and no one guessed higher than that.

Ok, back to the food. Breakfast was a little unusual: for the first time on a Bike Dreams trip the optional dish was eggs with smoked salmon. There was also smoked mackerel, lightly cooked cherry tomatoes (also both firsts), plus all the normal stuff. This was all so good that I skipped the muesli. In France, instead of one or two types of cheese, there are typically four or more. And three or more kinds of bread or pastries.

Bike Dreams is based in Holland and they do a ton of shopping for the trips at Jumbo (maybe roughly equivalent to Costco for Americans, also it’s pronounced Yuumbo).

After breakfast, we rode and stopped in a small town at a café. Most people get coffee but I always get Orangina. Orangina goes well with the two main Bike Dreams snacks: Maxim energy bars and Sultana brand Fruit Biscuits. Also we sometimes eat our bananas at the first café stop.

Then we rode a bunch more and at about 70 km it was time for lunch. Ype always delivers; it is SO nice to be able to count on a great lunch halfway through the ride. Today’s lunch selection was pretty normal although the chocolate cookies are rare. Sometimes there are dinner leftovers but not today. In France there always seem to be more than three kinds of cheese.

After lunch, no surprise, we rode more. After some time we descended into a town and looked for a café. It wasn’t easy to find an open one but of course we did. In the afternoons, our drinks have stabilized to one Perrier and one Orangina per person, plus a beer on exceptionally tough stages.

Then we rode to camp. In camp, you first have snacks and soup. If you get there too early, it’s not ready and you have to pay the penalty of unloading the trucks. But if you screw around at cafés enough, you can just start eating right away on arrival.

Then, there’s a break in eating for a few hours while you set up your tent, take a shower, wash laundry, but 7pm comes pretty soon and we’re back at it.

Our cook is American but lives in northern Italy. She hasn’t repeated herself once so far and the dishes are always varied and tasty. Tonight was an Italian menu, sorry I didn’t take a photo of the fancy chalkboard menu she always makes. Then Rob parades the menu around to each table and very enthusiastically announces each dish. Tonight’s pasta was with cheese and lemon zest, and fresh parmesan on top. Delicious. The meat eaters had giant meatballs but I got zucchini with mushrooms. The salad was great with nuts and citrus and we had Rosé for the first time. I always drink water too. Dessert was tiramisu.

And that was stage 8 through the eyes of a food eater. I think I eat more than double the amount I do at home. If you were wondering, stage 8 was from Le Rozier to La Salvetat-sur-Agout. We stayed at a private campground with no other guests, 1.5 km up a steep little driveway. It was quiet, spacious and has a lake.