04/07/2023 – PCR 2023 – Day 3

I rolled out of my sleeping bag after a few hours of sleep and got dressed but very quickly, upon realising that there was a toilet block in the campsite, got undressed to go to for my morning bathroom break.

Rejoining the route I knew I didn’t have too long until the first Checkpoint of the race. It was 40km with nearly 600m of elevation so wouldn’t be the fastest 40k ride I’ve done in my life and the weather didn’t help much either.

The sky was lighting up as I made my way through the French countryside but was dampened slightly by the constant drizzle that was in the air.

I was in desperate need of a shower (not the type that was already being gifted to me by the weather gods), some actual food (as I didn’t have much besides snacks for breakfast) and a bit of a warming up.

After 2 hours of chugging away whilst checking the tracker every now and then to see who was still at the Checkpoint I rolled into Mellionnec the route at the T junction went both left and right. thankfully my bike computer was beeping at me to go right towards the checkpoint as I’d later find out that a small number of riders missed the checkpoint by assuming that it was a routing error and turning left.

I was welcomed into the hostel entrance by a sea of bikes. Whilst managing to find a space to park it up outside the front I got chatting to some riders that I knew which was nice as I’d spent quite a lot of the last day or so by myself. I got my Card stamped, took a seat in the kitchen area and got to some eating.

A quick hop upstairs to a lovely warm shower was well deserved before shovelling a bit more food down and then leaving for the rest of the days ride.

I ended up spending nearly 2 hours at the Checkpoint which was probably longer than I’d planned but I managed to warm up, top up the social battery and get a bit of cleanliness on the cards.

It was nice chatting to some of the other riders including Mike who made a heroic effort to ride really late into the night to make it to the checkpoint for some kip.

After the rain eased up, I set out with another big day ahead of me. The road went out west and was a rural one. It didn’t go through many towns at all which was a bit of an issue as I was hungry after 2 days of the race.

The France section of the race was supposed to be very flat and zoomed out it looked it but it was far more rolling hills than advertised.

I was really starting to struggle and took a detour to find a bakery that sadly didn’t actually exist.

Having gotten a little bit of practice of how to stay on the bike for as long as possible, I made it to Locronan 5 hours of elapsed time and 90km where I bumped into Loz and Raph, the Fixie Pair, and had a little chat before heading into a charcuterie store where the only thing I could buy were some loaves of bread and some olive tamponade which was delicious.

I rolled through the town and spotted a sandwich shop. Right at that moment the weather started to deteriorate so ducked in, had a couple of salad sandwiches and packets of crisps while the weather passed.

I ended up spending an hour in Locronan which was definitely a deserved break however the day was passing by so I braved the rain and got back on the bike with some other riders who were passing through.

There was a little climb out of the village which strained the cafe legs before settling into the days average speed.

Pottering along west until a supermarket stop off an hour later in Pouldergat to last me for a while. I then joined up with Fast Tony and his gang.

It was nice to ride with people, exchange stories, have a laugh and watch as the miles flew by while rolling round this western loop to Douarnenez where we spotted a “O’Delices Restaurant Kebab” which offered some quick food (thankfully some of which was vegan), a respite from the weather and time to plan next moves.

It seemed clear that they were sticking together as a team and I didn’t need any hints to know that I probably wasn’t invited. It was probably for the best as they were heading off course to a BnB whereas I wanted to try and spend every night out under the stars.

So that was the stick, I also had the carrot in that Loz and Raph (Fixie Pair) were up the road from me (a fair while up the road but something I could give a crack at) and I fancied catching up with them.

Off I set 1 hour and 20 minutes after arriving at the restaurant (I wonder where I could save on some time for next year…) and almost instantly pulled over to stock up on drinks and some snacks for the evenings ride.

There were some stunning views leaving the town as the weather began to improve as I headed North East. My back up option if I didn’t fancy roaring into the night was a campsite in Le Faou. It would be a very early stop but there wasn’t really anywhere to stop afterwards for quite a while as the route headed into a national park.

It was nice to have some alone riding time again especially as the sunset was glorious. I rolled into Le Faou and needed to stop by the Campsite for a nature stop and to fill up the water bottles and get the kit ready for the plunge into the national park.

The ride into the park was lovely, very quiet roads, smooth tarmac and I was making some ground up on Loz and Raph, not being on a fixie certainly helped on the climb. The route went past a military airbase which was pretty cool.

I descended into the next village where the map says that their dots were but after speaking to another PCR rider who said that they’d just set off so I went to chase them down.

It didn’t take long before I saw some red dots in the distance and joined up with them. After a bit of chat we decided that the night was properly drawing in and was getting cold despite only being at 250m elevation.

We found a church (of course), parked up against its wall and got some shut eye.