Day 7: Angers to Niort, France. 87 miles. 4323 feet of climbing. Testy headwinds.

Well, it started off as a nice day.  No rain in the forecast and cool temperatures barely hitting 70 degrees.  Sounds like a good day to ride.

We entered Angers from the North, crossing the Mayenne river.  We left this morning heading South and soon were crossing the Loire.  It was beautiful day and this morning's waters were so peaceful.

But today was a tale of two halves.  The first half of the ride, once we left the Angers environs, was through farmland. Corn, grapes, cows, pigs, sheep.  You name it, we rode by it.

Welcome to wine country!  This area's vineyards were much more unadorned, unnamed and unpretentious compared to the vineyards I've visited in Bordeaux.

It was chilly this morning and everyone was layered with extra wind protection.  And for good reason.  There was an ever-present headwind for the first 40 miles or so.  Always there and, occasionally, gusting heavily.  As we were downwind, we could tell what kind of farm we'd be passing shortly, owing nothing to clairvoyance, but totally to our sense of smell.

Mile after mile of vineyards.  Very few chateaus or caves being promoted here.

And the roads!  It was bad enough that today was the longest riding day to far.  The headwinds didn't add much fun to that effort.  But the really badly-paved chip and seal roads through the farm country made it all the more difficult.

I don't know the name of the town where
I took this shot, but I loved how different
this particular local church looked in
comparison with many we've seen
before it.

[Okay, quick refresher for veterans; new lesson for newbies...Chip and seal is the process of laying down a layer of tar or some other sealant onto the road surfaces (seal), usually in rural areas, then pouring loose gravel (chip) over it and letting the cars push the chips into the sealant.  In extremely remote areas, the size of the chips can be as big as U.S. quarters or a Euro or Pound coin.  In nicer areas, the chips are less than the size of an M&M.  Today was somewhere in between.  But the real challenge is that chip & seal roads prevent steady, high speed rides.  As was the case today, the roads were so bumpy that our whole bodies shake, and it can even loosen nuts and/or bolts that haven't been tightened down enough.]

The second half of the ride was mostly through small villages and communes, on smoothly-paved surfaces and with a cross-wind, as the winds had shifted to our right.

Not many pictures today.  Apologies for that.  The biggest omission on my part was not letting you all know yesterday that we had, very briefly as it turned out, two more riders with us.  Jan and Lia, from The Netherlands, and veterans of ABB cross-country rides, met us two nights ago in Fougères.  They were on their way to vacation in the Pyrenees, along with their two dogs (Canadian retrievers), their bikes and a canoe.  Lia drew the short straw and rode with us yesterday.  Jan rode with us today. Unfortunately, Jan took a wrong turn somewhere and, being the fast rider that he is, wound up nearly 40 kilometers off course before he called Jesse.  Instead of staying again with us tonight before they drove off separately for their vacation, Lia had to retrieve Jan and, given that he was already so far south of where he should have been, decided to just keep driving south towards Spain (once she had Jan in the car!).  Alas, no photos of them.  But the brief time I got to meet and talk with them, they were very nice folks.

Tomorrow is our 122-mile day.  It's going to be an early night!