Day 4 - Entering the Cote D'Or...Finally

The next two days would be the best riding of the trip.  Spectacular vineyard views and better weather combined to uplift everyone's spirits.

Saying goodbye to the Abbey was difficult but the initial hill climbs of the day were even more difficult.  How awesome to get the heart pumping on the early morning ride.  For whatever reason, I felt great and was optimistic that this would be the best day yet.  Self-fulfilling prophecy? Maybe.  But I think everyone agreed that this was the best day so far.

The group was strong and seemed to enjoy the hills.  This was a tougher week than I'd expected with some sections here and there pushing a 13-14% grade!  Laurie kicked some gluteus maximus on the first hill of the day.  Wow.  Impressive!!  There's something about cranking up a long, long hill and getting in a really good cardio groove that is a drug in and of itself.  David was happy to be hitting the hills and pushing the body.

Here, Laurent explains what to expect on Day 4's "Route Rap", while Julien looks on and learns from the master.

After a morning slog up a genuinely tough hill and then some rolling hills in the fog, we began to descend into the Cote de Nuits (the Cote d'Or wine region is comprised of the northern Cote de Nuits and the southern Cote de Beaune regions).  As we neared the downhill, I said to David, we are on the cusp of one of the greatest wine regions in the world, sunshine and vineyards.  A few kilometers later we descended on some nice pavement through a tunnel and emerged at 50-70 km/hour into sunshine and our first views of the Cote d'Or vineyards.  Pure heaven.  (I must admit I felt a bit prescient.)  The warmth of the sun made everyone exclaim something.  Most of what I heard was "ahhhhhh".   And then the view of the pinot noir grapes growing in premier cru vineyards, some of which are THE most prestigious on the planet.

Pinot noir grapes on the second to last day of July:

After a nice respite in a small town where we had the obligatory cafe au lait, we got back on the bikes  and made our way through the lowlands of the Cote de Nuits to the Chateau du Clos de Vougeot.  Here, we had a nice tour through this very special place in burgundy.  The complexity of vineyard ownership is quite obvious here as there are over 90 owners of the surrounding land.

Image of our bikes with the blue upgraded wheel sets:

Here I am within this historic place and the 15th century equipment:

The struggle to make wine:

After an incredible lunch in Nuits St. George (with a sublime salad, cheese and more duck), we rode into the geographically blissful appellation of Pernand-Vergelesses.  (It should be noted that I was quite happy to find an eclair for Pam in Nuits St. George as she had been craving one for days (only to find all the patisseries closed each time we passed one)).  Look how happy Pam looks!  It's the eclair she just ate...finally...

OK.  Laurent had explained to me the night before that this might be his favorite place of the entire trip (we actually skipped the long afternoon option so that we could bike this and it was worth every lost mile).  This is Pernand Vergelesses.  Yes, the wines here are world famous.  But just look at the view!  At this viewpoint, we were about to descend the best hill of the trip in my opinion.  At the end of the downhill was a significant uphill that we were able to just coast up.  On the downhill I noticed that I hit speeds of about 45 mph (will know exactly once I download the Garmin data at home).  Pure bliss.

A sign outside a bike shop in Beaune:

What a day of riding.  We ended up at the Hotel Le Cep by late afternoon.  Dinner was on our own that night and Pam, David, Laurie and I opted for a more casual affair with escargots, great pizza, some carbs and salad.  Great quicker meal of high quality.  Just fine by us!!  Ended the night with a night cap back at the hotel.  I had a nice cognac called Delamain.  Perfect ending to a great day.