Even at the Tour de France there are quiet days, quiet in the sense of not far and not high. In real life, however, 180 km and 1800 meters of altitude are certainly not a quiet day. For us, this has been the topic of conversation today, how cool it is to have such a day, hey, logical after more than 2000 km.

There is not much to report here today, only that everyone was glad to have an easy day. The route went through an agricultural area, without larger towns. Up to the half I drove in a group, also to bridge the distance quickly, in the afternoon I was mostly alone on the road, so dreaming to myself and contemplating the landscape.

Our fellow traveller

We call him the fellow traveler, today I had the opportunity to meet him. We saw him pass us since Düsseldorf, every day, every stage, always somehow afternoon. Besides, he was always followed by a car with a wheel attachment with an obvious spare racing wheel. Well, we always greeted each other and to some other Lifer he was known in the meantime. So today I had the opportunity to meet him, we rode about 20 km together.

He is Ric from Holland and he runs 2 restaurants in Utrecht. He spent about 10 days to program the route of the Tour de France 2017 into his bike computer and now he realized, others do it too and he just has to follow our black arrows on this yellow green background.

For him, this trip is a time out, a way away from all these guests who are constantly complaining about little things, the constant publicity, the forced friendliness and much more that his job entails. Besides, he reported, a great opportunity to spend 3 weeks on the road with his father. Hey, how great, when I think I would be on the road with Martin like that and we would have these 3 weeks in the nothingness and yet in the greatness … too bad that he is no longer there.

I haven’t taken a photo now without being asked, but I’m sure there will be another opportunity, in any case I’ll see you in Paris.

Tomorrow will be another long day and then we are all happy about a rest day without transfer and 2 nights in the same hotel.