See here for day 4.
This day would take me from the cobbles of Belgium to The Ardennes National Park which is both in France and Belgium.
I spent the night an Airbnb in an old townhouse in Ellezelles. It was a pretty fancy setup. In a somewhat risky move I decided to book all my accommodation in advance of my trip and ended up with a mix of Airbnb rooms, Chambre d’hotes (a French B&B) and one hotel room. Thankfully it all worked out but if something had gone wrong en route then I might have lost some money and had to do some rebooking.
According to the forecast the morning was going to be a wet one before turning drier in the afternoon.
Being, just a room in a house there was no breakfast, so after coffee in the room I was on the road again by 8am. No rain so far but very misty. Plan was to get to Geraardsbergen, do the Mur (cobbled spring classics climb) and then find some breakfast.
Half way up the Mur I saw a place for breakfast and nearly stopped but decided to finish the climb first. There are several pitches on this one and early on it doesn’t seem too bad. The hard part of the climb stays hidden for quite a while. As I go up the last couple of ramps the rain starts thankfully with no impact to the grip on the cobbles. My breakfast plan wasn’t going to plan. Over the Mur and I was practically out of town. I considered going back in but that would have meant a descent back into town and then back up again on a day where enough distance and ascent was planned already. I kept going in my planned direction instead on the lookout for some breakfast. A bit further on I came across a village centre car park with three trailer vans selling food, a bakery one, a butcher and another. I got 2 huge chocolate coated pain au chocolate and ate one of them there and then. I stashed the other one away for later (to be consumed in a bus shelter).
The weather made this feel like a very uninspiring day but thankfully (a bit like day one) it would get better as the day went on. The rain got quite heavy for a while and that coincided with me riding along a 10km straight road with lots of traffic (it did have a cycle lane, so although miserable it was never unpleasant from a traffic point of view). At the end of the straight I rolled into a town called Soignies and got myself a coffee. Cappuccinos were getting smaller the further south I got.
From here in the rain eased and I enjoyed quiet country lanes, farm tracks and some gravel through villages and Belgium towns. Some of the route here took me on disused railway lines which were great for cycling on but less great for coming past shops or cafés. In one case the disused railway line was still there with a nice tarmac track next to it.
From the start in Ellezelles there was a gradual incline – well rolling but with a net ascent which after half way would turn into some descent climbs. Noteworthy on route are the towns of Houdeng-Aimeries on the Canal du Centre Historique, Lobbes with it’s old Abbey and Thuin with some old railway infrastructure as well as the Lac d’Heure and the town of Couvin.
Climbing out of Couvin I unmistakably heard wild boar but didn’t see any. Thereafter I regularly saw lots of evidence of them in the areas I was cycling through. Somewhere around there I also encountered another fellow cyclists who was out on a 2 day bikepacking mini adventure. We rode the next 10km together.
The French border came and went unannounced only to be noticed by the change in road signs again. The owns of the Chambre D’Hote I was staying that night asked that I’d call when I was around 1 hour out to let them know when I’d arrive. I called an left them a message. The route for today had I the meantime ascended to nearly 400m above sea level. We’d definitely left the Dutch and Belgian flatlands behind us but would and the day at just over 100m. The day finished with an excellent descent into the Meuse Valley. And with that the longest riding day with the most ascent was done. 2 more big ones were still in the plan.
I got to my accommodation for 5:45pm that evening and took the owners by surprise as they were expecting me closer to 7pm. They were a lovely couple and made me feel very welcome but after the wet morning I had they made me clean all my bike bags before they came into the house. I took the opportunity to give my bike a bit of a clean and tidy up too which it deserved after 5 days. Excellent dinner in a local restaurant about 500m away.
Generally my evening routine was to make sure I did all of the following 3: dinner, shower and a good amount of stretching as well as get myself ready for the next day.
Planned Distance: 152km
Actual Distance: 152.68km
Trip Distance: 650.84km
Ascent for the day: 1751m
Ascent for the trip: 4869m
Riding time: 8:37:00 hrs
Riding time for the trip: 31:31 hrs