Étape 8: Cluny to Lyon (90km)

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Another beautiful day in the Burgandy region of France, with crystal clear blue skies from dawn until dusk. We left soon after 9am when it was already feeling warm and quite humid, and we barely had time to digest our breakfast before tackling some steep climbs between Cluny and Mâcon upwards of 12%.

The route was quite steep and twisting, before burying under the hills through a 2km tunnel (the Tunnel du Bois Clair) that required our bike lights for the first time on the route. The tunnel is closed during the winter to protect a colony of bats that live there, and remains cool and quite damp ( and dark ! ) even in the summer months, which provided some welcome relief to the heat!

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Definitely started to feel my knees in pain this morning after 7 days of continuous cycling, and even struggled to walk the stairs last night – but once on the open road the kilometers seemed to fly by, especially once we had passed Mâcon and were following fast paced winding roads that followed the river Saône down to Lyon.

After 90 km we have arrived in Lyon where it was once again a very warm afternoon with the temperature peaking at 26C. The place we are staying is close to the confluence of the Rhône and the Saône, and marks the start of the final leg of the tour into the Rhône-Alps region, which contains in its easternmost part the start of the Alps and Mont Blanc! If we end up there we’ve made a serious wrong turn.. though Mark has talked about Mt. Ventoux (usually after half a bottle of red).

So far then we’ve covered approximately 840km, achieving this in just over 43 hours at an average speed of 19.4km/h. Forwards ever, backwards never as they say- but an exceptionally tough 3 days lie ahead of us between Lyon and the finish on the Mediterranean on Friday afternoon!

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Thanks to everyone who has been sending messages of support, it is helping to inspire us on to the finish in spite of all the niggles and pains, not to mention the temptation to lie-in and enjoy France at a slower pace.