Departure at 8.30 am. I could have left earlier but I am still fascinated by the ceremony taking place at the 92 Infantry Regiment that my hotel overlooks. Maybe it’s a ceremony to welcome soldiers coming back from mission... whatever, I still have to take the road.
As expected the hardest part is at the beginning, I have to get out of the Clermont Ferrand basin. It takes me almost two hours to ride the first 15 kilometres. The speedometer shows 8% and sometimes 9...

I have a well-deserved coffee in Pongibaud.
Then my road curves around the motorway which I would cut three times.

I change my route three times :

• The first time it seems to me that the track follows a path... I head towards the departmental roads
• Then I have to take a path which seems promising (see photos) but 20m further there is slush... so I avoid it...
• Finally I take a last path because it is very short... But I turn back very quickly to avoid the mud.

All these paths are very good in dry weather. It has just rained too much lately.

Finally I’m happy because I can see the big bales of straw that are everywhere in the fields... I thought he had a huge machine, not a simple machine pulled by a tractor.

I arrive at Hugues and Magaly’s, my hosts for the evening, around 6.30 pm. My longest stage so far.