The Mistral Winds
We laid over one day in Montélimar, due to heavy rain, and debated hard on whether to make it a two day layover. The rains were to continue both Wednesday and Thursday, with the rain tapering off in the late afternoon on the 8th of October.
However, we learned there is a phenomena that occurs at times of changing weather patterns in southern France along the Rhone River, called the Mistral Winds. These are ultra strong winds that blow cold air from the North at speeds up to 60 mph down to the Mediterranean Sea. We were about to experience one of these Mistral Winds for the next couple of days following the rain. I was excited about it as I knew we would have such a fantastic tail wind and we would fly the 60 miles to Avignon. So, it made sense that we would layover the second day in Montélimar, and ride the Mistral Winds on Friday. However, thanks to Andy's extended research of what it meant to ride the mistral winds along the Rhone, we realized we would be riding in gale-force winds that could knock us off our bikes, or off a bridge! We decided to take the lesser of the two evils and ride in the rain and finish with the mistral winds before they got too strong and headed for Avignon on Thursday.
It seemed auspicious enough at first, with no rain in the early part of the morning, but, of course, just as we were pedaling out of Montélimar, the rain began to come down. Hard. The rain continued in one form or another pretty much all day until 4:00 pm - sometimes as a drizzle, sometimes a sprinkle, and sometimes a cloudburst.
We stopped for a crepe and coffee lunch around 1:00 PM, dripping wet. When we left, we noticed that the wind was picking up and the rain slacking a bit. Feeling good about the second half of our ride, we took off. And then it happened...Andy's rear tire went flat. We think he hit some glass, causing a few cuts in the tire, but it was hard to tell. The bad news was, there seemed to be very little, if any, sealant in the tire and we could not get the tire to hold air very well. We know it would become a race to see if we could put enough air in the tire and then ride as fast and as far as possible before having to add more air to get us the last 28 miles.
The extra push from the mistral wind was exactly the ticket we needed! It grew steadily as the afternoon wore on, and we were sailing! 15 mph, 17 mph, 20 mph on the flat river bank pathways of the Via Rhona bikeway. It was like riding an electric bike without the battery! We passed a few poor souls riding the other way and they did not look like they were having much fun leaning into the wind and the rain and struggling to make their miles. I was grateful we were going with the wind.
As we drew ever nearer Avignon, the sky began to brighten and the clouds began to disperse. The landscape had been changing as we moved south, too. The vegetation included juniper and pines, the limestone rock crags often dominated the river banks, and the ecosystem looked decidedly more Mediterranean. We saw a number of remnants of castles perched on the crags overlooking the river, reminding us of history of the part of the world.
Amazingly, the tire held until we got into Avignon, and as we crossed our last bridge leading to the walled old city dominated by the Pace of the Popes and Cathedral, the sun broke out strongly from the west and a rainbow appeared over the castle walls.
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