I feel like I’m training a lot, probably because I’m driving a lot to find hills. When you end up spending a full day devoted to cycling, the time allotted to boulanger stops, highway driving and late lunchtime can trick you easily into thinking you’re doing more than you are.

Above is a local road in the Vaunage valley where I tried to get some elevation by doing Clarensac and St Come repeats. In my immediate area I can access quite a few climbs of 2km to 3km long with a max elevation gain of 120m. This will seem ridiculously small to some and amazingly long to others. For me it’s just a little tiresome when I want to get 1500m of climbing in.

It’s for that reason that I jump in the car and, at least in the early season, drive to the Cévennes. I had the best intentions of climbing the mountain you see in the distance yesterday (Mont Lozère), but was thwarted by a bridge being fixed up at the exit of the village of Chamborigaud. Suddenly I was doing hill repeats again, but at least this time I had a 7km climb to do them on. The Col du Prè de la Dame (15km) will have to wait till I find an alternative route to the start.

I keep thinking that I should be hitting bigger mountains, but then I realize it’s still only March. The south side of Ventoux opens up on April 15th, so I suppose it’s game on then, whether I’m ready or not.

And speaking of Ventoux, there she is with my guide, Spencer, sporting 44|5 Cycling Tours’ 2024 jersey in the foreground.

The weight continues to hold firmly (well, not really ‘firm’…) at 71.5kg and I have a trip to Italy planned next week which will not help. I’m bringing the bike, so this should stave off a massive increase at least.