Ask any veteran; you can't slip through the Ardennes

Here's our map and stats for the day - unfortunately the cadence sensor cut out two-thirds of the way through, and I forgot to start it until a few miles into the journey, but just look at the elevation...

"Le pays des vallées", valley country in English, is the maxim for the Belgian province Namur which we had the mixed pleasure to cycle through. As I mentioned in my last entry the hills of the day before had been gruelling, and we were fully aware today would see us rise to at least the 500metres necessary to enter Luxembourg and probably more. As it transpired today was every bit as tough as we'd predicted, except unlike the day before there was absolutely no flat terrain - we were on constant rises and dips which have lowered our overall daily distance to half of what we began with in the low countries. In addition the weather would unpredictably switch from hot sunlight to cold rain, which froze us on long descents but would cause us to overheat if we wore our rain jackets on the climbs. Then there were the problems with the RAVeL cycle route...I'll start there.

We began the day with high hopes. As no stores are open until nine on Sunday mornings, including those which serve breakfast, we took a stroll around town until we saw a tourist office. There we found a map which showed the RAVeL networks of Belgium, supposed national cycling routes that cross the country, and one was near us and claimed to be able to go all the way into Luxembourg. We understood we would have to gain height during the day but the thought of achieving this through gradual paths designed for families was extremely exciting, particularly as the day before our only productive portion of the day consisted of five miles of excellent RAVeL cycling route. With this in mind we set out to the village of Jumelle from the previous day's cycle track, then along the coast to Hargimont, constantly aware of the hills waiting on our flanks for our inevitable turn inland. After stocking up on food and drinks at a gas station we cut inland for the climb to Hargimont, only to find...nothing. Locals had no idea of this cycling route. We went down the hill, then back, to no avail. Our actions here were really incosequential as it became obvious the day was to be very tough no matter how it was approached. After checking our map we decided to cycle the 8km to the Southern village of Ambly in the hope of meeting the route on the way. Instead we had our first introduction to outrageous gradients and, as expected, nothing in the village.

The day continued in this vein to Nassogne and the Ardennes countryside. We took lunch on a marshy dugout at 1600feet on a main road for lack of anywhere better and are covered in mosquito bites as a result. There was a brief effort on a very busy dual carriageway to make some distance but it was realised there was no avoiding the contours and may as well face them somewhere where there wasn't a risk of being taken out by a zippy Belgian, so returned to the countryside. We are now in Bastogne, famed for its role in the Battle of the Bulge, and it's little surprise two generations of German attacks through this country have ended in failure - going through here isn't a shortcut. RAVeL have a lot to answer for; we saw hardly any cyclists all day, so clearly Belgians learned to disregard their advice a long time ago. A couple of miles from Luxembourg we can only hope their routes are better prepared. So, there we are...there are positives to this, our height should now have plateaued, and we have heard good things about the Luxembourg routes, but the veracity of these claims remains to be seem.

All the best,
Tom x