Saturday 14th July 2018
I slept OK in the Yaroslavl IBIS hotel the breakfast was a veritable feast of choices and they had a real coffee machine as opposed to the chicory instant stuff that’s been in most places hence why I’ve been mostly drinking black tea.
We departed at 9am and explored the junction of the two rivers on a beautiful cycle path apparently installed for the cities 1000 year old celebrations a few years ago. We returned to the left bank via the huge bridge and it’s narrow cycleway behind the crash barrier. The road was very busy and the Chelsea tractor drivers like their UK counterparts have no patience for cyclists however we all escaped unharmed.
The next 16km was along an undulating road with the traffic gradually easing and the surface mainly OK after our break we turned of along probably one of the worst roads yet for several kilometres thankfully with very little traffic. Our luck with the fine weather finally ran out as we got soaked in a downpour just before finally hitting a very busy main road again, basically you have a choice of smooth but busy or rough and quiet and just pray there isn’t to much of rough and busy!!
After regrouping we rode into Vyatskoe which had a full blown carnival happening we booked into our hotel including a strong man competition.
The village itself is in the process of being renovated by local residents you’ve made good in the cities winning several awards, once again we had a tour of a local museum featuring a private collection of working early mechanical music machines plus the story of a local resident who repaired the angel atop of one the churches in St Petersburg by climbing the outside of the steeple. It’s quite interesting how the villagers are trying to generate interest privately, it’s unclear whether local councils are involved.
Some of us then went to the local black banyan for a high temperature sauna experience pleased to say that the felt hats really work to keep your head cool 🙂 although I slipped by the overhead water bucket douche removing the skin right where I press on the pedals. I managed to limp back to the hotel before a mega thunderstorm and rainstorm hit the village.
In the evening at dinner we celebrated Heleen’s 50th birthday with certainly to much alcohol before checking out the rock concert in the village
A short hard ride and good to finish early in the afternoon, Strava says i did 36 miles at 12.4mph.
