Onwards and upwards

We have had a quiet, fairly inactive few days since our long run on Wednesday, with time being spent preparing more ground for our veggie seed sowing and also sorting out the barn for our bike turbo trainer and other associated fitness gubbins. So, with the day dawning warm and clear today, a bike ride was on the cards. I decided to do a variation on the ride over the Col de Saraillé that I did a few weeks ago, but this time building in an extension from Ercé, heading along the valley to Aulus and then back down the valley to Oust before climbing back up to the Col de Saraillé via the road that I had descended last time. It was a beautiful ride up to Cominac, with Mont Valier looking amazing in the midday light.I descended down the steepish, 5km road from Cominac to Ercé which I had ascended last time, and then headed left along the gentle gradient of the road from Ercé to Aulus where I stopped to refill my water bottles and have a bite to eat. The short break recharged my batteries and I felt ready to go again. 31.5 km was under my belt - I reckoned I had covered about half the distance. The run back down the valley to Oust was lovely but then I had to turn off to head back up to the Col de Saraillé. I had descended by this route last time and knew that, although it was not excessively steep, it was still sustained and would be a challenge for my already tired legs. But I took it steady and was relieved when I finally saw Cominac opening out in front of me. Way down in the valley, in the distance, I could make out the route that I had taken up towards Aulus - it seemed miles away! By now I was generally feeling very tired, having covered 54kms and was not looking forward to the final ascent from Massat back up the Col de Port road to Pissou. But before then, I had a great photo opportunity which shows our general situation here, looking down to Massat (church on the right) with the Col de Port in the far distance, behind the prominent 'lump' in the centre right of the photo. Pissou is situated just to the left of that lump on the small headland that is just visible
I eventually staggered back to Pissou with no juice left in my legs. The ride profile went some way to explain my knackered-ness;
I had spent 3 hrs 40 mins in the saddle, covered 69.5kms which included 1100m of ascent - my hardest ride to date. I was pooped but chuffed to have completed the ride on such a gorgeous day.