We really liked the place we stayed the night, the Maison du Canal, for its beautiful surroundings and the nice, quiet night we had with fresh air smelling of cut grass. Also, it was one of the cheaper lodging bills to settle with only 60€ for the room, 9€ for the bottle of rosé wine, and 5€ for the local beer.
A short chat with the owner of the hostel revealed that the house was built during Napoleon’s time and used to house the architect that planned the construction of this side of the canal, and later the offices and the counter where the canal toll used to be settled.
Today’s elevation profile looked great. First, a gradual climb of about 70m over 20km to the highest point of the canal in Pouilly-en-Auxois, and then all the way downhill to Dijon, where downhill means flat paths along the canal with short drops at the many locks. Today’s 80km would just fly by. And they did, as we pretty much averaged 20km/h.
The first twenty kilometers uphill passed quickly, as we discussed the latest American politics scandals: Sarah Sanders getting booted from a restaurant because the staff and owner were not ok with her dining there, and Scott Pruitt spending government money for “tactical pants” and “tactical polos”. We are still wondering what those might be.
On some tiny climb from the canal up to a road bridge, I got out of the saddle and heard the all-too-familiar metallic cling announcing another trip to a bike mechanic to replace another spoke (#3 on this trip, all in my back wheel).
At half way, we stopped in Veuvey-sur-Ouche for our typical baguette picnic lunch with the remaining blueberries (it was nice to still have some left), tomatoes, ham and cheese. Liz took some sips of the warm, leftover rosé wine from last night, and off we went for the last stretch.
It was all beautiful, and the cycling path surface is very well maintained. The only pothole we encountered was marked with a huge warning sign and bright spraycan markings around.
Closer to Dijon, the cycle path got busier with people enjoying the sunny Sunday. In town, we switched routing to arrive at the La Rustine community bike workshop. For 15€ a year, one can use the workshop for bike maintenance.
I got a yearly membership and got to work on my back wheel: First, you have to remove tire and tube, brake disc, and cassette to be able to remove the broken and refit the new spoke. Then, I used their wheel truing setup to adjust the tension of the new spoke, and finally reassembled the wheel. Well, the cassette I assembled twice, because of course, as I finished, I noticed that I forgot to put back the spoke protector. During all this, Liz thoroughly cleaned her bike’s drive train and then napped on their couch.
While it was nice to learn a new bike maintenance skill, I really hope this was it with spokes breaking on my back wheel!
Total distance/elevation to date: 2571km/15’420m
Rest days: 7
Day 33 Route and Stats
The 1948 Tour 
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