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DC Dirty 2021 #3: The Big Dirty Recap

A long day on a epic cycling challenge. The last dirty of the 2021 season had kind of everything. Think the photos do a better sum up than us writing it.

Well done to everyone who started and who enjoyed the day! Well done to those that nearly finished, just finished and easily (impossible) finished to get top points!

Many thanks to our partners for providing them great prizes Specialized | Chemical Guys | the clinic | Namedsport | Suunto | Therabody | Restrap | Castelli

A big gallery from participants, a local photographer and us. Many many thanks to everyone for all the photos. Download

Bit of a wet start
First big climb
People warmed up
People setting out from the first drink stand
A relaxed downhill followed by a river segment
The new segment 4 with the hill top pagoda finish.
A very smooth and groomed flagstone cobble section along the river.
A not so flat forbidden by the coach!
A visit to the pigs!
A relaxed last segment 8 for some!
Dinner
& Awards – then bed!

Another gallery from YilanRyan 黄一澜. Many thanks for that. No so easy taking pictures while slipping down a hill!

And a few quotes from the day:

“Don’t stand up or the back wheel will spin”

“Sh@t that was steep”

“We love getting dirty”

‘Is this the end of the segment?!’

“So, that was the slippery road you were talking about…”

“do you have lights”

in my professional opinion its fu****

not another fu***** hill

not another fu***** cramp

this walk is wonderful

Doctor Justin!! /:,@P/:,@P

“is there another hill? Are you kidding me..?” hahahaa…how often have we heard this sentence [Facepalm]

the last part was worthy to call it real dirty gravel ride! 

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New Old Homes

We have recycled three old family homes in the village and are now offering these for rental. Pricing works out about the same as our other houses on a per person basis with the benefit of having your own private living room and option of self catering.

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French Mountain Wine

It turns out one of our regular “cycling” guests, Mr Constant-Duquesnoy has a family vineyard in the foothills of a famous French cycling region (Mt Vontoux) and we thought it would be interesting to offer a similar regions wine at the Homestay.

High quality family run and made wines. Perfect accompaniment to our BBQ and various types to suit local flavours.

Mathieu practicing his cycling skills at the homestay 🙂

Landscape similar to our own. Mathieu hard at work collecting his grapes

Some background: Domaine CONSTANT-DUQUESNOY is located near the villages of Vaison-la-Romaine, Gigondas and Nyons. The estate’s vineyards cover 20 hectares (49 acres) in 4 prestigious appellations:

  • VINSOBRES
  • CAIRANNE 
  • CÔTES DU RHÔNE VILLAGES 
  • CÔTES DU RHÔNE 

They grow noble varieties such as Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre and Carignan for our red wines which account for most of their production. 

For white wines, they grow white Grenache, Clairette and Viognier. 

Some of their plots contain vines aged over 60 years old located at over 400m (1,300 feet) elevation (similar to the homestay). 

For over 70 years, the vineyards of the Domaine have been grown with the utmost respect for the environment. For the past 3 years, we’ve been practicing organic farming on some of our plots. We are converting the rest of our plots to organic farming and employ practices such as : repeated plowing, using a high trellis, manual pruning, careful debudding and fruit thinning to keep yields under 30 hectoliters per hectare (a little over 2 tons per acre).

A larger selection of Domaine Constant-Duquesnoy wines can be bought directly through Mathieu @ WeChat ID: constant-duquesnoy .

00 86 150 268 68 532 

www.constant-duquesnoy.com

Mathiue@constant-duquesnoy.com