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Worth recording what you eat in terms of calories for a week or so (you might do this already)
Given your weight and cycling workload, you probably need to be eating at least 3000 calories a day.
You are so light and lean for your height already, so overtraining and under eating in combination while on a long cycling trip might have wrecked your muscles somewhat.As Hippy said, not so easy to find non veggie protein options in French countryside/rural locations.
Appreciate the thoughts - I am pretty lean but I don't seem able to put weight on no matter what I do. My mother has joked ever since I was a kid that I must have a worm... It's been a while since I've weighed myself but I've never been over 65kg, I typically hover around 62-63kg.
I've been vegetarian for years and years but ensure I eat a lot of protein as well as having a balanced diet in general. The feeling of lactic is a more recent thing - I was away in France recently solo riding up the likes of Ventoux, Tourmalet etc and felt super strong and was probably the fastest I've ever been.