Despite setting the alarm for 07:00hrs my mind chose to wake up at 05:45hrs so I got up and switched the alarm off at 06.30hrs having come to the conclusion that I was not going back to sleep. I was sharing a room with Ian so I got in and out of the bathroom as quietly as I could and headed down to breakfast.
I was the first of the group down so I sat on a table next to a couple who had a toddler and two young boys. Whilst eating my multitude of mini pastries, fruit and copious amounts of hot chocolate I was entertained by the two young boys as the younger boy decided to announce to the whole breakfast area how the woman on the beach scene painting on the wall had a huge bum, how it was bigger than mums bum and that the “lady lumps” where not covered. This went on for quite a while and the mum did her best to move him away from this line of conversation but he kept bringing it back.
The younger boy also mooned his brother to which the mother jumped out of her chair and pulled his trousers up and told him not to do such things in a restaurant. I managed to avoid eye contact throughout the time and somehow managed to stop myself from laughing out loud whilst constantly laughing inside.
It was a chilly morning again with some low lying cloud but I figured this because of being on the coast and believed the sun would burn through so I stuck to plan and wore my coolest of tops in preparation for the promised 25c the forecasters where telling us and just wore my thermal arms to take off the chill.
Me looking bleary eyed just before we set off with Carl, Paul and Matt in the backgroud
We set off in the same formation as the day before with my group setting off last almost half an hour after the first. Ian had decided to stick with Richards group and Matt stayed with us.
Instant impression of France was the road surface, its smoooooooth. It’s a little complicated getting out of the port area but after a couple of initial wrong turns we were on our way. We took it quite leisurely for the first 8 to 10 miles keeping the speed around 18 mph and then picked it up to 21 mph having agreed to start drifting and share the brunt of the wind for a mile each at a time.
First major climb of the day was tackled around the 12 mile point and second impression of France became apparent of how the drivers are friendlier and considerate of cyclists. We had had cars holding back from passing us and where now getting friendly beebs of horns and waves too which was really nice.
Eleven miles of almost pancake flat followed this and we really got into the swing of drafting and passed a couple of the groups that had set off before us. Seemed a little strange to be riding along without any hills and to just see flat land as far as the eye could see at times. I ran out of water around the 32 mile mark so we stopped to find out how the support vans where doing as we had expected to see them around the 25 mile point. Val explained that they had been delayed, are on their way now but we were covering more ground than had been expected. One of the other groups caught back up to us whilst we were on the phone so we shared the information and decided we better get moving again before get cold as the day was not warming up. Carl mentioned how he was finding the pace a bit of a challenge and said he would hang back with the other group so Ben, Paul, Matt and I headed on.
We pulled onto a main road around 40 mile point and saw a little convenience store so I popped in and purchased a big bottle of water. I filled my bottle and was sharing the rest of the bottle with the others when Val and Gerald pulled up in the support van. We initially thought we would just grab some fluids and energy bars but Val got a call from Richard who turned out to be a couple hundred yards up the road in a café so it was decided to grab lunch there and then. Gerald and Val whipped up some lovely ham, cheese and lettuce baguettes and we soon had everyone joining us for the lunch.
I swapped my cool lightweight jersey for a warm thermal long sleeve one (it was still cold and now trying to rain) and once we had had our fill Paul, Ben, Matt and I set off again but with additional supplies of energy bars and drinks in our back pockets.
From here on it was pretty much flat and we enjoyed wizzing along smooth quiet roads at 21mph. We passed through a beautiful town called Beaumont le Roger, which had some magnificent ruins of le prieuré de la Sainte Trinité within them.
Think I might use this place as a stop point next time I am there as looks like an interesting place to walk round for a while and was an immaculately clean town.
My left knee (which is normally the good one) had been twinging since around the 30 mile mark and around the 60 mile point I started to think about the 70 miles we had to look forward to the next day so I mentioned this to the lads when we stopped to water the plants at 66 miles and we agreed to bring the speed down to 18mph for the last 14 miles and use it as a warm down into the town. As we got back on the bikes we could see another group heading towards us at speed, we stuck to plan and took it easy at 18mph and within seconds we had the Ian, Simon & David express pass us at a fantastic pace. Ben was not having anyone pass us so he called for us to catch them and instantly sprinted across to join them, I could feel the urge to sprint across with him but my desire to protect my knee prevailed so I hung back and was surprised not to see Paul and Matt sprint across with him (I know you could have done it lads so thanks for hanging back with me).
Paul, Matt and I continued to take it easy the rest of the way in completing the 81 miles in just under 4 hours 30 minutes.
That evening we all enjoyed a great three course meal which had been organised for us at a local sports club. A few of the lads went in search of night life on the way back from the meal but I was already sleep walking by this stage so I went straight up to bed really pleased to have managed my new longest ride and averaged 18 mph over such a big distance. http://connect.garmin.com/player/218550668
No comments:
Post a Comment