Stage 4, Villers-Cotterêts - Joigny, 190 kms, Sunday 1st July

125 or so miles today, completed fine. The weather has been kind for cycling, not too hot so water intake etc is not excessive and no threat of sunburn yet. The route was a little more rolling and there was a headwind for a large section, but otherwise we are holding up well.



Individual thoughts so far :

Mark

Legs feeling good, they were extremely good yesterday and I felt I could ride up anything all day and did my fair share of towing, but today they were back to normal. My appetite has at least doubled, basically I am hoovering up anything that I see before me, which in France includes a lot of pain-au-chocolat. Stage 5 tomorrow has a difficulty level of six which is a bit of a jump from the 1’s and 2’s we’ve had so far, so lets see what difference it makes. There are occasional sprints fr King of the Mountains points and intermediate sprints, but generally we are trying to save our legs. A friendly local chap rode with us today, pictured below.



No injuries and the punctures seem to have stopped now that we are on super-smooth and debris free French roads. I have also reluctantly concluded that although I love England, cycling anywhere in France is better than everywhere in the UK, maybe Scotland excepted. I have yet to find a non-nice area of France and I am running out of new places to look at. The traffic density difference is absolutely huge and that and the nice temperatures makes it very enjoyable…even several hundred miles in a few days. Loving it so far, exactly what I was expecting. Can't believe Kyle is riding with a collar bone broken less than week ago.







Amy

My favorite day so far! So nice to start out the day with a group of 9 i.e. the regulars- Kyle, Mark, Matt and me. Laura has now joined and will ride with us for over a week (thank goodness for fresh legs). 3 people from Acxiom will ride with us for 4 of the stages. We also had a random French guy cycle with us for the first 30 miles. Chatting amongst the group made the first 30 miles tick by quickly. We were greeted by the support car that happened to have peanut butter- woo-hoo! Finally. I have been craving it since we began and haven’t found any so far (the French obviously don’t know the secret to endurance cycling!). I thoroughly enjoyed an enormous French baguette filled with a banana and peanut butter. I couldn’t have been happier.

The other great part about today’s ride was the scenery. We passed many of the sunflower fields that are often captured as the background to the Tour pelaton. Today was the first day that I really felt like I was on the Tour route. It was also the first day that I wasn’t counting down the seconds to get off my bike. It took my legs ages to warm up ~85 miles, but started to feel really good (the peanut butter must have kicked in). My spirits are high now and I’m looking forward to stage 5. Andy, we made it past your stage 3 wager (!) and still going strong.

Kyle
Today was an outstanding day of riding – definitely what I had in mind when I pictured riding in France and a far cry from the stages in England and Belgium. Laura, Amy, Mark, and I worked well into a steady head and crosswind for the 125 mile stage, and the roads were remote, scenic, in excellent condition, and we passed more than a few sunflower seeds with the sunflowers in full bloom – an awesome sight! Other than stage 2 in Belgium, little is actually flat as both Stage 1 (122 miles) and today (125 miles) have had over 6000 feet of climbing. Certainly not bad, but not exactly pancake flat either. Tomorrow the real climbing starts with Stage 5. Although not a true mountain stage, tomorrow’s stage is considered the toughest outside of the mountains at 125 miles with four Cat 4 climbs, three Cat 3, and a Cat 2 climb which is a 3000 foot ascent over Haut Folin. This should be our first real sampling of just how bad the climbing will be. The little Cat 4’s we’ve encountered so far and which have only been thrown in to distribute some minor King of Mountain points and give someone the jersey for the early stages certainly have seemed like “proper climbs” to me. I fear the real mountains may be a bit more than I’ve anticipated.

For those wondering about my injuries and my crash. I decided on Wednesday that I could ride one-handed and at least manage the 5 mile prologue. The thought of missing this epic stage in London was too much for me. Well, this stubborn idea was a bad one, but luckily it worked out with no crashed or further damage done, but riding one handed in rush hour London traffic in a downpour navigating buses and taxis driving on the wrong side of the road was not on the agenda. So, like it or not I was forced to really test the back and broken collar bone on the bike, and surprisingly it wasn’t such a problem. I could hold the bars and brake and shift without pain, but my back was the biggest problem. I survived the prologue and figured I’d start the 127 mile stage out of London the next day and see how it felt. It was tough and I was in a good deal of pain and any bump or crack in the road was to be avoided or the impact absorbed with the legs, but I got through the day. I held up the group a bit and was in a world of hurt by the end, but I got through it. Stage 2, a 110 mile slog in Belgium was simply miserable. Cold, 30+ mph winds and a steady rain made for a miserable day as I had no booties or long-fingered gloves. And the roads chosen for the stage may have been fine when closed for the 200 person peloton, but for a group of 4 it was not fun as we were primarily on shoulders of major roads with trucks and cars flying past. One of our Tour magazines gave the stage a 2/10 scenic rating, but with a caveat: 0/10 if it’s raining. Well, it was cold, windy, and pouring. Not fun, and the day ended with my 2nd puncture of the ride. We’d more than covered the stage distance (having ridden from the campsite to the start) and just called the van to us to end the day. I decided it may be prudent to skip Stage 3 as my back gave me great difficulties on the first 2 stages and was preventing me from sleeping nights. I still needed assistance getting on and off the bike and out of bed and in/out of the campervan, etc… and the 148 mile stage looked to be on more heavily trafficked miserable roads and the thought of bumping and bouncing around for that duration seemed a poor means to help the back heal. And, as Laura was arriving that day and the campervan needed to be diverted to Brussels to pick her up, I jumped at the excuse to skip the unappealing day in the saddle. The choice turned out to be a prudent one as my back improved nicely with a day off the bike.

It’s been one week since my crash and Stage 5 is tomorrow. I am far from being back to my old self on the bike, but I’m far better off today than earlier in the week. The collar bone is giving me surprisingly little trouble and pain (aside from the occasional jolt of pain on some bumps), and the back seems now to be mending quickly. I still cannot generate much power and cannot get out of the saddle, but the improvements are noticeable by the day and I hope to be at full power by the mountains next week. Today was the first day where I felt like I was riding and not just somehow or other forcing the pedals around. Thanks for all the well wishes and I plan to keep the rubber side down from here on out! Wish me luck!

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