Stage 5, the officially the hardest one so far (6/10 in Cyclosport) completed. Getting into this now, basically getting up and out in the morning is the hardest part, the rest of the day is fairly straightforward : ride bike for 8-10 hours, eat ridiculous amounts of food at every opportunity and admire the scenery.Today we rode through the Morvan region and it was very pretty. On most of the roads there was simply no traffic at all, and that makes cycling very enjoyable.
The climbs we had been talking up as monsters weren't too tough, the biggie to
900 metres was a fairly gradual ascent and we were greeted at the top by a big rain shower.Matt's dad is being brilliant as usual, meeting us at strategic locations with freshly made sandwiches and drinks, and today he managed to get a load of laundry done too...pretty important when we don't have much time off the bike.
The weather is still cooler than I would expect for this time of year, but makes cycling easier.
We rode with some local kids and their teacher today, we thought we'd draft their wheels for a joke, and they ended up drafting us for a few km's, on mountain bikes with backpacks ! (see pics)Feeling slightly more optimistic about making this now (kiss of death saying that before the mountains !) and as a result we foolishly treating the mostly flat 200kms tomorrow as a kind of unofficial rest day and will take half an hour lie in. Over confidence setting in no doubt.
Campervan life has settled into a routine, the campsites are not busy and we are all getting enough food and sleep...for now. Saddle sores may become an issue, but for now we are all in one piece (apart from Kyle, but he started like that).The villages have a 'best decorated village on the tour de france route competition, which is nice. The standard decoration seems to be a giant bike on a roundabout.
Writing this in the dark, everyone else crashed out, as I ought too as well.
Keep the comments coming, we appreciate them, Mark (11pm, 2nd July)
2 comments:
Glad to see you got through yesterday fine. Had been concerned myself with the increased difficulty ratings. I am wondering if you met Willie Vogt whilst you were in Belgium ;)
Glad to see Matt's Dad is doing the business, however fear for your high calorie specially prepared cyclists diet when Emma arrives.
Hope you like fish fingers!!
Great to see you're all enjoying it so much. Very jealous.
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