Stage 11, Marseille - Montpellier, 180 km, Tuesday 10th July

It's quite windy between Marseille and Montpellier.....we can confirm this after cycling for several hours across the Camargue with some seriously intense wind barelling across from the north. I am not sure it was officially the Mistral, but it was tough to cycle in.


We left early and the morning was a little chilly as the sun had barely risen above the Provencal countryside. A small climb proved no problem and we stopped at a boulengerie for some more of a diet that would probably kill an average person, but seems to get us through stages. Basically it is anything with lots custard, raisins and chocolate in it, x 2 please.


Meanwhile Brian dropped Laura off at one airport and picked Emma up from another - what a star. Emma is taking over as support driver. We passed under an impressive looking Roman aquaduct on route, the photo is below...looked lovely in the morning light.

Because of the early start we took our time on the re-fuelling stops, and grazed the ever more impressive smorgasbord of local supermarket delights that Brian had procured.

The second half of the ride was hot, but not too hot as we battlled the winds, and finally we arrived at the campsite near Lattes (near Montpellier) that Brian and Emma had already arrived at.


Checking in was fairly straightforward, apart from we were caught off-guard by the 'speedos only' rule that is strictly adhered to at the site pool. Shorts are certainly not allowed....speedos only.....this caused some astonishment amongst the American contingent who come from a land where it is always the other way round.

The tiny campsite snack bar serves moules-frites for 7 euros on a Thursday...can't imagine that in England.

For anyone who works in catering or food hygiene.....look away now. Below is a photo I took of one of my water bottles at a rest stop today. The lurid colours are caused by two different flavours of Accelerade (sports drink powder) that we are convincing ourselves actually makes us pedal faster for longer. The grey colour on the inside is old Accelerade that includes some sort of Protein amongst its ingredients.....it is really hard to get off. The dark grimy colour on the outside of the bottle is road-grime and general deitrus that seems to get pasted on...again doesn't come off very easily, especially when you don't even try after a long stage.

So we are a little surprised that none of us have gastroenteritis so far.

A lumpier stage tomorrow, in almost certain heat and wind. But in the knowledge that there are only six proper stages (TT's don't really count) of the the tour left...we feel we are on the way home. It's just those pesky little hills that exist between France and Spain that remain very concerning indeed.