Ahh as I thought I regretted that late night! Its so difficult getting up at 6am, at least its not raining though. After a quick shower I feel a bit more awake but until I get on the bike I'm a bit of a zombie in the morning. I'm not as bad as Matthew or Kevin though; Matthew sits down to eat his porridge and justs get slower and slower and more distant the more he eats until you have to remind him to go and shower when he has finished because otherwise he'll just sit there staring into space for hours, Kevin is the same but with the suncream - he goes into a trance while rubbing it in.

We get away at about 8am and are treated to a long downhill into Rousillon, thats the reward for finishing on a hill last night. We all manage to break 40 mph on the hill which was probably faster than the cars were allowed to go - by the time we were at the bottom we were all wide awake!

Its not long before we cross the Rhone and then turn South and follow the river - this is when it hits us - there is a fairly strong headwind rushing up the river and as we are following the same heading all day we are going to have to do another 70 miles of this! Its a struggle to keep the pace over 15 mph which is pretty depressing as we know we can hold above 20 mph when there is no wind. Anyway the slower pace allows us to admire the stunning scenery, this is probably one of the most spectacular routes we have taken so far. The river on the left and mountains on our right and a clear blue sky above us, very nice.

The D86, which follows the Rhone, is clearly very popular with cyclists as we see loads and pass a couple of slower tourers. We pass a 40 year old man on a mountain bike who decides he can stay with us and sits behind us in the slipstream. Thanks to the wind we are going fairly slow anyway so its not that difficult to keep up - I obviously see this as a challenge though and when it comes to my go on the front I pick the pace up to 22 mph but he sticks with me. Once I finish my go I move out and I'm surprised to see him still behind me although he is looking pretty tired and is pedalling twice as fast as anyone else. He manages to last for his go, albeit a bit slower, but as soon as Paul gets on the front and picks up the pace to 22 mph again he disappears! Its very satisfying to know we are actually fast now - he was on a mountain bike though so its not a real test.

After about 35 miles we meet the van in a church car park for 2 croissants and 2 pain au chocolat each - making sure we get a balanced diet of pasta and saturated fats! Once we move on again it feels like the temperature has increased by 10 deg but we keep going.

As we work our way through one of the towns along the river we come to a rare set of traffic lights. A van very kindly drift across Paul into a parking space cutting him up and forcing us to stop quickly and panic getting out of our cleats! Unfortunately Kevin isn't quite quick enough and drops in front of a busy cafe and right next to a shiny Mercedez - fortunately he fells away from the car and only his pride was dented.

A few miles later we stop next to a nuclear powerstation and cement factory. Bizarrly one of the powerstation chimneys has a painting on it of a child playing... what's that all about? We are all pretty tired now and just want to finish but Matthew raises our spirits by pointing out that we have now done 800 miles exactly and that is potentially half way!
As we continue the terrain levels out and it starts to look quite desolate in places - we even saw a squashed snake by the side of the road! Not long after there is a farm sprinkler that is missing the crop and spraying over the road so we take a quick refreshing shower. News comes through that John has a site and is setting up the tents so we now know where we will be finishing and that helps us to keep going. Now the terrain has levelled out the wind has also dropped which really helps the tired legs.


In Montelimar we get a bit confused as they have decided to no longer sign post our destination and we are all out of drinks so we call John and get him to meet us outside a warehouse we are using for shade. He is only about 15 mins away but that is plenty long enough for Kevin to fall asleep! Once John finds us we top up our drinks and follow him back to the site.

The site is basic and the ground is very dry, it looks like it hasn't rained here for weeks. After stretching, showers and pasta we retire to our chairs and help Kevin admire the women.

Myself and John drive into town to get some water - there are posters all over town saying that the supermarket is open today - seems a bit random, maybe its a public holiday... these French really are lazy, I'm jealous!

Pasta avec Chorizo for dinner, very tasty then we wash up and have some hot chocolate with added energy. We are all really tired tonight and manage to get to bed by 10pm.

Its a clear night and still very warm so I leave the tent doors open as its obviously not going to rain - famous last words...

Daniel

Distance: 75.44 miles
Time: 4:34:43
Average Speed: 16.48 mph
Weather: Hot all day and very windy