Jill is asleep next to me. Today there were no alarms to wake us in the darkness of pre dawn. When I awoke this morning it was light already. I think that's the first time in more than 2 weeks.
So we left Blighty on the ferry from Portsmouth and by the time the ferry was loaded and we had found cabins it was close to midnight. Then we were all gently awoken by music from the ships intercom at about 5.45. It was at that point I was glad the ferry wasn't run by Ryanair. Can you imagine that horrible trumpet sound telling you the ferry has arrived early?
We unpacked in the car park of the ferry and faffed around quite a bit with bikes and water bottles and chain lube etc. At this point we still hadn't got into a routine and had some trouble locating kit. Some bike clothes were still damp and most of us had the pleasure of cold wet bike shoes to wear.
So 8 of us rolled off into the early morning light. The rain had made way for light clouds and blue skies. When it eventually came up, the sun was shining on us.
The peloton was now down to Paul Beven, Matthew Beven, Kiwi Jill, Chris Vaughan, Oscar Geen, Jeff Cleminson, myself and Gary Edmondson of the Avid All Stars. Gary had joined us from London and has been a veteran of many a Healix road trip in the past. He couldn't come all the way to Gibraltar but wasn't going to miss the opportunity to ride to Mayenne, (where his parents live) with us.
We were delighted to have him as he definitely makes the peloton a more lively place and keeps morale high. There's never a dull moment with Gary around. We have to thank him too for taking more than his far share on time on the front and pulling us along as much as he could to help save our legs. A real team player. Thanks Gary.
Having avoided the breakfast scrum on the boat in favour of sleep we were pretty hungry after just a few kilometres and with about 90 miles to ride needed to make sure we had fuel on board.
The support cars found the first of many Boulangeries and stocked up on the first of many croissants and pain au chocolat.
They caught up with us for breakfast on a small tree lined avenue and we all ate swiftly. We had very definitely arrived in France.
The other fabulous thing about France is the distinct lack of potholes and traffic. We made quick progress across flat arable land, weaving between the crop fields.
Later the ground started to undulate gently, only improving the scenery and not even disrupting our rhythm. We were all suffering from a lack of sleep though and there was a feeling of just wanting to get to the hotel and catch up on some sleep. I personally was shattered. The week before the trip had been so busy that, I was worrying about the physical effects of mounting fatigue on muscles and nervous that the leg pain I had got at the end of Land's End John O'Groats may return. I need not have worried as it's been fine thankfully.
Jeff continued to lead us as he had done to Portsmouth with his preprogrammed Garmin. It's a fantastic device that removes the need for many head scratching sessions at junctions wondering which way to turn.
We just followed Jeff and I was more than happy to hand over the responsibility of navigation to someone else and enjoy the view. Heaven. I started to think about all of our sponsors, the man who gave me the 50p in his pocket, all the people at Pimlico tube station and all the other events that have consumed this year and all the other faces and people we have met and who have supported us to get this far.
The route Jeff had programmed was given to us as the recommended route by the BHF. It was originally recc'ed 6 months ago so we knew it had potential to be out of date and we tinkered with it too to adapt to our hotel choices etc. So we weren't too surprised when it led us down a rough gravel path (the first of a couple to date). We seemed to be running out of road. "Why don't we just use that new motorway?" shouts Gary. To our right was a new road being built, not yet open and (like most of France so far) deserted. The chance to ride the wrong way down the fast lane of a motorway on a bike was too tempting an offer so we carried our bikes across and climbed the crash barrier to the new Tarmac.
After a few minutes of picking mud out of our cleats we were ready to conquer new French territory.
After all that excitement we needed a coffee and the next village had a small tabac serving strong coffee. We stopped for what has now become our ritual morning coffee stop. Also a chance to clean more dirt from our cleats.
We rolled on and on and eventually met up with our support cars again for a late lunch. They had been to the supermarket and bought what Healix folk will know as a 'Sainsburys lunch': bread, cheese and all sorts of other goodies. They also found a fabulous lunch spot beside a lake although sadly the weather had closed in on us and having a couple of 'northerners' in the team meant the rain clouds followed us all day. We seemed to be riding in the rain with blue clouds visible on every horizon.
That lunch was truly memorable though, it was like an oasis of food appearing in our desert of Tarmac. We did it justice by stuffing as much as possible before getting too cold and moving on towards Mayenne and the finish at the Campanile hotel. The last few miles of the day rolled through pretty French villages and we couldn't help notice the large number of decorated bicycles.
Perhaps this was on the route of the Tour de France?
Once we had settled into the hotel we had the delight of a night at Chez Edmondson. Gary left us here at his parents house and they very kindly laid on a BBQ with the best burnt sausages (just how we like them) followed by cakes and cheese and every other home comfort imaginable. They even let us make use of their Internet to sort out some route issues I had with my Garmin and use the washing machine for all the soggy, and now smelly, damp clothes from our ride to Portsmouth. We could have stayed and enjoyed the hospitality longer but mindful of the need for an early start and lack of sleep we left early. It wasn't just little Lucy Cleminson who was fading fast.
It was a shame to say goodbye to Gary but we wish him and the Avid All Stars well for their 'Race the Sun' event this weekend. Hopefully the training helped and he might finish the event and make it to the bar at the end this time. We certainly hope to see him in the bar in Gibraltar.
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