The day started with the first of many 'faffing' sessions. It was the first morning with access to all of our bags and bike kit so there was much organising and no established routine yet.
We ate breakfast in the hotel then set off out of town. This is a luxury we have rarely experienced since, generally leaving before breakfast has even been thought about.
Leaving Mayenne meant leaving Gary Edmondson behind so the day started off very quietly without the usual quips emanating from the peloton in a thick yorkshire accent. We missed his company but our peloton was now 7 and we rolled through beautiful lush green farmlands of the western Loire region and the beauty of the scenery was a welcome distraction from the relentless number of miles we had to pedal until that nights stop in Cholet.
One routine we had quickly established though was our morning coffee stop and no matter how quiet rural France is there is generally always a little tabac or coffee stop in a village or town so this morning was no exception.
A long day on the road of 100 miles or more is much more easily achieved in the mind when its broken into sections. It does of course also break up the physical effort to stop for breaks and so morning coffee and afternoon ice creams have become some of the highlights of our days.
If the peloton were larger we could be mistaken for a plague of locusts, arriving into towns, eating everything in site then moving swiftly on.
The lunchstop on this day was a memorable one. We sat on the steps of what looked like a local government building in a pretty square and ate our picnic. An interested french man and his wife came to interrogate us over lunch on our trip and with full mouths we were able to point at the support vehicles to offer him most of the answers to his questions.
This was the day that Oscar's knees started to become a real issue for him, the pain was increasing as was the size of the effusions of the knees although he rode on not wanting to get off his bike. The gradients were fairly gentle as were the size of the hills so we all moved on aware that we were really in the heart of some of the nicest wine regions in France. I was really looking forward to a glass of a local dry white wine that evening as a treat at the end of the day.
We reached the Loire river and stopped at a little picnic spot for an ice cream. The weather had noticeably imprpoved and each day was getting warmer. Ice cream suddenly seemed like a perfect snack not something anyone of the first leg to Portsmouth would have been looking for I am sure. The road turned to cycle path for a few kilometres before we crossed the Loire river and headed onto Cholet.
The last few miles Oscar was suffering and he Chris and I rode a little way back at a more gently pace. Oscar was determined to finish the day and I was torn between helping him achieve his goal and worrying about the state of his young and precious knees. Eventually we made it to the hotel which was a fabulous little place and where they couldnt have been more helpful. We took our bikes into our hotel rooms for safe keeping and Oscar put some ice on his rather sore knees before we all tucked into some take away pizzas.
We had finished quite late in the day and the onus was on eating and preparing for the next day. So we were quick to bed to be ready for an early start to Rochefort and our second day of more than 100 miles.
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