L1020484

image

The Tour finally got underway today. We departed Portsmouth around 8:30 GMT last night and after some curiously good French good on Brittany Ferries it was heads down for an early start. We departed at St Malo at early o’clock and stopped an the local InterMarche for some water. With bottles filled, bikes prepped we set of at 9am CET aiming or Becherel. The Garmin picked up the route nicely and we arrived just over 2 hours later with 30 miles under our wheels. Not stunning pace I know but our finish saw us 525ft higher than when we started with plenty of other inclines on the way and a headwind at times.

Suffice it to say I’m the slowest of the 4 riders as I simply haven’t mastered the hills. May have something to do with my expanding waistline but the trip should help with that :)

An hour or so for lunch and we were off again with a short stint to Mordelles which took just over an hour and added 20 miles to the odometer. The afternoon was easier going as I got in to more of a rhythm and the boys worked well in tackling the wind as a team. The SIS fluids also paid off with a carb hit on every gulp.

The scenery is wonderful and the weather holding up well – so much so that my biggest area of pain this evening is sunburnt arms. I’d have settled for that.

A few local ales in Mordelles and off to find the hotel…not quite as close as we thought so that added another 7 post beer miles. 

So there we are…Stages 1 and 2 of my Tour are done and though we didn’t set any records we had a good day. Tomorrow is 70+ miles and a full on 100 miles for day 3.

For those monitoring the pink shirt situation I did make my target of £1000 sponsorship thanks to some very kind and generous friends. Therefore the pink shirt will be on my back this Sunday. Photos will appear here.

In the meantime, it’s not too late to sponsor….head on over to http://www.justgiving.com/samanthaholloway where any donation no matter how small (or large) are welcomed.

off to sleep….more tomorrow if I find Wifi!

 

Steve