Day Four

Start: Chateau Thierry Finish: Troyes

Distance: 78 miles Climb: 2,300ft Moving Time: 5:40 Average Speed: 14mph Max Speed: 43mph

Totally exhausted!

After an early start (well, 9:30) – with a new tactic of picking up breakfast en-route after a couple of hours – we dealt with the early climbs pretty well. As expected, the first was particularly brutal – and despite me guaranteeing Albert that it was all flat from here on out – a fair few smaller climbs seemed to appear out of nowhere. We spent the first 15 miles of so on main roads – where despite it being reasonably busy and constantly undulating, the quality of the surface meant we kept up a really good pace and I hit a tour-best of 43mph.

A decent breakfast and visit to a bike shop in Montmaill left us feeling confident we could smash out the rest without a break. Fools. I had a real post-food lull and was really beginning to lag behind – my legs felt ok but I just couldn’t generate any speed. It was only after Albert slowed down to let me catch up that he pointed out I had a flat tire…

A first puncture! After 1,400miles of cycling – my back tire finally gave way. Obviously, I was not prepared at all. All the gear, but no idea. Albert to the rescue – and with the help of a snazzy compressed gas canister – I was up and running again in less than 15 minutes.

The route still allowed a bit of venturing off the beaten track – probably adding an extra 7 or 8 miles – but it is just so much more enjoyable! Quiet villages, odd farmers, crazy dogs, nice churches – and massive ugly war memorials – photos below.

Finally, the promised descent arrived, and it was a great cruise in to the town of Sezanne through sunflower fields and with great views out over the valley. We then hit the first bit of flat for ages – and, perhaps a little over excited – spent about 45mins averaging around 22mph. We stopped in Angleur for coffee and realised we still had 30miles to go – and both of us felt like falling asleep there and then. It was here that I realised that 50miles in a day is about right for a cycling – leaving you enough time to explore and not being too onerous on the legs. This however, is not a holiday, so we had to drag ourselves away from the comfort of the café and plough through a pretty dull 2 hours of flat cycling into the pretty uninspiring city of Troye.

As mentioned yesterday – it’s M&D’s anniversary today. They spent the morning on Champagne tours in Epernay and Albert and I treated them to a gorgeous meal on the Lac D’Orient this evening. 5 courses and champagne: definitely an indulgent approach to carb loading!

Today I reached the half-way point in terms of distance covered. And I can really feel it. Legs are ridiculously heavy, knee is still causing some issues and for some reason my left little finger has gone completely numb (actually quite annoying when typing!) – but it’s been awesome so far and we’ve been really lucky with the conditions.

From here on out though – it gets pretty serious. A hilly 60miler tomorrow, followed by a 95 miler on Friday in preparation for two huge days in the mountains. Nerves, excitement, dread, fear – all very much present! Its going to be a huge couple of days on the legs – and I can’t wait to hit Chamonix to get a day off before the acclimitastion work starts!

Sleep is calling!

Sam.

….

Albert says:

About 2 hours in, Sam was lagging pretty badly. I mean, really struggling, way behind me.

After a little while, feeling smug and not wanting to humiliate him too much, I slowed, agreed that it was extremely hard going, feigned discomfort and let him pass, enjoying the unbelievably slow pace and my obviously superior level of fitness.

Unfortunately, at this point, I noticed that Sam had a flat rear tyre. It seemed only fair to let him struggle a few more miles before telling him….

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Photos from the last day or two (click to enlarge)