Day Five

Start: Troyes Finish: Semur en Auxois

Distance: 70 miles Climb: 2,850ft Moving Time: 5:00 Average Speed: 14mph Max Speed: 38mph

Today was our rest day – an easy 60 miles. The trend continued though – you can generally add 15% to our planned distance and today actually ended up as a pretty solid ride. No problem at all – we arrived in Semur en Auxios around 5:30 and spirits are high.

We didn’t succeed with the early morning that we had planned. There was no way our legs would let us get out of bed until past 10am, and it was 11am before we started riding. We knew we had a climb to look forward to around 20 miles in and planned to have ‘breakfast’ when we hit the top, so we set off at quite a good pace and soon found the quiet roads we’d be craving (not before the sat nav tried to take us up another farm track).

The landscape is definitely changing – and the hills are starting to come a lot more frequently – and today saw some of the best views we’ve had, and our favourite road, the AMAZING D27. I’ve got some good videos on the GoPro of the descent on the D27 through sunflower fields and past beautiful churches, whilst playing hot potato with the camera and causing Albert to nearly crash.

We’ve really struggled with changing road surfaces – it can make a huge difference, both in terms of speed and comfort – and we were stuck with a gritty and bumpy road for a painful 10 miles today.

About 40 miles had flown by and I was on the phone to Jas a couple of hundred yards ahead of Albert when I heard a shout. I stopped, we chatted, he collapsed in a heap. We’d completely forgotten breakfast/lunch – it was near 3pm and we’d been cycling for over 3 hours. Thankfully we were only about a mile of downhill cruising from the Ancy le Franc. We rolled into town – where, of course, almost everything was shut. The local brasserie had stopped serving, and it took all of Albert’s multi-lingual charm (and some back up from their customers) for them to agree to give us some food. Croque Monsiuer AND some Spaghetti – a cyclists dreamed – served with complete distain by a chef who thought her shift was over.

Lunch provided a massive boost – and we covered the final 30 miles in relative ease, cruising along next to a canal for most of it. We even beat the support team to the hotel.

Now I’ve tried my best not to become a cycling nerd over the last few months – but Albert really called me on it today. Because of time constraints when training – I’ve always had to squeeze as many miles as possible into short periods of time. That isn’t the case with this trip – I’ve just got to cover the distance - and in fact pushing too hard is going to make the following days harder and harder. In Albert’s words ‘Dude – who are you racing? Chill out and take it in!’. Convenient – as tomorrow is a planned 105 miles.

Spirits hit a real high when we got to the hotel and hit the pool – with an array of Waboba balls. It was freezing, but my physio advised that ice baths are the best way to recover and so we spent a good hour swimming, diving and playing catch.

A huge steak later and it’s early to bed – with tomorrows HUGE day we’ve planned a 6:30am wake up and 7am start. Things are about to get very tough - and I really hope the legs hold up for the 2000m+ of climbing the following day.

We’ve had a lot of sponsorship fly in today and we’re very grateful – it was a huge push to get the email notifications mid-ride! Please take the time to sponsor us now if you haven’t already – especially with the big days up ahead. Thanks a lot.

Sam

Albert:

This trip is mental. I mean, really, really hard. I’ve climbed mountains, crossed oceans and once had to do a module in statistics, and this is by far the hardest. It hurts everywhere, it’s bloody long hours and is extremely physical.

I also got stung by a wasp today which bounced off my face and landed on my arm. Good times…

Photos (click to enlarge):