Day 2 – Bonjour!

After yesterdays horror show and the poorest weather I think ive ever been riding in. I couldn’t have asked for much more than what today brought. Didn’t get a drop of rain on me all day. And as im typing this on the ferry the sun is beating in through the windows and looking like all might not be zoo bad after all.

Even Mr Sat Nav was feeling better today, worked first time. And then even after I took a wrong turn and it had to recalculate my route it still got me back on track. However I have noticed that it doesn’t like making me go down main roads. something I may have to figure out tomorrow. But it took me the most random route ever today. For mile after mile at some points I didn’t see a soul. And what I thought was only meant to be a 60 mile ride ended up being a 75 mile ride. Hopefully things will change in Francais.

I was an hour into my days ride when the inevitable happened! Puncture! Oh how us cyclists hate that word. I had purchased all the right kit before I left, even invested in some tyres that have kevlar in them (the stuff police stab vests are made from). Yet I guess my bike and back tyre didn’t like the piece of metal I ran over, didn’t see it till last minute as had my eyes fixed on a castle in a valley. This was my first ever puncture on this bike and first repair I have fixed since school days! I did start to panic a little bit thinking if I would even make the ferry or not. Then a man out on his own bike ride stopped and offered me some help. I said to him not to worry and that i was ok. 20 minutes later I was back on the road again. Although the tyre did seem to feel a little flat as I went over some bumps boarding the ferry.

Now when riding a bike there are set rules, I have learnt what my first two golden rules are and at a price.

– Rule 1, Never, and I say never, stop on a hill!
– Rule 2, Always listen to rule 1, and don’t be silly (like I did) and stop again further up the hill!

Now after 4 hours and 45 minutes riding and 62 miles in the saddle I came across the killer of all hills! You know when a hill is hard work when your in your lowest gear searching for another one even lower! I managed to keep a controlled fast pace of 3 mph! Even the handful of jelly beans didn’t seem to help.

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think the nicest sound id hear today would be that of a seagull! It gave me the reassurance I needed that I would in fact make it to the ferry on time!

As you can see from the pics, dinner was a feast of carbs!

Today’s journey was 82.75 miles, riding time of 6 hours 30 mins, max speed 31.8 mph, avg speed 12.85 mph, 5167 calories, 4.8 litres of aqua.

Off to bed as soon as I’ve had a cold bath and a hot shower.