Day 14 – Back in the Game!

So I got up nice and early and set off to the Decathlon shop that was about 5 miles away. I got there for when it opened but the man inside said that they didn’t have the right size spoke for my wheel. With the language barrier being an issue we managed to work out where the other Decathlon shop was so I headed off there. This was a further 5 miles away but it didn’t matter as I had to get the spoke fixed. The man in this shop said the same thing that he wasn’t sure about the size. But after a little while hunting around he found the right one. He tried to keep the tyre on whilst changing spoke, until he accidentally moved the wheel and the nipple fell inside the rim (for those of you that don’t know bikes don’t worry just read on), so he then had to take the tube and tyre off, I didn’t like the fact that he had to do this and was worried that he might nip the tube putting the tyre back on but then again it was his job. I bought a couple of spare spokes for the back wheel and couldn’t get hold of any for the front. I asked if they had any spoke keys and he gave me his one as a present. I had told him where I was going and where I had been. So all was well and off I went.

Within 20 minutes I had to stop as I didn’t put any sun lotion on this morning so I thought I had better as the sun was out all day. As I was rubbing it in a man on a bike stopped and asked if everything was ok, then about a minute later a guy in a van stopped and asked the same thing. Why is it I get asked for help applying sun lotion yet when I’m sat there on the side of the road with the bike in bits no one stops!?

I took a photo of what the scenery was like today, lots of woods and forests either side of the road, completely different to northern France where its vast open landscape.

I then took a gamble, I came across this road block sign, I thought to myself do I go down there as it is the way I need to go or do I follow the diversion? I took the gamble and tried my luck at the roadworks, it was fine and I coasted through, until the guy working in the digger thought it would be funny to honk his horn just as I ride past! Yeah my sides were splitting!It was probably Karma getting me back for not following the diversion as when I got to the next Town I took a wrong turn, I headed the wrong way down the D655 and it was a lovely downhill section that lasted 2 miles, It wasn’t until I coasted to a stop that I realised I had gone wrong. Doh! So turned around and headed back the 2 miles up hill! Stupid mistake, what an idiot! It was when I got back upto the top of the hill I noticed my back wheel had lost pressure so I had to pump it back up.

There’s a picture of a hill below swell, I took this cos I had a feeling it was going to be quick, and boy it was! I broke my top speed record for the trip so far, just over 36 mph! I have also just found out when entering in the data down below that I have also broke my record for best average miles per hour, it was actually 15.55 for the 91 miles I did after the Decathlon shop visits.

I broke rule 1 today, for those of you that haven’t been following me from the beginning, rule 1 was to never stop on a hill. I broke that rule today taking the photo of the country house with the awesome backdrop!

As I mentioned earlier that I had to pump my tyre back up, I think they may have even effected my top speed today as with 10 miles to go I struggle to avoid going over a small pot hole with the back wheel, I managed to lift the front wheel in time but couldn’t help the fact the back one hit it. The wheel went down in seconds and I came to a stop 10 foot away. This time though, I knew i had 10 miles to go so I relaxed and changed the inner tube. I’m now rocking a michelin latex comp tube!

Just as I set off again and get 5 minutes down the road, I had to wipe my eye, My sunglasses fell off and luckily got stuck in between my pedals and didn’t make the floor. Saying its been an eventful day is an understatement!

The last photo is what a man looks like after being out all day riding near on 100 miles! I was dripping from head to toe with sweat. Its probably the hardest day I’ve had, not just physically but mentally swell. Guess I’m going to sleep well tonight!

Today’s journey was 99.16 miles, riding time of 6:35:42, max speed 36.1 mph, avg speed 15.04 mph, 5830 calories, 4.5 litres so far.