route planned 107km https://ridewithgps.com/routes/42604347

I will keep this brief. No photos today as I was not very inspired.

Slept fairly well in the world's smallest hotel room. I should have listened to my body first thing, and felt like I had overeaten, even before I had any breakfast. A small breakfast made me uncomfortable, and when we set off, I quickly decided I need a lie down to try and improve things. Which, luckily, 10 minutes solved the problem.

The route was a mixed combination of flat marshland, cycle paths and busy main roads, all backed up with a constant headwind. At the 34 km point we stopped for a snack, and surprisingly, I only had a pain au chocolat.  Until that is, Dave appeared with a tub of strawberries and cherries, which really hit the spot.

At some point late morning, I had my first puncture of the trip, with a big chunk of metal poking into the tire surface.  Several of the team help me change it, and Dave and Caroline were competing to demonstrate their skill in putting on the tire without tire levers.

We pushed to Marseillan for what was quite a nice light lunch, not helped by the slightly miserable restaurant owner. But it's ticked the box of providing a ham and cheese omelette that I've been craving all week.

After lunch, the headwind and the temperature both ramped up, and the wheel started to fall off, although not literally. 

Eventually, we managed to make it to the last stopping point 15k from the end, refuelling with a cold drink and a nice cream and 1.5 litre of cold water. Then straight into a couple of really juicy climbs, not particularly steep, but made significantly worse by the strong headwind. I walked out the last one to try and stress out the cramp in my left foot, then whizzed down the hill to the centre of the village to the very nice hotel.

no photos