Firstly apologies for yesterday….the laptop we have is  not particlarly good and
on the approach to midnight when it crashed for the 4th time I gave up trying to upload
the photos – I will try again tonight!

So today….! We planned to meet in the hotel foyer at 0500hrs in order to get some early photos
of the Eiffel Tower and get out before the traffic! Steve was OBVIOUSLY late, as he had told us he would
be deliberately as he thought it was too early……..strop on Steve!!

So by 6am we had managed to cycle to the Eiffel Tower and get some good team photos with not a sole in sight!
The next 10 miles were somewhat slower as we had major problems navigating the back streets of Paris! It is also noted that
the support team managed to lose us quite quickly making our job even more difficult!
We were able to navigate the Champs Elysee and L’Arc de Triomphe though! Somewhat nervewracking even in
light Parisien traffic!

We made a quick stop as we neared to end of the suburbs for Pain au Chocolate breakfast and after this we entered
undulating countryside with what appeared to be more uphills than downhills….not good!

Steve made a very early bet…..before we had even left the Eiffel Tower that Syria would
be the first off the bike! Unfortunately for Steve it was him! He believes that the blame lies with a
woman driver! We are pleased to inform you that no injury was caused …..Steve has the uncanny knack of rolling!
Other than this the only other person to come off was me (Dan!). My chain came off whilst pulling up to a red traffic light. This
meant I had no rolling time to remove my feet from the pedals resulting in the usual fall! Again no injury caused!

As the day prgressed we headed for Beauvais. What a picturesqe little town….shame the road signs we so CRAP! We had lengthy instructions,
go on this Rue, then this one, then the B93 then the B901………..well the first Rue didn’t take us to the second Rue and we doubt that
the B93 actually exists and it was not on any signs!

By the time we got to the D901 we had done nearly 50 miles and lunch was in order! The group had split into two by now…..
Carl, Del, Dan and Steve making up the lead group and everyone else together in the second. Please note that BOTH groups (and the support team)
had the same difficulties in Beauvais!

The support team did us proud for luch with a fantastic pasta bolognese with fresh french bread! The first group had finished by the time the
others arrived!

Unfortunately things started to go bad from here! It started to drizzle, the drizzle harder and then rain…….it didn’t stop and just kept
getting harder for the next three hours.

The D901 was a busy undulating road with some steep climbs and steep descents but none of it was any note except how absolutely drenched we all were,
waterproof coats sopping and shoes full of water. The only saviour for this was the fact that it wasn’t particularly cold.

Eventually after 83 miles we pulled into Poix-De-Picardie for a well earned HOT shower and a cold beer!

Everybody aches! Dels injury appears to have cleared up. Sandy, Carl and Tony each have a sore knee.
No other injuries of note but expect a whole load of seriously aching bodies tomorrow! We do have a slight lie-in tomorrow with the start being at 0930hrs…. The weather report for tomorrow is that it will
rain until midday and should HOPEFULLY clear up….its the D901 most of the way!

Thanks for all your good luck messages! – Keep sending out the good word about sponsoring us all!!!!