TdF Stage 7 Livarot to Fougeres

We started the day with another coach transfer which has become our usual routine. 5:30am alarm, 6am brekkie, 6:30am on the coach and then start pedalling between 7:30-8am.

On the coach at ridiculous o'clock

 

We started with coffee and croissants in a little bar, all decked out in pictures of previous Tour winners

Todays route took us from Livarot to Fougeres

 

 

The start town have really got Tour fever, and have made a real effort to show off their town to the watching masses.

 

We were joined by 25 new "Tour tasters" today, these are people who cant get the time off to complete the whole event, or just want to try out a few stages. It was nice to mingle with the new faces and make them feel welcome. You could tell they were nervous and excited, just as I was a week ago when I started the TdF.

One of the "lifers" Chris, had a mate (Tim) joining him for a couple of days, Chris wanted an easier day and Tim wanted to smash it up, so asked if he could ride with me and Simon - Mai Oui, but of course!

Tim and Chris, leading the peleton

 

Moi, messing around

Tim had a fresh set of legs and ours had already done 600+miles, so we were happy to let him take some big turns on the front in the morning, and he was keen to show what he could do. (Chapeau Tim - Top man!)

There were plenty of "rollers" today, the road hardly ever seemed flat, Here's a rare picture of Simon leading us up a hill :-) and the view from the other side

Plenty of sights similar to this today, lots of very nicely presented property

 

At one of the early stops Simon and I had a picture taken next to this sign, which roughly translated to Danger of Death...little did we know what was to come!

I have never, repeat never, ridden as fast as we did over the next 100miles. Each section between feed stops (23-25miles) turned into a 3 man team time trial. The wind gods were looking favourably on us, and we had a tailwind, which makes a change! We even caught and passed some French Triathletes keeping low on their on their TT Bars, the look on theirs faces was brilliant as 3 "Charity" bike riders went whizzing past them at 30mph..ha ha

Tim making new friends with the Frenchie Triathletes

 

The final stats of the day, I've never had so much gold on my strava segments!

 

Team Lanterne Rouge with our guest Tim (or filmstar Gary Busey) i'll let you decide

 

 

Click here for the best strava stats im ever likely to have!