Holy saddle sores, that was a day out!
It was all a bit bizarre seeing the place with empty campsites and no cars, but just fantastic to get to ride round the Bugatti. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it was obviously taken very, very seriously by everyone, and there was no mistaking that this was a big race for the French, with a lot of Pro teams, ex Pros, a few riders from last years TDF and even a past TDF winner. The pits were full of team paraphernalia, turbo trainers, masseurs etc, - our Milletts camp bed in the corner of pit 41 looked a bit on the sad side. I can confirm that a pit garage at 3 in the morning, is pretty f-freezing, and frankly, missing a little bit of soft furnishings and soft lighting. we were a team of two (well, someone has to apply the Sudocrem...), and rode 1 hour stints, hoping that this would give us an hours rest between stints, but it turned out at more like 45 minutes or less, and it wasn't exactly quality rest. Anyway, we managed 437 miles in 24 hours, so we were pretty pleased with that. I won the toss and got to do the first stint and the start.
The start was quite an experience, with the flag girls, national anthems, Thus Spake Zarathustra and then the "run" across the track to the bike. I had a tear in my eye and a lump in my throat by the time I got my $rse on the saddle!
H
