Up at 6:30 to get van packed by 7 before breakfast at 7:30, as we understood we had to get to the ferry by 8:45 for 9:30 departure. The forecast for wind and showers, so most of us put jackets on. Got to ferry at around 8:30 only to find everything was closed so we waited around at the front of a growing queue, talking to a few people and handing out a few of the flyers we had translated into French - many thanks to Ian Larner for that.
Once on the ferry, a number of us went to the cafe, Guy Raff, Tim S and I opting for tea of coffee with some exceedingly tasty looking doughnuts, which we later found were filled with an apricot sauce, very yummy.
The ferry crossing did not take too long and once off we split into various groups, the roads were a bit damp and apart from the condition, we were taking things easy while our legs realised they had another day of work ahead. During the riding to the 1st stop, I had a very nice talk with Caroline, mainly about our daughters who are in the same school and have just completed their GSCE's.
After the 1st stop, we got into large group of over 20 riders - the pro's having left us behind - cycling 2 abreast due to the strong headwinds, the road surface was again excellent, generally flat, but long and straight, so it was a case of churning out the miles one after the other as in many cases we could not see the next turn.
Ian and Normand were leading the group, as experienced cycle tourers, they can maintain a strong steady pace for miles on end, which they did, but after some confusion about directions, I found myself at the front alongside Normand. For the first few miles this was fine, but after a while I found keeping the pace consistently against the wind was too much for me, even though I was having a great conversation with Normand about various things, I eventually gave up and asked Ian to take over, as we covered the final few miles to the lunch stop.
Another excellent lunch courtesy of David, Hannah and Ian, some very tasty fruit flan to finish it off, but this time, instead of jumping into the van, Hannah got onto Guys spare bike and set off with Guy, Jamie and myself. We kept the pace very easy, as Hannah had not done this sort of riding before, but she soon got the hang of things and after a while we caught up with Caroline who joined the group and we had a very pleasurable ride to the final rest stop.
Hannah had to get back in the van for the final leg, so after getting the spare bike back in the van, Guy and I set off behind everyone else, with the previous leg being gentle for us, we set a solid pace and were soon speeding along, one behind the other, swooping through the villages, passing some of the group and really enjoying ourselves, but we then had an incident where we came across a car trying to turn left, holding up the traffic on front, but a car behind us decided to push past, just as we got to the jam, I was in the lead and almost got pushed into the verge, Guy was behind so moved out to not run into the back of this car, which then sped off, but the car behind hooted us and the driver gave us the international sign of greeting !! We simply waved as he went past, but he then slammed on his brakes and pulled into the verge almost as if he expected us to stop and pass the time of day. We again waved and said bonjour as we went past him, but he then drove up along side us to explain some further niceties about something or other, we said merci as he finally sped off - funny chap.
With just over 10 miles to go, we caught up with some of the other riders and shared the work fighting against the continual headwind as we carried on to the hotel, arriving about an hour before the rain poured down.
Tomorrow the Sorebums leave the Winos behind, we will miss their company and humour, most especially we will miss Ian Fraser, who has been driving along in his car, taking countless pictures of us as we ride along and being a massive help to David and Hannah. At the meal tonight we all signed a card to thank him for his support.
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