I’ve had my fun descending in the Pyrenees and done my top speed for the moment, perhaps coming down one of the Alps might tempt me to again go a little crazy. I am, however, trying to make sure I get through the next couple of days safely and successfully and without too much fatigue to ensure I do actually get to the beginning of the four days in the Alps.

Thankfully, there was a lucky escape for one of our guest riders who, on the descent, clipped the wing mirror of a car coming up the hill who was going rather fast and on the wrong side of the road. That same driver came round a bend on “my” side of the road blaring his horn for no real reason but perhaps to warn me he was on my side of the road. Just 1km lat we I saw our rider by the side of the road, bike in the ditch, torn glove, broken finger and wrecked bike as the wing mirror not only hit his hand but also his seat post – carbon fibre is great until it gets a thumping whack like that. See the bust frame below.

Many of my photographs you will notice are from behind other riders simply because I can’t go through some of these stages without capturing some of the views. Temperature today is lower than the 43C we have had last couple of days and there’s a little cloud cover. Just one more category 2 climb not too long after lunch about 15km in length so hopefully not too steep.

Lunch may not be digested before we hit this climb !

Lunch was great. The organising team have laid on a treat every day for us with a traditional French three course lunch! It’s quite something but not always the best tonic for the next 50-60 miles of hilly terrain. I loved today’s lunch as it was a slightly lighter meal with a white fish, veg, some ratatouille and rice. This was followed by a wonderful cheese board and ice cream desert (I didn’t have the desert, but did avail of the cheeses which I’ve steered clear of since Christmas!)
Thankfully we didn’t spend too much time at lunch for the sake of getting in the road again but it’s always tempting to stay indoors when the temperature gauge looks like it’s moving up again. Good news was that today only reached 37c !

About 10km into the post-lunch journey we hit the category 2 climb which lasted about 10km up a wide but winding road over the mountain. We had already enjoyed about 30km of amazing descents before lunch so it would have been wrong to complain at this little climb especially knowing that there would again be a descent towards Valence. Looking back down into the valley climb reminded me of the first time I visited the Massif Central as a teenager on a family motorhome holiday. After many winding roads we went over the Col and the view down onto Clermont Ferrand was absolutely stunning, the type of view I’d never before experienced in my life and have remembered ever since. Today’s views were just as stunning.

Due to severe saddle sore which has lasted since the first week I’ve been having great difficulty finding a comfortable riding position. They often say that the best riders have a most comnfortable riding position. This doesn’t simply mean that I don’t have a nice time on the bike, it’s much worse than that.

I’ll be fairly blunt with this description. The goal with cycling long distance, or even racing, is to get  your body into a position where your bum and hands are effectively holding the weight fully, thereby leaving your legs free to work hard and on many occassions they should work in a bit of an equilibrium. Getting to this position means you can properly spin in a way in which your muscles are working at a consistent level of pressure all the way around the pedal stroke, rather than pushdown-stop-pullup-stop etc. If there is pain in your bum or your hands then you can’t easily get into that equilibrium and the resulting effect and pressure on your various leg and body muscles is incredible. You’re not working at your most efficient and additionally your mind is concentrating on riding position, how to reduce the pain and how to get up the hill. All this means much reduced efficiency.

I have only been able to get to the efficient riding position a couple of times in the last few days and when I’ve done so it has been fantastic. Today’s category 2 climb over the Col de l’Escrinet was one such climb. A nice 7.9km at 5.8%.

The run down the valley to the Rhone river was both beautiful and exhilirating knowing that not only are the climbs finished for the day but it’s actually flat along the river all the way to Valence. It did surprise me that the sadists who design the tour didn’t put a little nasty kick into the end somewhere just to whack us when we thought we could enjoy ourselves.

All in all this has been a good day and it was really quite nice not to have the papparazzi following us at every point. The attention was nice at some points, it was motivating because we knew that this was giving the charity extra welcome publicity and it was relieving to see the incredibly positive welcome Lance Armstrong received throughout the whole of the two ways we spent together. I was quite surprised that there was only one person protesting on the route against drugs in sport and he was there for the main peleton, he didn’t even know Lance Armstrong was coming through !

Please help us reach the target of £1million for Cure Leukaemia which will help provide more nurses who can in turn support more drug trials, with more patients, saving more lives and bringing closer the day when we can actually have a cure for leukaemia.

Thank you