Finally, what we signed up for

Hot weather nice hills. No rain, no wind. What more you could you ask for?

The day dawned misty and chilly. All agreed to set out for a rolling hill downward to St. Girons.

Larry found his home town...

Some were more patient than others. A steady drag took us to the coffee stop where Greg interviewed a chancy blonde, the girl serving coffee of course. The first climb of the day coincided with hot sun and cloudless sky. All made it to the top despite a 9% final kilometre.

After some sterling overnight work by the physicists, and with technical advice from Betty, Martin's down tube was repaired and a turbo fitted. He had clearly overcome his illness and appeared rocket powered.

Just before the first climb Ciaran was seen grabbing a baguette off a local French woman, clearly trying to avoid a repeat of yesterday's allegations.

There was a mountain top first class picnic courtesy of Greg squared on top of the Portet de Aspet. However it lacked the hypothermia, uncontrolled shivering and crab coleslaw.

The cyclists descended the memorial of Fabian Casartelli and took all the appropriate photographs.

There was then an important dividing of the ways. The more conservative cyclists elected to do only one Col whilst the more adventurous chose to do two cols. However, the single Col was extremely arduous and hot (Col de Mente) which over heated and blew Martin's motor (more over time for the Physicists and Betty is on standby).

The two Col group finished their climbed on Col De Ares. The restaurant at the top was closed and Gillian threw a tantrum and wrecked their anti-cycling sign. In remorse she did try to repair it, but we are awaiting potential legal proceedings.

The two Col Group were making a leisurely return home just when Alan Marmot was looking for them. When he eventually found them, through gritted teeth he told off Larry for poor leadership. Larry blamed Tony (also know as Steve) for demanding a coffee.

The one Col group coffee'd on top of Col de Mente except Gerry, who in an attempt at a stage win powered over and descended without stopping. However, despite nearly an hour at the "Tete de course" the peleton were quick to chase him down and without Martins motor he was quickly over taken.

See Mark's video of his descent of the Col de Mente

Watch Mark's videe of his descent of the Col de Mente

Today's stage ended with a photo finish between Johnny and Turlough, because Ciaran was only carrying 18 Turkish delights and ran out 10 km before home. A rather disgruntled Ciaran spend the evening getting an infusion of vitamins, EPO and blood and kept the whole group late for dinner.

Before dinner we had another guest appearance from Marco Pantani, complete with eye brows and ear ring. David swooned at his feet and Marco gave climbing advice to Niall. We will watch how he performs over the next few days. P.S. The aspiring Pantani on the bike on the blog two days ago was of course Niall.


We had another visit from our N.I. Celebrity. He did point out that it was very hard for him to get his usual publicity owing to cycling dominating the airways. He still refuses to permit us to divulge his name in case this creates extra traffic on the road.

In the restaurant Marco got dirty looks from a French diner who had bigger eyebrows than he did and though it was taking the ....

The prizes today are as follows:
Stage win: Joint between Johnny and Turlough.
Yellow Jersey: Johnny (Team Ballycoan)
King of the Mountains: Turlough
Pink Jersey (woman's overall leader): Mairead
Queen of the Mountains: Gillian
Woman's Green (Points): Paula
White (best young female): Betty
Gold Jersey (Best Performing Veteran): Tony aka Tony.

For Today's Route: http://www.gpsies.com/map.do?fileId=nugcbuttsxbgeckj

Todays Stats:
Distance:  63.12 Miles
Time Cycling:  5 hours 53 minutes
Climb: 5627 Feet
Calories:  7968 Caloires