As the riders wandered down to breakfast on the final day, everyone seemed to be feeling a mixture of excitement and apprehension. The enthusiasm for riding 100 miles to Paris with the great Miguel Indurain was only slightly dampened by the aches and pains which had built up over the previous 2 days and the knowledge that this leg was comfortably the longest. Miguel was trying to make people feel better by trying to look nervous and rubbing his thighs but we weren’t buying it.
A chilly morning in Bernay. Miguel is 4th from right.
There was also a bit of a shock as we discovered that a September morning in Northern France is, as one memeber of the group put it, “effing freezing”. So the two groups set off with a few numb fingers and toes, but all agreed that riding through the morning mist with the sun slowly rising was a breathtaking experience. As we reached the morning rest stop, the day had started to warm up and, helped by a few strong coffees from the local ‘tabac’, we all started to thaw out.
Even cycling legends need a mid-morning coffee...
