Anyhow, that aside, it's been a long long long hot hot hot day and VERY flat. Much of the route was extremely tedious, passing through a timber producing area which was not pretty at all. The road surface was quite uneven and tiring and that coupled with the heat made for another tiring day. 120 miles is a very different matter to 100 miles, I always feel that a mile after the 100 mile mark always feels twice as a long as a normal mile!
Bad start to my day today with an extremely painful neck, probably from the constant and little changing position on the bike. My neck is still painful and stiff and I just hope it feels at least a bit better in the morning. Apart from my neck I also discovered this morning that my front tyre had gone soft so I had to much about changing the inner tube before starting out which was not what I needed today.
Anyway, all these things have to be worked through and eventually arrived in Bordeaux which looks to be a very nice city with a lovely square with people sitting out eating and drinking. All very civilised and a million miles away from the drunken yobbery that sadly but universally prevails in city centres in the UK these days.
Today's stage, stage 18, is the last full road stage of this year's Tour de France and it is a lovely feeling to know that, in theory at least, the major challenges are now behind me. Tomorrow I have the time trial course to ride which is about 30 miles and then on Thursday there is the final stage into Paris and up the Champs Elysees, about 62 miles . If all goes well that will be quite a moment.
I have so far covered 2,155 miles over 18 stages in a total of about 188 hours including all stops, including passing right through The Alps and The Pyrenees. It feels like much longer ;-)
Photographs from Today:
A town name can mean so much to a cyclist riding the Tour de France!
The church in Sore.
Today's Weather:
Clear blue sky and very hot again.
Ride Time: 09:59 hh:mm
Ride Distance: 120 miles
Average Power: 106W
Average Heart Rate: 109bpm
Average Speed - True: 12.1 mph
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