Stage 4

Excellent day today, very hot again but the humidity was lower with a clear blue sky and the winds were not too strong which made a big difference. In terms of scenery and weather this was probably one of the finest days of cycling that I have experienced but….

I have unfortunately developed some right knee pain, not in the joint itself but lateral and proximal to my patella. This is a bit of a worry and is a lot of an inconvenience and not something I have ever suffered with before. The current plan is to reduce pedal pressure as far as possible and to take some analgesics and anti-inflammatory pills and hope for the best, not much else I can do really.

Interestingly with today's stage being a bit shorter than previous days at just under 100 miles I felt very fresh throughout and not at all tired by the finish in spite of taking just under 7 hours including all stops for photos, food, drinks etc. So, very happy with today's progress in spite of the knee.

As you can see my CTL has now fallen back to the point where I would normally be taking a break to let it bounce back but on this journey that isn't an option and never has been, goodness knows how low it will get before the finish but it's going to get pretty low for sure.

The SKINS clothing I'm using continues to perform superbly. I'm sticking with the C400 range bibshorts which are proving to be an excellent long distance product as well as having the compression benefits of the range. I'm coupling the shorts with the C400 non-compression tops at the moment because of the heat and at night I've been religiously wearing the RY400 compression tights, to excellent advantage. Over the next day or so I'll be trying the ICE range of clothing for it's cooling effect, more on that soon.

I'm pleased to have now got my appetite back with a vengeance and my hydration plan during the day seems to be working well, currently getting through around 8x750ml bottles a day which is 6 litres and that seems to be sufficient for a stage of around 100 miles, more on other days.

Epernay to Montargis tomorrow, 116 miles, couple of 4th category climbs early on but nothing immense, yet :-/ Managed to watch the pros in the last part of stage 1 today, what a mess! They should consider riding with me for 3 reasons: I could ride behind them, they would be much safer, and they would be further down the course by now, I'm leading the tour!

Photographs from Today:

Premont British War Cemetery.
Marle, town square.
Tour route countryside – Champagne Region.
Tour route countryside – Champagne Region.

Today's Weather:

Hot but not too humid, steady wind from the SW.

Ride Time: 06:55 hh:mm
Work Done: 3046kJ
Training Stress Score: 220
Intensity Factor: 0.584
Normalised Power: 178W
Variability Index: 1.36
Ride Distance: 97.65 miles
Elevation Gain: 4771 feet
Maximum Power: 518W
Average Power: 131W
Average Heart Rate: 114bpm
Average Speed - True: 14.1mph
Acute Training Load: 130.5
Chronic Training Load: 99.3
Training Stress Balance: -22.9