Day 4

The grande buffet was certainly grand. I consumed museli with fruit, a yogurt. 2 sausages, 1 slab of brie, 2 slices of salami, 1 slab of unidentified cheese, and 2 pain au chocolat, to ensure I didn't repeat the burn out of day 3. Anyway this isn't a food blog so lets get on with the cycling related blogging.....

After the grand buffet - which was a bloody good spread by the way -, we set off from Langres on our merry way north-west towards our destination for the day Troyes. The weather ranged quite a lot throughout the day. Sunshine, then rain, then more sunshine, then another dreaded hail storm. This one was timed much better though, as we were able to huddle under a nearby tree as soon as the hail started. No farting from Ryan this time either, so all in all a much better hailstorm experience.

We stopped shortly after at a village cafe for a coffee and to warm up. Max took his shoes and socks off, and started drying his socks on the wood-burning stove in the cafe, much to the barmaid's disgust. We tipped her 2 Euro 50c, which I don't think was quite enough considering Max's antics, and the fact we'd muddied the floor of the cafe considerably.

The sun re-appeared, then Max got the first puncture of the trip. He managed to change the inner tube in 7mins 30 seconds, which was very impressive from a man who has seemingly done nothing else quickly in his entire life.

Lunch was bloody nice, but I won't go into to much detail as this is a cycling blog, not a food blog.

The second puncture of the trip followed. Then the second broken spoke. Both on Max's clapped out  relic of a bicycle. We were too far out to ride to get the bike fixed, so the support team arrived with the spare bike. This gave a perfect opportunity for Jonny and Ryan to ride off to a nearby vineyard for a spot of champagne tasting, whilst the rest of us assembled the spare bike.

We finally arrived in Troyes at about 6pm. So it was quite a long day's cycling. Troyes is a beautiful medieval city by the way.