Day 3 - Andorra to Toulouse Lavaur

Planned Mileage: 111.63 miles
Actual Mileage: 132.4 miles
Temperature: 28C
Top Speed: 50mph
Start Time: 08:22am
End Time: 20:10pm
Total Saddle Time: 11hr 48mins

Well that truly was a day of two halves! The morning session saw the group climb up to a total height of 7800ft, but what followed in the afternoon was totally forgettable and the team were not happy bunnies at all!

The day started a few minutes behind schedule - even the organisers were doing yesterday's washing up at 8:10am! In order to ensure we did not go 50yds down the road before someone had an issue - Phil kindly had a puncture simply by getting his bike out of the hotel garage. I guess that should of been a sign for what was to come.

The hotel where we were staying was at 4000ft, and then the team started what was probably the toughest climb of the trip so far. 3 minutes into the trip, Simon had had enough - he was complaining about a lack of oxygen and settled for a seat in the van, where he remained until the summit.

10 miles into the climb, the group had a dilemma - do we go through the tunnel which cut through the mountain, or do we go over the top. A vote was had, and the majority chose over the top. However, the front runners of the group sensed that some of the team really wanted to go through the tunnel, so they tried to do so, only for the authorities to turn them away due to no cyclists being allowed in the tunnel. The group then had no choice but to climb to the summit. Half way up and appearing to struggle, Russell also succumbed to the van, however, Dave insisted that he would get to the top on his own even if it 'F'in' killed him!!

After a total of 13.3 miles, the summit was reached. Time for a breather, before Anthony took on the challenge to descend as fast as he can and try and break the descent record for the trip so far. He then proceeded to descend a total of 1500ft in less than 5 minutes, topping a speed of just over 50mph.

<< Sequence of 5 excellent descent videos to go here once I have decent Wifi >>

At the bottom of the descent, was the border into France, where we grouped together, waiting for Paul to finally catch us up! A few miles later the group had a bacon buttie break, before cycling onto the next village for another little break. It was at this point, that Phil Hargreaves decided that everyone was ready to move on and so they sped off. What Phil failed to realise was that Spike was taking off some of his top layers and by the time he was ready the group had already gone some distance. This gap proved too much for Spike to claw back and as a result, he ended up going in the car.

53 miles into the journey, Gavin suffered a puncture - this allowed the group to take a toilet break!

59 miles in, the journey started to take a turn for the worse. Due to roadworks, we were diverted onto a dual carriageway heading into a town called Foix. Luke was leading the group, when all of sudden he was startled by flashing blue lights and sirens - it was the police, diverting the group off the dual carriageway. At this stage, he was bricking himself, however, it turns out the road was actually a motorway and the police just wanted the group to find a safer alternative. They apologised for the poor diversion signage and sent the group off in the right direction.

The Garmin technology, which we were following, did not cope very well with this and as a result, they were rendered useless for the rest of the journey. Instead, I had to use good old Nokia Maps on a Windows 8 device - Lumia 925 - (a little plug there) to find an alternative route in order to get the group home. It was 5:30pm and there was still 38 miles to go, tempers were getting frayed and people had just had enough.

Everyone re-grouped and set about the task in hand. What followed was a series of climbs and descents until,18 miles from home another road closure and diversion needed. We started to think we were never going to get back. Paul decided he had done enough, and opted for the car for the last stretch - after already cycling the days original scheduled mileage.

We finally managed to get to our destination before the final bit of daylight disappeared. The team were totally shattered and thoughts of the awesome morning climb and thrilling rapid descent were a distant memory!

In total, the team cycled a total 8281ft of elevation.