Day 4 - Toulouse Lavaur to Labastide Murat

Planned Mileage: 76.53 miles
Actual Mileage: 85.86 miles
Temperature: 27.5C
Top Speed: 40.92 mph
Start Time: 08:52am
End Time: 16:15pm
Total Saddle Time: 7hr 23mins

What a boring day! I hardly have anything to write :-)

After the last few days, today was a godsend. The strategy for the day was to follow my Sat Nav system and aim for about 80 miles. Everything was running smoothly - the first incident being that Phil's chain fell off after 16 miles, however with Dan the mechanic nearby, the group was not held up at all.

After leaving Lavaur, the group cycled through some nice countryside with steady climbs and descents - nothing like the first 3 days. At one stage, we had a 10% drop which judging by the sounds of the whoops from the riders - they enjoyed that one.

Shortly before the breakfast stop, Simon decided to bunnyhop a bush, only for his water bottle to fly off and landing 6ft into a thorny bush. Dan decided he would retrieve it for him as Simon did not want to spoil his "good looks".

33 miles into the route, and Phil's chain falls off yet again - the group gave him some stick about his Campag equipment!

In order to inject some excitement into the day, and for us to be able to have some content in this blog, at the next break I left my mobile on the back of the car - not realising this I set off only to realise a few miles later. It transpires that Phil had picked up the phone and after I went back to the point where I left it, and rung the phone, Phil answered and did an awful impersonation of a French person in order to fool me into thinking one of the locals had it. Fair play to them for picking the phone up, but they must try harder with their pranks!

Later into the journey, we experienced the usual satellite issues where it was trying to send us down a dirt track. This did not delay us too much and we were soon on our way again.

After the final stop, 17 miles from home, we hit a problem - the only bridge for miles around, over the river was closed to vehicles. Luckily, it was open to pedestrians so the cyclists walked their bikes over and carried on with the journey. The support vehicles had a 20 mile detour to rejoin the group. Had they not been allowed to cross the bridge, they would of encountered steep climbs and bad road surfaces. Myself and Dan (the bike riding mechanic), managed to catch the group back up with 6 miles to go.

We then entered Labastide Murat and the comforts of the hotel. Waiting for us was Russells Dad and a tray full of beers - a welcome sight indeed. Even the teetotal Dave could not resist, the trip has sent him off the wagon and he enjoyed his first beer for 7 weeks.

This brings an end to 4 hard days cycling and the group are rewarded with a day's rest tomorrow. For some, they are going out on a little cycle, others will be cleaning their bikes whilst a few of us are going to visit a local vineyard. A few beers will be drunk tonight and there is talk of a game of poker!

One final fact - the group have now climbed the equivalent of the height of Mount Everest!