Day 3...done!

Today was a grand day out. Compared to yesterday where it was cold, wet, windy and I thought Tom was going to die in a French hospital (or a taxi) then having to complete the majority on my lonesome - today was warm, sunny and full of great companionship!

We started later than all other days (10am) in reasonably warm weather. Neither of us really fancied anything big for breakfast so we set off with a couple of chocolate chip brioche in our bellies.

The cycling was good from the off. I couldn't really remember much of this day from 2009, but having reviewed our blog posts it seemed that after the previous day's cycling we decided to try and stick to main roads...well what a mistake that was! The ride today was fantastic. Beautiful scenery, quite roads and a great combination of challenging climbs rewarded with some nice downhills. I think even Tom enjoyed it!

We tried to stop in Grandvilliers for a baguette, but the only shops open were patisserie so we pressed on with the food we had on us and it sufficed us both.

After my attempts to cheer up Tom and take his mind off his abdominal pains yesterday by singing New New York and the Theme from Annie ("The sun'll come out tomorrow!") accompanied by Spotify, we continued with the background music in a couple of places today and had a good sing along!

It's amazing how much easier cycling these sorts of distances is with good companionship, the kilometres melted away today. In some ways it's a shame that the adventure ends tomorrow. Although my body will thank me. This morning I could have perfectly happily laid in bed all day. So whilst today was some of the best cycling this year, it took tremendous effort to get back on my bike and put the straps for my bag back on my shoulders (oh for a support rider!!).

Tonight I looked on Trip advisor for somewhere to eat and came up with nothing. There looked to be a very nice restaurant down the road, but two problems - I don't think they'd have accepted us in wearing my polka dot tshirt and shorts and more immediately it was closed! So we ended up at KFC!

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a warm one. On reflection, we should have used some sun screen today and we'll definitely need it tomorrow. My quads took a full hit today and as you might have seen in an earlier post are looking a little red, but I'm keeping to "the rules" specifically we've done very well with the first 10:

http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

What did get on my nerves no end today was that I appear to have picked up a slow puncture. After repairing it on Day 1, we had to pump it up at the start of Day 2 - I put that down to having used CO2 which generally leaks quicker than air. Thankfully it got me to Abbeville, I couldn't have contemplated doing what I did today in the grim weather yesterday.

Just as we set off this morning I noticed it was more or less flat! Well that wasn't the first time it needed pumping up, I had to pump it up 5 times in total. If we had a track pump that wouldn't have been an issue, but using a mini pump where you need about 300 pumps (yes I counted!) to get it to a reasonable level, it got boring and tiring very quickly.

Paris tomorrow and with great weather too - I'm excited! Hope you can all keep following and supporting from afar.