Day 13, Stage 12. Fantastic Chateaux

Day 13 Stage 12, 4 July 2013. Fougeres to Tours 218 km no mountain passes This was a long flat ride with very little climbing. The scenery was industrial in the North moving on to industrial agricultural and then on to the Loire wine region with its fantastic Châteaux. The weather was overcast and raining which severely limited photograph taking. A very long day turned out to be quite straightforward as the cyclists made excellent progress. There were some new arrivals today and they needed to be organized so that we could all work together and share the load. One of the problems caused by Matty’s knees is that we have by necessity ridden fairly slowly to avoid putting them under too much pressure. Therefore Nick and Matt have got to know most of the slower riders and though Matt’s knees have improved they still tend to ride with this group. Today this became a problem because new riders have joined the Tour for only a few stages. The preparation requied for one or 2 days is such that it can be omitted with the result that the less fit riders drift off the back of other groups and have ended up with in the slower group. One new rider joined for 2 days having never ridden more than 50 km let alone the 220km he needed to do today so he suffered and struggled, but to his immense credit he got to the hotel at 8:30pm having met his obligations to his sponsors by completing his task. Most other riders were back at the hotel 4 to 6 hours earlier allowing time to do washing and laundry before bed. Dave a fitness coach was cycling alone and he too joined the last group.