Thursday, 12 September 2013

Stage 5 Rest day - New team arrives

Stage 5 - Rest day - Genval,
Distance 0 miles

As I was on my own, I decided to spend the morning in the Spa, one hour sports massage - read "extreme pain", followed by half an hour of hydrotherapy on the legs, neck and shoulders - pure bliss. 

Then I set off off in the hire car to pick up my wife Dominique, from the Eurostar at Brussels station. Then I managed yet another navigation error in Brussels city centre (spotting a theme here?) and ended up picking her up 90 mins llate at 3.30pm. Shambles . Fortunately, Dominique was quick to forgive me, we hung around in Brussels, did a little sightseeing, had a bite to eat and waited for Graham (support rider for next 4 days) to arrive. See here :-

We got back to the hotel and studied maps for tomorrow's stage (Genval to Saint Hubert) , which is 86 miles and the steepest ascent so far of 1475 metres for the day.  

Mike arrived from Brussels via a taxi at 9pm and completes the team for the next two days (he rides to Luxembourg over next two stages).  Here's a pic of the new support team at dinner this evening, left to right, Graham , Dominique, Mike. 

We talked excitedly about tomorrow, a little apprehension hung in the air given the challenge of the climbs ahead and plenty of debate about what time we will reach our lunch and destination points .

We set off for bed at 11pm, as we are meeting for breakfast at 7am in attempt to get going by 8:30 tomorrow.  On the way to our rooms, Mike showed us his bike, which seems to be brand new , although he claims to have trained for 80 miles.  See here:-
He's a fit guy , im sure he'll manage the hills and the miles, but without the time in the saddle I think he might be needing the gentleman's cream by tomorrow evening.  Until then, Brett x 








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