Cycle Slam Stage 5 - Day 3

Deadlines, Deadlines, Deadlines - there's a train to catch & a velodrome booked, so get up early again & head off by 7am!! Well that was the plan, anyway - We got away closer to 7:30 as we were waiting for Freddie. I had tracker fully functioning today, but forgot to turn my Endomondo on until lunch time!!

This was the flatest ride of the 4 days & boy did we motor - One of the greatest buzzes of the week was our peleton tearing through pretty French villages, in perfect formation & harmony, at 25 mph with just the sound of rubber on tarmac & the odd bit of banter in the background - great team - great experience!

We averaged over 16.5 mph this day, compared to around 13.5mph on days 1 & 2. The weather was good & the wind in our favour and the lunch break was aided by a sip of champagne as it was Malcolm's birthday!

Onwards to Roubaix & after a thankfully brief trip along the famous cobbles - They were truely bone-shaking & how the Pros can ride for miles & miles on them i'll never know - I took advantage of the gutters for a while but I have to say that as long as you kept a good pace, I never felt that I was going to fall off.....- we made it to the velodrome for a couple of laps each!

After a steaming shower in the famous showers we caught the bus to Lille to prepare to catch the train - that'll be going in about 2.5 hours!! Given this large window, Terry, Martin & I headed into the town for the meal of the week - Steak, Chips & a glass of red!!

Eurostar to Ashford & Premier Inn for the night! We took the bus to the Pizza Express in Ashford for a great evening with excellent service & yellow jersey for Yogi who's raised nearly £30k for our great causes!