The Debora Matthews Fellowship

Sorry for lack of blog yesterday. Charly didn’t have any wifi that I could get on or any 3G, or much of anything come to that. One of the scruffiest small towns I have ever seen in France and certainly the only one where the only source of food was two greasy kebab shops. We elected not to partake.
Came at the end of a very hard day too. At 128km it was almost as long as London to Dover, but we had a 20kph headwind for a lot of the way. It was very hard work especially for Paddy who led almost all the way. Thanks bro’. Frankie is doing really well too. At least it was 10c cooler than previous days.
Many thanks also to Min and Sarah in the support wagon for their stirling efforts. We really couldn’t do this without them, unlike all the cycle tourists we keep meeting who put us to shame by doing greater distances than us and carrying all their gear with them.
Today was not quite such a long way at 110km. I did not feel good to start with -still tired from yesterday and sore and with heavy legs. For a while it looked like this was going to be a real ordeal. Still we went through some great countryside in the heartland of French agriculture. Golden crops, sunflowers, maize and the horizon dominated by modern cathedrals – or grain silos as some people know them. Had lunch by the river in a very pretty little town called Anglure after which I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and felt much better. I was actually going pretty well by the finish.
We’re now in the outskirts of the city of Troyes in Champaign. I’ve always thought this might be a quite attractive place, but have never really stopped to find out before. We may have a ride throughout the centre to find out tomorrow. I’ll tell you all about it next time I get online.