Day 1 / Stage 10

First things first - today I cycled a whole stage of the Tour de France. That is a pretty bonkers thing to be able to say. It really wasn't easy, but then it isn't designed to be - and the 35 degree heat just made it tougher.

You can watch an animation of my ride online here.

I flew to Bergerac yesterday (which is enough of a challenge for somebody who is scared of flying) and discovered when chatting to the guy sat next to me on the flight that he was also riding in the Tour de Force, along with a group of his friends. That made getting to my hotel at Perigueux a lot easier.

Upon arrival at Perigueux I was introduced to my room mate and, after dumping our bags in our room, we decided to take a look around Perigueux. This is not a travel blog, but if you enjoy wandering through narrow pretty streets and looking at the remains of (I think) a fort, Perigueux is worth checking out. Presumably that's why Le Tour starts there in stage 10!

Stage 10 itself is supposed to be 178km long, but we were told that we would instead be cycling around 190 - 195km to include getting to our hotel.

I won't bore you with a blow by blow account, but in summary the Dordogne is absolutely beautiful. Cycling through and around the valleys was breathtaking at times. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures on the route to share as I was generally trying not to get left behind by whichever group I was cycling with - or later on just trying to finish!

I also learned some important lessons, partly about cycling as part of a team, but most importantly that I need to take precautions against myself.

Shortly after I left the first feed stop, I looked down and realised that I had been so preoccupied with applying sun cream that I had left my water bottle behind and had to go back and get it. That meant the group I had left with went ahead without me and I had to try to catch up with another group who passed me as I was on my way back.

To make it worse, I left the final feed stop and realised that for the same reason I had left my gloves behind. That was more serious, though, as I couldn't catch up with another group and had to cycle the last 30km or so on my own. About 10km into that the battery in my Garmin died and I was just following signs with little idea how far would be left.

There isn't much I can do about my Garmin, but I have hopefully come up with a Tom-proof system for not leaving things at feed stations.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow!

If anybody would like to sponsor me, please visit one of my previous posts, where you can find a link to my fundraising page.

Thank you for reading.