I am incredibly tired and have a really long ride ahead of me tomorrow, so I will keep this quite brief, but I managed to complete my second stage of the Tour de France!
The morning was mostly cycling along straight roads (including 60km on a single road!), which was heavy going. Fortunately, as I was trying to tackle it on my own, I passed my roommate taking photographs. He caught up with me and offered to "domestique" me for a while - basically letting me draft behind as he bore the brunt of the headwind. We managed to pick up a few stragglers along the route and at feed stations - even slowing down later on to help some others keep up.
It was really hot again. I realised at lunchtime that I was either dehydrated or suffering from heat stroke, so I necked two bottles of water. It is amazing how difficult that is, but also what a difference it made! I also made a conscious effort to keep eating regularly - even when I didn't want to.
The afternoon was more winding and more hilly, but that is the type of cycling I am used to. There was a beautiful 2km descent towards the end - but sadly it wasn't captured by my Garmin as the battery had died by that point.
I have another animation of the ride (again up to the point my Garmin died) - available at: https://www.relive.cc/view/g12701953016
Wow, this post is longer than I expected it to be, but I really need to sleep (I didn't sleep well last night) so I will leave it there.
Please do visit my fundraising page if you have a few pound to spare - it will find its way to a great cause! I think it is Virginmoneygiving.com/TomHoldaway - you will know if you are in the right place because it has a picture of a dog on a bike.
Thank you for reading.
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