Day Three - Belfort to Vesoul via Besancon

Day 3 by The Laggards (Gordon and Dave)

The threesome survived the night, despite Dave snoring loudly! And head down for a hearty Novotel breakfast. After which follow the starts of ritual of creaming and oiling. It takes longer than any woman in the beautification process.

It is a hot day and we're off! With the laggers chasing the aces. However, Dave ain't feeling too great and needs a liberal dose of muscle rub! Gordon makes a fool of himself by forgetting he is surgically implanted into his riding shoes and falls off into a heap. We make slow progress today and by lunch time have drunk all the water and needed an emergency delivery from ace support man No 1. He also turned up with 2 DD melons. We find ace No1 support man as the guest of honor at a local fete. What I didn't tell him he was going to be human sacrifice. And after a fantastic last session, we completed the 56 miles into the Ibis Hotel in Vesoul. We were humbled at dinner by group of Bosch workers who have lost their jobs and are doing a cycle ride to Stuggart to protest against the closure of their factory. They donated 100 Euros to our charity.


Day 3 by The Aces (Sam and Andy)

Early rise to fill our faces full of Novotel's finest breakfast grub-adub-dub. Followed by getting lycra'd & lubed up then fixing Dave's increasingly problematic bike. Gripple carrying Loadhog again eh?

Strike out from Belfort for 100 miles through the Vosges to Vesoul via Besancon and the rather challenging journey across the Doubs taking in stunning scenery by the river in the valley, up through picturesque French villages & battle through the heat as our star support man fought to find an open road over the inconveniently located mountains. After seeing an overstimlulated ornithological metal meneagery we finally take on water in order to tackle Mont Faucon above Besanceon, where we nearly melt our brakes. We then meander through the lanes to Vesoul & check into the Ibis to a warm welcome from Manager Mr. Behava, accompanied by cracking food. Encourage our new found friends from Bosch then off to bed to prepare for the next days century ride.


Day 3 by The AA (The 4th Emergency Service / Al and Tony)

Left the hotel to get to Decathlon in Montbelliard in order to buy Dave some new brake pads (which turned out to be out of stock) and to E.Leclerc to buy refreshments, lunch and a big watermelon for a refreshing afternoon treat. Rushed to meet Gordon and Dave in a little village halfway between Belfort and Vesoul where the watermelon was a very welcome treat. Then Tony managed to find a fete in one of the villages en route to Vesoul and got talking to some locals who took pity on him and offered him some bread. After witnessing two sets of locals squaring up to each other over a game of petanque, it was time for him make a swift exit and head to the hotel and get the rooms ready for everyone's arrival.

Meanwhile, across town, Al was making an arrival of his own into a picturesque layby just outside a village called Rioz. After a brief walk through a poppy-filled meadow whilst waiting for the Aces to rock up, it was time for the final pitstop and a quick perusal through a wide range of gels, energy bars and every other cleverly marketed piece of cycling paraphernalia necessary. Then it was a quick jaunt up the N57 to our Hotel Ibis to meet the manager, who had let us stay for free and given us a free breakfast to show his support for what we were doing.

He asked us if he could wear one of our T-Shirts to wear at the Vesoul vs. Lens football match that evening. We are now completely out of T-Shirts and must place an order for several more for the final day! They are proving a very successful marketing tool!!

After a discussion over dinner about the day's events it was time to hit the hay and catch up on our lack of sleep.