Day 2 - St Malo to Rieux

Our first day on foreign soil lay ahead of us, as we enjoyed the Butlins style evenings entertainment in the ships bar. We slept through a rocky night on what seemed like the bottom deck of the boat in our sardine style cabin feeling every wave as it struck the boats hull.



After a serious breakfast refuel on the ferry, we departed our floating hotel, rebuilt the bikes and headed full steam ahead towards our days destination. 45 minutes later... we were still meandering the beautiful, if repetitive, streets of St Malo. Our dear friend Mr Garmin, seems to be a country boy and is not at home in the urban environment. But never the less, we made it out alive, and headed for our first checkpoint of the day through the beautiful Brittany countryside.

We arrived in Dinan in great spirits, boosted by questioning from a lovely English lady who took great interest in our trip, and later followed our conversation with a motivational tweet! Again, Garmin had a bit of a hissy fit leaving the town, resulting in the recreation of the Paris-Roubaix, as we rode through the towns cobbled streets for the 4th time.



Eventually we made it to our lunch stop with the fantastic mobile catering and support van team (The Battle Bus) of Rob and Jane. Filling our stomachs lifted our spirits and changed the course of the day for the far positive. The thunder train rocketed up to full speed, aided by the tail wind, faultless road surface and red arrows style formations. We glided through stunning scenery, and beautiful small towns, keeping Garmin happy with the open country air.



Before we knew it, we where at our final stop for the day with only 25km to go and the same distance to our first and (hopefully) only 100 mile day! Apart from Fred's tyre puncturing on the driveway up to the campsite, it all ran smoothly and we stabled our horses after an emotional and geographical roller coaster! Another carb, cheese and french bread filled meal was the order of the day, followed by Janes award winning ginger cake, to round of what has been a hectic baptism of fire for the first couple of days. Our first day on French soil had shown us how amazing the next week will be in this cycling mad country pushed along by a brisk tailwind and brilliant sunshine! Now to enjoy our first night under canvas and look forward to our first 'normal' day, away from ferries and slipping into our already developing routine.

Today's distance: 160 km
Total Distance: 304 km
Average speed: 23km
Top speed: 60.5

Max heart rate: 87% (173bpm)
Average heart rate: 65% (130 bpm)
Calories burnt: 3765

- @Access2a
- www.access2africa.co.uk

Location:Rieux