Day 3 - Rieux to La Roche sur Yon

Day broke and the team rose enthusiastically to tackle our second day on French soil together. Jane's first camping experience only resulted in ear to ear smiles and praise for the new way of life, the huge king size bed and home comforts were suddenly pushed to the back of the mind - a result! We had another long day planned and some meticulous planning last night made sure we were to get off to a good start in an attempt to learn from our navigation lessons from yesterday - of course the first 100m went perfectly...the rest is history but we set out in search of Roche Sur Yon, a further 160km south closer to our final destination!



Long straight, flat roads which joined the dots between the ever sleepy French towns was on the cards. We were keen to exploit the impressive road surfaces we have experienced so far and an efficient peloton was soon formed, those pesky kilometres didn't know what was coming for them. We stumbled across a stunning classic French chateau on the shores of a lake, on closer inspection this spa/hotel created a stir amongst the boys...could we collectively afford a week in there instead...We decided probably not so munched on our crumbling flapjacks and got on our way.



At about 45km in the impressive Pont San Nazaire rose in to view with the HGV's that send shivers through all cyclists bones looking like tiny specs rising on the arched structure in the distance, now all we had to do was find our way to join them. The area can probably be best described as an over sized Port Talbot. It was however the home of Airbus which posed some impressive views of planes being loaded onto planes particularly impressed us!


Another perfect lunch served by the Battle Bus meant that we were fuelled up to take on the afternoon, which provided more of the same in terms of cycling. It is always nice to have support on tour, we got our first taste of what is must be like to have a persistent Tour de France fan running alongside you on the road...for us it came in the form of a grasshopper! The desperate critter clung on to Laurie's jersey for the best part of 25 km before finding his way on the Robs wheel. He was soon flung over in to the Brittany countryside miles from home to fend for himself with the support of the A2A team...an emotional moment for us all but nonetheless he provided a bit of entertainment for our mature sense of humour.



A quick pit stop with the support team ensured we had enough energy to see us through to our final port of call - La Roche Sur Yon. It is a busy town with lots of industrial units on the approach, the next challenge was a rendezvous at the campsite. Keeping our wits about us we navigated the rush hour traffic and were escorted to our spot for the night. Another successful, long day!



Today's distance: 162 km
Total Distance: 468 km
Average speed: 24 kph
Top speed: 54 kph

Max heart rate: 82% (163 bpm)
Average heart rate: 59% (118 bpm)
Calories burnt: 3100

- @Access2a
- www.access2africa.co.uk

Location:La Roche sur Yon