Today began with a comedy of errors leaving the Pyrenees . After farewelling most of my ride buddies for the past 10 days, we were due to head to a ‘feed’station to watch the riders pass through and then ride the remaining distance to Bordeaux.
Most people on our tour group were heading back to Paris by bus and then on home or to other travel destinations. A happy half dozen of us and the diehards in other like tours were grouped together for the last few days to travel as a unit. It took 3 hours to collect bikes and baggage from 4 hotels as we took every wrong turn and got stuck in every traffic jam in Lourdes. We needed a miracle from the healing waters of this quirky city to get us on the road and back on schedule.
It was 1.30pm by the time we got to our jump off point at Sabres where we waited for the tour riders to pass through the 'feed station'. Then our riding could begin. The terrain was flat, the temperature cool, but the wind was in our face most of the way. Not a very interesting ride, so we gunned it as best we could - 108 km in 4 hrs flat with only one stop for 5 mins.
The last part of the ride into Bordeaux was brilliant as this is a city with spectacular stone buildings and architecture and lovely streetscapes. Thanks to Adam's Garmin navigator we found our way through countless turns and roundabouts to our hotel.
The pro stage rolled into Bordeaux a few hours before us. Cavendish won the sprint again and there was no change in the GC rankings.
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