Stage 5 day 2 (16th May)

Chalons s/ Champagne to St.Quentin (98 miles). The 2nd day brought better weather and something very different from the start....Graeme & Lee on the tandem, which they had modified to have a circular bar tray attached to the front handlebars. The tray had 9 holes drilled out to hold plastic champagne flutes! Graeme & Lee had additional attire over their cycling gear, namely white shirts & bow ties: suitable for serving Bollie I think! We were the last Group to start and not long into the morning we had the Discovery van for company, filming & providing a little shelter from the minor head wind. The pace was still quite strong this morning. We were told last night that the route would change slightly to accommodate Group shots on the steps at Bollinger, about 30kms into the ride, in Ay. Shortly afterwards Graeme cracked open a bottle of Bollie and passed on a glass to each of us in the Group. Nice touch. Although it wasn't the first bottle of the day...one broke whilst negotiating a bumpy crossroads and another was successfully distributed to some of the other Groups as we passed them on the way into Bollinger. I did say it was a fast Group! The glass went down a treat & was just finished before the biggest climb of the day. Scenery was a great deal better than yesterday and particularly when winding our way through the vineyards out of Ay. Made it to lunch with the Group intact but the first big hill afterwards, the parachute came out again! Couldn't quite hold onto the wheel in front and with less than 100m of the climb to go lost touch... Couldn't catch the tandem on the descent afterward, even when pedalling full boar. The next 50kms were spent rolling along by myself, enjoying the countryside, giving the thumbs up to passing support vehicles & still managing to keep decent enough pace to catch/pass other Groups. The food stop at 120kms allowed me to refuel & briefly catch up with my Group. However their pace was still strong, although giving them 100m head start didn't help! Caught up when the tandem had a puncture and stopped with the Group by side of road. Heard that "Limpet" had carried on. Poor John got the nickname from sticking to the tandem's rear wheel all morning. Got dropped again shortly after but rolled onto St.Quentin, catching a couple of other Groups on the way. We had stopped for about 15mins with the puncture, allowing others to pass by. Have to say that I loved today's ride. the morning with the film van was fun but managing to keep good pace by myself in the afternoon was really satisfying. Ate out en masse, with our Group sharing a table and a few glasses of Margaux! Good kitty management & Group this! Told that we would have a couple of laps at Roubaix velodrome to finish tomorrow's ride....well excited! Last night in France. Alarm set for 5.15am zzzzzzzz