Our first day away at Tour Limousin was quite eventful. Starting out very early from Belgium in order to be able to ride in Limoges when we arrived, we thought we’d be clear on the roads without too many problems.
In terms of traffic that was true, but what we didn’t bank on was the French Police deciding to do a random check on the team van. We’re not sure if was Alex or Pierre they didn’t like. Thankfully, they let them go with and we were quickly back on route.
With Annie in the team car for the complete journey, it was always going to a hard journey for her travel buddies. Her never ending energy, singing, and the odd complaint about the DS’s choice of music was always going to make for interesting mix, when combined with 35 degree heat, no air com and a sugar supply in the form of Haribo sweets.
We arrived at our hotel at around 4:30, and the girls went out for a ride in the area where Friday’s time trial will be held. It’s going to be a hard course with hills, narrow roads and technical descents.
Before that there is a very interesting start to the tour with opening laps of the first stage including a first category climb. 4 times up this in the first 40km’s before taking on the bigger loop of the course is going to be a very significant. And with 180 riders down to start, it could be a crazy first day.
We’ll try to keep you up to date during the tour and hopefully have some training reports from tomorrow final practice on the TT course.
