Day 6: Toulouse - Agen
Yesterday evening we caused a bit of a fuss at the hotel when some of us hung our washing on the fence to dry, there was no problem with the cycling clothes but Sean’s pants caused quite a stir!
Today we cycled from Toulouse to Agen; we started at 7.30am due to the heat later in the day and immediately found our route was barred due to road works (rather predictable for us) meaning a couple of miles detour but very soon we were back on the planned route and flying along at a fairly high speed. At 10.00am we met up with the backup team for biscuits, cakes and water at Castelsarrasin and for once there was a loo close by which meant the golden rule of “one tree is a men’s toilet and three trees together a ladies toilet” was not required! The temperature was rising quickly and when not on the bike our first thought was to find some shade. Our route today was interesting but unspectacular so for most of the time it was heads down cycling. We rode by fields of apples, plums, cherries and sun flowers and here we stopped for a while to takes a few photographs of Valerie in the flowers. Lunch was at Auvillar just above the river, there is no better site after a couple of hours hard cycling than seeing the backup team waiting by the roadside, food laid out and kettle on the boil (no wine allowed whilst we still have more cycling to do) – Chris, Old Bill (taking a day off from the cycling), Malcolm, Chris and Stuart you are just brilliant. After lunch we made our way gently along some very quiet roads and arrived at our hotel in Agen at around 3.00pm with 68-miles behind us. A quite day really and probably just what we needed because after 6-days of cycling and some very high temperatures, one or two of the team are beginning to feel a little weary and we still have some very tough days ahead of us.
View photos from our sixth day: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bikeride2010
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