Day 3 - Limoge to Cahors (165 miles)

Photo 22: Another early start in the dark for day 3 of the Challenge

Photo 23: Team 20 showing the determination that won them one of the Challenge trophies this year

Photo 24: A view from the van at the spectacular scenery

Dinner on day 2 was a long drawn out affair. We had a welcome cold beer on the hotel patio in the sunshine for half an hour and then sat down for dinner at 8pm. Three quarters of an hour later there was still no sign of food as the hotel owners were waiting for everyone before they started serving. The hotel staff finally started to realize they had a lot of hungry cyclists on their hands as plate after plate of bread disappeared so they eventually gave up waiting and started to bring the starters out!. Two hours later dinner was finally finished. The course order was a bit confusing and a lot of the cyclists had left before the end not realizing that apple tart was being served after the cheese!

Alarms greeted us on day 3 at 05:30 again and we headed to breakfast. By 6:45am we were on the road and Paul took the first shift with his dazzling head torch. I was next up and it was still dark as I set off down a long hill. The cold morning air on the downhill froze me to the bone, but fortunately there was a good climb after to warm me up, unfortunately my phone then rang! It was Ian on the phone to say they were driving up to get me. They hadn't seen any riders or vans for a while so it was clear we'd taken a wrong turn somewhere. I jumped back in the van with my bike and we chased off to find Paul. We soon spotted where we'd missed the turning in the dark and then spent the next 30 minutes trying to catch up with Paul again!. By the time he finished he'd been on the bike for an hour. He was glad for the change, but in true Paul style he was very unflustered and had just assumed we'd gone to get some petrol or shopping.

Having got Paul back in the van it was my turn again, and this time I was heading the right way and had a good 30 minute ride. Ian and Kevin then finished the first round of rides and Paul started us on round 2 with 44 miles already done and it was only 9:23 am. Round 2 had some great rides. Some tough uphills, good downhills and spectacular scenery. By the end of round 2 we were 78 miles done. It was 11:28am now and the sun was beginning to get hot, very hot! Another 87 miles to go and probably a few more hills....