3rd July 2016
Day 02, Carentan to Coutances

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Tour de France race day. More D-Day beaches and more rain. Stopped at Sainte-Mère-Église for food and shelter. This is where the tour presentation took part a few days earlier. Saw the caravan at Lessay and then the peloton just up the road, Cav' in yellow. Lots of footage of the caravan, maybe skip that. There is a more detailed video of the riders. Length - 22min 16

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Tour de France race special video. Length - 5min 31

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Garmin route for today - - Strava route for today

 

Start time: 08:57
Start location: xxxx
Start weather: xxxx
Total millage so far: 67.6

Stops: xxxx

Finish time: 00.00
Finish location: xxxx
Finish weather: xxxx
Miles today: 56.52 (Strava says - 56.5 = 124.1)
Total millage so far: 124.12
Today's top speed: 31.01mph (Strava says - 30mph)
Punctures: 00

Music played:

Blog for the day:
Wow what a day. Even though we started in rain which pretty much lasted for most of it, we still had a great time. First stop was Utah beach. Amazing to think what these guys went through just to land on the beach then to have to fight every inch of the way inland.

Getting cold quick while standing around, I left the group to head to Saint marre englise. Been here before with the family many years ago. It was a shame the last few days have been wet as we are unable to stand around for too long and take the things we are seeing, in.

After a good lunch, there were some rolling hills into stinging rain and headwinds. Not a pleas t way to spend our holiday. I hadn't envisaged that it would be like this.

We then headed down to our junction where we had the option to go see le tour. We had plenty of time today, having made good millage earlier. We decided that if we get to Lessey then we can head south on the road the tour is heading north on. I set off then on approaching the town, I could see the caravan coming through, so I went full gas. Threw the bike to the ground and watched it go past, while fighting the French for all the crap they throw out lol. Perfect.

We heading south but had to push our bikes past the gendarmes each time they were at junctions. All the other supporters at the road side were alllez alllez us and bonjour and telling us that we should be heading north like the pros lol. Everyone was in such high spirits it was great to be part of it. All very friendly and fun. We waved at all the team cars going past and some waved or tooted their horns back to us. Huge smiles on my face. By this time the rain had stopped.

Some miles down the road we took what looked like a good spot to watch the race as it was coming along quick. We saw the 4 man breakaway and Cav in his yellow journey. Of course they all flew past so quickly.

Pretty close to town now and we got in to camp. I didn't bother going to see the lovely chateau up the road which was a shame, but the weather had been bad, we were cold and wet and just wanted to get in to camp.

Had a lovely meal tonight, unlike last nights disaster. Overall, a pretty amazing day. Everyone still seems happy which is good! Will we we le tour tomorrow, yes!.

And tinkiff are staying next door plus I got my water bottle too!