Stage 5 is complete, and I am happy to report that I am back on the saddle. Literally. The bike adjustments, extra padding, loads of chamois cream and second skin seem to have done the trick. Sure there was some discomfort, but it was nowhere near the pain I experienced two days ago. So hopefully I have this mishap under control.

The stage took us from Beauvais to Caen. The weather was calling for rain all day, and it was overcast and humid and cooler than it was been. It was great to be able to ride at comfortable temperatures. The rain never materialized, we finished the stage in the dry.



It was another 140 mile day, 8 hours riding time. Other than a nature break, we did not stop until mile 85 today. That was our lunch stop. This is possible because the Van is handing us out food and drinks as we needed them. Today I was trying to keep track of what I ate.



I started the day stocking up with two packs of Cliff Blocks and two Cliff Bars. By 3 hrs I had eaten one Cliff Bar and almost all the Blocks. I lost track of how many bottles I drank, but by this point I must have been on my second set. At the 3 hr mark, the Van was handing out cheese sandwiches, which is served on baggettes about 6 inches long. I took one and I was craving a soda, so I asked the Van for a Coke too with it. So I finish the sandwich and Coke and give the empty can to the Van. I am doing this all this while we continue to ride. I am not sure I am going to be able to ride again without a support Van, this is awesome.

Then I do not think I ate any more Cliff Bars today. I think I finished the blocks and started on the second bag. The drinks we have are one blue bottle (water) and one colored drink (Accelerate I think). I am now used to downing those at will, taking big gulps when I feel like it.

By mile 80 or so, we stop for lunch. For lunch I had another baguette with turkey this time. I had my second Coke, not sure why but I was craving Cokes all day today. I think it makes it easier to down a sandwich in the middle of a ride. I also had an orange at the lunch stop. There are M&Ms and other chocolate, but I can not eat that stuff during a ride. Several guys are all over the M&M’s. There is also a treat, some sort of desert; looks like a Danish. I eat a very small slice mainly to try it out, and it was good, but the Coke really hit the spot.



I am eating fairly quickly as we stop for a very short amount of time; it is a very long day, and minutes count, so we do not mess around. Then I stock up, make sure I have two cliff bars and two bags of blocks in my pocket. I also check my bottles to make sure I have a full set. I also stuff half a cheese sandwich in its wrapper in my jersey pocket.

Then we set off. I look at the miles, about 82, so I say to myself all I have is a metric century to go, I feel fresh so I tell myself I can handle another 60 miles easy.

Then we continue to ride, and by 6 hrs of riding I had downed another bag of blocks I think, or most of it. I am now craving the cheese sandwich, but I can not think of eating this without a Coke, and the Van must have read my mind because they hand me one. So I down most of the Coke first and then I eat the sandwich. It was a tricky sector as the cross winds were with us most of the day, and eating in an echelon is a bit challenging; if you slow down a bit and get on the wind, ughh, what a pain, you have to work hard to get back in the draft, all this with a Coke in your hand and a sandwich. At least today this is doable because I can finally sit. Imagine trying to do this and your butt hurts like hell, that was not pleasant. But hopefully that is history.

I think that was it for the food. I might have eaten a bit more of the last bag of blocks but I finished with the two Cliff Bars still unopen so I did not eat those.

The ride into Caen had a nasty headwind, We had been in the wind all day, and have this sucker face us directly was not fun. I kept looking at my mileage and from mile 120 to mile 140 was not pleasant. I got to the front to push the pace for a bit, and realize that whomever was in front was already doing that, since I could not seem to increase the speed we were going at. Finally closer into town we hit some downhills that made it a bit faster.

Today’s stage had Cat 4 climbs only. And they were barely noticeable. The cross winds were a heck more noticeable, and required us to work.















One final note, I also switched to the compact cranks and a 12x27 to test out the setup. It was fine except for this stage it meant a lot of double shifting. I just could not find a suitable gear. I was on the large chainring most of the time, trying to find that sweet spot, and I could never find it; probably the wind had something to do with it.

I am happy to be still in the game, and certainly taking it one day at a time.

As to the rest of the team, things are looking up. We all started and finished the whole stage today (one guy did not finish the whole stage yesterday due to knee pain; today he felt much better).