F & S Day 18 17/09/11 The Last Big One

It was a good start to the 5th century-mile day in a row today, although once again a pretty chilly one; it is noticebaly getting a lot colder as we head north.

Good tailwinds on long sections of flat road aided speeds of between 45-50kmph in the earlier part of the day, as a result we made some seriously quick progress.

Although the flat lands of this area of France are fast with a tailwind, I couldn't imagine using them as a training ground - they would get rather dull and rather tedious if you ended up just cycling on the flat all the time - but at least you would get some pretty awesome TT times if you
chose the right route!

We arrived in Beaumont le Roger an hour and a half earlier than expected, and as we fancied an easier day tomorrow for the last day, we continued on down the river valley, eating into the last few kms towards Le Havre.
About 5km out of Beaumont it started spitting with rain, we sheltered under a bus stop as a huge rain shower came through before heading out again once it had eased off a bit. After going through the next town though the rain got heavier and heavier, and there was no where to shelter. Soaked to the skin and getting increasingly cold we desperately looked for a spot to camp for the night.

Eventually we found the edge of a field to very quickly put the tent up in and throw everything (including ourselves) inside. Sat steaming in the tent we cooked dinner in the porch, then settled down to an early night.

We have been incredibly lucky with the weather this trip; this was the worst rain that we have had and it was at the end of the day and on the last camp of the trip; so it really didn't matter if we got soaked as we knew that we would be home the next day.


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