There were some ooohhhh’s and aaahhhh’s as the team saddled up outside our hotel in Arras. The previous two days were beginning to take their toll on the team’s bodies and their saddles were becoming a little uncomfortable!
A few miles into the ride, Andrew got our third puncture of the trip. The massive rain had obviously caused some localised flooding which had washed all sorts of silt and sharp things into the road. The team pushed on, momentarily joining a locally organised race – if they were out braving the weather, we were not going to let the side down!
The first stop of the day was at Sailly Saillisel, a British War Cemetery just outside Peronne. The team put their bicycles down and spent some time walking around the many graves whilst Tom tried to get to the bottom of Peter’s creaky bike (it was the spokes if you’re interested).
A further six miles and the team arrived at Peronne where they stopped for coffee in the lively marketplace before riding on to lunch. It was oh so quiet…
A crack of lightening illuminated the sky and the team waited pensively under the gazebos for the count to see how far away it had struck…
“One….two…..thrrrr….CRACK, BANG, CRASH!!!!”
The booming thunder made everyone jump. The storm was close but we hoped was moving away so decided to wait it out for a while. Luckily, the storm eased slightly and had moved away so the team decided to push on.
A little further on was our second ‘Route Barree’ sign of the trip so Tom went ahead in the van to check out if we could actually pass through or not. Luckily, there was a road. Not just that, the road was in the second stage of being laid, so a silky-smooth surface of flat, unblemished asphalt had the team in cycling bliss at they neared the town of Roye.
At one of the ramps, Mark went back to his roots as a semi-professional BMXer and bunny-hopped the ramp.
The team then cycled onto the vast plans of agricultural land just north of Lassigny with the towering wind turbines overhead indicating how windy it can get on this stretch. Luckily, the rain had settled and the wind was relatively gentle and coming from the west. The peleton was tight as they blasted along.
After the town of Lassigny is the main climb of the day. The road rises gently for a couple of miles into the woods above this charming town, topping out on yet more open agricultural land on a ridge above Compiegne.
Chris gave his reaction at arriving at the top of the hill.
From here it was a gentle ride down from the ridge and into Compiegne, complete with one last ‘Route Barree’ for good measure!
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