After an early start on Monday, the finely tuned athletes of the Vinghoe Velos finally landed in Normandy, clearly flagging from our arduous journey. We sought refreshment in a harbour side restaurant in Cherbourg, here we made careful calorie counted selections from the menu along with the necessary levels of local isotonic beer to maintain our bodies in peak condition, before we checked into our hotel about a mile or so away. Upon arrival at the hotel, we were all in awe of Pete’s command of the French language, as was the the very polite French receptionist, who after 15 minutes of Pete’s pigeon French nonsense, finally said – in perfect English “so what exactly do you wan’t Mr Thompson?”

Once in the hotel we re-grouped in the bar to discuss tactic’s, who would lead the Peloton on the first day?
Then we set off to a local restaurant ‘Buffalo Grill’, after more food and ‘one or two more beers’, we retired back to the hotel. After some more beer, the hotel reception explained that they had now run out of beer (surely our commitment to achieving the peak of physical perfection could now not be brought into question). A truly magnificent effort by the whole team! Graham slurred some outstanding frontier gibberish and Dave Mander done some very impressive cheer leading moves, with only the aid of some balloons, we put this down to sheer exhaustion after really ‘pushing the envelope’.
Tuesday, stage 1 of the tour, the main Peloton left Cherbourg and proceeded around the North East coast of the Peninsula, past the Normandy beaches and on to Carentan. Again the whole team excelled themselves, exceeding all expectations, thankfully the local restaurants had just enough beer to ensure adequate levels of re-hydration we’re restored. Tomorrow we brace ourselves for stage 2, 82 Km further south to Vire.