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Day 1 - Castle Cary to Portsmouth 86.4m

After an almighty send of from the people of Castle Cary the Cycle Rome team were off accompanied by Max Foote and Bill Dycer, well almost the whole team. Pricey was left behind pumping up his tyres (no great loss he moans going up every hill anyway). A quick lap around town before passing back past the roaring crown and on to Portsmouth, Pricey just managing to catch up before Natwest bank.

With adrenaline pumping throughout the whole team it wasn’t long before we were at our first rendezvous point with our support team (JT’s Parents Paul and Liz). A quick refreshment stop and it was on toward Salisbury. This would be our first experienced of city traffic and it wasn’t long before we felt right at home. Every car passed us at speeds only the iron man Paul Price was capable of reaching and many decided to beeb their horn and shout what we could only think were words of encouragement towards us. We all decided “we like the city”. It wasn’t long before we were heading out, to where? Nobody knew! Possibly it was time to get the sat nav out? No! Sid knew exactly where we needed to go, apparently he knew a girl called Shirly that he used to see near here, or was it that he was in shirly once!!! Anyway it was time for Sid to lead the way. What a great job he did to, a mile down the road and speedy had gone. Nobody could keep up, not even iron man, the extra responsibility of being tour guide made him go like a mad man. Probably has something to do with his new slick hair cut. Before we knew it we had met back up with our support team. Time for some lunch and do what ever mother nature asks.

20mins felt more like 20 seconds and to stay on target we had to get back on the saddle and get going, next stop Portsmouth. It was now the time in the journey to get the sat nav out, non of us had ever been this far away from home before so it was time to rely on Tom Tom to get us to our final destination. Rushy was still asking when we needed to get our passport out to leave the county. After what must have been 20mins of Paul and Mike trying to turn the sat nav on, we had still gone nowhere (Why did we let the oldies be in charge of the modern technology, I’m not talking to you there Rave). Eventually we were off again, Paul, now nicknamed Tom Tom, leading the way. We all needed to stick together for this leg, coming from the words of Tom Tom himself. No sooner had he finished saying this he was off, leaving the rest of the team stranded at a junction chewing on his dust. Eventually we were all together again, Tom Tom was determined to keep an eye on JT this week after he got lost during the Wareham 100mile event a few weeks before. Directing the whole team from behind, Tom Tom instructed us to turned off a slip road or was that Foxy’s call? Not sure whether or not we were going the right way Tom Tom Conferred with sat nav. The traffic was soon building up behind Tom Tom still conferring with sat nav in the middle of the slip road. After a few friendly beebs he still wasn’t sure which way we should be going. Maybe he should just get out the way and let the traffic past. Foxy decided he knew better than sat nav anyway and guided us his way. We found ourselves doing circuits of a town we should never have been in. Who Needs sat nav when we got Foxy! Eventually we find ourselves in Portsmouth, the first leg nearly complete. A quick photo at the Portsmouth sign and we’re at Aarons house, Charlie and Sams older brother. A fantastic BBQ was awaiting us before we jumped onto the Ferry for a good nights sleep. Many Thanks to Aaron and Zanna.

Day 2 Caen - Remalard 96 miles

Sorry but this is going to be short and sweet due to no wi-fi connections to connect my laptop to.

So it was the hottest night sleep any of us had ever had in our lifes. The ferry's air conditioning, or lack of, had obviously broken. After a great wake up call of pavorotti and al divo at 5 in the morning it was up and ready to set off for our next destination, Remalard.

Tom Tom decided to take us on a few laps around the harbour before we actually got on our way. Everybody had told us how flat France was and to our surprise it was.....Up untill about 30 miles. Then the hills started to creep up on us, not one complain from the team as the spirits were still high , but JT did bring up a few swear words about whoever the person was that told us france was flat.

Before long we had met up with our support team again, being a sunday they had found it hard to find anywhere in France that was open to get our lunch. But we managed to scrap some supplies together to get us through the rest of the journey. It was up and down for pretty much the whole way, but being only the second day everybody was feeling strong and all of us were trying to find out whether the iron man was actually made of iron or just aluminum. Our avarage speed was quicker then expected and we were soon in Remalard, home to absolutely NOTHING. Pricey and Rave were down to just 3 cans of larger between the 2 of them, and Sid was finding it hard to understand why we had to stand up to have a number 2.  The welcome party of the mayor and his friends was unbelievable, they put on a great spread and welcomed us with open arms. Rave and Pricey were over the moon to find alchole on the table and before long they had polished off pretty much 3 bottles of wine, although we think Mike must of had at least a glass of it... You should have seen the the mess he made of putting up his tent. I'm pretty sure it was inside out. After a quick meal from our resident cheffs, Paul and Liz, it was soon time to get our heads down for a well deserved sleep. Lets just hope Mikes snoring doesn't keep anyone up.

Day3 Remalard - Briaire 117 miles

Day 4 Briare - Bourbon Lancy 103 miles

Day 5 Bourbon Lancy - Dardilly 93 miles