The end of day three comes when we finally collapse into our sleeping bags around 10pm. Just as I’m dropping off (which unsurprisingly is almost instantly) a series of rustling, grunting noises to my right followed by a sharp jab in the ribs jolts me upright again. Marc decided earlier that it was cold enough to wear his “longs” to sleep in. It wasn’t (I could have told him that…and did!) and so he now proceeds to spend what feels like hours rolling around puffing and panting trying to deftly he says (deftly!!!whatever!) remove them without leaving the (relative) comfort of his sleeping bag. In such a small tent this kind of bed time gymnastics inevitably involves far more “audience participation” than is either desirable or appropriate particularly when, as in this case, they are already asleep! I can now thankfully confirm no harm came to Marc during the night but honest to god it was touch and go for a while!

For those of you unfamiliar with the tent this is it and this is Dan and his early morning “moley eyes” refusing to get up!….

Giorno Quattro begins with some confusion and, dare I say, some dissent amongst the ranks about our final destination today and how many miles we are going. I of course poo poo any arguments with my special “I know so much more than you could ever hope to” patronising face. I need to apologise now and make it clear that by the end of the day I am wearing my “oh my god I am so sorry guys face”.

We belt off through the countryside tapping out a really good pace and by the time we pull over for our first break at 10am we have already covered 30 miles. This is not another  yoga photo, this is what relaxing at the side of the road looks like....

This part of France is largely made up of long straight rolling roads....

....which are actually not too bad for cycling although the wind is still there sapping away at our energy levels. We pull over again around 1130 for more fuel and just as we start praising ourselves on how we have managed to do half of the 94 miles the Garmin says we need to do today, a check on google says its still more than 60 miles to go…that would give us a total of well over 100 miles for the day….again! It is genuinely heart-breaking to have the potential of an early finish wrenched away from us. It does seem odd though that Garmin could be so wrong and a worrying thought occurs to me which I of course instantly dismiss and stop thinking about....surely not? We crack on through the countryside and when we pause for lunch it is clear that tiredness is morphing into mild hysteria as Dan tries to play hide and seek amongst the trees....

....we are still fighting the hills and the wind and now it appears even the dogs are having a go as well (I actually went back to make sure they really did try to take a chunk out of us and although you might not be able to hear it they very much did!)….

The last few miles are always the hardest mentally and of course physically but today we are are really struggling and we have to keep pulling over to rest and refuel. We are still not 100% certain how far we have to go but as we move past 100 miles for the day it’s clear something has gone badly wrong with the route planning ...and yes if you are wondering, that is my department! We turn off the roads and out of the wind onto a lovely canal path which winds it’s way we think towards our destination….

Finally we roll into Camping des Bains just before 7pm. We have covered 114 miles and over 5000 feet of climbing and we are absolutely out on our feet. The owner can clearly see this and quickly thrusts cold beer into our hands before we have even barely sat down….

…. it’s also clear they have a restaurant on site which is an absolute godsend! It is the first time we eaten out or in fact sat down in an actual chair in an actual room for four days and it almost makes me weep how amazing it feels….little luxuries right!

As soon as I look properly at the route we have taken today I know exactly what has gone wrong and yes it is entirely on me. Basically this camp site was one I had thought about but ruled out as being too far….somehow it appears I didn’t up date the route to reflect that…lets just call it a “version control” error! On a positive note we only have a paltry 60 miles to do tomorrow now (yes I have checked and double checked!) and we have now had and met a seriously epic mental and physical challenge. If we can do what we did today we can do anything, even Alpe d’Huez….can’t we?

Please, please, please don’t forget to help us raise money for Winston’s Wish. Thank you