With a train to catch later that day, it was another 7am start in St Quentin. Problem was nobody had told Freddie, who ambled up a good few minutes late & then had to do a little spiel for the media. As ever the first dozen or so km were at a slow pace, but we soon wound it up & got the group peloton working very well, continually pushing the average speed up.
The rest stop was taken around 65km, aided by a couple of bottles of bubbles to celebrate Malcolm's birthday. This appeared to inspire the group as once we were back on the road, we really started to rattle along on quality flat roads & finally achieve speeds we were more than capable of delivering, this time without the call to ease off. Talk turned to a race to the finish at the velodrome in Roubaix, but I didn't expect Steve & Andy to make a break 10km from home. Given that I was at the back of the group at the time, paired up with the team leader David, I was unable to go with them. Probably for the best, as the stretch of cobbles we rode over was bone jarring to say the least & probably something you would not want to take chances on.
A few km later, we arrived at Roubaix's famous velodrome and were lucky enough to be able to have a couple of laps (keep your speed up), use the iconic showers & have a drink in the bar. A cracking experience.
After that, it was a bus to Lille, where Terry, Andy & I headed off for some steak, frites & vin rouge (proper food to eradicate the horror of the lasagne the night before), before a short hop to Ashford, and an evening at Pizza Express, ahead of a few hours sleep and the final push to London.
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