After a reasonably good if not short night's sleep, the alarm rang at 6:30am to herald the start of day 2 and our push towards Arras. Lifting the shutter blind I witnessed a strange sight. Could that be the sun? I also saw the trees blowing in the wind, ouch!
After a traditional French breakfast of a couple of pains au chocolat and a coffee, it was time to load our bags on to the van and collect our bikes ready for our briefing. We were given a brief dsecription of how to head out of Calais and warned of a steep climb later in the ride, known as Windmill Hill.
Rob and I managed to somehow get lost heading down towards Lumbres , but a quick phone call to Mike and a look on the map we were soon back on track. Spotting Mike and Mark's bikes outside a Tabac in Wavrans-sur-l'Aa, we climbed off the bikes and enjoyed a quick espresso.
Fuelled by caffeine, we remounted and headed towards the lunch stop at Westrehem. This section had the 2 windmill climbs. They were nowhere near as tough as the previous day's climbs, although I was surprised to see that I had nailed the climb and sat as KOM on the D192 Windmill Hill climb once the file was uploaded to Strava. The turn towards Westrehem had us headed in to a headwind so it was nice to roll in for some much needed refuelling. Again Rosemary had laid on a great spread. She'd done us proud with some stilton and broccoli soup which I devoured with a couple of cheese and sundried tomato mini baguettes.
Marcel seeing his opportunity to lead us into Villers Sur Simon headed off first with Mike, Rob, Mark and myself setting off a few miles back. This section was pretty uneventful bar the freshly laid gravel road on which we miraculously managed not to get hit by any stray stones, despite the best efforts of speeding French lorry drivers. I thought that we'd haul Marcel in fairly early and had given up the ghost with just a few miles to go. Rob and I spotted him winding up between a tree lined hill and decided to give chase, bridging the gap just a mile from Villers Sir Simon. Marcel played rope a dope and sprinted in first to the water stop, where Hannah and Alan were waiting for us. They had found a lovely village square opposite a church and memorial. We refuelled and took numerous photos before heading off on the final run to Arras.
Mark, Rob, Mike and Marcel did a piece for the video whilst I was tweeting our progress. I again had to play catch up. I put the hammer down and managed to reel them in passing Mark and Marcel before dropping my chain on a descent. Chain refitted I set about playing catch up. Reeling in Mark, Marcel and then Rob I now had to catch Mike's wheel, which was a bit more difficult. The gap bridged we flew along through Warlus scaring scout groups along the way. There was something satisfying about looking down and seeing the Garmin read 31.9mph and 0% gradient. Mike and I carried on through the outskirts of Arras before arriving at the Holiday Inn Express just before 3pm. We had arrived long before the van carrying our bags and had to wait an hour or so before we could collect our bags and check in. This was lessened by a nice cool beer and the fact Nibali was being cracked by Wiggo and Froomey in the Pyrenees.
Once the van arrived, we helped unload the bags and grabbed our room keys. A quick shower and files uploaded to Strava and Garmin, we heaed off to the Grand Place for a few beers to celebrate a great day in the saddle and the odd KOM.
We returned to the hotel for a lovely meal before retiring to bed ready for yet another early start, (although it had been put back half an hour due to how fast the whole group were going).
