Enthusiastic locals...

Stage 6 Aix-en-Provence to Montpellier 180km plus an extra 30km thanks to enthusiastic locals still loving the Tour and a long haul through Montpellier, the signs to the Centre Ville go on and on and on from 30km out!

Fairly flat profile but temperatures touching 38 degrees and a strong head wind for the last 50km made it tough going, 2 litres of fluid / hour! In every town the locals seem to still be in post Tour melt down, when asked to confirm route directions it appears, with hindsight, that they just point in any direction, adding miles to an already exhausting challenge, or maybe they're right and it's just a case of a confused rider, we may never know.

First shade for 40km!

Big mistake trying to ride into Montpellier and onto our stop over hotel, at the sign for Montepellier 12km both rider and crew (seperately) rode and drove another 35km, Montpellier is big but no excuse for random road signs. In the centre of town and after four attempts to get out, through or round the centre towards the hotel the rescue call went out, just as the crew had found the hotel they were forced (sorry, asked) to came back to collect the temporarily broken spirit of the rider on the edge of town. Job done, with excess!

Suffering cooler!

Same weather forecast for tomorrow as we head into the mountains for Category 4, 3 and 2 climbs to Albi, should add an extra dimension to the challenge! French TV is now issuing warning's about the extremely high temperatures, although appreciated the advance warning is of no more comfort!

'Live tracking' seems to suck the life out of the Garmin and iPhone, we'll persevere....all the miles are logged, physically, spiritually and through GPS!

Thanks for all the re-tweets and fund raising support.



www.action.org.uk/tourdefrance .

Twitter @chrisarmishaw

'Better to dare, the only failure is the lethargy of regret'