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Last night, after a five-hour drive, we arrived at our hotel around 11:01 am before today’s first rest day on the Tour.
Although it is an old style hotel, luckily it is quite nice and with a river behind us and a small harbor in front it has a relaxing atmosphere, which is great.
There is nothing worse than having a bad hotel on a rest day, since you always stay two nights before the next stage.
As a treat, we had burgers for dinner last night, although when I say burgers I don’t mean the big juicy ones you get from chippers in Ireland, I mean a piece of meat with a bit of lettuce and tomato between two pieces. of bread.
Still, it was a nice change from pasta and rice.
A few years ago, when I was a younger cyclist, I hated rest days. I just wanted to keep running and finish the Tour.
Now though, I’m glad I got the chance to get my head out of the race and relax a bit.
However, for a day of rest, today was quite intense and there was not much time to relax.
At 8.30, I got up, got dressed, weighed and had my skinfold measurements checked to see if my body had changed a lot since the start of the Tour.
We also did urinalysis to make sure our hydration levels are fine after eight days of running.
After breakfast, Covid protocols meant that instead of the usual outdoor press conference, we each had individual interviews online in our rooms and I also had to do my video diary once a week for Velon.
After all that, he was on the bike for an hour to take a slight turn to keep his legs moving and remind his body that the Tour is not over yet.
Simple
To make the most of our time and not have to do it later, we cycled to the Covid-19 test center, about 35 km away, and ran our Covid tests on the rest day.
As far as I know, the results will be available before the start of tomorrow’s stage.
Waiting for these results is an additional concern for all passengers, as we all know that even if we feel fine, someone could have contracted the virus from something as simple as touching a door handle in a hotel.
A few weeks ago, an entire team was pulled from a race before the start when one of their riders tested positive for Covid-19 earlier that morning, only to have the same rider tested negative a few hours later, so there is also the concern that you could be ruled out for a false positive.
Still, these are the risks that we have all accepted to try to make this Tour as safe as possible for everyone.
After our Covid tests, the team bus picked us up and took us back to the hotel for lunch. I had more interviews online and also did a podcast for a French website, which lasted a little longer than expected.
Around the corner is a nice cafeteria with a little patio where, on any other Tour, we would have gone for coffee and a chat in the afternoon. This year, however, we couldn’t even think about it and we stayed at the hotel all day.
Due to the virus we are also not allowed to visit here, but the team has their traditional BBQ day off for staff tonight, so even though we won’t be eating, we will spend an hour chatting and joking with everyone. before massage and dinner.
The race resumes tomorrow with what appears to be a flat and easy stage that the sprinters should be competing with, but once again there is the threat of crosswinds, so you never know what will happen.
I am looking forward to next week. There are many stages with getaway opportunities so I hope to make the most of them.
Tour de France, live, Eurosport / TG4, 12.20pm
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