Pre-Race Day - Friday 1 July

A slightly weird day today, after last nights presentation it was definitely the calm before the storm, even if that calm was very wet and windy.

Breakfast was with Dean and of course was very pleasant and then the bike made its debut on the (pre) Tour as we (we being me and the bike, like the bike is a separate entity with feelings and stuff...which of course it is) rode a short part of stage 2, taking in two category 4 climbs the cote de Torigny-les-Villes and cote de Montpinchon, and for good measure did the first one again to get back to the car.

In the afternoon I headed over to Utah Beach, obviously famous for being one of the 5 landing beaches on D-Day which so dominates the history and physical landscape of this part of France. It also happens to be the venue for the stage finish for tomorrow's first stage.

Utah is a very wide, flat beach and it is very easy to stand there and try to imagine the scene that day. Obviously impossible, despite some of the original defences still standing to give some sort of backdrop. After wandering around the various memorials it was hard not to look over at the Tour finish being set up and consider that the only reason I can skip and giggle my way around France is because of the actions of so many at that time. I followed this with a drenching as I rode along the coast.

As I mentioned, the Tour finishes at the beach tomorrow and the construction was well under way, I was able to walk along the final 500m like an excitable child, including standing next to the finish line...not on it like the other tourists who had earned that right. The boards were out and the finishing line gantry in place, I imagined what my charge would look like to the line...2 hours after the pros had already finished. The final 3km are dead straight, pretty flat but very narrow for a day one, nervous, fresh, excitable peloton to come roaring in for the first sprint finish.

Back at the B&B, two cyclists from the UK had arrived, cycling down from Caen and were now surveying the 10km of nothing in every direction and working out how to get some dinner.  With an act way too sociable and out of character, I said they would be welcome to come to dinner with me. It was a bit weird but we talked about cycling and ate pizza and i didn't embarrass myself, though I did almost trip up the waitress when stretching my legs out...four times.

So tomorrow it finally begins and strangely I feel a bit of pressure!

Stat Zone - because everyone loves stats
Miles driven so far - 305
Miles cycled so far - 40. cote de Torigny les villes (both ways) and the cote de Montpinchon.
Countries visited - 2 (yes I'm having UK)
Cheese of the day - Despite a 5 cheese pizza (yes 5 (where will it end?)) it was a cheeky Normandie Camembert.
Conversations I didn't start with non-Brits about Brexit today - 0
Conversations I didn't start with Brits about Brexit today - 1