Tim's Tour de France 2016: Rest Day Two

Rest Day Two and back to that strange feeling of being on a normal holiday. A day spent in a very hot and very pleasant Bern, with a view of snow capped mountains in the distance but yet somewhere around 33 degrees in the city and we are ready to get back to the racing and the final five stages.

Breakfast was disappointing for a nice hotel like this but I was soon on the bike and heading towards one of the hotels near the finish of yesterday's stage where we knew that 3 teams, Lampre, Cannondale and Fortuneo were staying. Jamie and Gary were already there (and I suspect had been for some time) when I arrived. No sign of any riders but the mechanics and soigneurs were busy preparing the bikes for a rest day spin and giving everything a good wash and tidy up. After a bit of loitering by the team areas and then by the hotel, we decided to head out on a ride. The original plan was to try and ride behind one of the teams for a while but we came to the conclusion that we should just head out.

We ended up riding back through the city over the cobbles and the tram track death traps and out the other side towards a town called Aarborg. Bern doesn't really have suburbs, it's not big enough and very quickly we were out in the countryside and what stunning countryside it was. Views of the Alps on one side, lakes in the distance, lots of picture postcards villages (all with signs to sprint for) and miles of rolling fields. We went over a decent climb (eventually for me) and went back down the other side as far as a cafe in a small village.

The cafe owner, Gabriel spoke a multitude of languages, including English and was keen to tell of us of the time he lived in Haringey and South Tottenham which seemed to be a very very long way away from the tiny village he now had a cafe in. He asked about Brexit and when we first arrived he assumed we had ridden from London but he was lovely and it was a lovely stop. We went back over the climb and then came back a slightly different way but it was no less stunning. A lovely 30 mile ride.

By the time I had arrived back and got myself straight (OK, stopped sweating but you a. Didn't need to know that and b. Could probably have guessed) Chris was in town and we met up and had some lunch. This was followed by a quick pootle round the city and I dragged him to the club shop of the local football team Young Boys of Bern who play at the Wankdorf Stadium. I've now stood outside the Wankdorf and the Wankhede Stadium, the cricket ground in Mumbai, I wonder if there is a special club I can join now.

In the club shop I bought the most expensive football shirt that I have ever purchased (I am on holiday) but I should have apologised for the first two shirts that I tried on, after walking a mile and a half up a hill, with a rucksack on in the blazing sun...

There was one other incident in the club shop where my language confusion re-surfaced. When given the bag and my receipt, rather than delivering the very simple 'Danke' to say thanks, for some reason I said 'Good morning' at least it was in German. I think I was suffering from shock at the cost of the shirt.

We headed back into town and mooched around for the rest of the afternoon, had some dinner, Chris headed off because he had been up since 2:30 and the rest of us sat outside nursing a coke (they had beer) which is when we decided we were done with Bern now and wanted to move on.

The thing I've noticed most about the rest days is how much more you spend money, normally you don't have time for normal stuff like spending money because you are on the side of the road with limited things to spend money on. On the rest day you do which made a rest day in Switzerland even more painful. I really didn't notice it on the first day here but today it was if the prices of everything had shot up by 25%.

Obviously this is a blog about my Tour de France trip so I should mention cyclists but it was a quiet day, especially after we decided to get on and ride ourselves in the morning. I only saw one other team, Etixx Quick-step who were staying at the very nice Bellvue in the centre of town. I did see one their riders having dinner but I'm sorry to say he wasn't well known and I had no idea who he was. The only other spot was Tom Dumoulin of Team Giant and winner of two stages so far this year (hailstorm in Andorra and time trial) who was in a cafe with his wife and was left well alone though I may have stared a bit.

But tomorrow it all begins again. The stage starts in Bern and doesn't leave Switzerland, though the mountain top finish is very close to the border. Logistics play a part tomorrow so we are taking a long way round (via Geneva for those following this on a home made map) back into France, stopping in Chamonix and riding back over the border into Switzerland and up the HC climb, easy. Then it is all about the Alps and incredibly the final stage in Paris.

Stats Plaza
Miles driven - 2600
Miles cycled - 238
Cheese of the day - None again
Tat - a BMC clapper thing, rubbish.
Friendliest service of the day - Gabriel
Least friendliest service of the day - tapas cafe grump
Number of sprints I won for town signs - 3, though I don't count so these were all hollow victories but that didn't stop me celebrating one of them like I had one a stage.