Tour des Flandres Charentaises

At the finish post

We Did It!

And we enjoyed it too. 

To help celebrate my birthday weekend we decided to challenge ourselves and take part in the 2nd Tour Des Flandres Charentaises. This is a locally organised cycle challenge inspired by the Belgium Tour des Flandres that is famous for it's hill climbs on cobbled streets. It was a bit of a misty, damp start that meant we had to don the long sleeves, but that didn't deter us one bit. We completed the 55km route with eight (challenging) hill climbs in two hours 38 minutes of cycling (plus some rest stops) and even made it home in time for lunch. It was a friendly event, well organised and a nice experience for us to be out on the bikes with other cyclists. We were even very honoured to have our own support group of friends who popped up at a couple of locations to give us a cheer on. The date is marked in the diary for next year and maybe we will tackle the 80km.

Following a great day cooking, baking and chutney making yesterday, the buzz of completing this challenge this morning and knowing there is a bottle of bubbles chilling in the fridge for tonight, my 42nd birthday is looking to be a good one - and it shouldn't officially start until tomorrow. Whoever it was that said life begins at 40 was 100% right.