There was no break in the strict early morning starts as the team rose at 9am for breakfast, prepared by the friendly Gite owners. Fully fueled with croissants and homemade jam, the boy's attention shifted from food, to the more important task of repairing Tom's bike.
After following the Gite lady's notoriously terrible directions, the team were surprised to find a real bike shop that was actually open! (A rare find in this part of France). Still sceptical, the team stretchered in Tom's bike. They were greeted by a friendly shop assistant who was impressed by the fine English craftsmanship of Tom's thorn touring bike. He said that he could straighten the front wheel and suggested he replaced the old knackered pnues with the ones used by the local postmen!
With item no. 1 ticked off, the team initiated stage two of their rest day plan: the bar. However the easiness and slickness of the bike shop mission left the three about 2 hours short of the start of the tour de France, essential revision.. So with time in hand, and their strict dieting regime in mind, they bought chocolate and crisps from the supermache, headed home and had a sleep.
A few hours later, team Probert were back in their natural environment. With cool beers and the tour de France projected onto the wall, the second rest day was going perfectly! The end of the stage coincided perfectly with the collection time of the bike. So Tom went to collect his postman bike leaving dad and greg in the bar.
Hours went past with no sign of Tom's return. Greg's hunger grew to dangerous levels and the pair resorted to trying to catch flies in coffee mugs as their main source of enterainment. Finally Tom appeared in the door of the bar looking pleased with the result. He explained how the shop was ridiculously busy and how he had to shelter from the rainstorm... And buy a cake.. But in the end he had a result, he now had some shiny new post'man' tyres to go with his woman's handlebars! Wrey!
Again though the teams's attention soon swung back towards food. Finding a nearby pizza lorry, they dined in the carpark opposite. Which was actually really good!
After such a hectic and eventful rest day, the team settled down in the luxury of their beds for another sleep. But they knew they had an even earlier start the next day.
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