In view of the brilliant performances of the British riders in this year’s Tour de France, Nick couldn’t resist the temptation to wind the French up this morning, and turned up for the Sunday cycle club run sporting his yellow jersey. The point wasn’t missed, as he was greeted with cries of “Eh, Bradley!” by several of the cyclists.

We had an email from the club this week, asking for as many riders as possible to be at the clubhouse at the usual time for the Sunday run this morning, in the club strip if possible, to have our photo taken with the French para olympic cycling team. Their races, in the para olympic games,  will be held at the Brands Hatch motor race circuit, which is very similar to the circuit at Nogaro, so this is where they’re training and they wanted to go out with a club today.

There was a tandem, an ordinary bike adapted for the rider who only had one leg and two recumbent, hand pedalled trikes.

We set off up the hill out of Nogaro at a deceptively easy pace (hand pedalled bikes don’t do hills fast, I gather), then the speed started to pick up. I managed to just about hang on for the first 7 or 8 miles, (the gentle warm-up!) as we passed our house at about 25mph, but soon dropped off the back of the peloton, so did my own ride at my own pace. Nick, on the other hand, was in his element, chatting to one of the recumbent riders, who just happens to be the world champion in his discipline and who called Nick Bradley for the whole ride.

I’ve asked for photos to be sent to me, but haven’t had any yet, so if Bruno is kind enough to send me some of his, I’ll post them later.