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Mike
Tomlinson says: "As I drove into Nyon yesterday at the end
of the Mont Ventoux stage something struck me. Where was the hotel?
All the accommodation had been booked by Sky so it occurred to me
that each day they must have driven into towns not knowing where
to go. It's a task that would irritate me immensely.
"I
pulled up as an oldish lady was walking by and with schoolboy French
and expressive had gestures I asked where my hotel was. She looked
at me as if I was talking a foreign language and attempted to move
away.
"Not
so easy put off I reversed back and asked again. This time she went
into a shop and old gentlemen came out who looked quizzically at
my address and with the look that French have showed all his contempt
of me by a quick raise of the eyebrows.
"After
a five minute discussion with a third shop proprietor they produced
a detailed map and laughing explained my hotel wasn't in Nyon but
Valouse some 15 mile away.
"I
thought Jane'll be pleased an extra hour long cycle after Mont Ventoux.
I phoned Rob, from Sky who thought I'd lost the plot, of course
the hotel was in Nyon it was there on the address.
"After
a good deal of to-ing and fro-ing it transpired the hotel was 15
miles away and 200 metre higher altitude. It was just one of those
things that happen on the road but it proved to me two things, never
book a hotel in France without checking the town and there's more
to this ride than meets the eye."
See
the full diary and bike route.
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