NorthCape4000

I always tend to think that a bike trip ends the day I stop pedaling, chasing a time. Yet it’s a false impression because the transfer to Bordeaux is, in itself, a little adventure.

Breakfast this morning is taken on the terrace, at the hotel restaurant. Eduard left very early to catch his flight. So with Sébastien we enjoy the unexpected sun and the all-you-can-eat buffet.

Once this delicious moment is over, it’s time to drag - as best we can - our enormous cardboard boxes containing our poor bikes in a thousand pieces towards the bus stop.

Now that’s a day we wish we had more often! Sun from morning to night, not a drop of rain and 15°C at the warmest of the day. Enough to devour the kilometers serenely.

Today it’s finally under a bright sun that we set out to conquer Lapland. Soon we meet Eduard, a Dutchman we’ve often crossed paths with on the road. We decide to ride together, as he’s aiming for the same town as us, then to share a lodging.

The 5am departure is freezing, I’m covered as much as possible and yet I’m dying of cold. After an hour the rain joins the party and our hardest day so far begins.

For more than four hours, not a word exchanged. We swallow our pain and each fight our own mental battle to hold on.

Today’s stage is quite short, only 150 km. We sleep in late and have a hearty breakfast. In fact, we take our time, so as not to arrive too early at the ferry terminal.

Once we set off, everything goes very fast. The road flies by, the wind pushes us. Only a long and intense rain comes to spoil this otherwise very peaceful day.