Hard data of the day

Date: Sunday 22 May
From: Augerville la Rivière
To: Vierzon

# kilometers: 139
# altimeters: 500
# flat tyres: 0
# bananas consumed: 36
# hours on the bike (shortest): 5
# hours on the bike (longest): 5

Hero of the day

Not really a heroic stage today. More like an enjoyable ride on nice roads, mostly in the sun, through some vast forests and with good company. But there was one rider who did shine even brighter than all the others today: our hero of the day is our very own Joris “birthday boy” Bulens who celebrated the start of his 46th year with a good bike ride. Congratulations, Joris! 

Donald Niesten was however a close contender for wearing the nicest pair of rainbow socks… ever.

Trivia of the day

Tonight we will spend the night in Vierzon. It’s hard to find trivia about Vierzon, but you may recognise this: 

“T'as voulu voir Vierzon, et on a vu Vierzon.“

Exactly, this is the first line of Brel’s classic song Vesoul. So, both of these French communes were in fact made famous by a Belgian genius.

Story of the day

We have been blessed with excellent weather so far (although Sofie Van Breedam still believes the three drops of rain qualified as a shower—I do not want to jinx it, but let’s talk tomorrow 😊), only one flat tyre (just to make Ben pay for a bottle in fact), and, knock on wood, we have not suffered from any unwanted separations from our beloved bikes (i.e. no falls). 

The only injuries to report are two blisters caused by new and too fancy shoes (Yves Rombauts), a sore Achilles tendon (although Vincent Debusschere says it already feels much better, so one Heineken can do the trick if you really want), and a poor attempt by Christophe Michiels to imitate the Belgian flag (wear more sunscreen!).