Hooooooorah.......... THE SUN IS SHINING !!!!   Oh Happy, Happy Days.

Day 16  Stage 15  Sun 13/07/14   Tallard - Nimes  222km

Oh Happy Days..... we woke up to clear blue skies..... we could see the sun. Halleluyah !

A quick hours transfer from the hotel at the top of the mountain to the stage start in Tallard.

We then had basically a nice, easy flat-ish ride (if you call 1,600m ascent flat - but it was comparatively!) ride down to Nimes. A mere 215km ..... amazing how 215km and 1,600m ascent can seem like a rest, but it really did. Everyone was happy, spirits have risen after what has seemed like forever in the rain and cold.

We even managed to pass by a very famous French sausage shop...  the smells were absolutely awesome.

Lunch stops were spent sitting on the grass enjoying the pasta and rice, rather than shivering and trying to shelter from torrential rain. Sun tan cream was being splashed on, instead of searching for dry gloves..... Shirt pockets were empty, arm warmers were packed away in day bags.... fantastic.

My only issue was an incredibly noisy and clunky chain, pedals, rear wheel, bottom bracket? So I briefly swapped wheels with Darragh for a few km, and we concluded it was the wheel, cos he had the same issues with my wheel, and all my problems disappeared when his was fitted to my bike. :-)  So no need to play with indexing etc. It's clearly just a dying free wheel hub, so I'll either try and get a new hub or just borrow Andys wheel, who has left today. Either way..... it's on on for the final 6 days.

But tonight, its food, a few beers and dressing in Black,red and yellow to cheer on Germany with our German friends......Can't wait. Food now........ byeeeeeeeeeeee..............Rest day tomorrow........ washing and transfer to the next hotel.... No riding