Sebophie would like to formally apologise for having caused any offense with recent photoes of Sophie in her cycling shorts. It has been drawn to our attention that the shorts are most unflattering ("desgusting" according to our source) and that these photos should only be viewed with guidance from a parent or guardian. Again we offer our sincereest apologies.

Our Role Models... A sunday Race comes through the town of St. Enemie which Seb tries to obstruct.

well guys, to be honest, we are sitting here in a cafe in a town called albi, and we have just come out of the french amazon, and a shower and a cup of tea are sorely needed.

the road has ups and downs and some horizontals and...........ok anyway seb.

We are not currently sitting in a town called Ailbi but one about 65km away called toulouse. we arrived here yesterday with the plan to have some kind of Bridget Jones-esque city break. So in true Sebophie style we dismounted our bikes amid hoards of sinister hippies with dogs and checked into the dingiest hotel we could find (Hotel des Arts). A hotel so dingy that the fact that the toilet is actually in the room with us only serves to make it just that bit classier. So when you last left us your heroes were trapped in a town called Monastier in Arctic conditions with nothing better to do but read silence of the lambs and eat cheesy poofs (or souffles as they are known here). after a day of these two activities we got so bored that we decided it would be better to leave town before some kind if Shining type situation developed. We cycled 37km in a blizzard to the town of Pradelle. A town every bit as lively as La Monastier but with even less drunk farmers to play with. It was here that Seb discovered we had no money in our bank account.


Here are just some of the valuable lessons we learned while stranded in a remote village with no money:

Day 7/8 May5th & 6th
1. Cycling in Blizzards is doable but will bring you to the brink of hyperthermia.
2. Gites are cool but when they have large doll collectiions and low lighting they are unnerving.
3. All finances should be conducted by Sophie from now on.
4. Nothing is ever open in rural France except the unhelpful office du tourisme.

After laying low in Pradelle and a series of frantic phone calles with David, Mary and Andy. We managed to get some money though no thanks to either Credit Agricole (the bank in Pradelle that had no money) or Johnno at Bank of Ireland Leeson street who most helpfully put 300eur into the wrong account. Well Done Johnno. When there was a break in the weather on the friday we hightailed it out of there and over to Mende, a town so big (by comparison) that we were shocked to see shops open and people going about their business.

Day 9 May 7th
1.Cycling in the sunshine is abit more what we had in mind.



2. Sophie is the climber and Seb is the sprinter. (only by our standards)
3. Seb is a twat....when sophie offers you sunblock, Take it.



day 10 May 8th

1. Descending alot in wet weather with Seb on board destroys break pads
2. Walking downhill in the rain for 5km (due to aforementioned compromised break pads) is crap.
3. Mille Feuille are tasty.


4.Sophie is not photogenic

6th attempt at taking a decent photo

This ones a thinker.

Teddy impersonating Seb

Day 11 May 9th

1. The Gorge du Tarn is the best road so far.
2. Seb and Ducks do not mix.
3. the poncho purchase was about seven days late but neverless still the best spent 14euros of the holiday.


After the gorge du tarn we made our way to Millau for a spot of duck antagonising by Seb and yet again surviving torential rains.

We also saw this Viaduct there.

Post Millau we continued to follow the Tarn river heading South west towards the town of Ailbi. On route we encountered a group of Very serious British cyclists out on a sponsoered cycle for charity. their route was taking them from Marseille to Barcelona with an average of 120km a day (we do about half that!). As serious as they were (their shorts made ours look positively loose fitting) we became instrumental in a rescue op when two of the riders became hopelessly lost and reliant on us for directions. We gave them a map and thought that was the end of it but we managed to over take them two more times before very fortuitously encountering their tea van. Boom.



So more to come of our adventures in Toulouse next time and stay tuned for when the infamous duo Sebophie hit Lourdes (Vegas for Catholics) to repent for their sins.