Day 3

Start:    Liège (Belgium)

Finish:   Huldange (Luxembourg)

Distance:   80 miles cycled (276 miles total)

Weather:   Hot and sunny

After spending an annoying amount of time navigating through Liège in order to get to the open road, the team finally got stuck

into the valleys that surround the town.  Within an hour the

positive forecasts were proved right and the temperature started to rise as the sun finally made an appearance.  Today turned out to be Phil’s turn to take a tumble, suffering a minor fall on the outskirts of the city.  

After the flat lands of Holland, the hills carved by the Meuse and Ourthe rivers were the first major inclines to be confronted, and the first 35 miles were hard won as the riders searched for their climbing legs.

A picturesque break for lunch was taken at Stoumont, overlooking the pine forests, after which the riders made a welcome descent and followed the winding road that snakes alongside the Lienne River and into the National Park area.  

After a tricky first couple of hours and encountering more hills than expected so soon after Holland, it was later than hoped by the time the team reached the Belgian-Luxembourg border at 17h30, and we realised that the original goal of making it across to the Luxembourg-German border was now too ambitious.

As the cyclists settled into a last hour on the saddle, Dan Smart's bike suffered a major breakdown on the rear mech, with the derailleur now out of action.  Although still 20 miles short of the day's target the group decided to call it a day at this point in order to began the 2 hour transfer to Saarbrücken in Germany and establish a plan for tomorrow.

Hopefully Dan's bike repair will only be a short (and, fingers crossed, cheap!), but while we attempt to use the 5 German words that we have between us to try and sort it, Dan will miss tomorrow's start - hoping to rejoin the team later in the day.  

With this morning's issues in Liege, and the hotel being in the centre of Saarbrücken, we have sensibly opted to start from outside of town, but once again it's been a late night with another early start ahead...