Stage 6 - Orléans Océan

When the forecast says 34C (93F), you know there's a long, hot stage ahead. The first few miles were relatively pleasant in the cooler early morning, but the day quickly heated up and there were many long, straight, shadeless canal stretches. It was a tough day, but offset by thoughts of tomorrow's epilogue stage of only 15 miles to the finish in St Nazaire.

Navigating our way through Nantes should have been challenging today, but Dominque's course marking was once again impeccable. It was odd reentering modern city architecture after so many ancient bridges, churches and chateaux:


Despite tripping and landing heavily on a tree root which came out of nowhere, my running continues to - how to put this? - not get much slower. 4hr 57min to the marathon point, and another third place overall. We celebrated reaching 400km (250 miles) in six days with a little bubbly:


These folks do it in great style - full marks for gastronomy.

Location:D78,Frossay,France