At half past midnight last night I had booked two nights in a hotel in Toulouse. Once again a budget hotel (Innostar - see photo opposite) at 43 Euros/night, in the outlying South-East suburb of Labege. I must have been feeling quite fit, as the distance was just over 100 miles (161km). What I hadn't realised yesterday was that there was rather a lot of climbing involved (978m) because the route went against the grain of the land, with several deep river crossings. According to MapmyRide, there were five grade 4 climbs and five grade 5 - nothing for a TdF rider, but a bit of a struggle for a laden touring bike.

After a light breakfast in the portakabin hotel, I made my way through Tarbes and on to to D632, which I then followed all the way to Saint Lys, a total of 112km. From there it was downhill to Muret, then across the Garonne to Pinsaguel, across the Ariege to Lacroix, up a last steep hill to Vieille-Toulouse, then though Castanet and over the Canal de Midi to Labege.

I had a couple of food stops on the way. At 48km I stopped for lunch in a cafe in Castelnau-Magnoac. Unfortunately there was no proper food, just cakes, so I had one with a coffee. There was a middle-aged chap in the cafe reading The Times, so I guessed he spoke English, and asked him when these incessant hills were going to end! He told me there was just one more to go, which gave me a bit of a boost (he was more or less right - there were two!). He also told me there was a pizzeria just outside the village on my route. So I stopped there, and to save time ordered a takeaway pizza. I ate half of it straight away and kept the rest in its box for later. Unfortunately it had gone really hard later so I had to ditch it.

After Boulogne-sur-Gesse the route was much flatter, in fact slightly downhill for 37km, which was a welcome respite. When I got to Saint Lys I felt I was near Toulouse, but it seemed to take ages to get to my destination. Looking at the map afterwards I could see it was 45km, so no wonder it took a while! At about 2km before my hotel, I had to shout at a French driver for the first time, for not giving way to me while I was circulating a roundabout. My friend Jennifer told me that Sarkozy had poopularised the phrase 'pauvre con' for just such occasions.

I arrived at the hotel (in a light industry/retail park) at 19:10, and after checking in and showering, I walked back along the road I had come in, to an area where there were several big restaurants/bars. I had a well earned beer and a proper meal, then back to the hotel to bed. I was glad the next day was a rest day!