Breakfast in the hotel. It was still cool in Andorra at 9am. I spent 30min at a big bike shop trying (and eventually succeeding) to get rid of a thump, thump noise that came on when braking. As there was a lot more downhill to go I thought I'd better get it sorted. Turns out the headset was little bit loose. It's interesting that, when touring abroad, cycle shops always seem to be able to fix the bike there and then. Back home you'll be lucky to get it done the same week.

Once through the customs post (where lorries were being searched), Andorra to Balaguer was downhill for the first half, (as far as La Seu d'Urgell) then 'undulating' as the cyclists' euphemism goes.

At about 43km I stopped for lunch at Organya, and got talking to a bunch of Dutch motorcyclists. I mentioned that my sister worked in the British School in den Haag, and it turned out that one of them lives in the same street as the school!

There was a fairly big 'undulation' just before Ponts (at about 87km), so I stopped there to rehydrate at the Cadi Fonda Bar.

After passing through Artesa de Segre I eventually reached Balaguer (at 125km). I hadn't prebooked, so was lucky that the only hotel in town (Hotel Balaguer!) had rooms and was quite cheap (€30).

Balaguer was preparing for a medieval festival starting, sadly, the day I left.