Alarm call at 6am. I was waiting for Frances’ voice to tell me that Sir Alan would meet me in Calais and the cars would be there in 30 minutes. But instead it was a case of get up, breakfast, briefing and we’re off. My biggest concern was that I’d forget to ride on the right hand side of the road – but I remembered to do so.

The second day proved to be another scorcher. So a day spent cycling through beautiful French villages in glorious sunshine. A bit hilly – but today all hills were manageable – and to my surprise my legs weren’t aching and my bum wasn’t sore – but was that still to come?

The vast majority of people on this bike ride were really nice – there were 120 of us in all – but inevitably you get your characters. Like the person who cycled through the countryside with his music system on his bike – I kid you not.

We arrived at a town called Abbeville – and realised we had absolutely no idea where in France we were. We just had to trust that the orange arrows would eventually lead to Paris. Checked into hotel number two and just as we were eating there was a massive thunderstorm; thunder and torrential rain. Please don’t let it rain like that tomorrow.