After a day’s rest the team was raring to go this morning, hence the 8:30am start. It was Les’ debut ride and he was a little apprehensive to say the least, cycling until lunchtime being his goal.

At the first stop Simon was eating a Wurst sandwich (or worst? (sorry!)) and broke his tooth on it! Must have been a solid German pig!

Lunch at the Kone Hanover office where, funnily enough eating a sandwich, Smit broke his front tooth (apparently false anyway!). Jordanna glued the tooth back together with superglue! Unfortunately this couldn’t be done with Simon’s.

After the Hanover stop Les decided that he felt good enough to do the whole day’s cycling so 20 miles on to Uetze making 73 miles total today. RTL (the biggest commercial TV station in the world) filmed the team on this last part of the route so if you happen to be in Germany tomorrow evening you will see the cyclists on TV and their interview. The local Uetze newspaper also interviewed Les, so Les is having his 15 minutes of fame (in Uetze - does that count?).

On we go tomorrow, hoping it is as flat as today!

Driver Robin’s farewell drink last night was all the better knowing that there was no cycling today! Smit and Jordanna took Robin to Hanover airport this morning and with that rare syncronisation, met Les there and brought him back to the campsite in Espelkamp.

So for the first time all five team members are together at last. Simon, Smit, Trace and Jordanna enjoyed a well-earned rest today having cycled 95 miles yesterday (20 miles extra due to  a desire to get to as near 100 miles a day as possible - or - just getting lost). Even the little green man on the map is having a rest as the tracker has been turned off!

Lunch on the campsite in good weather, Jordanna even putting on a bikini for two minutes, until the clouds appeared and thunderstorms started, though not as bad as when everyone got drenched (twice) in Holland.

Everyone now getting ready for the next four days’ cycling which should see the team right across Germany by the end of the week. The replacement driver Sandra has arrived and  Les hopes to cycle for the first time tomorrow morning - the first time he has ridden a bike in ten days!

Up early to get to the hospital and have another blood test. A nervous wait was ended at 10.40 when the doctor came out to tell me that my blood levels had stabilised and had in fact risen over the weekend. Given that the colonoscopy revealed nothing, they were happy for me to join the team and the ride.

I immediately phoned Sue who started looking up flights, and when I arrived back home we booked a morning flight to Hanover. Funnily enough, I did see a quote for a bmi flight at £324 and thought I would try to give the story to effect a discount. After some minutes, the person to whom I spoke came back on the phone and said they were able to offer me a discounted flight for £323 and… At that point I thanked them for their efforts and went to a cheaper alternative.

I immediately informed the team who were now in Germany, and it sounded very much that they were now desperate for the rest day tomorrow and relax. The only problem was that they were drawing straws to find out who would have to get up early to drop off Robin and pick me up - Jordanna and Smit lost the toss.

The afternoon saw another afternoon nap which seem to be taking a long time to snap out of, and currently the thought of doing any cycling, especially with the others having 300 miles in their legs, very daunting. Still, as the footballers say, I will have to take it each day at a time and assess what I can and can’t do.

What a hotty! 30 degrees plus. Left the campsite at 9:30 this morning with peter who had joined the team last night and arrived at 8pm this evening - another long day - 95 miles (this includes a few extra miles of getting lost).

Very excited as it’s a day off for good behaviour tomorrow so beers all round tonight.

Les  arriving in Hanover at 10.00 tomorrow morning, and Robin (our driver for the last 4 days) is leaving us. Les is very apprehensive as the main team is getting stronger and stronger on their bikes - we’ve promised to wait for him though!

11 hours sleep saw me wake up refreshed and hungry. After 2 breakfasts, I had a conversation with Sue Ballard of PCUK who informed me that we were starting to get quite a bit of publicity being generated. After this, I set about updating the blog so as to keep people updated on the progress of the team as they work their way across Europe - a verbal update to supplement the tracking information. Two hours of activity on the website saw me nodding off, and a 2 hour nap in the afternoon.

I was awoken by marvelous tales from Andy and Iago as they made their way back from the weekend, and both were waxing lyrical about everything - including the storm! As the afternoon wore on, I felt much better and stronger, however following reports that the team seem to be getting quicker all the time, I am getting increasingly worried that if I do manage to get meet up with the team early this week, then I will be way behind them in terms of fitness and ‘miles in the legs’ - still I will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Plan at the moment is that tomorrow morning I go to the hospital for a blood test, and depending on the result, I will make a decision on what to do from there. Flexibility is the order of the day.