Arrived Epinal at 3.30pm. Everyone here. I stayed here with my parents 50 years ago – in a campsite with our 1957 Bedford Dormobile. Today an excellent day’s cycling. There are some damaged bodies around but Tanya is keeping everyone going on her physio couch. .

…and climb it we did. As Ed’s reported, today saw a superb but gruelling climb 1,031 m up the Ballon d’Alsace. It was long and required us all work extremely hard but we all made it.      And most were smiling by the top.  Most irritating were the number of false dawns when we thought we’d got to the summit but it turned out that there was further to go.  Hot chocolate at the top of the mountain never tasted so good. And the St Bernard gave us a lovely welcome.

For the new arrivals it was a great test of strength. But the real praise must go to the team who have now travelled over 900 miles from the start in Olympia – they are absolute stars.

Another major climb  for them despite a growing number of great pains now that they are suffering. Backs, legs and the rest, as well as other setbacks – Ed’s bike died yesterday (luckily we have one in reserve). But they carry on relentlessly and are earning every penny of the wonderful sponsorship that’s been raised so far – more then £40k now. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

To put it in context, we met a group of French Tour de France journalists yesterday evening who were quite gobsmacked and impressed at the 1,500 mile journey being undertaken from Greece in 15 days and that must be praise indeed from a Frenchman.

Tanya, our onboard physio, continues to work miracles every evening.

The journey down the mountain was significantly quicker than going up and it was simply superb. Great swoops downhill although care needed on the hairpin bends. The rest of the afternoon was spent travelling through stunning rural France to our destination now in Epinal. We nearly lost one member of the team who was so busy directing us in that he cycled into the back of a stationary car but we’re pleased to report all is well and no medical attention required.

Early night for all – 93 miles of ups and downs tomorrow.

And that’s twenty seven! Hooray.

10 at the top eating baguettes. 17 more to come. Going well (except for my puncture!). And here’s number 11!!

Taking it easy this morning. 20 miles done and climbed to 1300 feet so we decided we deserve a coffee stop.