The 2009 Duo Normand, and a cycling holiday in Normandy

This year, we had little expectation of a good performance in the Duo Normand time trial. You can read reports of previous events over at the Team Grumpy web pages and the Team Grumpy Blog, as well as the preview of the race.

One addition this year was that we planned to record a video by strapping a small video camera to the tri-bars - if this can be made into manageable file size, I may post it on the web.

As usual, pressure of work led to frantic packing on the morning of departure.  This was followed by the drive to Portsmouth for the Brittany Ferries afternoon sailing to Cherbourg.  We arrived with plenty of time to spare (about 1h30!).  As was the case last year, we were the last car on, and so first off at Cherbourg.

The other half of the 2-up team time trial team (and family) was scheduled to arrive on the Poole sailing shortly before us - we'de arranged to meet up near the exit from the ferry terminal.  In the event we disembarked before them, but we easily met up.  We proceeded in convoy south along N13, N174, D999, D38, D73 to Cerisy la Salle, D29 towards Notre Dame de Cenilly, and found the house we'd rented with little difficulty, despite arriving well after dark.  The trip from Cherbourg took about 1:30.  After a quick meal, we were all early to bed!

Weather was pretty good, but with strengthening wind - with a roof-load of a tandem and a time trial bike, the car's steering was really rather twitchy.  Also twitchy was Team Grumpy- most of the forecasts we were able to access indicated some really rather poor weather, particularly for the day of the Duo Normand.