Syd Stelvio, London to Lisbon Day 3 – La Rochelle to Bordeaux – 290km

The rain in Spain falls mainly in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of France, namely between La Rochelle and Bordeaux. That was the story of the day today, and if you think your author is obsessing over the weather somewhat, then you’d be right, this is supposed to be my summer holiday!

I jest, of course, but the weather was certainly a factor today and whilst there have been some dry periods, and even some sun, we have also experienced huge electrical and rainstorms, with visibility down to next to nothing – not ideal conditions for the navigators or drivers.

It was probably a blessing that were no tests today, but the four regularities caused plenty of head scratching and erroneous driving, right from the off. There are so many roads and junctions in this part of France, the rural back country is a warren of tarmac and asphalt, waiting to catch out the unwary and catch them out it did. Even the simple matter of turning the right way at a junction was fooling even experienced hands, with a simple left turn after the final timing point on the first reg catching out a number of contestants. Luckily for them, this mistake would not cost any time, but for many the damage had already been done.

Cars were heading in all directions around France, and the crew of the blue #19 Mustang, Benno Britschgi and Ernst Lutz, were suffering more than their fair share of navigational catastrophes, they did hit all of their marks, just not necessarily in the right order or at the right time but were still smiling come the mid-session interval in the sleepy town of Gemozac. They weren’t the only ones, with plenty of penalty being amassed during the morning, which perhaps helped the positions of the field stay pretty much static, with no big changes by lunch and certainly no movement in the top three.

David and Ed Liddell had made the best of the morning mayhem and returned just 3 seconds of time penalties and creeping a few seconds closer to the podium positions, and whilst their gains were marginal you could throw a net over third to sixth currently.

Not everyone had made it out to play this morning, with #14, the Mustang of Rob Collinge and Ian Milne suffering electrical problems, and needing to head straight to the overnight for repairs. They say their problems have been fixed now, which is great news, and we will look forward to seeing them on the road again tomorrow. They weren’t the only ones suffering with their electrons, David Wilson and Stewart Rust had a charging problem in the #9 Fiat 2300s Coupe, but now seem to be ok as well, perhaps they were zapped by the afternoons lightning. Of all the mechanical issues today, it was perhaps John and Nicole Whitelock who suffered the most, with their wipers failing after lunch, and I don’t know if I mentioned it, but we have had a bit of precipitation passing through…

The worst of the storms really were saved for the afternoon, with a proper deluge on the final two regularities and transit sections, but the reward for getting through it was a final time control of the day at the fabulous Chateau Meaume, a winery that has been garnering a lot of attention recently. Clearly the owners of the gorgeous building, once the residence of Louis XIV’s bodyguard, are blessed as the storm clouds cleared and the sun splashed down upon the estate – Louis XIV was known as the Sun King, so perhaps there was some divine intervention at work. Those who were not driving were even invited to sample the product, and for those that did need to remain behind the wheel there was plenty of coffee and cake instead.

But what of the competition, was it a case of drowning sorrows or celebrating success? Well, in actual fact the top seven had remained the same since lunchtime, and for those that had suffered more than most during the day, the congenial nature of the Chateau will hopefully remind them that this is supposed to be fun after all, and fun is spelt F-U-N, not W-I-N. That aside, the best on the day were Malcolm Dunderdale and Anita Wickins, with 20 seconds of penalty, but it is still very tight at the top, with plenty of tarmac still to cover.

Syd.