4hr 46 mins. Nice and steady.

More of the same today, a relatively fast run on roads, accompanied by various friends along the way and gathering pace as we travel towards wine country.

Hugh went to a launderette today. For those who know him this may come as a shock. No, really he did, in tracksuit bottoms as well. He put the bag down, whistled, hands in pockets and stared, slightly frowning at the bank of whirring steel and glass in front of him. After 10 minutes he thought that's done then, picked the bag up and went out. Emma and Samia gently took the bag from him and sent him back to the campervan. It was a morning of chores and washing is better achieved by actually putting it in the machine. He shows willing, more than happy to have a go at what his troops do. It makes him a good leader but he must focus on what he's here to do.

So whilst the girls, more technically minded than us, sorted out sim cards and washing we got Hugh ready for Day 31 with his stretching warm up. Hugh is well used to this so gets on with it, making sure everything was loosened up. Jonny PR made an unwise move from heading up the Fluff Department and UK Desk by entering into the spirit. Alarmingly he began leaping and skipping with a sort of clucking noise, waggling his arms. We cautiously approached to hold him down lest he hurt himself but he did an abrupt turn and stopped, quietly cooing to himself. He was told firmly to not attempt this unsupervised again.

For the purposes of esprit de corps we did the final exercise together, called the lunge. This is to stretch the quadracep and is executed as follows: one moves the right leg suddenly forwards, into a position where the thigh is parallel with the ground, the other leg trailing. It resembles a chap who thinks of getting down on one knee to propose then sense suddenly prevails and he changes his mind, frozen in half kneel. Repeat the process with the alternate leg, continue for a minute and one is ready for action, thoroughly warmed up. There we were laughing away like schoolboys in a carpark, drivers staring uncomprehendingly at us. Bizarrely, this is the sort of stuff we'll remember.

Hugh ran strongly until his first quick break after two hours and was then joined by Jonny for a quick seven miles. Pasta for lunch, cooked in a lay by in the campervan, cosy with all of us in there and then Hugh continued along the long flat roads gradually running into a more built up area outside Bordeaux. In order to get to the hotel (about 15km away) at a reasonable hour, Hugh was given a lift by Gavin and Emma whilst Jonny and I tried to park the beast in Bordeaux. This last bit took approximately 2 hours and we worked out H could have run this distance quicker than we drove and parked.

Straight to a restaurant when we got in and we all enjoyed another excellent meal with a magnum of Fronsac. Tough life, this.