Day 4 Wednesday 18th of May 

A 10.30 am departure from Barcelona to Montreux in convoy had been organised but you know what they say about the best laid plans. Anyway at 11:30 am we finally made our way out of Barcelona (half of us with hangovers) except for Brett and Chris who we couldn’t find anywhere. They finally made tracks an hour later. Vanderpump was still milling around involved in his obsessive topic of the week TYRES (just buy some new one's before we leave next time dude).

The roads to the north of Barcelona that hugged the north-east coast line of Spain were especially gorgeous and it really was a pleasure to mile-munch on them. To the right we were looking at the Mediterranean and to the left the snow capped mountains of Pyrenees. Driving conditions were perfect - dry and 75 degrees. I really enjoyed the company of Giles and Jonty in the Porsche C4S and Matt and James in the Porsche GT3. Early indications showed that Matt and Chaz in the Porsche 997 coupé really had the bit between their teeth and victory for this stage could possibly be theirs. When we approached Lake Geneva the Grad Boys in the other BMW M3 called and said that the traffic around the north side of the lake which is mainly motorway way very busy (I think he was exaggerating) sneaky tactics eh! So I was followed by the Porsche C4S of Giles and Jonty and the Porsche GT3 of Matt and James went on the south side (Montreux was exactly the other side of the lake).

The traffic for around 20 miles was heavy but then it cleared up and the roads through Evian onto Montreux were amazing. It was then that we received the first calls from the victors of the day, Fish and Rob in the Ferrari Maranello 550 (but at what cost) closely followed by Gary and Simon in that Ford ‘wolf in sheep's clothing’ Mondeo ST220. To the other side of the lake Greg & Steve in the Saab (should have been in the Ronart Lightning) were hot on the tail of the Rabbit and overall were doing pretty well.

Greg really had the bit between his teeth and with 20 miles to go and only 15 miles of fuel left in the tank Greg rang Jon in the Rabbit and said there was no way he was going to back off, Greg's commitment enabled him to pass the Rabbit on the twisty descent into Montreux. Unfortunately this earned him a tug from the local plod and very nearly an evening with the local constabulary.

Matt and Chaz ended up a respectable third getting them all fired up to take the fight to the Ferrari the following day.

The hotel was breath-taking and looked down the length of Lake Geneva. Upon arrival I found the Ferrari boys looking a bit stressed, clutching bottles of water and spanners, “we've sprung a leak” shouted  Fish, “but we can carry on”. But for how long? 

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