0830  The Hotel Dugi on the outskirts of Novi Sad turned out to have a distinctly Yugoslavian flavor - think socialist youth camp and varnished chip-board as a design feature. The pressure of 200 sweaty cyclists meant it immediately ran out of water for the showers and even the toilets. There was room to stand up in part of our attic room - but when I pushed opened the skylight with my head I dumped the bulk of the day’s thunderstorm in the centre of the very small carpet - better perhaps than all over the bed!

However, for the first time the sun is shining in the morning and a big crowd gathers quickly. The Belgrade team (Vladan, Nigel and Sandra) arrives in the nick of time. They look very professional in their Embassy team cycle shirts. Sandra’s bike is a gleaming carbon fibre racing machine - watch out fast group!  There is just time for a team photo before we head off through Novi Sad and across the Danube again.