5.45 at the bus, for gods sake, will it never end! I have learnt French, played at the charity concert and even had a playful snowball fight with annoying teenagers! Still Andie MacDowell is just not interested in me... Sorry, I mean I have to ride my bike.
We had a short journey today in the van to our starting point. With Mountains all around us draped in
clouds and the sun rising to warm our backs this was our last full day of riding and spirits were high.
As much as the long time climbing of yesterday was painful, today we went downhill for 40 miles leaving the alps behind us. Well at least so I thought.
A short time later we were stopping, Barry and Bob like the supreme hunter gatherers they are had found our breakfast croissants and lovely they were too. Very quickly we remounted the bikes and with Gary at the front, we made good time. Although some may say otherwise as the toll of our adventure was really beginning to bite.
At times I really struggled to believe actually where we were. We were heading to Grasse, our final destination before the finish, along the same route Napoleon’s took. This time last week we were in Chester Street, Wrexham. Is it really just a week ago?
Newtons law of cycling
As a cyclist, Newtons law of "what goes up must come down" is frequently front of mind. However today, like the tour, we had a mountain summit finish. So what goes down must come up and stay there.
We finally reached the bottom of the descent, knowing we had to climb 9000 feet before the end of the day. As the road started climbing up and up, I didn't know if i had given too much the previous day or not, i was about to find out.
We climbed up, but something didn’t seem right, the road was facing downwards. We were climbing upwards, we know it. We had gadgets to tell us yet the river along side us, appeared to be flowing up hill. How can that be right? Had I been in the sun too long? Whose idea was The Saturdays? I digress but it was a bizarre feeling indeed.
Speaking of the sun, the weather had been good to us all the way down, on this journey it looked like today was no different, it was blazingly hot. This is not ideal when you're about to climb 9000 feet whilst trying to keep your lungs inside your chest, but there was no complaints. It was better than the alternative for sure.
We entered a pass to climb and suddenly we were sheltered. No wind to cool our skin just the sun, like a scene from a western movie. Motor bikes passed us as we slaved away one pedal turn after another.
If you're not into cycling , let me explain, you either love mountains like Gary and I do, or hate them, there’s no in- between if you like them you are considered a goat!
Like the previous day it was up down up down gaining height all the time, Gary and myself after lunch left the team as we climbed at our pace.
Sweating it out by ourselves, unbeknown to us what Paul Cooke was achieving, he climbed on his own up the pass refusing any assistance of the support crew, and finally made it to the top some time later, we were waiting of him, full of praise, well done Paul what a climb it was, we loaded the bikes up and made our way to the hotel.
Only 50 miles to go now to our destination..
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