Stage 20, Paris - Paris, 65km, 20th July 2007

So that's it, we've finished. We didn't try to complete the exact route of the final stage, the route-finding would become incredibly difficult with one way systems etc, so we approximated a loop round southern Paris suburbs and then began our triumphant procession down the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower and the Champs Elysees.

The Pros don't really treat most of the final stage as a race either, rather they ride slowly and pass champagne around the bunch and toast the winner. So we stopped at bar near the tower and bought a bottle of champagne for a proper celebration.

Bizarrely, as soon as we stopped underneath the Eiffel Tower we became the centre of attention and random tourists wanted to take photos of us in our yellow jerseys etc.

Emma was waiting at the Arc de Triomphe, so we circled the Place de Concorde and started on our one lap of the finishing straight. The traffic was a little heavy, but we finally, after 3500 km's of riding in all weather conditions, arrived at the finish.

We attracted another small crowd taking photos as we popped the champagne, hung a Tour de France flag off some barriers and took some publicity shots of ourselves for our sponsors.

It felt awesome to have finished....London to Paris the long way round. Handshakes and congratulations all round as we thought about what we had achieved.

The two young Gendarmes who then turned around up around 15 minutes later weren't quite in the same celebratory mood, they tersely advised us that bikes weren't allowed in the middle of the Arc de Triomphe and then enquired as to whether I was drinking alcohol ! Protestations that we we had just ridden the 'Grand Boucle' and deserved some slack got nowhere... essentially we got 'moved on' in a rather ignominous style.

So here endeth letour2007.com. Well almost....we are now going to sample lots of Parisien beer and not wonder about the route profile tomorrow, for a change.

Before we go, another huge thank-you to the many, many people who have supported us along the way, through donations, offers of services, words of encouragement, blog comments and guestbook entries. It has been fantastic knowing that we have the support that we have had, it has made a huge difference and I doubt that I will personally experience it again. Credits will be posted when we return, and our most valued fan announced.

So it is all over.....a crazy adventure that most people quite wisely doubted could be achieved. Everything has gone as smoothly as we could have wished and we are all now fit(ter), slim(mer) and tanned and not looking forward to getting on a bike for a while.

It has been fantastic....soon it will all seem like a dream and we'll be back in the real world. But it was good while it lasted.

Au revoir (for now) from everyone at letour2007.com

Cheers

Stage 19, Cognac - Angouleme, 50km TT, 19th July 2007

We are on the journey to Paris !

We knocked out the Cognac - Angouleme Timne Trial this morning after Emma dropped us off. The route was pretty standard, a couple of small rises, but otherwise it will be one of the quickest time trials in the Tour ever we think.

We cycled past a couple of chaps (one wearing full Phonak gear) on the way, it took some explaining that we weren't just doing the the one stage, we had done them all. We were also all in our team jerseys...the full Red Train....and we got a couple of comments from passing vehicles and some cheering from one chap by the side of the road. However the bloke Matt almost hit in a village wasn't cheering quite so loudly...

A quick change and shower at one of those super cheap French hotels and we are about to jump in the van for the drive to near Paris for the last stage tomorrow.

Bikes are making all sorts of weird clicking and crunching noises, but there is so little left I think we'll leave serious bike maintenance for England/the US. The aromas wafting from the

coffee shops on the Champs Elysees are getting stronger......it all

sounds very romantic.....obviously in the real world we have the

Perepherique to deal with and I don't think we'll be doing eight laps of the Champs Elysees....might have to cut it down a bit for our safety.

Stage 18, Cahors - Angoulême, 210 km, 18th July 2007

Stage 18......almost there. This was a long one at 210 km's and motivation is starting to become an issue....luckily it won't matter for much longer.

We scheduled three stops today, and at every one the desire to just go to eat, drink and then go to sleep became increasingly persuassive. Then the giggles set in and getting back on the bike became very tough. This is the problem with thinking we have finished when we haven't.....there are no more mountains to focus on, no more thrilling descents to look forward to....just get the miles in and get this finished.



But...we did go through some fantastic scenery today. It may be swamped with Brits (and Belgians), but the Dordogne region is always impressive and we cycled right bang through it today. La Roque-Gageac, St, Cyprien etc....we enviously looked at the canoeists as they paddled down the river...I would like to swap my bike for something else soon. The perched medieval villages looked like they could be very interesting to look round, but we had no time, we were on a schedule to avoid another 12 hour day.


The climbs have stopped and the weather was cooler today, so there were no major challenges, but it's just the kms refuse to go past as quick as we would like, it requires alot of focus to keep pedalling.

Kyle decided to go for a last ditch King of the Mountains attempt and rode up some Cat 4 climbs very quickly indeed, earlier both I and Matt had been chased by rabid dogs and we barely cycled away fast enough to avoid their gnashing teeth.

The latter half of the ride involved less exciting scenery and a bit of a main road that had very large trucks thundering by (the main Perigeux to Angaloume road), so we decided to freestyle some navigation on a quieter parallel road to limit the chances of getting mashed.

This route seemed to involve some sneaky little climbs and it was after one too many of these that Matt amusingly toppled off his bike in the middle of the road.....picture here. He quickly remounted. I then lost concentration somewhat and rode into a ditch, luckily it wasn't too deep and I also remounted. It's not over 'till it's over.

So, the last major stage completed, the TT tomorrow. End of term feeling is strong, we have already begun reflecting on the epic rides of the last few weeks.

Stage 17, Pau - Castelsarrasin, 188 km, 17th July 2007

This morning started late for a couple of reasons : the complacency that has somewhat set in that now that we think we are on the way home (as the Pyrenees are recede across the horizon), and also the fact we had an hours drive to Pau for the start.

The route was actually very pretty through beautiful and rolling rural areas….problem is that the rolling aspect meant hills and we had to drag ourselves over a number of Cat 4 and 3 climbs that the legs complained about….especially after yesterdays epic.

The sun was back out with intent too, and as the day wore on the heat rose until about 3pm we must have hit a peak of about 35 degrees. Fluid replacement once again became a primary concern and the parked camper-van and Emma became a lovely sight as we rounded corners at the agreed meeting spots. Food was consumed and lots of Coke drunk.

We should have been sponsored by Coca Cola on this trip, a verging-on-ice cold can after 50 miles of hot cycling is nectar indeed. All that cold liquid, sugar and caffeine seems to do the trick (and Accelerade can get a bit hard to take after the 50 millionth litre).

There were lots of sunflower fields on the route today and the pictures here give some impression of what those golden hillsides look like, always impressive.

All completed the stage, a fairly pleasant ride in pretty hot conditions. So we have one more ‘proper’ stage of the tour left tomorrow, then the time trial. The smell of the fine cuisine from the bistros on the Champs Elysees becomes stronger by the day. The end is in sight.

Stage 16, Orthez - Col d'Aubisque, 218 km, 16th July 2007

Not much time to write tonight as the stage took us 10 hours of cycling (almost 13 elapsed). It was long, 222 km's, and involved lots of climbing, estimated at over 5000 metres.

Amy, Mark and Kyle completed all, Matt completed the Col de Larrau and the Col de Marie Blanque.....the two hardest.

The HC (and somewhat underestimated) Col de Larrau was first up this morning and was a real pig. Definitely harder that than yesterday's Port du Bales was our conclusion....very steep and rose to 1500 metres from under 200m as it too us over to Spain.

The loop through Spain was interesting and less severe, but another Col at 1750 metres put more stress on the legs (pic on left). We also replaced two tyres today, Matt's rear tyre looked like it had been attacked by Freddie Krueger. We think the melting tarmac that sticks the wheels to the road accelerates tyre wear (lots more melting tarmac today, despite it being much cooler).

The next climb back in France was the Marie Blanque and was described in Cyclosport as being "the most violently sustained steep section of the entire tour". I think we would agree.


With no respite we then tackled the mythical Col d'Aubisque as a summit finish. As we rose through the thickening clouds the landscape took on an ethereal state and eventually after the longest day so far on the tour, we finished with riders emerging from the mists..Stephen Roche style.

This is a major milestone we have reached, as we have climbed our last major climb and descended our last serious descent. The Pyrenees hae thrown their worst at us and we have come through. With less challenging stages to come, barring major problems (injuries, crashes etc) we should be able to complete the 2007 tour de France...it feels like now have a genuine and realistic chance of making Paris with some team members having ridden every single kilometre. We still have major rides to come and in normal circumstances would be serious challenges, but is hard to escape the feeling that the worst is now over.

Kyle took the opportunity to get the paint and roller out on the Aubisque and big up his college or something...not entirely sure what it means but I gather there a bunch of people back in the US who will appreciate the image below. Let's hope it stays intact before the Tour rolls in.

So...must sign off, everybody asleep recovering from another 10/10 difficulty day. A new elevation gain record today, 5755 metres. Believe me, that is a huge amount.

Tomorrow we ride from Pau to Castelsarrasin, a relatively easy 188kms. It is strange to think that in four days time we will be in Paris.......if all goes well.

2nd Rest Day, Olorons, 15th July 2007

Think this picture sums today up. Might get up to watch the Tour's first summit finish at Tignes in a bit.

Stage 15, Foix - Loudenvielle - Le Louron, 196 km, Sat 14th July

Ok...this is getting pretty serious now. It is hot....damn hot, the temperature as I write this in Oloron St Marie (near Pau) is approaching 40 degrees.

Firstly I am pleased to report that the full-tour contenders completed the stage, Kyle also completed (still with injuries) and Matt completed the Hor Categorie Port du Bales - considered the hardest climb in this years Tour. Guest rider Micheal Barry also completed what is easily the hardest days cycling he's ever done.

I can also report that it took us a rather astonishing 12 hours (10 hours riding), leaving Foix at 7.30am and finishing just over the Col de Peyresourde at 7.30 pm. And did I say it was hot ? Wow......the Col de Portet d'Aspet was like a furnace which came as a little bit of a shock to Michael who had just flown over from Ireland for the stage. From rainy Ireland to a 35 degree Pyrenean climb isn't good for the health. But he made it.

Cyclosport gave this stage 10/10 for difficulty and it basically meant that it involved climb after climb. The extra dimension was that the climbs gradually got harder, the Col de Port, followed by the Port D'Aspet, followed by the Col de Mente, followed by the new and fearsom HC Port de Bales followed by the Cold de Peyresourde.

The glaring midday sun meant that fluid intake quadrupled, but Emma did a stirling job of meeting us in remote locations with the van so we could re-fuel. I think Amy actually sat in the water trough on the Portet d'Aspet.....the cooling effect considerable.

We bumped into a bunch of chaps who had been on the Tour of Ireland with Amy and I. Back then we discussed the fact they were doing the Etape and we were doing the Tour...and lo and behold we meet again in the Pyrenees. Hope you read this, best of luck to you all.

Talking of the etape (organised race/ride across the blue riband stage of the tour de France each year), there will be some suffering on Monday, that's for sure. I have trained all year for letour2007 and am not unfit and still found it hard. I think that route will become a serious challenge for many riders out there...let's hope it cools down. Seriously, I hope all you guys make it...."COURAGE !"

The grind up Peyresourde signalled the end of another 200km's of cycling and over 4500 metres of 'up'. We piled in the van and headed for the Autoroute to take us to Oloron, near Pau, for a well deserved official rest day (same as Pros will have). I am not sure that we could take another successive mountain day...we need to recover physically and mentally. Stage 16 still looms over this challenge like an Ogre...ready to bite us hard if we aren't careful. Difficulty rating getting up to 'Brutal'.

Great comments ........keep them coming. Particularly strong on the last post, lightening strike Ipods and Jaeger bombs !

Stage 14, Mazamet - Plateau-de-Beille, 197 km, Fri 13th July

The red train thundered south today as we tackled a stage deep into the Pyrenees.....finishing on the 'famous because of Lance' Plateau de Beille.


The sun was out with a vengeance as we climbed out of Mazamet and onto the walled city of Carcassone. The route then became pretty spectacular along a wild gorge where a river (suitable for rafting, which looked inviting) tumbled below. The cliffs encroached quite considerably onto the road forcing Emma to take great care with the campervan...otherwise we would have lost half of our sleeping space in the section above the cab.

By the time we hit the lower slopes of the HC Port de Pailheres (1500 metres of up) we had by far the hottest temperatures on the tour...the campervan reading over 35 degrees at one point. This caused some suffering on the exposed slopes and by the time we reached the top..we fairly well sprawled out on the grass next to the animals milling arounf.

Managing to compose ourselves for a photo beneath the Col sign, we then descended to the last climb.... a feared summit finish.


One of the wagons on the red train came off at this point due to the excessive heat...but Matt turned into a directeur sportive extrordinaire by supplying us with the athletes choice of Cokes, Haribo and my ipod to listen to from the cab of the van as we crawled up the last slopes of the Plateau de Beille up to 1750 metres. It was a grind.

Music helps when the traffic is very light as it is something to listen to and take your mind off the pain. In my case it proved inspirational as during my 'Euro 2004' mix, the mighty David Hasselhoff came on. Suddenly it was like I had eaten three energy gels.....as the opening chords to Looking for Freedom came on I found extra reserves of power and fairly sprinted to the top.

The Hoff's powers don't stop at single handidly tearing down the Berlin Wall......he virtually carried me to the finish today.

Matt and Emma had meanwhile broken the Campervan up Plateu de Beille record and got busy with the paint and roller that we had prepared earlier. Some of the handiwork can be seen below...but basically we left our presence on the road so that hopefully we can see it on TV in 10 days time. A strong effort I am sure you will agree (me riding past in victory mode). More of that to come I think.

Final piece, the animals roaming around the Pyrenees continued today, a picture here of the lovely horses that greeted us on the Pailheres. Lovely, until their fly ridden heads appear inches from your face and they start rutting the campervan. Anyway, it's their terrain I suppose.

Several litres of fluid each later..we are in a campsite near Foix full of Brits and others preparing for the etape du tour on Monday. We are doing the stage tomorrow and will be long gone by the time they finish, but we wish all the etappers the best of luck.

Stage 13, Albi - Albi, 54 km TT, Thursday 12th July

For those looking for a holiday desitination in France, perhaps somewhere to stay for a few days, then we recommend the village of Ambialet on the river Tarn near Albi. We cycled through it halfway through our straightforward 54km time trial today, and for once had an opportunity to really appreciate our surroundings. It is a beautiful place.


Today's ride was a joy, there was no pressure, we got up late, eat croissants and drank coffee, donned our celebratory jerseys (Yellow, Green (Points), White (young rider) and Polka Dot) and cruised the course.

The weather was beautiful...about 22 degrees and sunny and compared to other days where we've basically had to grit teeth and endure...this was a pure pleasure ride.


We larked about....got lots of beeps from lorry drivers for wearing the quintet of the hallowed jerseys all at once (in France the yellow jersey is NEVER worn by anyone other than the leader of the Tour) and took alot of action photos, some of the results you can see here.


The actual course was very interesting, a fast straight out and back, apart from a massive twisty descent and then a 350 metre climb, so the boys in the actual race on their time trial machines will not be pleased when they see the more techincal stuff. For the record, I'd go road bike with aero bars probably.

We returned to Albi, took a leisurely shower and then headed over the Mazamet, where the next stage...THE FIRST PYRENEAN STAGE !!!!...starts tomorrow. Have I told you about how we are very worried about the Pyrenees ? Well, we are.

We set up residence in a bar all afternoon and watched the real TdF, Chablis to Autun on the TV. It's really interesting to watch them race over roads we got quite familiar with, and little distressing to see them do it twice as fast. But we are a guaranteed 'clean' tour.....unless continental strength beers count as doping.

Talking of the Pyrenees.....we haven't seen any bears yet, and we might in the mountains. 'The Bear' was last seen heading towards an airport to maybe join us...but alas it was not to be.

Right then, the riders are early to bed this evening in an attempt to beat the heat tomorrow. It was properly hot today...and we feel we may get roasted tomorrow. Wish us luck.

Stage 12, Montpellier - Castres, 179 km, Wed 11th July

Before I describe Stage 12....just a little reminder about who will be benefiting from the charity money raised from this epic bike ride. Education for the Children exists to help some of the poorest children in Guatemala and finances raised will help build a safehouse.

One safehouse costs £10,000, so we are over halfway there. If you are reading this and enjoying the updates and haven't donated......have a look at the sponsorship page on letour2007.com and see if you can help.

Thanks !


Stage 12, Montpellier to Albi. It started off fairly nice, but then we had to ride the cycle tracks 'belgium style' for a while to avoid getting loudly beeped by the large trucks that came past.

We met Matt (helping with logisitics today as change of support driver) and Emma after about 40 miles and we gourged on the standard of pain au chocolates etc.


The route then stayed on the same D908 road for many miles as we entered the Haut Languedoc region and the road started to rise as we started a Cat 2 climb that took us over 900 metres, but not before we had been through an interesting tunnel at the top of another little col near a village.

The weather then turned and the rain started. If you remember a previous post about us not being in Belgium anymore, well I take that back. You would never know we were in the south of France as we cycled the last 50 miles, it was about 15 degrees, the lush forests were made up of trees that looked northern European and the drizzly rain cam down. The picture below depicts it quite well.

The freaky European weather continues....this must be the coldest and wettest Tour de France attempt on record (cool for cycling though).

The descent to the town of Castres we very long, very wet and a little dodgy round corners, but we eventually popped out and found the van waiting for us.

We are now at a campsite just outside Albi where we have the 50km time trial tomorrow. This is now obviously small beer for us and so are treating it as a semi-official rest day....which basically means we have fired up the DVD player in the van for the first time on this trip. We are doing something other than cycling and eating !

Last up this evening is the first in our series of 'haunting post-ride portraits'....and I'm (Mark) up first. Technically it wan't post ride as we hadn't finished the stage when it was taken...but you get the gist. We are supposed to look gaunt and haggard and like we've cycled thousands of miles - art style. Don't worry mum...I am maintaining weight I think.

PS -A big thank you for the many kind comments and guestbook posts, we read them out in the evening and everyone appreciates them. And Tim Perkin....don't spend that extra sponsorhip money (if I make it round the whole course) on beer...I am still on track !

Stage 11, Marseille - Montpellier, 180 km, Tuesday 10th July

It's quite windy between Marseille and Montpellier.....we can confirm this after cycling for several hours across the Camargue with some seriously intense wind barelling across from the north. I am not sure it was officially the Mistral, but it was tough to cycle in.


We left early and the morning was a little chilly as the sun had barely risen above the Provencal countryside. A small climb proved no problem and we stopped at a boulengerie for some more of a diet that would probably kill an average person, but seems to get us through stages. Basically it is anything with lots custard, raisins and chocolate in it, x 2 please.


Meanwhile Brian dropped Laura off at one airport and picked Emma up from another - what a star. Emma is taking over as support driver. We passed under an impressive looking Roman aquaduct on route, the photo is below...looked lovely in the morning light.

Because of the early start we took our time on the re-fuelling stops, and grazed the ever more impressive smorgasbord of local supermarket delights that Brian had procured.

The second half of the ride was hot, but not too hot as we battlled the winds, and finally we arrived at the campsite near Lattes (near Montpellier) that Brian and Emma had already arrived at.


Checking in was fairly straightforward, apart from we were caught off-guard by the 'speedos only' rule that is strictly adhered to at the site pool. Shorts are certainly not allowed....speedos only.....this caused some astonishment amongst the American contingent who come from a land where it is always the other way round.

The tiny campsite snack bar serves moules-frites for 7 euros on a Thursday...can't imagine that in England.

For anyone who works in catering or food hygiene.....look away now. Below is a photo I took of one of my water bottles at a rest stop today. The lurid colours are caused by two different flavours of Accelerade (sports drink powder) that we are convincing ourselves actually makes us pedal faster for longer. The grey colour on the inside is old Accelerade that includes some sort of Protein amongst its ingredients.....it is really hard to get off. The dark grimy colour on the outside of the bottle is road-grime and general deitrus that seems to get pasted on...again doesn't come off very easily, especially when you don't even try after a long stage.

So we are a little surprised that none of us have gastroenteritis so far.

A lumpier stage tomorrow, in almost certain heat and wind. But in the knowledge that there are only six proper stages (TT's don't really count) of the the tour left...we feel we are on the way home. It's just those pesky little hills that exist between France and Spain that remain very concerning indeed.

Stage 10, Tallard - Marseille, 229 km, Monday 9th July

We are not in Belgium anymore.
Another stage staged....this time we have arrived in deepest France, in Marseille. It is sunny, but not too hot and we read with interest the reports on the internet of the real TdF stage 2 in Belgium today...it was raining ! Good, we had lots of rain in Belgium and the pros should suffer like we did.

We left Tallard (in a brief rain shower ironically enough) and were soon whizzing down through the countryside, through a beautiful looking Sisteron, past Digne-les-Bagnes and into the department of Vars, holiday land. I can't believe we have cycled the length of France and gone over the alps in doing so.

Obviously the landscape is very different now.....dry shrubs and the very loud sounds of the cicadas (crickets) as we powered through rocky gorges. Chips and mayo land is a long way away.

The long distance and the hotter weather meant our fluid intake increased today, Brian was again excellent stopping the van in good spots so we could refuel. The route took us over a couple of climbs near the coast at the end, the cat 4 col de Gineste being particularly tough as we battled into a massive headwind that sapped strength, as if someone had attached a giant parachute to the backs of our bikes.

But we were rewarded with a fantastic views of the med and the port town of Marseille as we swung down to finish the stage.

The transfer 'au campervan' through Marseille city centre was predictably awkward with a seven berth campervan...indeed at one point we seemed to be trapped in the extreme centre, during rush hour with every exit involving bridges or tunnels that were too low for our 3.3 metre high vehicle. But we made it, and have plonked the van down at a campsite next to a boules pitch which is being enthusiastically used. Pizza delivery is on the way.

So we have ridden 10 stages of the Tour de France and crossed the alps and are now almost at our most southerly point (think the brief excursion into Spain on stage 16 goes further south).

I think that although we are pleased, even a cursory glance at the several dozen Tour de France magazine specials we have stockpiled reveals a horror show to come in the Pyrenees....stages 14, 15 and 16 could result in us becoming unstuck.

So there is no sense that we have done this yet, we need to wait for quite a few more stages yet before we can realistically see ourselves riding up the Champs Elysees in Paris.