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.