I am coming down to Earth gradually without any long lasting soreness but plenty of memories. I had written them down to share with you but alas and alack my Ipad rebooted itself and lost what I had written so here is an abridged version.
Day one; a mean breakfast of pale eggs and wan sausages, cycling with the early morning sun in our eyes, lots of traffic lights, water stop with lots of sweets and tracker bars, lovely weather, poor cyclist with broken teeth, delicious lunch of pasta salads in variety of styles, nasty accident to one of ours :( , hard hills continually surprising us. cavalcade of cycles on and off ferry, sparkling tour of Calais before queueing up in hotel corridor to park our bikes, lovely double bed for me and cot for Ben.
Day two; continental breakfast that ran out before we had a chance to eat, level first part of ride along sumptuous countryside, dead water vole, beautiful forest ride, family of partridges, long slow hills, wind turbines and tree lined skylines open fields, our first war grave site, French response to us as we cycled,"Est que c'est la route a Paris? " "Oui cest vrai, zut alors!", my singing such songs as "We're on our way to Paris we shall not be moved."Non ne rien, non Je ne regrette rien" and "I love Paris in the springtime" drinking Pastis in the town square of Arrass with Richard, John, Dawn, Sarah and Ben.
Day three; up early again, hard ride out of town leaving others behind, atmosphere difficult to express when passing fields where so much killing went on and so much peace remains along with poppies at the roadside, amazing water stop at Tiepval monument, beautiful viewing spot overlooking Somme valley, another fantastic lunch with english stilton!, dead cat, stuggling with mobility in afternoon meds not kicking in pedalling becoming laboured, helping van driver to navigate lost cyclists back to the route, rejoining for last hill down into town, horrible ride around to hotel, missing centre of what must be a lovely town, motel style hotel with bikes parked in our room, steak for supper.
Day four; cold start, roads as smooth as glass, sensation of speed when in peloton slipstreaming each other, arriving at lunch stop at 9.30, seeing people arrive after me when before I always arrived after them. hard ride into Paris through suburbs, accidents and mad taxi drivers, bad joke about river swimming being insane(seine), stiffening up in traffic with just a mile to go, feeling like a celebrity cycling around in large group past Arc de T, champs elysee and Eiffel Tower being photographed and applauded by complete strangers, humbled by request from a rider who said they would be honoured if they could ride with me up the Champs Elysee. tears all round the Eiffel Tower. mucking up ride to hotel, warm champagne upon late arrival, bar crowded with sweaty saddle cream smelling lycra clad noisy elated cyclists, being called a legend by member of DA crew.
General Threads Overall feeling of support and friendship from all we cycled with and the warmth and cameraderie from our group of back enders. choral singing with John, chatting and joke telling with Richard, gettig to know Dawn and marvelling at Ben's strength and support let alone his irony. sadly leaving behind a trail of bodily fluids across the fields of France damn cold! Daily log of roadkill tally, surprisingly we didn't miss much!
Finally watching the monies collected going over the £3000 mark. THANK YOU :)
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