Lourdes, our base for these four days in the Pyrenees, is a strange place in many ways. I want to challenge the whole place because part of me can’t quite understand it. I find it hard that people seem to be led to this place of hope and I want to think that there can’t possibly be such hope from simply rippling your body in the waters of Lourdes and get healed simply because the Virgin Mary supposedly appeared there to some young children.

The other side of my brain, however, tells me a different story. Do people come to Lourdes and get healed because there is some divine magic in the waters? Or are they healed because their minds have so powerfully told them ‘that they can be healed’. Where does the healing come from?

These are the thoughts that I’m thinking as we cycle from Tarbes to La Pierre St Martin, or to the old school Tour de France followers, the Col du Soudet. There is magic in the mind and the mind can rule everything.

167km through rolling hills with a couple of category 4 climbs (which seemed to be eaten up without noticing them) finishing with the Hors Category (Above Category) climb to the finish.

Getting to lunch seemed a little too easy. Perhaps the day off actually paid off. Following lunch we travelled at a reasonable pace but I sensed a touch of foreboding in the air, a little nervousness and anxiety of what to expect with the final climb of the day. Not many of us have done climbs in the Pyrenees and I myself had never done this climb so the unknown was hanging around like a bad smell.

With about 23km to go the roads were closed to motor vehicles. He Gendarmes were preventing any more vehicles from parking on the mountain as they said there were already a few thousand dotted all the way to the top – they were right. People were picking their places and parking up their camper vans from the weekend the tour began. At certain points on the final climb there was a bit of a party atmosphere especially when the younger supporters realised they had the road to themselves and would go driving up and down cheering and jeering various cyclists up the mountain; or annoying as the case was with some Dutch cyclists who didn’t take too kindly to the support.

So to be climb.
How can you describe cycling the distance from Guildford to Haslemere, from Derry to Coleraine, with a gradient average of 10%? But in neither of those places would you experience a dead heat of 30 degrees Celsius with no shade for such sustained distances.
Stick your head down. Grab hold of the dropped handlebars tightly, at the end of them, there’s no point in trying to have your hands anywhere near the gear lever or brakes as you won’t need either for this climb. Into the lowest gear and grind, pray, grind, pray, drink when you can on a less aggressive part of the incline, of which there are few, struggle a bonjour to the many supporters sitting lazily in the sun egging you on with Allez, Allez!  How do I put it politely, but let’s just say that it’s very noticeable that many of the supporters in their chairs would descend the mountain rather quickly if they got on a bike 🙂
The supporters on the route are actually fantastic motivation. Most of them stand applauding and shouting in awe of what we’re doing, and rightly so. They offer water and coke and even try to assist with a push which, although tempting, is to be resisted as often the supporter gets hold of the wrong part of your anatomy and causes more trouble than it’s worth.

The Col du Soudet is one of the toughest climbs in the Pyrenees. I would even argue that it’s tougher than the Tourmalet. Over 23km it is really hard to find a steady cadence because the gradient keeps changing every few hundred metres. Because the road was closed we had the support of only the motorcycle outriders, which was more than many people had. The heat meant I got through my 2 bidons quite quickly and began to suffer on the last part of the climb. In hindsight I should have stopped and asked a camper for water – after all, many of them go up there with exactly that in mind, to help the riders on the route. Getting to the finish was in some ways an anticlimax. The road twisted and turned so much that one never really knew where he finish would be; a lot of false summits and places that looked like he finish because of the crowd barriers that were installed. We got there, though, and had great applause from my team mates and the onlookers who were amazed at our achievement today.

The descent was fantastic and the small reward for all the effort on the incline. Views were incredible from this height as was the speed. I like descending and enjoyed the speed and getting more experience for future mountain descents. Top speed was 80.6kph ! Not my fastest but good all the same.

So back to the power of Lourdes and what the mind can achieve. Did I conquer stage 10 and all the pain it brought me through mind over matter, sheer brute force or because I dipped my hands in the holy water of Lourdes? Does it matter?

Professor Charlie Craddock believes that blood cancers can be eliminated within the next 20-30 years, perhaps sooner.
This morning we watched a 6 minute video on the coach ride to the start of stage 10. The video was filmed last Friday and was from the patients, nurses and staff at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham. Charlie Craddock was last to talk to us on the video and I have to say that to see so many people involved in the pioneering work being done as a result of the Cure Leukaemia funding talk to us with such support in their voices and their hearts was very moving. Many of us set off with tear filled eyes on stage 10, but it was those patients who have been given a chance of life rather than being told to go home and die is what ensured my mind overpowered pain on the route to the top. As some say, pain is temporary, success is forever.

Please give as generously as you can to ensure we can achieve our target fundraising, provide more nurses, carry out more drug trials, save lives and find that cure.

Thank you.