Sponsor Ciaran Doran at : https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/ciarandoranbeforethetour
The day began quite well and then turned into a media frenzy again because Mr Armstrong was with us. The good part was that we all knew what to expect and so Lance got off the bus and onto the bike and quite quickly rode away with us. It was nice to see some farmers simply trying to get to their fields not really caring or knowing what was going on.
This stage was in some ways a blur for me that I either forgot to write about it or simply didn’t have the time. It was definitely the beautiful stage of the whole tour so far and I’m writing this on our rest day Monday 20th July.
After a fairly long group of hills we finally arrived at a plateau across and into the Cevennes National Park. Before we got there, though, we had a rather spectacular view of the Millau viaduct. I was telling people about this bridge for a couple of days as I hoped we’d come somewhere near it to get a glimpse. Not only did we get a glimpse the route designers played with us for half a morning by taking us down a fantastic descent where we got plenty of pictures, then along the Tarn valley right underneath the bridge itself and along to the town of Millau.
We stopped for lunch at a the lovely little restaurant Parisien on the banks of the Tarn river. Below us were many kayakers and bathers and it was very enticing to go down to the water and get cool. The restaurant boasted, in a picture from about a hundred years ago, to be the only place on the Tarn with a Terrace overlooking the river.
With a long table laid out and ready for us to sit and eat we had a great lunch with the riders, the support team and Lance + entourage. Nicely positioned at the back of the restaurant meant the journalists had to sit in the bar and outside – it was like something from a movie when you see papparazzi loitering outside smoking, drinking, talking, waiting for that moment, and it often is simply a brief moment, when the star comes out, all the excitment dramatically increases and in a flurry we’re off again on the bikes where the cars and motorbikes have more difficulty catching us.
The ride through the remainder of the Tarn valley was simply stunning and I’d love to go back and spend a holiday in the area, preferably at a time when the temperature is below 40c ! and possibly without a bike 🙂
Arrival in Mende was again via a steep average 10% gradient climb. I came through the town and felt the gradient increase and thought all was Ok. In fact one bystander told me there was only about 250metres to go and it’s incredible how the mind plays havoc with you when you think there’s a finish line and there’s not.
The climb turned out to be a cruel slow grind where getting above a 50rpm cadence was really tough. Many riders were by the wayside stopped and hung over the bars in agony. This was a really tough climb to the finish and even when the climb was done the finish line was still a long way away on the flat.
I could see the end when I saw hundreds of spectators gathered around our bus for ‘you-know-whom’! This provided a great welcome to all of us as we arrived at the finish one by one especially because the fans couldn’t get close to Lance himself.
After a good deal of water intake and cooling down we all got onto the bus where we had our farewell with Lance. It was a private moment between us all because this journey of the Tour de France One Day Ahead and Lance joining us has been about much more than his history in cycling. For all of us it has always been about leukaemia cancer and creating a shift change in the support for finding a cure. Lance left us with some words of real support for us as amateurs and whilst, like many of us, I may still have questions in my head about the past, it’s the future that counts. That future can be changed, the past can’t. We are collectively trying to change that future and I hope that this ride and future rides like this can really make a difference to the lives of those suffering from leukaemia.
Another day done. Lance gone. Fresh start wiht just our own team again tomorrow, phew.
Please support where you can and donate to my link below.
Thank you.
Sponsor Ciaran Doran at : https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/ciarandoranbeforethetour
Thank you to our sponsors, without whom this challenge would not be possible.