Last Day Into Paris

We were expecting only a light shower if anything, but after an hour the rain started and it did not let up till we finally arrived in Paris. It was 180 km by the end of the day, we stopped for lunch at 110 km at a Macdonald's as it was a dry place to shelter. The hardest point of the whole trip for me was leaving that Macdonald's , I was getting cold, had no dry clothes to change into and it was still raining. I put my feet in plastic bags, had some disposable gloves to put under my soggy gloves, but it was the green plastic poncho that I put on that saved my bacon! It kept the rain off my legs and helped me to warm up and despite 12 punctures in the group we finally arrived at the meeting point of all the teams in Paris. Then it was a memorable ride with 1200 yellow Lycra clad cyclists taking over the streets of Paris. With a police escort we rode around the streets of Paris, around the Arc de Triomphe, under the Eiffel Tower and we finished just near Napoleons Tomb. It certainly has been an amazing journey, I still cannot get over the fact that I got on my bike every day for a week and spent 6 to 8 hours riding through some pretty tough conditions, it really is amazing what the human body and mind can do, and having such a great group of people to ride and share this journey with is what made it possible.

Made it to Paris!

Then it was time to head to the Eiffel Tower for some more photos.