Well we made it! After a good breakfast in our lovely old spa hotel, we set out for the easy 72k descent to the coast.
We are soon out of the Pyrenees and rolling along beautiful country roads through peach
orchards and finally through vineyards. (compare the ride profile above with all the previous ones!) It is amazing how much the terrain and vegetation has changed and we now seem to be in Spain -or even Tuscany! Everyone is in good spirits and these get even better when we stop in the small town of Theil for coffee at about 11am, but instead opt for champagne!
This is quickly consumed and the level of chatter rises as we continue the final 15km run east to the coast. We finally meet the Mediterranean coast at Saint-Cyprien - about 15k south of Canet where we are to spend the night. I have a minor run-in with a car in a roundabout just 50m from the beach, but there is no damage or harm (phew).
After lots of handshaking, smiling and picture taking, we decide to head north to Canet and our faithful support crew. It is an easy run along a coast that is reminiscent of the Atlantic coast of Florida.
We easily (surprisingly) find our hotel along the main beach road among the hundreds of others and meet the ladies for lunch and more drinks. We then head down to the beach in or cycling gear, and in front of an amazed beach crowd, wade into the water and take a final group shot. I remember the small bottle of Atlantic water I filled in Biarritz over a week ago, and ceremoniously empty it into the Mediterranean! Our incredible adventure has ended!
It has been an amazing time of incredible physical challenge, pain, exhaustion, camaraderie, and accomplishment. I've made a lot of new friends and The Cluster crew from Sydney (Geoff & Mike & Mike & Simon & Simon & Gerald & Thomas (let's-have-another-cleansing-ale Eriksen) have made me feel welcome and a part of their close group.
My sincere thanks and appreciation to all of you - particularly to The General and Mike, for your amazing efforts in laying out the route, your reliably inaccurate estimates of distance and ascent each day, and for providing a rolling (sometimes gasping) commentary of the cycling history along the way!! A special thanks to Tess for her booking and scheduling and tireless good spirits at the end of each day - smoothing things over with our often bemused French hosts.
I'll add some pics to this posting over the next day or two from Barcelona and maybe some more thoughts about the trip.
Thanks for reading this and sharing the experience it with me - it means I won't
have to bore you about it when I see you next.
My bike computer tells me that over the last 10 days (7 days of riding) we:
Rode over 800kms
Climbed 18,415 meters (60,000 ft)
Pedaled for over 40 hours
Drank at least 40 "cleansing ales" - and countless glasses of vin rouge (tres ordinaire!)
Burned almost 38,000 calories (except Gerald, who probably burned 50,000!)
Allez!
