Well we finally made it, heres a pic of us at the southernmost tip of our trip.
Looks like I brought the lousy weather back with me. Typical it was hot here while I was away. Ah well, probably worked out for the best as it's no fun cycling in swealtering conditions. We had a tornado and thunderstorms on our first rest day in Nice, the tornado made the French news.
http://www.thelocal.fr/20130610/video-spectacular-tornado-hits-south-of-france
We also made it into the Evening Post
http://www.thisissouthwales.co.uk/Tata-Steel-cyclists-set-10-day-trek-charity/story-19154808-detail/story.html#axzz2W2MaGn5j
It did turn out sunny in Nice for the final day of rest. I say rest but not content with cycling 900 miles we went and hired bikes and cycled half way to Monaco.
It was such a contrast to be on what felt like cast iron bikes with a fixed gear. They were a bit lethal as they had pedal backward brakes. That caught us out a few times.
The group tended to split into two a fast group and a slow group. I struggled to keep up with the fast group on the downhills or the flat which was a bit of a problem for me as unlike many of them I didn't have a garmin GPS or any maps as I had assumed we would all be riding as a group. I got left behind many a time so had to manically try and catch up with them for fear of being totally lost in France.
There was a slower group which were much better. They made sure everyone was on board but were a bit too too slow for me though it was good to be able stop to take photos and easily catch back up. Could have done with another middle group really.
The climb up Mount Ventoux was a challenging day. It was 12.7 miles uphill at between 6 and 12%. I'm glad to say I did it all the way without stopping. There were hundreds of cyclists doing it at the same time. There was a dutch group of cyclists doing it three times up the three different ascents. I felt good passing them until I realised they may have been on their third ascent. The cheering on by spectators helped us all along immensely. Even the 13 year old lad that was with us did the Ventoux. Fair play to him he did well all week. We all chipped in and bought him a Mt Ventoux finisher cycle shirt which we presented to him at the top.
They were tarmacing the Sault side of the Ventoux and had closed it off to traffic so for the last three quarters of the descent it was fresh tarmac and no cars. Pure heaven!
We made a wrong turn one day and ended up climbing the windey roads to the top of a ski resort at Puy de sancy where there was still snow on the mountains only to realise it was a dead end and had to ride back down and climb the correct mountain. That day turned into a bit of an epic, 115 miles that day which meant we didn't get in till about 10pm. The accommodation owner was livid.
The French roads are so much smoother than ours. Probably because there is no bugger using them. I've never seen such empty roads. Every town we went through was devoid of people, it was like they had all been abducted by aliens. Trying to find an open café for a coffee was nigh on impossible and when we did find one they seemed to be in a right huff that 14 cyclists would dare to come to their café and spend lots of money.
French drivers on the other hand were so courteous. never in a hurry to pass and when they did, gave you ample room. The only time it was like riding alongside British drivers was on the last days descent into Nice when there was a rally going on in the mountains. They didn't give us an inch and even bumped one of our riders. It really was rather scary.
Even with the good roads I was puncture king. I managed to get four including an exploding tyre. We stopped at a cafe and placed our bikes against the kerb and the heat of the sun increased the pressure so much that it blew a hole in my tyre. It was a hell of a bang which made all the bikes fall over in succession.
I had to wait for the support van to bring me a spare tyre so that was another late one. I had to navigate on my own after that too relying on a list of town names and roads but managed to get to the resort. The funny thing was I got to the town we were staying where I stopped to ask directions and just as I was about to say 'Bonsoir madame' the woman said to me in a strong welsh accent, "Are you really from Port Talbot?". Turns out she was on holiday and came from Newport and I was wearing the Wheelers club kit. This is where we stayed that night, Moustiers St Marie. Really quite beautiful.
The countryside was spectacular at times, the Ardeche gorge particularly so. It took a long time that day as we kept stopping to take photos. It made it worth the climb.
We started out at river level so you can see how high we had climbed
The Verdon gorge was also awe inspiring but a cloudier day unfortunately so the camera didn't capture it as well as the Ardeche.
Nice from the mountain.
Villefranche sur mar ride on the hire bikes.
Last night in the hostel, 1 euro a can, much better than the 6.50 in town.
The French put one last foot in the spokes by deciding to have an air traffic controller strike on the day of our departure. Annoyingly we paid extra for two taxis instead of waiting for a six seater to rush to the airport only to find the flight was delayed. We waited an extra two hours or so to be let onto the plane only to be told we were not going to take off for at least another 3 hours. Nice one Easyjet. They wanted us on the plane so we could take off if a slot became available. It didn't!
To make matters worse they had sold out of food and even though we were on the ground waiting for three hours they didn't restock.
I took the bike out on the Saturday 9:30 ride yesterday and it's particularly unloved. I've never seen it so filthy. It's making all sorts of noises and I need a new big chainring.
I weighed before I left as I was concerned about losing weight but I was quite shocked to find I have actually gained 11 pounds
hopefully mostly muscle. I shall have to try out those little Twmps the Bwlch and Rhigos to see if I've improved.
All that's left to do now is collect the remaining donations and find out how much was raised in total. Thanks again for all your contributions it really helped me along when times were tough.
(Unless it's raining 
)