Stage 19

Today dawned wet, grey, and miserable, perfect weather for riding a time trial course! :-\ Set off undeterred and the ride went fine, feeling strong throughout but at the same time not going over the top, just rode the course at a nice steady tempo and the miles soon rolled by. I think this will be a nice TT route for the TdF passing as it does through some lovely vineyards though today was not the ideal weather for appreciating the beauty of the area at all.

After the short ride it was into the van for the ride back to Bordeaux from the finish at Paulliac for a shower before commencing the long transfer up to Tours for an overnight stay. The plan is to split what is a very long transfer into 2 sections and to complete the journey to Longjumeau South of Paris tomorrow for the final relatively short ride into Paris to the finish on the Champs Elysees.

How do I feel? I feel very excited about the possibility of finishing what has been a huge challenge. At the same time I feel quite apprehensive about it as it will be the end of what has been a very long journey both mentally and physically, with all the prior months of training which have been so time-consuming.

It will be strange not to have my "Leading the Tour" ride in the background for much of the time and in many ways it will be a relief and I hope I am able to bring things to a safe and satisfactory conclusion tomorrow. I'll not be taking any chances and just taking a nice steady ride up from South of Paris. I'm looking forward to my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower and finally arriving at what has been my destination for such a long time, the Champs Elysees finish line of the 2010 Tour de France route.

Now it is time to put on my SKINS recovery clothing once more, to sleep, and to hope for a safe and enjoyable ride tomorrow morning. I have altered the settings on my GPS tracker which will tomorrow be updated at 10 minute intervals. For those that are interested that will allow you to see almost in real time whether I arrive safely on the Champs Elysees, which I am hoping will be at about 13:00 local time.

Goodnight once again from what I hope will be the next to last posting to this weblog covering my personal adventure, and thank you for taking the time to follow my journey.

Photographs from Today:

Street art in Bordeaux.
Peage station en route to Tours after the time trial ride.

Today's Weather:

Overcast and raining initially, showers for the rest of the day, chilly with light showers for the time trial ride.

Limited data again thanks to the useless Garmin software I'm afraid.

Ride Time: 01:31 hh:mm
Ride Distance: 26.89 miles
Average Power: 153W
Average Heart Rate: 119 bpm
Average Speed - True: 17.54 mph