Stage 20

No data or long descriptive post today for the final ride into Paris. Today was not about data but about the end of an experience, I shall write up a short epilogue in the next week or so but in the meantime there will be no more posts to this blog as I relax in Paris with Lorena without whose support and encouragement none of this would have been possible. It may be, now that my "Leading the Tour" ride is over, that this blog will close but I shall decide about that in due course.

All that I have to say at the moment is that at approximately 14:00 Paris time I crossed the finish line of the 2010 Tour de France route on The Champs Elysees in Paris.

I started the ride in Rotterdam 3 days ahead of the professional peloton and I finished it today, still 3 days ahead of the professional peloton. I rode each stage in it's entirety completing all the climbs and completing each stage in a single day taking 2 rest days at the same time intervals as they are taken by the riders in the professional peloton. I rode each stage as closely as was humanly possible to the race route.

I am 52 years old and I weigh approximately 80kgs. I am an ordinary bloke who got on his bike and started training and riding. I have proved that something as arduous as riding the entire Tour de France route can be achieved by an ordinary bloke such as me. I encourage anyone who has a dream to follow it and to try to make it come true. If you want it badly enough you can in all probability make it happen, as long as you are prepared to suffer along the way and to keep going when it gets tough.

My advice is to take something big on and to tackle it head on, it's better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all. In all probability you'll make it and feel better about yourself for doing so.

Good luck in following whatever dreams you have, and allow yourself to dream big.

Me? I'm going for a lie down now and tomorrow I'll start thinking about how to cram more into my life, you never know how long you've got left!

Photographs from Today:

Approaching the finish in Paris – The Eiffel Tower comes into view.
The Arc de Triomphe, having ridden the length of the Champs Elysees.

Today's Weather:

Finally not too hot, light breeze with sunny periods, mixed blue and cloudy sky.