Stage 21: The End

A day that was surreal, a relief, a little sad, and an absolutely stand alone amazing experience in equal measure.

We started the day with an easy 7km extra loop to make up enough km to hit the Rapha Women's 100 Strava event that was run today. A big thank you goes out from me to Phil and all the male riders who joined us- without your help and support greater participation of women in cycling would be harder and a lot less fun.

We also managed an early coffee stop to make up for the rubbish coffee and lack of chocolate croissants at the hotel breakfast. It was nice to revel in the fact that we were less than 100km from finishing this grand tour, something that until the last week I really didn't know I would make it through.

But there was also a measure of sadness. Something I've spent over six months training for, that has been like a storm cloud on the horizon of my consciousness, is over! This period of simplicity of waking, eating, riding, eating, riding, eating (etc etc), sleeping (not enough) is over. A period of daily amazing feats of endurance, kindness, generosity and grit is over.

Surreal because we have spent three weeks cycling through the countryside of France mostly seeing fields, grapevines, and lots of mountains. And then we cycle into Paris, past Versailles, stopping for a photo at the Eiffel Tour, and then a burn out around the Champ d'Elysse (resulting in what I'm not sure was an attempt at police arrest or police escort).

This has been an epic journey, from the day I pressed the button to sign up, to rolling up at the hotel in Paris and getting off my bike. But an epic journey is just one step after another, feed stop to feed stop, Premier Class "hotel" to Premier Class "hotel". And sadly (but with a great sense of relief, especially in the BVS and quad regions) it is over.