Day 5: La Grande Arrivée

 Day 5.  What looked like a 32 mile cruise was anything but.  We began with a leg-sapping descent in the Parisian rush hour, at the bottom of which was a traffic accident, bin men, gendarmes and cobbles to negotiate. That was the warm up.  

Our route took us on to what seemed to be part of the Parisian motorway system. Further along we encountered incredibly narrow and overgrown roadside paths, although no match for the pith helmets. We also rode up long climbs in beautiful parks and one of 13 percent which almost destroyed us.

Meanwhile Dave was battling with technology which couldn’t apparently distinguish bike tracks from motorways from cul-de-sacs, as he valiantly managed our rendezvouses.

We stopped for lunch in Parc de Saint-Cloud with a six-mile glory leg to go, only to be told by the manager that the exit from the park we were due to take was closed due to subsidence. Thus, operation Escape from Saint-Cloud commenced. Bill took on one switchback descent too many and without a handy haystack had to eject in a style that was "not of his choosing" but he did so with sufficient aplomb to remain safe.

We then had to negotiate heavy Parisian traffic and innumerable pre-Olympic roadworks whilst we tried to join up with our proper route. We were helped by a Parisian called Elliot, who later confessed he had led us on a bad route as we tried to keep up with his weaving in and out of the buses taxis and cars. We had to carry our cycles up long flights of stairs to cross the bridge which would eventually get us back on track. 

Finally we arrived at the Eiffel Tower at 4:30pm, having added 5 miles and over an hour to the last part of our journey.  

Upon arrival, aside from the predictable physical and mental exhaustion, emotions included: relief to have made it in one piece; pride in having raised so much for Macmillan Cancer Support; joy to have completed such a ridiculous adventure in style; warmth at the many beautiful encounters, both planned and spontaneous, that we had every day; and a great sadness that it has now come to an end.  Many more emotions are still to come, we are sure, as we process what has happened and what we have managed to do.

Day 5 ride stats: 37 miles, 1500ft of climbing, 1800 ft of descending.  Moving time 5 hours 15 minutes.

Thank you again to all who have followed, encouraged, commented, liked and donated.

Total ride stats over all five days as follows:

Day 1

Distance: 37.72 miles

Climbing: 1,346 feet

Descent: 1,210 feet

Average speed: 8.9mph

Moving time: 3h 51m


Day 2

Distance: 55.16 miles

Climbing: 3,417 feet

Descent: 3,600 feet

Average speed: 8.3mph

Moving time: 6h 38m


Day 3

Distance: 50.11 miles

Climbing: 1,352 feet 

Descent: 1,100 feet

Average speed 8.8mph

Moving time: 5h 41m


Day 4

Distance: 47.34 miles

Climbing: 2,641 feet 

Descent: 2,477 feet 

Average speed: 8.9mph

Moving time: 5h 10m


Day 5

Distance: 36.96 miles

Climbing: 1,502 feet 

Descent: 2,000 feet 

Average speed: 7.1mph

Moving time: 5h 13m


Thank you again, everyone.


Matt, Bill & Dave, aka #penny2paris

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