Day 3 - The final push to Paris

It doesn't get much better than this. Empty, flat Normandy roads, sunny intervals, and on the last push to Paris.

After two days of wondering where on earth the entire population of Normandy could be (apart from those old women insulting Gary) we found all of them at once creating a make-shift market right across our route through Montherlant. We were forced off the bikes for a couple of kilometers and walked through a market selling everything from spicy sausages to the front, left light cluster for a 2004 Citroen Saxo XS (no sign of the front, right!). Unfortunately none of us could find a replacement helmet for Gary.

Just before lunch Danny and Rod caught up with a French Cycle Club riding on a Sunday club outing. The club were riding in a tight pack as they worked as a tight-knit unit to tackle a strong head wind. Never shy of avoiding an opportunity to integrate Rod and Danny managed to catch the pack and, somewhat uninvited, barged their way to the middle of it, and proceeded to introduce themselves. Once it was established that nobody actually spoke each others language, but keen to establish club-style banter, Rod broke the ice by pointing at Danny and saying "Manchester", pointing at himself and saying "Liverpool" and then for want of anything else to say shouted "Eric Cantona!!". These seemed to go down well and the boys cycled with the club for a fair few kilometers (never actually 'taking the wind') until their paths separated. Another leap forward in trans-channel relationships.

Before we knew it we were on the outskirts of Paris and Gary played his trump card. In the last break before the ride into Paris he dissapeared into the back of the van transporting all of our kit and emerged wearing a dress. He had been pledged double sponsorhip if he wore a dress for the final ride and of course there was no need to ask him twice!

We regrouped for the final push and set off through the busy streets of Paris.

...and soon we were crossing the Seine for the first of five times. Here you can see Ian still trying to shake off 68 year old Ann who he claimed had been slipstreaming him for the entire journey. (As an aside Ann was an inspiration to us all with her energy, enthusiasm and her commitment to the casue that she was supporting).

....and of course we were all really keen to ride alongside Gary who now had a stupid hat, a dress and a matching bandana.

We reach the final gathering in the Bois de Boulogne and we all don our RNID shirts.

....and true to form, Zack didn't miss out on the marketing opportunity, managing to pin a Diversified Fund badge on to any unwary team members that he could find. (There you are Zack, we even managed to get the name of the fund into the blog).

The final few kilometers is spent working our way through the less than accomodating traffic of Paris. Beth makes great use of her French by springing to Gary's aid as he is accosted by one particularly irrate French lady who is insistent that all 65 of us should be riding in single file since that was the law in Paris. We're not quite sure what Beth said to her but it seemed to do the trick and the group continued five abreast at 4mph until finally we reached La Tour Eiffel.

All that remained was the celebratory Champagne...

..and the taking of many, many team photos (you can find the complete set of photos here).

Finally a huge thank you to everyone who supported us through sponsorship. In honest the trip was a huge amount of fun and not too much of a strain, but with your help we raised lots of money for a great cause. Many, many thanks from us all.