Day 12 – Barcelona, such a beautiful horizon!

Finally, we’d got to the border with Spain and a mere 112 miles down to Barcelona. The morning started in a very scummy border town (could have been third world) with some lengthy descents and some pretty easy riding down to Figueres and Girona. With not having any punctures until Day 11, it was always going to be a day of hissing, but three in the space of a few hundred metres was a little excessive! A detour after lunch meant that we had to take a slightly hillier route than planned out towards the coast, but with everyone focussed on the finish line it didn’t seem to affect us. Poor old Nick had managed to pick up a nasty cough and sore throat, which meant that sounded as though Barry White was cycling with us!

News of flight delays from the folks heading to Barcelona to meet us led to a Top Gear-esque race to Icaria beach. Inspired by the finish line, the final 30 miles were hammered hard with Dave & Simon even racing moped riders off of traffic lights as we headed through the streets of Barcelona. We made it to the beach to find Mummy Mould and Auntie Jack as well as Jen’s good friend Anni to greet us. Not long after we were swamped by some people who seemed to think that they’d had a tough journey to Barcelona!  It was great to see everyone and we'd certainly missed them loads. 

The day's ride was really tough, and went on for a long time (7 hrs 10 min of riding) but we realised as a team that we have become really strong riders.  Inspecting the climbing data we were surprised to see 5,400 ft of climbing, as it certainly didn't feel that much.  112 miles would have been daunting a fortnight ago (indeed, it was!) but this morning it was just another pleasant ride on the wrong side of the road!  It's amazing how an epic trip like this can change your perceptions. 

Some much appreciated beer & tapas on the beachfront, with some very relieved, tired, elated and proud cyclists heading off to our lovely casa for some well-earned sleep. As for the journey to get there… well that’s another story for another time! 

Route details can be found here: we recommend reading them whilst thinking about the patatas bravas that you have most definitely earnt…

https://www.strava.com/activities/308803874 (Sinéad)
https://www.strava.com/activities/308808027 (David)

Day 11 – Well, that was unpleasant!

If Day 10 had felt a little low key, then Day 11 definitely had the feel of the penultimate day (and our
last day of cycling in France). Motivation was a little hard to find as the clouds came in and we headed off from Agde. With a strong headwind and rain coming down, the morning’s coffee stop couldn’t come soon enough. And when it did come, we didn’t want to leave as the rain had a distinctly horizontal look to it!  So we didn't for quite some time.

Battling on through the conditions was made harder when Dave managed to get the 1st puncture of the trip, followed a few miles later by the 2nd! Excellent teamwork got him back cycling quickly and this enabled a change of scenery as we cycled through Perpignan. A quick stop in a lovely coffee shop to shelter from yet more rain gave us the energy we needed to make the final small climb up to the border with Spain. We were all delighted with the decision that we’d made the previous evening to do the extra 20 miles to help today's ride, as this had been 90 very tough miles today! 

We stayed in the beautiful town of Céret, where the only restaurant was a “poncy” one (according to Uncle Bazoit). Gladly, the service was wonderful, the wine fantastic and the food even better. Four tired cyclists went to bed to prepare themselves for the final assault… spurred on by a beautiful sangria made on our insistence.  We were all ready to finish this bad boy off now.

Route details can be found here; we recommend reading them whilst shivering after spending too long in a cold shower and then putting some wet clothes on afterwards…

https://www.strava.com/activities/308803778 (Sinéad)
https://www.strava.com/activities/308807915 (David)

Day 10

Day 10 – A bit of a cycling hangover!

Day 10 felt a little low key compared to the previous day; especially as we had the most delightful evening in Avingnon with the lovely Maryse and her freezing cold swimming pool! We like to think it was an attempt to be more like the pro cyclists and their post ride ice baths, but I doubt they spend as long getting in as the Mould brothers…

Anyway, back to the cycling. Day 10 had us heading to the seaside via some lovely cycling down country lanes a few cycle tracks. We got our first views of the Med at lunchtime, and we took full advantage with lunch in the sunshine by the yachts in La Grande Motte. We made a new friend as we headed out for the afternoon, Nick was no longer the senior statesman as we were taken down the coastal cycling tracks by a 60 year old who could put us all to shame. 

The afternoon was pretty difficult as we headed into a headwind coming off the sea, thankfully the minor incident with a metal plate being flicked at Simon from a police van wasn’t too serious and only a small amount of blood was spilt. The bogey coloured paintwork survived sadly.  We were all cheered up by some cycling-focused road signs encouraging us to bunnyhop the speed bumps as fast as possible.  By the time we arrived at Crossroads Hotel in Balurac we had decided to try and take a chunk out Day 11’s mileage and do the 20 miles to Agde that evening.  Might have been something to do with not wanting to hang around at that place. With Simon putting in a monstrous turn in the front and a rendition of Agadoo (with dance moves!), four tired cyclists were delighted to find Uncle Bazoit on the side of the road. Turns out that Uncle Bazoit was also pretty pleased to see us too, having already waved an earlier cyclist into the layby. Thankfully, we managed to get him away before the local police turned up and make it into town for a pizza.

Route details can be found here; we recommend reading them last thing at night, after an exhausting day with a large fan on full blast…

https://www.strava.com/activities/308803781 (Sinéad)
https://www.strava.com/activities/308807911 & https://www.strava.com/activities/308807868 (David)