Stage 8 - Castellane to Cannes

The last leg (but hopefully not last legs): just 110 km with 1,100 m of ascent. Up the Col de Luens and then a long, flattish stretch before descending to Greolieres and pulling up to the lunch stop at Gourdon. Then it's downhill to the coast at Antibes, Juan-les-Pins and – finally – Cannes. 'Bonne route' to all les luminoles. We ride on...

Made it. We had a good climb in the beginning, with me leading an all-female group up to the Valderoute plateau. I made another (completely futile but fun) attack later in a larger group, with a lot of encouragement, and managed to pass everybody – but then blew up dramatically to general applause. 

There was a jolly coffee stop at Guillomes after a spectacular, jagged gorge descent and then a final pull up to the stunningly pretty hilltop town of Gourdon, from which we could see the Mediterranean at last. I had Salade Nicoise and chips, and lots of San Pellegrino for the mineral content. I'd ordered steak as well but fortunately it didn't arrive.

A rather tricky, traffic-filled descent followed and after about an hour and a half we were making our way down the coast through heavy traffic.

We stopped somewhere around Palm Beach for an hour of mutual congratulations, a few drinks and a swim – just the group; no spectators.

My Enigma next to a special Fireflies Colnago C50 at Palm Beach.

Some time after 17:00 we all reassembled in a beach-side car park, made ourselves as respectable as possible (new caps!) and eventually set off for a last 2 km formation run with a police motorcycle escort down La Croisette to the Palais des Festivals, bringing the whole place to a standstill. 

We stuck the bikes in the van, found our bags, and then it was time for the public party, with a lot of friends, relatives and high and mixed emotions, a last group photo and a speech or two. 

And that was the end, officially, though there will be plenty of media-type parties for Fireflies who are  'in the business' (that's most of them) in Cannes. We said our last goodbyes all over again, packed up and headed off – in my case for a cheap hotel in Cagnes-sur-Mer courtesy of a taxi that cost as much as the room. However, the young Algerian driver played nice oud music, was delighted when I recognised it, and then chipped in for Leuka with 10 Euros off the bill.

The fifth stage of this year's Tour de France will be setting off from just outside my hotel on 3 July. I'll be glued to the TV, I'm sure

I'm finding it impossible to sum it all up, apart from knowing that I'm sad it's over, but I'll try again in a day or two. Meanwhile the great news is that the Virgin Money Giving Page ticked over to exactly £2,000 at the very moment we crossed the finish line. Thank you all so much for contributing! You have done Leuka and the team at Hammersmith Hospital proud. 'Chapeau!', as we old rouleurs say. 

The last group photo at the Palais des Festivals.

Team kit.

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