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.

Details Start:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/330176198

Details FINISH:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/330176145

Stage 7 - Le Sauze to Castellane

Suddenly, it seems, we're getting near the end. Last night (a bit late) all the riders had to say why they were riding. Some have done this ride eight times (out of thirteen), others are here for the first time, like me. Many, many of them have – or have had – friends and relatives with cancer. Some of those people have even died during this trip. It was hard to see people you have come to know enough to realise how committed and focused they are about this ride – and how tough they have had to be to keep riding, with torn muscles, a possible fractured wrist and multiple minor and major scratches and scrapes, unable to finish their descriptions.

I managed to say a bit about my own experiences, and also how living in Africa makes you realise that saving lives or 'beating cancer' just isn't an option for the majority of people alive today. The Tour doctor (who has been measuring a few of our patellar and Achilles' tendons) also made the point that non-Eurasian patients are thousands of times more likely to find a donor than Black or mixed-race ones (including his own kids), and put in a plea for everyone to join the Bone Marrow Register. That's not an option for me, I imagine, but please check it out.

Anyhow, we assembled at the usual unearthly hour for a penultimate 140 km covering three lesser-known cols and 3,000 m of climbing. My physio yesterday was great, incidentally. There are two guys from Integra Training attached to the Tour and they use a system called 'Muscle Activation Techniques to 'switch on' muscle groups that have stopped working effectively – in our case probably due to over-use. I was a bit sceptical, but their explanations made sense and it really seemed to work: more power and more flexibility and it's very non-invasive.

Thankfully too, my headset mods seemed to have been successful, and we set off at a good pace on a quiet track for the Col d'Allos – a pretty climb and a slightly less demanding one, though topping out at 2,240 m. There was a good mountainy bar/café at the top and a quite demanding descent after it. 

Next came the slightly smaller but steeper Col des Champs (2,087 m) which had a beautiful fir-tree-lined middle section followed by a bleak, exposed and extremely windy top part, with land slips and torrents of mud and water across the road. There were plenty of squeaking marmots too. The descent was better, once we'd got below the wind, and we stopped for lunch (spag bol, yum yum) a little  sooner than planned, a bit before Guillaumes. 

I'd dropped right back on the previous climb, mainly through chatting to a nice Italian rider about bikes and stuff (he's riding a very pretty carbon Cinelli) but I've been feeling steadily stronger and, on the final climb – the smaller Col de Toutes Aures (1,120 m) I thought I'd push things a bit. We had a good, steady group of about a dozen riding well together for 30 km or so to beat the wind (lots of sweeping bends and tunnels) and I was on the front as we hit the 17 km climb. We all stuck together, but nobody was coming through. Then we started catching a few stragglers, mostly in pairs, and passing the third of these and looking back I could see I'd got a gap. 

I carried on, upping my heart rate to a moderate 125 or so, and just slipped away. What seemed like an age later (probably about 45 minutes in fact) one of the support vans shouted that I'd only got 1.5 km to go. This was a lie, of course (it was really more like 5.5 km) but I had a three minute lead at what I thought was the top, and stopped at the van for water. A small group caught up, but I stayed with them to the real top and for most of the descent down to the Lac de Castillon, where the whole Tour took a break and splashed about in every possible stage of undress before a final slightly soggy downhill stretch into Castellane. A very good day. 

Coffee stop on the Col d'Allos.

Lunch, lovely lunch. But still 75 km to go.

La Plage at Lac du Castillon.
Fireflies enjoy a swim after cycling in 30+ degrees.

The view from my rather faded but charming single (at last) room in Castellane.

Details Start:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/329790123
Details Finish:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/329789342

Stage 6 - Le Sauze Excursion

Rather a change of format today. Plenty of time for a shower in the morning, a fairly relaxed breakfast (not in Lycra) and an 09:10 start. Then an ascent of the Col de la Bonnette from Jausiers, a few km back up the road.

La Bonnette is the highest mountain pass in Europe, at 2,802 m. The climb is 24 km long, on a good road, and the ascent is around 1,600. There is an awe-inspiring gorge near the bottom and then long, sweeping ramps and hairpins through increasingly deep snowfields with the occasional marmot, though they're hard to spot. 

There was a rather better group approach to riding today, so plenty of company. There was some unhappiness at dinner yesterday over the continuing lack of 'why I'm riding' introductions and the general standard of riding etiquette. It's clear to me that most of the Fireflies this year don't belong to cycling clubs, so they haven't had that discipline drummed into them by prickly, traditionalist older members (like me).

Anyway, the majority stopped for coffee about half way up, but I was feeling strong and didn't want to waste it, so made it to the top in the first half of the field. 

The keener members were heading down the other side for lunch before the reverse return journey. More sensible ones like me just came straight back down for beer and bread and six types of cheese in the hot sun – having once again struggled up the 10-11 per cent 'Col d'Hotel', which is an absolute killer. 

I'm worried again about the bike's headset, which is now tending to stick in the straight-ahead position. Going to talk to the support crew and maybe get a bit of physio myself...

The spectacular Bonnette gorge section, about a third of the way up.

The view back down to the lower hairpins.

The drifts are getting deeper...

The end is just in sight, in the notch to the left of the main peak.

Made it to the top! But we're not heading to Nice just yet...

Details Start:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/329223107
Details Finish:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/329223331

Stage 5 - Oulx to Le Sauze

Another very tough day. Back into France via the Col de Montgenevre, then the classic Col d'Izoard before lunch and finally the Col de Vars and a last kick up Barcelonette. Total 133 km and 3,500 m of climbs – a long day and a very hot one.

The first col was OK and not too hard. We stopped at the top for a final Italian espresso (which actually turned out to be French in terms of both quality and price). A speedy descent and then on to the Col d'Izoard – a bit higher and stunningly beautiful with wild flower meadows and some snow at the top. It now takes top spot in my list of favourites in terms of scenery, I think. Lunch was brought forward: omelette and chips which took an hour to arrive. SAfterwards there was a plendid descent with big drop-offs to the gorge below. 

Col de Vars suffered a bit by comparison. Some steep pulls up but with a flatter bit in the middle. I lost the group on the precipitous descent (steep road too, so on the brakes too much and too long) and did a solo time trial for 30 km down the valley. The final kidney punch was a really steep climb up to our hotel at La Sauze, above Barcelonette. 

I should have said that two or three of the riders were unable to start yesterday (lack of food and/or sleep and stomach cramps) but everybody was back today, though a lot of us are hurting. 

Also, the Coupe des Alpes cars have been replaced by a small group of Morgans, and of course there are shoals of racy motorcyclists trying to get their knees down on the hairpin bends. Some of them are not all that good at it.

Ah! Italy! The bar opposite our Oulx hotel served free pizza with the beers.

Wild flowers on the slopes of the fabulous Col d'Izoard.

The bike in snow in front of the Izoard monument.

Looking back down the long ascent of Col de Vars.

Details AM:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/328799960

Details PM:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/328799830