Now, some people had their difficult day on the Wednesday, some Thursday, but mine was to arrive today, Friday.
Thursday had ended on such a high and with a real feeling of 'finish' that it was difficult to get back on the bike again for the final day. Also a lot of us had got into our head that the final day would be pretty straight forward, a formality if you will. But no.
The final day consisted of many, many hills (not the 3 Theo, our leader, had advised) and they weren't the kind of hills I was used to riding - the short, sharp, over quite quickly kind of hill, but the long, never ending kind of hill!!!
To add the many hills, we had the mother of all head winds. Never have I experience anything like it, nor do I wish to again. It was a case of cycle up a hill, rejoice, but then cycle down hill (coz the wind was too strong to free wheel), oh and there's another hill!!!
It was truly demoralising. I found myself cycling alone and could see yet another hill in front of me and just broke down in tears. I didn't realise that just 200 yards away the group had stopped for a break. I couldn't stop crying and had to turn up to the rest of the group in tears. Fortunately, pretty much everyone on the ride had experienced a moment like this, so people were so kind. I also wasn't the only one to be having a 'moment' at this particular stop.
Mike, one of the Welsh contingency, very kindly offered to be my wind break for the final leg of the ride. I stuck to his wheel for the next 12km. He sheilded me from the wind and I just followed his back wheel up every, intense, hill. Mike is a very capable cyclist and could have finished the ride in the top few riders, but he very selflessly kept me going. I truly don't think I'd have finished the ride without him. I so didn't want to get in the van and he helped me achieve that, so thank you Mike.
We had lunch at the top of a fjord, just 1.5km from the end. The view was stunning and the sense of relief and achievement was huge.
Once lunch was done, we completed the 1.5km downhill as a group to the finish line. We had people from the hotel out on the road to welcome and applaud us in and we were given medals and bubbly.
Once the saddles and pedals were off the bikes, it time to get all showered and dressed up for our celebratory evening. We had a lovely meal in the hotel restaurant before retiring to the bar for the evening's entertainment.
Paul Smith sang a beautiful, unaccompanied version of Bring Him Home, followed by the Welsh boys, and Paul, who did a parody of Guide Me O' Thy Great Redeemer which included all the highlights of the week (including PJ putting deep heat on his bruise which worked it's way up his leg to his 'man bits'!)
James then made the entire room cry by reading a fantastic poem written by his mate Melissa about their friend Abuka who had passed away the year previous.
Rachel then summed the show up with a wonderful poem she'd written over the past 24 hours which included every person in the group seemlessly.
After the formal proceedings we then danced the rest of the night away - well until about midnight! The boys then found a football pitch and proceeding to play 3 aside until around 3 in the morning!!! You'd think they hadn't just cycled 420km!!!
All in all a wonderful day with so many mixed emotions!
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