Au revoir

From the handbook-de-Wiggo:
“I just wanted to say thank you for all the support all the way around.
It's been a magical couple of weeks for my team and for Lounge Room cycling. Some dreams can come true, and now my old mother over there, her daughter's won the Tour de Salon!

Have a safe internet surf and don’t get too drunk."

But fear not, I’m not going to replicate that opera singer - sounded a bit cat-wailing-like to me – and her dress- what was that?
I heard one commentator call it “the operatic version of Geri Halliwell's famed Spice Girls outfit” – Bah! 

A few concluding stats:

Hours ridden	About 26 hours total
Distance ridden	116kms (but it was a home-set-up bike computer and they mustn’t work accurately on exercises bikes)
Avg. hours slept a night during the Tour	5.5 hrs per night
Total hours late for work	About 8.5 (across 3 weeks)
Number of water bottle consumed	Approx. 33 litres
Coffee consumed	Approx 21 litres
Body numbing, performance enhancing alcohol consumed	Approx 8 litres
Weight lost	None
Favourite moment of the Tour	Finishing it
Least favourite moment of the Tour	The lactic acid pain that kicked in through Stages 18 & 19
Number of people who have laughed at my blog	Over 1,109 people From USA, UK, Russia, NZ, Nambia, Belgium and even Brazil (who do I know in Brazil?)
Funding raised for Bicycles for Humanity	Close to $200 and still taking in more @ : http://www.everydayhero.com.au/lounge_room_cyclist

A few people have asked, what am I going to do next? Am I going to miss the Tour? My response is clear - now that I've accomplished my life-long dream of riding the Tour, I am going to get rid of that machine of torture and never do it again!

I'm looking forward to sleeping regular hours and feeling returning to my behind.

Bon chance in your own endeavours. Au revoir and see you at the Olympics! 

Champs on the Champs!!!!

Félicitations! I made it to the  Avenue des Champs-Élysées!!! 

 

Stage Eighteen & Nineteen

I can't report much about Stages 18 & 19 except that the lactic acid in my legs burns, it hurts and I've been falling asleep across the handle bars... (but still peddling!)

Looking forward to champs on the Champs tonight.

Stage Sixteen & Seventeen

Shut up legs!  (As Voight would say)   Through the Pyrenees we go.  

I climbed, then climbed, then climbed again… and the toughest stage for me over the Tourmalet is complete. It was hard but I laughed at Thommy Voeckler’s funny faces the whole way:

Wiggo and Froome's dominance have realistically convinced Cadel  his tour is over. But Frank Schleck is positive.

This is what I will feel like soon:

This is what I feel like:

Stage Fifteen

The most interesting thing about Stage 15 was the scenery with a non-chasing peloton and a pretty dull break away. I think all the riders are as tired as if they’d been riding each night til 2am. Wait, that’s only me.
They must be saving some strength for the great nemesis of the Tourmalet.
All the chit-chat in the peloton has been about the disruptive spectators. But as a first time Tour rider, I’ve found the media attention equally distracting. Particularly that helicopter following me everywhere.
Here’s what I’m talking about:

Enjoy the rest day. I will.

Stage Thirteen and Fourteen

The attack of the tacks!!! You can see even my steel wheels got pinned. But to my wheels the tacks are akin to having spokey dokeys – pretty colour and tinkling sounds.

We’d been talking in the peloton about spectators getting a bit overly passionate and even abusive on the sides of the roads. There had been a few instances of riders pushing spectators out of the way, especially on the mountains. So to be honest it felt like only a matter of time before something truly vulgar happened like this. Obviously those Spanish hooligans are to blame. 
I am pleased that we were able to display the true gentleman spirit of cycling in this tour though and the group allowed Cadel and myself to catch up.  



For Stage 13, I had to get the fan going on full to replicate the cross wind blowing off the Mediterranean as we rode along the coast. And it was powerful enough to disrupt the field. Morkov was a hero but I reckon Cadel's little break away jokes, such as over that pimple of a hill, are all a big tease and his still planning something big for the Tourmalet.
 
Finally, the real point of contention in this year’s Tour raised by Kate’s guest appearance on Friday night, is whether cycling should be mandatory through the ads. Please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions on this controversial issue…

Stage Eleven & Twelve

Four mountains in one stage and I admit I hit a wall just like Cadel. But I did successfully climb two of the mountains and thoroughly enjoyed the spectacular views. 

For Stage 12, une invité special, Kate, took the saddle for the premier half of the Stage. She whinged a lot, adjusted the seat and pedals out of position and drank champagne while on my machine. Honestly, I regretted letting her interrupt my Tour. But watching from the couch was a truly decadent luxury.

I rode to the finish with the break away and was tres impressed with Millar but not so with the race officials and their relegation of Gossy for apparently straying from his line to cut Sagan off in the final sprint. It is a gross injustice to Gossy and I am angrily waving my hands with much more indignation than Sagan. But I am sure this will make Gossy, and me, even more determined to take Stages. 

Q: Am I experiencing cyclist rage?

Stage Ten

Well as legging it Liggett keeps reminding me, a rest day can do strange things to a cyclist’s body and it did for me. Turns out I’ve strained my rib muscles – who even knew that was an injury you could do? But I’ve been to the race doctor and got the all clear to continue to ride.

And ride I did, pushed it all the way through the solid 30min climb over the truly spectacular Col do Colombier and backed it up with the Col de Richemond.

Cyclists like me are made of a pretty special tough breed, so I would have kept riding regardless.

I've been inspired by the $100 I’ve raised so far for Bicycles for Humanity, my chosen local St Kilda charity, who arrange for old bikes to be fixed and sent to those who need them in developing countries. 

Andy Gild, the Melbourne organiser sent me the below words that I thought I'd share with you:

Hi Catherine,

What an awesome challenge!! LOVE IT. You may actually inspire others to do the same!

Our project is completely volunteer run, so we really couldn't do it without people like you. I think you already have a good idea about what it is you are supporting, but a great example of how your assistance pays off and just what a big difference a bike can make to the lives and opportunities for communities living in rural Africa. The picture below of the14ha field of maize. The maize was planted in Chibobo, Zambia, with the profits generated from the bike workshop established there in October 2010. The maize is sufficient to feed 150 people for a year, as well as generate income that the community can re-invest to keep the workshop running and expanding.

Thanks to people like you we have now finished packing our 7th bike container and are in the process of raising funds to send it to Africa. The bikes are continuing to roll into our friends at Bicycle Superstores and our challenge at present is therefore really a financial one. EVERY dollar you raise is incredibly helpful to enable us to send these donated bikes to needy communities. The majority of our funds raised to date have been by fantastic Everyday Heroes such as you

So, as we encourage you to get as much support as possible, we (on behalf of the people whose lives you are making such a difference to) also thank you greatly for your efforts. 

I look forward to following your blog,

Kind regards,

Andy Gild and the Bicycles for Humanity, Melbourne team

www.bicyclesforhumanity.com

To show your support and encourage me to complete the Tour (and I really need some encouragement through the mountains!), please throw in a few dollars via my EveryDay Hero account:

www.everydayhero.com.au/lounge_room_cyclist

 (...and click on 'donate')

Thanks support team- I couldn’t do it without your lead out efforts!

Stage Eight & Nine

Into week two and lifting my form. I started stepping out Stage Eight at around 75kms to go and climbed three very exciting mountains to finish in Switzerland. I tried to pull Cadel along with me and was more encouraging than Pinot’s DS hanging outside the tour car. But Wiggo stayed with us.

However, I am supporting Wiggos comments hitting back at anonymous internet critics. During the post-stage eight media conference, Wiggo was asked what he thought of people who use forums such as Twitter to accuse him of doping:

"I say they're just f ---ing wankers, I cannot be doing [sic] with people like that," he said.

"It justifies their own bone-idleness because they can't ever imagine applying themselves to do anything in their lives. It's easy for them to sit under a pseudonym on Twitter and write that sort of shit, rather than get off their arses in their own lives and apply themselves and work hard at something and achieve something. And that's ultimately it - c----."

I can’t back him up enough – even as an amature on an exercise bike in my lounge room, all people have been asking me is what drugs I’ve been using. It’s ridiculous. And to be clear on the subject, all I’ve been using to get off my arse, work hard and apply myself to achieve something of significance with my life from my lounge room by wathcing t.v., is good French wine and champagne mixed with coffee in the morning.  I know its hard to believe, but I am not on drugs.

Dave Millar saw the funny side of the comments:

"Wiggo's now better at me in everything to do with cycling, profanity-filled interviews were all I had left. Now he’s taken that crown. Darn," he tweeted.   

 http://www.theage.com.au/sport/cycling/bradley-wiggins-lashes-critics-with-profanityladen-outburst-20120709-21pz1.html#ixzz204zxYxAj

Tonight is a very pretty time trail stage along regional French roads. I’ve got a special hat made just for the occasion, but I’ll admit I’ll be wearing it on the couch.

Thank god for official rest day tomorrow.

Stage Six & Seven

Well, with all the carnage of the first week, I had to crash sometime.  I got caught up in the pile up at 20kms to go to the finish line in Metz. It caused a number of other riders to abandon.
I am pushing on though.

Saturday night was the first of the Category 1 climbs and I was a bit sore from crashing the night before. So I suitably matched my ride with some French red wine. Besides, most of the other riders have been cycling drunk, judging by all the accidents. It was a hard climb, but I refused to crack and made it up and over. Good sign of things to come.

Stage Four & Five

Oh Gossy!!!!! How will you do it? Cav, Sagan, Greipel? C’mon – If I can do it – so can you, Gossy!!! 

I tried swinging my arms for extra power the way Sagan did on the finish line in the third Stage- it really worked! I nearly flew of the spectacular French costal cliffs we were passing.