4 days, 300 miles...We made it!

Le Tour Eiffel
After cycling down the Champs Elysees, we came around to the Eiffel Tower. We did a few victory laps of the roundabout before stopping and being greeted by the friends and family of cyclists who had traveled over to meet the group.

We were barely off our bikes before the tears started rolling. The emotional and physical strain of the past 4 days all poured out as soon as we had reached our destination. I'll be honest, I started crying as soon as people started cheering us on the Champs Elysees. I think the sense of achievement and the realisation that we had all really just cycled from London to Paris also hit people. People around the Eiffel Tower were coming over and asking 'Have you really done that?!' pointing to our t-shirts. Yes, I really have just cycled to Paris! The sense of pride was amazing. I have been fundraising for the last 9 months and training hard for the last 6 so it was amazing to have finally achieved the goal.

We all had a good old cry, a glass of champagne and a big pat on the back. It was a truly amazing experience and I feel so lucky to have shared it with so many amazing people. They made every day enjoyable and even the hard parts didn't seem that hard when we tackled them all together.

I managed to raise just over £2,500 for Link Community Development, which will make a huge difference to their projects in Africa. As a group, the London to Paris cyclists raised in excess of £140,000 for our chosen charities.

Celebration
After taking our pictures at the Eiffel Tower, we cycled to our hotels and packed our bikes into the van (to be taken back to London) before heading to the bar for a well earned celebratory beer!

 We then got changed into our glad rags - what a relief to finally put on clothes that were neither luminous nor made of lycra - and headed to the restaurant for the celebration meal. It was a great opportunity to get to socialise with everyone that had been on the ride. Because everyone was riding at a different pace, there were some people that I hadn't seen throughout the whole ride as they were either behind or so far in front that I never even got a glimpse of their back tyre!

It was great to be able to toast our achievement as a group, given that we had all achieved the goal together. It's also nice to be a part of a group of people who have all shared a unique experience. It was definitely one of the best things I have ever done and I don;t think I'll forget the feeling of being cheered riding into Paris for a very long time.