The trip home on the Eurostar marked the end of an adventure, and with it some melancholy and reflection. Common experiences shared. Fantastic people met. Times of joy. Times of physical pain. Training rides in the wind and the rain. So much preparation and planning, and now the end.
Epilogue
I don’t know how much our collective group raised in total for our respective charities. I spoke to many who had raised from £1K up to £7K, so I reckon as one group of 76 riders, we could quite easily have raised £150K to £200K – most likely considerably more. If people are fatigued of charitable giving, it doesn’t show, and I owe you (reading this) a debt of gratitude for helping me raise over £2,100 for Macmillan cancer UK. It’s a charity that has meaning to me, and all your money went to the charity – not the organisers of the ride. It was hard work, with many, many hours training in the saddle in the UK, in the rain, the sun and the wind. It’s also meant sacrifices at home, to be able to put in the training, and to take part. I also owe a debt to Jen’s parents for looking after Charlie and Ollie, without which, we wouldn’t have been able to take part, and raise over £3.5K between us. But biggest thanks to YOU.