Day 3 - The Grand Finale!

Photo 25: Ian wearing his lucky boxer shorts for day 3

Photo 26: The spectacular view coming down into Rocamadour

Photo 27: Finished!!! The Cisco IT Team have a celebratory drink at the end of the Challenge (Left to Right: Colin Seward, Paul Clements, Kevin O'Healy, Ian Pudney)

We started the fourth round of rides at 13:20 with 111 miles gone. Looking at the profile it looked like we had some big climbs over the first two or three rides and that would then take us to the last summit of the day. From there it would be largely downhill to the finish.

Paul took the first ride and had one of the most spectacular views of the trip so far down into Rocamadour. He had a steep descent to the bottom of the gorge and a long climb out the other side. I went on next and had some more climbing with a couple of short descents and Kevin then finished off the climbing and Ian started the final set of descents down to the finish.

The road still went up and down so the descent wasn't straight down, but it was nice to have the feeling that you were near to home. Paul went out for his fifth ride of the day at 15:10 with 138 miles done. We finished the fifth round of rides and Paul and I then did a sixth each down the valley and along the river. Ian got out for his sixth ride with 8 miles to go. I took a quick breather and then with 3 miles to go we stopped the van again and Paul and I both jumped out and joined Ian for the final ride to the finish line. The finish line was just over the bridge in Cahor and down by the river. We'd done it for another year 540 miles and over £2,000 raised for charity. It had been hot (very hot) but as always some spectacular scenery and great camaraderie. I wonder where the 2012 Challenge will be...!