Two weeks have passed since we arrived tired and weary at the Olympic Park in Stratford. The Games themselves have now begun. Our bike ride now seems an age away. But there are so many memories: reading Robin and Barbara’s early blog before we left and wondering what it was going to be like; cycling through the heat of Greece in the first few days; standing on the deck of the ferry and looking at the moonlight creating patterns on the waves of the Adriatic; the traffic round Milan and Monza. And then having climbed from Bellinzona over the St Gotthard being welcomed by the stage 2 riders, looking fresher than they did for the rest of the week it has to be said. France as always was the best for cycling with its wonderful network of D roads. There was still some hard cycling to come, however, as the wind blew hard in our faces and our bodies became increasingly reluctant to perform. Then the ecstatic welcome into the Cathedral on the final Saturday when hundreds of people had come out to welcome us.

Thanks to everyone who rode and supported. Thanks to everyone who let us go off on this crazy adventure. And thanks to everyone who so generously supported our ride by sponsoring us for the Kent Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance. We have just passed our target of £50000, and still the money is coming in. Fantastic.

We made it, navigating the streets of south east London. Over the Thames via the Woolwich Ferry and on to Stratford where we got as near as we could to the Stadium and the Mittal tower. A kind of deep all through mind and body tiredness took over as if finally everything “phew now we can stop”. It will take time to digest everything that has happened. It was at the least a very significant personal experience. And it was only made possible by the tremendous support of Roger, Sue, Andrew, Tanya, Karen and Kathryn, and the generous sponsorship of hundreds of people. Counting up the sums this morning, it looks as though we’ve passed £44k so we are getting ever closer to our £50k target. Thanks to everyone for messages of support and encouragement. Will there be another? Not for a week or two.

Almost there. Waiting at the Woolwich Ferry. Coming in through London’s suburbs was never going to be a glorious climax. A man in an open top Bentley stopped by us at a traffic light and asked how far we had come!

The sun is shining and we’re ready for the final push today, revived after a night in our own beds. Looking forward to arriving at the Kent HQ of Kent Air Ambulance and then it’s London here we come. Hopefully we’ll stay drier than yesterday!

All home. Weather dreadful. Escorted down the A2 by growling Harleys. Scones Cream Strawberry Jam Cakes and then hot bath and your own bed. Wonderful. Tomorrow 70 miles. 12 at the Air Ambulance’s base at Marden and then on to the Olympic site finishing at Stratford International.

Superb welcome home this afternoon as we pedalled through the Christchurch Gate. Thank you to everyone who came out to welcome us back. We have one more day to go tomorrow – up to Stratford via the HQ of the Kent Air Ambulance in Marden. All very weary now but looking forward to the final push.  Hope to give final prod to the fundraising totals. Well over £40,000 raised so far.

More to be reported on tomorow.

On the ferry from Dunkirk to Dover courtesy of DFDS (thanks to them for their support). Quite a few sleeping off the effect of the night before after a teasing 20 mile ride to the ferry port from St Omer in which two of the groups contrived a little race competition. Modesty prevents from saying who won. Offloading in 45 minutes or so at Dover and then spinning back to Canterbury via a stop for coffee which from the unconscious bodies littering the ship’s furniture looks necessary.

And so to Canterbury. 20 odd miles to Dunkirk and then the same the other side. See you in Canterbury Cathedral Precincts at 16.15.

So we’ve arrived now at St Omer after a long 88 mile hilly day. Of course, it being Friday 13th, we were a little anxious and looking outside the window this morning we had reason to be. It was pouring with rain. Within about ten miles of leaving the city, our group had two problems with chains and one puncture.  Robin found it easy to blow up the new tyre thinking it was the two policemen who threatened him with a massive fine last night. And other problems encountered during the day included a broken spoke and a daughter with a broken arm ( so not linked to the cycling but to the group).

It was a long day but the catering crew did us proud and served up smoked salmon canapés and roast chicken for lunch from the roadside van -impressive.

The rain cleared and we found ourselves cycling through some lovely rolling countryside – and the number of British cemeteries we passed were very moving.

It was great to arrive back close to the coast and Britain is now in sight. For many of us we are getting to the end of a very long journey but it has been really quite spectacular to look back at everyone’s achievements over the past two/three weeks. More of that tomorrow.

This evening we’ve enjoyed a final celebration of the ride and tomorrow we head to Dunqueque to catch the ferry home and from there to Canterbury with a Harley escort, led by Andrew Nason, hopefully sailing through the Christchurch Gate around 4.15pm. All welcome.  On Sunday we do the very last leg, heading to the Olympic Stadium via the HQ of the Kent Air Ambulance in Marden.

On a final note, Mark Nugent (AKA the Dark Lord) showed us all up today by cycling from St Quentin to Calais – getting there before most of us got to St Omer to ensure he gets to his daughter’s award at her speech day tomorrow. Well done Mark. And farewell to Alistair who is currently en route to Lille ready to be in London tomorrow for his briefing as a voluntary GP for the Olympics. We are very proud of you.

40 miles tomorrow….time for bed.

Arresting indeed is the view of the majestic basilique that sits atop St Quentin as you arrive in the city, However we had a closer encounter with  matters “arresting” as we cycled into the city. It was encouraging to see welcome flags to the city declaring that St Quentin is the “ville la plus sportif” in France – so we felt quite lifted as we cycled in. But not for long. Within five minutes, we had two policemen on motorbikes pulling up next to us and signalling Robin Cooper into the side. “Yippee” we thought, “how great, a police escort”. How wrong we were. Robin was sandwiched between the two motorbikes and accused of         breaking the code of the road when cycling into the city…they berated him and then it went from bad to worse when they asked for 90 euros. Robin wisely played dumb and refused to pay and they eventually went on their way. Mercifully he didn’t play the “Do you know who I am?” card, as the chances were that they’d never heard of Medway.

Your editor was sorely tempted to yell out ” Two words for you – Bradley Wiggins” as I was slightly anxious that we’d all end up in the slammer and I was anxious to get to a warm bath.

Ville la plus sportif  - I think not…

Didn’t have time to type much yesterday and sadly it seems to have merged into a long day’s haze of wheels turning, hills and wind. Each day it’s a bit like childbirth – long and painful and you don’t fancy it again –  then after a bowl of pasta and a decent glass of merlot everything seems a bit better and you’re ready to get going again.

The day started with a massive hill climb out of Epernay, 850ft up through the beautiful champagne vineyards with milestones marking the ownership of brands such as Mercier.

Within half an hour the heavens opened and it tipped it down – cycling can be a challenge, but it is doubly so in the pouring rain. You drip from the head downward and keeping morale up when you’re soaked to the skin and can’t see where you’re heading makes morale tricky to keep up. But kept going we did. The catering crew did a superb job and lunch was held in a bus shelter!

We also held a number of stops at different cafes -selling a range of interesting artefacts.  Mercifully the skies cleared in the afternoon and after a few wrong turns we sailed into St Quentin for our warm welcome after 5000ft climbing.

We were ready for an evening out and some of the group entertained the locals with our our rendition of one of Tom Jones’ more famous numbers at the local karaoke evening. But it was’t to be late as there were still 88 miles to tackle today.