Home

The Ride

Videos

Laurence Beresford

Lawrence Matz

Contact

 
London to Barcelona - The Ride
day 1 day 2 day 3 day 4 day 5 day 6 day 7 day 8 day 9 day 10 day 11 day 12 day 13 day 14 day 15

Day 15 October 11th 2012 - Lloret de Mar to Barcelona (Total 46 miles - Running Total 1010 miles)

This is it - the final day. There is little to report about the ride between Lloret de Mar and Barcelona. It was as I expected an uneventful ride on an ugly busy road which passed through all the cheap built up package holiday resorts along this stretch of the coast. The end was in sight. I only stopped briefly for an ice cream at McDonalds and then made the final push into Barcelona itself. Unfortunately, it poured with rain, but this soon cleared up and before long I was looking down at the Garmin Sat Nav seeing one mile to destination, and then ha;lf a mile to destination and then I was on the Ramblas seeing my wife Jane and the few friends who had come out to welcome me in style.

It was all over. 15 days of cycling 1010 miles. A ride which I will never forget, a ride I will never regret doing despite the aching bum and tired legs. I had seen France as I have never seen it before, a France which you would never see just motoring through. All the planning, all the training and the ride was now over. I have to admit a certain sadness and emptiness but the purpose of this was to raise money for two very worthwhile charities and to this end I have so far raised some £65,000, so very successful in deed.

None of this would have been possible without my good friend Michael who gave up two weeks of his annual leave to act as my support driver and I will always be grateful to him. He was a saint to put up with all my moaning and groaning and bad moods during the ride. I guess it will be some time before I take on my next challenge but another challenge I will surely take up one day.