This fairly unimpressive photograph taken from Gaucin is incredibly important to us. In the distance you can see the ROCK OF GIBRALTAR! It is 40 miles away but to us it feels like touching distance for a goal set a long time ago.
Tomorrow, Ride to the Rock concludes as we arrive at the offices of our primary sponsor for this final stage – Toyota Gibraltar Stockholdings (TGS). We will meet the team there and celebrate. Hopefully we will also meet staff from our secondary sponsor in Gibraltar – Chestertons.
Our long couple of weeks of climbing ended today in spectacular fashion with the very tiring route elevation profile you see below. We are both pleased that tomorrow is mainly flat.
Throughout these tough days we have kept our motivation going very easily. We know that this has been a fantastic fundraiser for Médecins Sans Frontières and we know how they use that money to save lives all over the world. I will post a challenge total after we arrive in Gib.
We have many inspirations but on this ride a song WRITTEN FOR US by Vegan Queen V has been a constant motivator. “I can do it” is all about determination, self belief, love, liberty and nature. These have been the absolute highlights on our journey. You can buy the song here. Every penny raised from sales goes to Doctors Without Borders.
Back to today we slogged those hills arriving in Gaucin about 1100hrs – later than usual as we climbed so much – and so slowly.
Earlier on the ride we stopped to admire the scenery. At the same time a gentleman arrived with a phenomenally impressive camera to photograph the amazing views. Roque was immediately accosted by Tracey who asked him first of all to take some photos of us today – which he kindly did. She then asked if he was busy tomorrow and would he like to come to the finish of Ride to the Rock and photograph us tomorrow. She has zero shame! Wether he will have time tomorrow we will see but it was a nice encounter. He is a gifted photographer.
When we arrived in Gaucin we met a couple of Norwegian cyclists in the town. It was nice to chat to Arild and Morten. They were impressed by our bikes – surprised by the weight!
So here we are 40 miles from our goal. Day 55 tomorrow- proceed as though success is inevitable.