Simon says

1.  Day 1 - Leaving Paris; 0m:41s 2.  Day 3 - Champdor campsite video diary; 2m:13s 3.  Day 3 - Accidental video!  Nice scenery... 0m:05s 4.  Day 3 - Climbing Col du Glandon; 0m:52s 5.  Day 4 - Summit of Alpe D'Huez; 0m:37s 6.  Day 4 - Accidental video on route to Col de Sarennes; 0m:05s 7.  Day 6 - Heading towards Col de Cayolle; 1m:43s 8.  Day 6 - The support car; 0m:52s 9.  Day 6 - Enjoying the gorge; 0m:38s 10.  Day 7 - Approaching Nice; 0m:29s 11.  Day 7 - Descending toward Nice; 0m:44s

If I hadn't spent 59 hours and 50 minutes of the last 7 days perched on my saddle exposed to the elements I may be sitting by the pool soaking up the Cote d'Azur sunshine. But as it is the farmer's tan will stay intact while I reminisce on the most spectacular 7 days of cycling that I've done. Day 1 - Paris to Vezelay, 244 km (152 mi) Still struggling to get over my jet lag from Canada after a week of late nights and late mornings made the 4.30 am alarm (3.30 am UK time!) uncomfortable to say the least but we were on the road by 6 am as dawn broke over Paris. Somehow we had managed to coincide our departure from Paris with some sort of French holiday so we enjoyed a remarkably peaceful roll out of the city and on to the beautiful Fontainbleau. What a difference a following wind makes and although we didn't make it into camp at Vezelay until after 9pm we had 244 km under our belts and were feeling pretty good going into day 2. Day 2 - Vezelay to Champdor, 278 km (173...

Day 6 - Barcelonnette to St Dalmas, 123 km (76 mi) Cols passed: Col de Cayolle (2326 m), Col de la Couillole (1678 m) Despite the brooding skies we left Barcelonnette cheered by dry shorts, confidence that we were within touching distance of our goal and enjoying the atmospheric effect of the wispy mist, high clouds and soft sunlight. Our hopes for the newly adapted route were met and surpassed as we wound our way up a stunning gorge towards Col de Cayolle. Despite a brief hailstorm as we approached the col we stayed dry and enjoyed a pit-stop and blankets amongst the snow pack on the col before negotiating over 1500 m of patchy wet descent to Guillames at 793 m. The high Alps now behind us we climbed back up through the ski resort of Valberg and on to the Col de la Couillole up at 1678 m and rolled back down to 500 m where we expected to spend the night. Our ever-supportive support team had other ideas however and let us know by way of text message that they had found a fantastic ca...