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Day 5

It was a drizzly start to Stage 3 - Amiens to Paris. Riders prepared for cold, wet weather and our crew went ahead of the others to prepare for their Grand Arrival. Hitting Paris was quite surreal - a popular tourist destination with iconic landmarks, traffic like downtown Joburg and clouds of cigarette smoke.

We had a quick lunch to refuel and then proceeded to check room reservation details, haul the riders' luggage off the DHL lorry and organise by ride number, set tables for the dinner and prepare the reception for Prize Giving at 8pm.

I kid you not - we put the last confirmed room card in it's alphabetical place as the first coach of riders arrived! After a few takes, we had a smooth system going - but we couldn't do much for the traffic at the lift (or the fact that we had another cycling group being directed to us as well).

We ticked lists, rolled in bikes, carried bike bags and boxes, clapped, smiled, fixed, phoned, followed up, waited for the lift - then took the stairs instead...all in an effort to show our congratulations to these 350+ riders who had completed the London-Paris 2017.

And then, I jumped in a taxi and went to see the Eiffel Towel all lit up!


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