Endings are important. I’ve learned that in many aspects of life. Endings need to be acknowledged, celebrated and granted the importance they warrant. Today is an ending. Today we finish the last of almost 500km of cycling. It has been challenging – for everybody, and for each in their own way. There have been highs and lows, climbs and flats, good food and great food, and, always, great company and support in our group.

Today we ride to Galle. Our hotel is right on the beach, and so is Galle, but we head inland for our 50km ride. Our guides think the beach road is too dangerous. Most of us pine a little for views of the water. Instead, we ride in the humid heat, passing through fragrant cinnamon forests, just clicking down the kilometres until we reach … the end.

The going is slow, and despite our guides’ pleas to stay together, the group strings out, everybody riding along at their own pace. I ride some way on my own, through a lovely residential area. Along the way I chat with a number of people who slow down as they pass on their motor bikes or in their cars. One man, hauling a load of vegetables in an overloaded tuk-tuk offers me a large ripe red tomato. I smile and decline, but boy … that tomato looked delicious!

I have ridden this trip in cycling sandals like this:

They are deliciously comfortable in the heat with great airflow for keeping feet cool, and take a cleat so you can clip into pedals and get all the efficiency that comes with that. (Sadly, they are no longer available.)

One downside of these sandals I’ve discovered on this trip is that on hot, humid days, even the most ventilated feet get wet with sweat. And when my feet get wet in these shoes they slip around unless the shoes are fastened really tightly. And when my feet slip around in these shoes, the sideways movement to release from the pedal doesn’t always work so well. I’ve had a couple of issues on this trip where I’ve not been able to unclip correctly, but I’ve always managed to find something to hold onto so I don’t embarrass myself by doing the sideways plunge. But today, when I stop quickly and unexpectedly behind an erratic car … you guessed it … I do the slow-mo sideways-plunge and hit the dirt.

Well, you’d think somebody had died. From nowhere, about a dozen of our support crew appear and go into agitated panic. I want to just pick myself up, get on the bike and get away from my embarrassment, but they need to fuss over me, squirt water on the tiny thread of blood running from the tiny scratch on my knee and make endless enquiries about my health. One of them gets on the phone and talks rapidly. I hope they’re not calling an ambulance.

I finally get back on my bike and take off, pedalling fast to prove how healthy and unharmed I am. I see our first aid guy heading in the opposite direction, and wave to let him know I am OK. I meet up with the rest of the group in a nearby town, and find out that I am not the only one having medical mishaps: Paul has had a bee get into his helmet and bite him on the face. He’s OK, though, and I’m OK, so we pedal the final few kilometres into Galle.

And there we hit the anti-climax. The traffic toward the Galle Fort is thick and almost inpenetrable, and it takes ages to reach the fort. We climb up a final hill and into a car park … and that is it. We are expected to just turn around and get on a bus and go back to our hotel. There is general disgruntlement within the group. We want our ending! We want our group shot in front of the fort! We want to actually see the fort! Our guide has offered a guided tour – but only for the able-bods. Not good enough. We are about inclusion.

Finally we reach a compromise. Our guide orders a number of tuk-tuks, and we take a whistle-stop tour through the Fort. It’s not a lot, but better than turning and leaving without even seeing what we have ridden all morning to see.

And that, rather abruptly, is that. We go back to the hotel, swim, use our orange bands to rehydrate and refuel (no wonder they wanted to hurry us back, when everything is laid on and free at the hotel). We can spend our lives wishing we’d been able to stay at a hotel at Galle Fort, but that’s not going to do anybody any good. Best then, that we celebrate what we have done … CyclePower!

Stats for today:

• Distance: 50km
• Climb: 141m
• Average speed: 16.8km/h
• Average temperature: 39C
• Moving time: 2:58:26
• See our ride on Strava

Along the way today: