HE DID IT!

O.M.G. He did it! Cadel Evans won Le Tour de France! He smashed it! I can't even explain how excited we all are right now. We left at 5am and smashed out the 631kms to Paris and made it to the campsite (which was packed – thankfully we'd booked) with about an hour to spare.

We headed to the bar there where there were lots of Australians and a couple of Kiwis already there, and two Schleck supporters. Someone was going to go away unhappy....

Cadel looked focussed and determined right from the start. After Andy started, the coverage we were getting showed the general standing time gaps on the screen at the bottom, and little by little Cadel was clawing it back. He got it to within 20 seconds, and the bar went crazy. I was so nervous I felt sick! They showed the gap and it was down to 5 seconds. C'mon Cadel! For an excrutiating few minutes the gap moved between 3 and 0 seconds... and then he was in front. And then so far in front something drastic was going to have to happen for Andy to catch him. He'd done it!

The Schleck supporters, who were pretty quiet by now, were treated to lots of yelling and cheering from the Aussies (and some Danish guys unhappy with the Schlecks abandoning Saxo Bank). He'd done it, and we'd been there through the whole thing, cheering him on, seeing it all. Amazing.

Just after the race finished we got a text message from the German girls the Syme family had had on exchange in high school, and who still kept in close contact now. The girls want to drive to Paris tomorrow to see the final stage with us. We're all so excited!