July 2026 saw a couple of heatwaves hitting the UK and of course July always means the Tour de France. I’ve been watching the coverage on TV for as long as I can remember now but never really got involved in any way … until this year.  This year, it started in Barcelona with two and a bit stages and finished in Paris on the Champs-Elysées.  I asked Alison if she wanted to go to Barcelona to see it and she jumped at the chance.  I booked the InterContinental Barcelona as it was on the route for both the first and second stages:

And then Alison said, “Well if we’re going to see the start, wouldn’t it be lovely to see the finish?” So that’s how I ended up booking the Paris Marriott Champs-Elysées Hotel with a suite overlooking the Champs-Elysées itself, so we could watch the riders doing their laps and the finish line.

The Yellow, Green, Polka Dot, and White Jerseys on the Champs-Elysées

Business Class flights with British Airways and limousines from Blacklane all made it a little pricey… I’m hoping August will allow my wallet some respite from the absolute battering it got!

Other than that my normal exercise regime continued with a combination of rides on ROUVY as well as getting some of my usual  John Hallas’ Weekly Challenges on FulGaz done.  On ROUVY, I was doing their challenges and an occasional Sunday morning group ride.

I still need to actually go ahead and arrange a partial knee replacement, which we’ll do later this year maybe, if I can resolve when I won’t be travelling.

I also decided to try again with some Apple Fitness+ workouts, concentrating on upper body and core, as my legs get plenty of workouts already!

So, here are July’s stats:

July 2026 Statistics

Activities: 78 Distance: 626.79 km Time: 25:47:32 Calories: 18,827

Turning to my weight, at the end of June I weighed 92.7kg and at the end of July I weighed 93.4kg, so a gain of 0.7kg change over last month.

Body fat percentage was up from 27.5% to 28.0%, which is not really surprising.