Lau and Chausson top final standings in Trans-Provence

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Day 7 of the Trans-Provence traditionally has that feeling of the last day of term. This year it meant 30km of riding with 900m of climbing and four special stages toward the coast.  It also meant some extra final challenges.

At the last minute, authorities in Monaco decided that the race couldn't meet at the beach as was done in previous years. There were threats of fines and even prison, but the race director decided to ignore them.

Secondly there were storms. Massive and relatively brief storms turned dusty rocky trails in to limestone man traps while fork lightening struck the ground. Several members of the mountain staff and media team felt and saw lightening strike fences next to them, whilst Ed Oxley claimed he felt it pass through him.

Maybe it was relaxing on the last day, maybe it was the weather, or the slippery trails, but somewhere on the first special stage of the day was the first serious accident of the week (apart from a few stitches up until day 7, it was a remarkably incident-free event this year). Sven Martin went down, broke his arm and was helicoptered off the mountain

Unsurprisingly this changed the dynamics of the day. Anka Martin, Sven's wife, still finished the day, but people were clearly shocked with the reminder so late in the week that at any point a misplaced wheel or a lapse in concentration can end a race and maybe far worse.

Naturally a fair number of riders waited to make sure Sven got off the mountain and this further slowed down the day - it also meant that many riders were still riding when there was another large storm.

By the fourth special stage, there were riders who had seen a bad injury, been out for longer than they thought they were going to be and also been hit by storms twice, all of which probably added together to be part of the reason that only a couple of hundred metres from the end of the final special stage there was a three-person crash including Jon Cancellier twisting his ankle so hard that he needed to be carried off the mountain and then to hospital to check it wasn't broken (it wasn't).

Finally, though, riders gradually appeared at the final camp of the week, some a little worse for wear from more than the beers they'd had at the beach, some just looking shell shocked from the week gone by and the accidents of the final day.

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