The McCabe Girls Complete Collection: Cat, Fen, Pip, Home Truths

For Emma O’Reilly

Honest and true.

And a great friend.

Contents

Cover (#uf6a46c9c-feb9-5a4c-a087-23d2a09ebce9)

Copyright (#ua920dc24-d2a7-50b3-afb1-f8fed9276f74)

Dedication (#u1a86352e-6fb6-5f86-8c91-6b90981c3feb)

Map (#u1fee64a3-bc80-5c0e-9c21-2765386f7cf2)

Cat McCabe and the Tour De France (#u7cbbca40-9be3-5cfd-b4f0-03d43ef0d0f7)

Jules Le Grand and Team Systeme Vipere (#u42d765eb-508a-5c53-8f79-c427d0c421b0)

Rachel McEwen and Team Zucca Mv (#u49c9f3eb-fbcf-53a6-a18a-ad3046b71741)

Ben York and Team Megapac (#uff84f299-aa8b-5578-ad7b-2f8743ce491c)

Setting the Wheels in Motion (#u032b4f8e-c9df-53e0-bdca-afbb9bf4c5a4)

Prologue Time Trial: Delaunay Le Beau, Saturday 3 July (#uf765b607-6b80-55af-a10c-dc2739b2ff0f)

Stage 1: Delaunay Le Beau-Rouen. 195 kilometres (#uaf5aaba5-0f0d-59e9-a29a-f2a51306d549)

Stage 2: Rouen-Vuillard. 260 kilometres (#u71847c49-99fa-5c07-be5a-7b6417ab860f)

Stage 3: Vuillard-Plumelec. 225 kilometres (#u7dbd707b-e12d-549e-8262-be362ff4858d)

Stage 4: Plouay-Chardin. 248 kilometres (#u31a6415f-134a-528f-ac53-6e4b47ac575c)

Stage 5: Nantes-Pradier. 210 kilometres (#u38d2f647-bdaf-55db-bc37-e2175910ea52)

Stage 6: Pradier-Bordeaux. 215 kilometres (#u68185c81-db67-5a3b-ae9c-e593338bc49f)

Stage 7: Computaparc - Individual Time Trial. 54.5 kilometres (#u8d3af2ad-d2e2-537a-87ad-b36863f5dddb)

Stage 8: Sauternes-Pau. 162 kilometres (#u05edd8b3-154d-5890-84b2-66f1dfddd5e1)

Stage 9: Pau-Luchon. 196.5 kilometres (#uf1263412-3326-56c6-bad1-990410274e82)

Stage 10: Luchon-Plateau de Boudin. 170 kilometres (#u68149ded-9402-5773-8fab-014894059036)

Stage 11: Tarascon sur Ariège-Le Cap D’Arp. 221 kilometres (#uc05d1e33-657c-5deb-abfe-cbf5cd4e61c0)

Repos (#u25cd6121-90ac-599c-b0d8-5f4dd9cab511)

Stage 12: Frontignan La Peyrade-Daumier. 196 kilometres (#u56acb1df-fe58-5a87-93d2-77cb6483dd19)

Stage 13: Valadon-Grenoble. 186.5 kilometres (#u64047aca-9e3d-5be0-b0ab-84deaac849c6)

Stage 14: Grenoble-L’Alpe D’Huez. 189 kilometres (#uaecae3a1-d05e-5b6e-8256-c9f147862d33)

Stage 15: Vizille-Gilbertville. 204 kilometres (#u69337b95-4ed9-5e8a-be7a-7cdde72798e8)

Stage 16: Gilbertville-Aix-les-Bains. 149 kilometres (#ue427125b-478d-56e0-954a-cd4d0be6f9d4)

Stage 17: Aix-les-Bains-Neuchâtel. 218.5 kilometres (#u754ef0a8-a75f-5de2-af36-12ba0a36ee51)

Stage 18: La Chaux de Fonds-Lautrec. 242 kilometres (#litres_trial_promo)

Repos: Transfer by road and rail. Lautrec-Disneyland-Paris (#litres_trial_promo)

Stage 19: Disneyland Paris, Individual Time Trial: 63 kilometres (#litres_trial_promo)

Stage 20: Disneyland-Paris. 149.5 kilometres (#litres_trial_promo)

Day 27. Monday (#litres_trial_promo)

October: Paris. The launch of next year’s Tour de France (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Afterword (#litres_trial_promo)

Acclaim for Freya (#litres_trial_promo)

CAT McCABE AND THE TOUR DE FRANCE

‘I know that your mother ran off with a cowboy from Denver,’ Django McCabe reasoned with his niece, ‘but you chasing through France after a bunch of boys on bikes – well, isn’t that taking the family tradition to new extremes?’

Cat McCabe, sunbathing, eyes closed, in her uncle’s Derbyshire garden, smiled.

It feels funny smiling with closed eyes; like you can’t really do both.

So she opened her eyes, stretched leisurely, sat up cross-legged, and picked blades of grass from her body, fingering the satisfying striations they had left on her skin.

‘Lashings of lycra!’ her elder sister Fen offered from her position under the pear tree.

‘Oily limbs a-plenty,’ connived her eldest sister Pip, suddenly cartwheeling into view.

Cat tried to look indignant but then grinned. ‘The Tour de France is the world’s most gruelling sporting event,’ she said defensively, hands on hips, to her audience. ‘It demands that its participants cycle 4,000 k in three weeks. At full speed. Up and over mountains most normal folk ski down. Day after day after day.’

‘And?’ said Django, rubbing his knees, bemoaning that the sun wasn’t doing for his arthritis what it did last year.