World Cup 2014 – done

Congratulations to Germany for winning their 4th World Cup – worthy champions and sealed with a superb goal!

So that’s that, crikey, it’s over. What a month of footy and good times. I knew Brazil would put on a great tournament, and the UK press scare stories in the build-up now look as ludicrous as they actually were. I’ve seen many tweets from journos and pundits in the last few days saying this has been the best World Cup ever, and it certainly has been for me!

On a related note, I’m amazed that Brazilian media giant Globo have continued to give superb coverage to the #SambaCycle, and this week they published another online article and invited me to be a guest on popular daytime TV show Encontro – check out my interview here. Thanks Globo for all your support in sharing my story over the last 6 months!

With host Fatima after the show

Footy fans with Juninho (the other one)

I don’t think I’ve mentioned that for the last 2 weeks I’ve been staying in a convent/charity project/conference centre with a bunch of other English people. It’s in Santa Teresa which is halfway up the mountain to Christ the Redeemer, and so has stunning views across Rio from the roof. I would post some photos as evidence but yesterday morning I climbed onto the highest part of the roof to take a panoramic photo and managed to finally fully smash the screen of my tablet! So now it’s totally unusable, and I can’t seem to upload photos onto here from my phone. So I’ll add a final update or two – including more about the amazing priviledge of watching the final on Copacabana beach yesterday – when I’m back in London next week.

Yep that’s right, my 6 months in Brazil is very nearly over and I fly home on Friday. Then it’s back to reality… well not quite cos the first thing I’m doing is hitting Latitude Festival on Sat, woohoo, and then on 1-3 Aug I’m cycling London to Amsterdam with the WFC CSE Trust, and in late Aug I’ll become a Mountain Goat once again as we take on the legendary Mont Ventoux in France! As I’ve said too often in videos, bring it on.

PS. Today my mate Denners is embarking on an incredible journey, first cycling to Spain but then going from the bottom of South America all the way north to Alaska!!! Please follow his epic adventure at dennershq.com (he’s a much better writer and photographer than me so be prepared for inspiration) – all the best mate!