Day 4 - Beauvais to Paris

It's not far to go now, however, our preparation for the last push has been less than ideal.



True to form we decided to forsake the joys of the Holiday Inn on the outskirts of Beauvais and get a taxi to town. Things started badly and then got worse - the taxi was late, leading to an altercation about the fare (resolved by us paying 10 euros and walking off). Followed by a friendly local "recommending" a restaurant to us...top tip: Never eat in a restaurant with pictures of the food on the menu. We ended up having fondue at about 11pm - on return to the hotel we discovered we were locked out. Luckily Derek and Abby had their key, leaving Stu and I, and John and Craig homeless.



A call to our guides got us one empty room with a double bed, unfortunately not clean. Craig and I only slept in there because the others had stripped the bloodstained sheets of before we saw them. We had a poor night's sleep perched on opposite sides of the small double bed (that's the official story anyway.....)

Whilst this was going on, John, displaying an aptitude for B&E that was rather worrying, broke into another room and by about 2am we were all asleep.


Our late night meant we were tired and worse for wear the following morning - Stu was so asleep that when someone broke into the room and stole his camera he didn't wake up - readers you have been spared the the worst of the pictures.



When we're on the road though, we are soon flying along. We're riding well as a group and although the weather is not great we're making good enough time for a patisserie stop...





The last lunch stop in Auvers-sur-Oise is on the edge of the Paris conurbation - from here on in we are riding on city roads. We're excited and know we're going to make it now.

The weather hasn't finished with us though and yet again the rain is torrential. A desire for dry clothes and to see the Eiffel tower results in us all taking too many chances in the traffic, Derek ignores almost every red light from lunch until we reach the Park de Clichy where the whole group meets up to ride the last few miles to the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower.

We've got a few minutes and head off to a Cafe for a celebratory beer:



Pretty soon we head off, I try to savour the experience of riding down the Champs Elysee but the desire to race down it as fast as I can is too strong to resist. Despite getting separated by the last puncture of the trip (Abby -you get the record) we are all soon at the Eiffel Tower and the end of our trip:

We've made it - 300 miles and about 3500m of climbing. We've raised over £11k for the Prostate Cancer Charity (thank you everyone who supported us).



We've endured helmet hair:







numerous punctures, and a feeling that can only be described as "beyond moist......."

Day 3 - Abbeville to Beauvais

We getting a little cocky - we are more than halfway to Paris in terms of distance and in terms of the hills, the hard riding is behind us. We've also been pretty lucky with the weather, with the execption of yesterday afternoon we've avoided any real downpours. The confidence that we are going to make it definitely carried through to dinner last night. I have been told in the past that if you drink only good quality wine, your hangover will not be as bad as if you were drinking Blue Nun or something similar.

This is a myth.

Rich French food, copious amounts of good wine and the after effects of a long race two days before we left London have got to me and it's only with the help of Immodium that I'm able to leave the hotel and get on the bike. The others are also suffering. I thought day three would be the hardest, stiffness has set in but there is still a whole day to go. Tomorrow, the thought of arriving in Paris will get us to the finish, but today is a different story.

Derek, however, is lucky to be with us - luckily the woman decided not to press charges.

Most people had checked out of their rooms and were faffing around outside the hotel getting ready to leave. There was a huge queue for the toilet so Derek decided to slip back into one of the empty rooms to use the facilities there - as he strolled out of the loo tucking himself back into his lycra shorts he was pretty surprised to find he was not alone - not nearly as surprised as the woman in the room though who was completely naked.

He seemed keen to leave the hotel in a hurry and told us he story on the way to the first stop - unluckily for him, the woman in question was also cycling and we bumped into her throughout the day.

After we leave it is soon raining and the roads are slick, at the bottom of a downhill I forget about my new tires and turn hard left at the roundabout. The bike slides from under me so fast I don't get my hand out, I slide across the full width of the road on my hip but apart from losing some skin I'm unhurt, we've got to take it steady in these conditions.

We quickly leave the busy roads of Abbeville and soon we are back on the quiet, undulating roads of northern France.

The team is riding well together, after getting the hang of riding through and off in a single file line, we graduate to riding through and off side-by-side in "the ball". Two riders at the front give much more shelter to the riders behind and so pull them along more, it takes more skill though to peel off together and slot in behind. Once you start falling back beyond the back pair and the wind hits you it is very hard to get back on. The group also has to keep together to stop gaps opening up.

The day passes quickly, it is pretty wet on the roads and because no one has mudguards the spray from your rear wheel quickly gets the pad in your shorts fairly damp - as you can imagine, this is not a pleasant state to be in. We decide not to have a long, drawn out lunch and eat with the rest of the group quickly before heading for Beauvais.

As we get close to town the sky to the east is getting darker and darker, it is raining hard only a few kms away. Its clear we aren't going to escape the storm, Craig has been pulling at the front for miles and miles - we are all sheltering behind him. The heavens open, thunder and lightning and torrential rain.

We get to Beauvais wet but elated, only 55 miles to Paris.....

Day 2 - Calais to Abbeville

A late night celebrating our making the first day and Belgian beer that was far stronger than I realised left me feeling pretty dry on the second morning. The hotel was out of Calais in the middle of nowhere, so despite being in the duty free capital of Europe we were left no choice but to pay 7€ for a beer! We decided to go and see a bit a France and eat out from now on.

John and Craig had been put in a different hotel last night (the organisers looked surprised when we were unhappy about this – it hadn’t occurred to them that we might want to spend the evening with the people we had chosen to do the ride with….). This meant they had a few miles to ride to get to us and the start of the route in the morning.

After our briefing (ride on the right!) we set off into northern France. There was a strong headwind and the weather looked good.







The countryside was beautiful, the roads were quiet and the tarmac was smooth – totally different from leaving London yesterday. Our backsides were not what they were yesterday morning though – a bit of stiffness throughout our little group!

The day brightened up and our team split into two Groups - from here on known as “Team A” – (John, Craig and me) and “Team B” – (Derek, Abby and Stu), I leave it to the reader to decide which team was faster, fitter and just better looking….

I explained drafting and how to ride “through and off” to Craig and John. They quickly picked it up and our average speed increased as we formed up into a single file line. The front man does the work while the others get pulled along in his slipstream. When the front man is tired he moves off to one side and the second man comes through to the front and starts his turn pulling. The man who has come off then slots in at the back of the group until it is his turn to move through to the front again and so on.

Riding through and off requires concentration and communication as the closer you are to the person in front, the better the drafting effect, the front man has to avoid sudden braking or swerving as the others in “the line” will quickly pile into the back of him. Riding like this you can cover distance far quicker than a single rider, or a disorganised group.

Although the water stops were well placed and well stocked, they didn’t quite meet our expectations for fine French fare.............(see below)




Luckily, John knew this part of France and took us slightly off-route to a town called Montreuil for lunch at a café in the town square – omelette and chips all round with a good bottle of Muscadet. When we arrived at the actual lunch stop they were packing up – they were very relieved to see us as the back marker had already arrived and they thought we were lost (perhaps going off route without telling them was not our best move…)

After lunch Team A explained “through and off” to Team B who also got the hang of it and we made great progress towards the final water stop of the day. The weather had been good until now but dark clouds were gathering and I doubted we would make it before the heavens opened.

As the rain started I got my first puncture, the team went on while I fixed it. I rode hard to catch them up, but after about 5 miles I still hadn’t caught up – maybe they really had got the hang of through and off….After 10 miles I knew something was wrong – still no sign of them. The route was pretty well signposted by the guides - only an idiot (or 5) could miss them?





but somehow the team had gone wrong. After several phonecalls and retracing of steps they were back on route and we headed for Abbeville, by now it was raining hard. I got my second puncture and realised that my tires were past their best. Luckily there was a sports store on the outskirts of Abbeville and I picked up some new ones.

The hotel was another out-of-town clone from the Holiday Inn – we decided that getting a taxi into town was the better option. Luckily our taxi driver was not a fan of the health and safety police so taking six in his taxi was no problem, he also recommended a great restaurant – the food was superb and we rewarded ourselves for reaching the halfway point with several bottles of Premier Cru Burgundy…



Day two was over, 75 miles and about a 1000m of climbing

Day 1 - London to Dover

It's 4.50am and I'm riding across London after about three hours sleep. After an epic journey through south London to drop everyone off at the hotel in Greenwich (Putney to Greenwich took longer than Redditch to Putney) and then dropping the car off near Waterloo in preparation for our return, I made it to a friend's place in Victoria for about 12.30am.

This morning the weather is good as I ride past the houses of parliament and over the Thames before heading down the Old Kent Road towards the start. With the weather being changeable to say the least thsi week, I'm hopeful that the day is going to be dry. The sun is up and with little on the road, this is the way to enjoy riding in London.

The breakfast and then packing our kit are done with nervous haste, we're all looking a bit apprehensive and surreptiously checking out the other members of the London to Paris group to see if they look fitter than us (no one wants to be at the back for four days.....)

Our group gets together for the "before" photograph (no longer available, but more of that later) and after a briefing from our guides who hand out waterproof (which was just as well as it turned out) maps of the route, WE ARE OFF!

Without numberplates to provide comebacks we ride through the early morning commuters with impunity, some of us bending the rules of the highway code and some of us ignoring it completely. Derek has obviously always wanted to run red lights and weave through the traffic, now he has his chance and takes every available gap.

It's a long way out of London to Dartford but at last the road starts to run through countryside and the traffic dies down, before we know it we've covered 25 miles and are at the first waterstop. On the way it becomes clear that Derek hasn't got over his recent chest infection and he is finding it hard going. Crossing the North Downs this afternoon is going to be hard.

After leaving Maidstone we ride along the edge of the Downs before suddenly right and heading up. The first climb is a bitch, suddenly there are cyclists everywhere as some people slow to a crawl and some get off and walk. The climb gets steeper towards the top and Derek has fallen off the back of our group along with Abby and Stu, he makes it though, without stopping, he's done the miles in training and it is paying off. Stu has done no training and is riding someone else's 20 year old bike....

It's a fast cruise downhill to lunch from the top of the climb, we're halfway there, the sun is shining and we've crossed the first part of the downs.

After lunch we get more of the same, the sun is shining but the climbs come one after the other - short and sharp, wearing your legs down, we're tired enough after the last water stop to consider leaving the route and riding along a short cut - the hellish dual carriage way that is the A2. Common sense prevails though and suddenly we see a sign "Dover 5". This is closely followed by another "Dover 4" and euphoria gives our legs strength - before we know it we're riding down to the ferry terminal.

It is clear on arrival that "Piss ups" and "breweries" would provide a testing organisational challenge to our support team and guides. We ride around the ferry terminal before settling on the tarmac in the sunshine and waiting for an hour which takes the gloss off our sense of achievement somewhat.

Before long though we are sitting in the restaurant of the Sea France ferry enjoying surprisingly good food and celebrating with champagne - the toughest day is over!

Actually, it isn't - on arrival in Calais we discover our hotel is 10 miles out of town. Our guides get a little lost on the way (we are following their van) but eventually we make it to the hotel, a hot shower and a cold beer. For some reason we've been split up into different rooms, the challenge of rearranging this proves too stressful for our trip leader who looks like he's about to have a nervous breakdown (this is actually due to leaving one cyclist behind in the UK - he made it over a little after midnight).

The first day is over, 95 miles and about 1300 metres of ascent in all.