London to Paris was a massive, unforgetable experience. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s even remotely interested in the idea of cycling 300 miles. Even doing it over 3 days as we did, we had people riding who had only started riding just for this event, and I have to say I thought everyone did fantastically.
We’d started off with about 25 people joining Team Commvault, but by the time we started we were down to 12, having had a lot of ‘its too hard’, ‘I don’t have time to train’, and a couple of injuries which prevented people entering. Even within the 12 we had hugely varied levels of experience and fitness, and a wide age group as well. Everyone who started with us finished, and I’m not aware of any dropouts even from the 150 or so that started the 3 day route with us.
Personally, I knew I’d not done nearly enough training (see previous blog entries), and I was hoping I could ride in to fitness over the 3 days ahead. I was also on a brand new bike, having had a nightmare on a previous ride and only being able to get about 30 miles in on the new Willier Mortirolo I was riding. The bars were still making my hands ache and I knew I’d need to adjust them as well.
Starting in Blackheath, I was a little perturbed to find that I would be sharing a hotel room. I’m not sure that had been mentioned before but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised given that it was a charity ride (for Action Medical Research) and they’d be keeping costs down so they had more money for good causes. The more awkward bit was that I’d be sharing a room with different people every night so I wasn’t going to have the chance even to get used to them. Luckily, it wasn’t bad at all partner wise (we did at least have our own beds!). The hardest bit was the hotels themselves.
Starting in Blackheath, Team Commvault went out for berr and pasta to load up on carbs. (I know the beer’s not the best idea but for a group of lads away its pretty much standard). It was a really warm night (for London at least), and unfortunately the hotel didn’t have aircon. That was uncomfortable and with the excitement of starting the trip early the following morning I don’t think I got enough sleep. We were up at about 6AM to get ready to leave by about 7AM and avoid the worst of the London traffic before getting into the Kent countryside. Breakfast was a pretty solid english cooked breakfast so I was well fed before going to collect my bike from storage.
Outside, the sun was up and it was already warm. It looked like a scorcher and didn’t disappoint. Plenty of drink onhand as I was riding with a camlebak and 3 litres of energy drink as well as a bottle of plain water on the bike. A lot of people tell me this is OTT on a road bike, but I like to carry spares and a toolikt anyway, don’t find the camel uncomfortable and its an easy way to take supplies with you. I fettled with the bike a bit – adjusting the gears as the cables were new and still stretching in, and tweaking the handlebars upwards a touch to try and prevent the pain in my hands I’d been experiencing.
Everyone was looking excited and nervous as we set off. 150+ cyclists heading out of London caused a few heads to turn our way. I’m ashamed to say that even this number of cyclists didn’t seem to make us any more visible to car drivers. The worst I experienced was a chap dropping his daughter (I assume) off at a bus stop, and then pulling across a huge column of cyclists without paying attention to any of us. Yanking on the brakes and swerving didn’t quite take up all of my concentration and I still had enough mind left to yell a few expletives at him as he went white and looked shocked as he finally saw me heading directly towards the drivers door. Luckily I managed to avoid a serious incident, and even got a few pats on the back from fellow riders for not being shy about pointing out the error of his ways 
.
We were out in the Kent countryside soon enough, following little orange arrows for directions. Most of the groups were pretty fragmented early on so we rode in smaller makeshift groups and chatted as we rode, making new friends. We managed to get most of the way without getting lost but did err at one point, going off route by a few miles and dropping a lot of height before we realised and had to find our way back to the route. This seemed to involve crossing almost every bridge on the channel tunnel rail link but we managed to get back on route and get to the lunch stop just as the food was getting put out. Sitting in the sun getting a few aches out of our legs I managed to blag a bit of extra chamois cream as I was already feeling a little sore. Most of the group had managed to regroup at the lunch stop but we were very clearly in different categories fitness wise and were going to find it impossible to keep together. We splintered again and I ended up in a group with Ewan and Phil for most of the afternoon.
BEE STORY
The afternoon got harder and harder as we went through Kent. The hills seemed to get steeper and longer and I was feeling very definitely tired. I managed to make it up every hill though, even when most people seemed to be walking up. SOme of this was due to gravel on the road, people were slipping a little and panicking and stopping, then not being abel to start again because of the steepness. Mountain biking skills helped here and I managed to make it up with a couple of very awkward maneouvers around stalling cyclists.
I slowed down a lot after that point and was having to dig very deep into my determination to keep going. Lack of training was definitely making me suffer and it was sheer bloody mindedness that kept my legs turning at times. Heading towards another huge hill on the way into Dover I was hugely relieved to see that we were swinging right to go through a saddle in the hill. Still a climb, but nowhere near as bad as I was expecting from the view on the run in.
On the way through the saddle I met up with a couple of the other Commvault guys and we headed in felling almost victorious. We got to Dover a couple of hours early, so we weren’t doing too badly. There were a good few in town before us though I think so we were by no means the quickest. We headed down to the becah for a coffee and ice cream while we wiated for everyone to roll in and head to the ferry. Whilst sipping my coffee, a text message from my Mum led to a phone call and some hurried emergency arrangements as I found that my kitchen cabinets at home had fallen on my wife and she was in hospital! Luckily, she was only bruised and shocked, although the kitchen was a disaster zone for a while. Rona insisted I carry on and NOT come home. I debated with myself for a while, but as she was so insistent and I was on a once in a liftetime trip the decision to carry one seemed to be the best one.
The ferry trip over to France was an experience, with 150 saddle sore riders having just completed 80 miles(ish) and were brewing up a healthy supply of intestinal gas. (My heartfelt apologies go out to all the staff there. I could hardly breathe myself for a while!).
Knowing we had to get back on the bikes in France to ride 10-12 miles to the hotel, we weren’t all that anxious to subject our backsides and legs to further punishment. My legs felt wooden at this point and when I sat on the saddle I immediately wished I hadn’t. Fortunately, we got onto the French roads and everything all felt so much better I got a HUGE second wind and flew down the sublimely smooth roads into Calais, marvelling at the courtesy of the drivers stopping to let an unruly bunch of cyclists who were obviously not yet used to riding on the right go past. With my newfound legs I was considering it almost a mission to catch up with the LandRover that was leading the way to the hotels. I never did catch him but got bloody close, and must have averaged about 27-28 mph on that 12 mile run.
I was pleased to get t0 the hotel and settled in to a Croque Monsieur before a couple of beers and bed. Unfortunately, my room mate for the night had made a bit of a mess with the aircon, turning it up instead of down and it was at least 2 AM before the room cooled enough for me to sleep. I think I was running hot after riding anyway – my metabolism was burning me up and I had to sit in cold bath for a while to cool down. When the alarm went in the morning it felt like I’d just put my head down and I was definitely still tired.
TBC
