Cycle to Paris - Preparation

So this will probably be the last post I write before the big ride to Paris, which begins on Saturday morning. There is still a lot to do for me, as I am yet to purchase lights, inner tubes and a new front tyre (replace current one with a puncture resistant tyre).

Rob and Josh have started to finalise their own preparation, and actually took to the streets on Saturday, and cycled 33 miles of the route we will take in order to avoid slow progress getting out of London. It only took them two hours, which is a bonus as I get the impression we are all a little aprehensive about making the 6pm Ferry to Calais. In a way, I really hope this is going to be a challenge. I very much doubt this will be like any other cycle I have done so far, but I dont want it to be a simple cycle. I want it to be something we can get to the end of and say 'we put alot into that'. Getting to Paris by cycling slowly will be a bit of a dissapointment really. But I think we have got the distances per day correct, and we have planned to stop off regularly in order to take in the sights and sounds of Northern France.  

Rob managed to get hold of a GPS system to help us out, and if that fails - some road maps (3 of them), which detail the cycle route. I actually think getting there will be fine, its the weather I worry about the most. Although it is October, the last thing I want is a wind swept 4 day ride. It can rain all it wants, but no wind please. We are all continuously checking the daily weather forecast, and at this moment it looks 'ok for october'. Lets hope it stays that way.

Lastly, I will be taking the bike in for another check over with Evans. I don't think the bike needs it personally, but I guess it always helps to have the brakes, cables and gears checked before a long ride, particularly as we will be in another country (hopefully) if something should go wrong.

Ok, that is my update. Next stop, Paris. I will post an update once I am back on English soil, along with final costings and recomendations of food/b&b's etc.

Peace 

IM BACK!

Having had a Great North Run to train for over the last month or so, the cycling has been put on the back burner whilst I put my entire body through the pain of long distance running. I found out a lot about my body over this past month, and have developed a couple of niggling injuries through previous bad habits, such as not warming up/down....ever. Why do I write about this on a blog meant to be on the topic of cycling you may ask? Well, these injuries have had a slight impact on my cycling too, particularly the injury to my hip. I have become very conscious of having a good stretch before setting off on a long cycle, as when I recently returned to the bike following the GNR, I could quite often feel my hip tightening. According to the physio, I have (and always have had) extremely poor hip stability, but luckily a bit of stretching seems to be doing the trick.

Anyway......a lot has happened since I last posted. I, along with my housemates Rob 'the beast' Bennett and Josh 'the power' Flood plan to cycle to Paris next week, over four days with one extra day to take in Paris. All accommodation and travel is now booked thanks in a major part to Rob. The entire trip is surprisingly cheap, and I am looking forward to what will certainly be a big test. The first day from London to Calais will no doubt be the toughest, but Josh and I have a bit of experience at this long distance malarkey, and Rob will add to that experience with a GPS system he has borrowed. It is also worth me saying that should they win this weekend, on the first day we will be stopping off at a pre located pub to watch the England rugby team play their semi final.

In other news, I have seen the light and adopted puncture resistant tyres. For the small price of £27 each, I bought some gatorskin's not so long back, and haven't had a problem with them (yet), which is a great feeling considering I was replacing inner tubes what felt like every week, not so long ago.

I cycled to Windsor with Rob last weekend too, which was both a really nice ride, and a great hangover cure. We took the less scenic route, via the North of Heathrow, on the way. But came back on the A308, which took a beautiful route, through some really nice places. This was also the first long ride Rob had done on his new road bike, which looks cool as! The route will be up on the 'Rides' page of the blog very soon, so keep looking.

I have also finally found a potential cycle team, that trains in Regents Park on a Friday. But I will post a separate blog on this topic later on, when I can gather more intel.

I will now try and continue to regularly update this blog, particularly as the Winter months set in. It will be quite interesting to see how the bike reacts to the cold and wet weather, following what I think has been a really good summer for cyclists in London.

Peace

Dunwich Dynamo - Its a long one (apologies)

So after planning to avoid any sort of sleep on the Friday evening, in order to prepare the body for the turmoil ahead, Josh and I were both sound asleep by around 1am. The reason being, our participation in the event was put into doubt becasue of the weather forecast, which indicated heavy and prolongued rain on Saturday and Sunday. I have never been a fair weather cyclist, but the idea of cycling for 8 hours in the rain seemed to take away from the experience of cycling the Dunwich. Josh was the one who made me aware of this point initially, and despite my intention to go ahead whatever the weather (no pun intended), after seeing the downpours prior to my departure on Saturday afternoon, I too was brought around to the idea of having a quiet, and warm night in front of the TV.

But against all the odds, the skys cleared at around 6pm. The umpires made their decision....the cycle to Dunwich was on.

On arrival at pub in the park in Hackney, I was amazed at the sheer volume of cyclists chillaxing, drinking a pint, chatting on with their respective friends/teams or consulting the route maps. It was brilliant, and lived up to everything I had expected. We each gave a pound to the chap handing out maps, and began to work out where we would be going. However, the maps were useless to us, considering we both come from the North of England and thus, had no idea of the road names and numbers of North-Eastern London, and beyond. The plan was therefore changed to follow the peloton.

We began at exactly 9pm, which happened to be a similar time that most of the bunch hanging around the pub also left. I had no understanding of how many cyclists were involved in this event until we turned onto the main road and came to the first major set of traffic lights. I had never seen so many cyclists before waiting for the green light to appear, it felt like we were in the tour de France. Initially Josh and I held back, chatted to fellow cyclists and tried to target those who we felt we could latch onto to get us to the finish by sunrise. But it soon became apparent that the peloton we were part of were not moving quick enough to give us a chance of seeing sunrise, and we decided to quicken up the pace and move through the pack. This is probably something I would change if I did it again, as I didnt really get the opportunity to have any banter. But then again, for the time we were in the bunch, banter was few and far between.

We really motored through the first 20 miles. Worries about getting ahead of everyone, and not having anyone to follow were soon eased as the red lights of cyclists ahead flickered way beyond the horizon. It was around the 20 mile mark where we got a taste of how dangerous the cycle could be. I am still not sure what had happened, but many cycles lined the road and a woman was being seen to by paramedics, already at the scene. It looked like a collision between cyclists, but I wouldnt want to speculate. Either way, it seemed to hammer home to us, and the cyclists around us that this wasnt an event that should be taken lightly.

The night seemed to come around quickly, and before we knew it we were at the half way house, which at the time was rammed, but not as rammed as it was by the time we left. It had taken us just over 3 hours to cycle 52 miles. We saw it as a real achievement, considering we had had to negotiate the city streets. We set off again at 1am, after demolishing a cracking brew, a bannana and a flap jack each. As with the previous 3 hours, the time seemed to fly by. I believe the key was not being able to see what was too far ahead of you, the concentration required to stay on route allowed time to fly by. Plus, there were some amazing decents, particularly the one into Sudbury.

It was only when the daylight started to emerge that time and the miles seemed to stand still. It became really difficult with around 15 miles to go. By this point we had formed part of a group of around 10 cyclists, one of which had a GPS system and so became the lead cyclist. But I had begun to moan as my back and neck were in agony through the position I had cycled in for the previous 6 hours and for the fact I still couldnt see the coast despite being so close to the finish. This was without a doubt, the trough of the 115 odd miles. Fortunately Josh had emerged from his trough, and tried to pull me along with decent banter, and the promise of a fry up at the cafe on Dunwich beach.

With 2 miles left, there it was! The first road sign for Dunwich. We had hunted for such a sign for about an hour, as a group. Then before we knew it, we were in Dunwich, and cycling down toward the beach. It was at this point I realised the reason we hadn't been able to spot the finish was through the beach being almost in a little cove. The sun had emerged some 15 minutes prior to our arrival on Dunwich beach, but at this point I was beyond caring. The final time was 7hrs 35mins 39 seconds. We werent the first people to get there, but we certainly were in no way the last. I know that this is not seen as a race, but too me, it was a chance to see how fast and how far I could go. I was so proud of the achievement, but so tired.

Waiting for the lorries to take us back to London allowed us to talk about a couple of things that had cropped up during the evening. The first was how quick the cycle teams were (I think there were a number of teams, but I can only remember the Dulwich team, half of which cycled past us with a few miles to go.) The second was how frowned upon it was to cycle such a route without a helmet. In no way am I proud of doing 113 miles without a helmet on, but it was interesting to hear so much chat about the fact we werent wearing head gear as we cycled past.

The entire experience was one that I will never forget. I really pushed myself on this occasion, and the reward was the satisfaction I felt with the time Josh and I recorded, and of course a well deserved full English. An experience that I would recommend to anyone.