Rest Day Geneva

Today has been another enjoyable day. After breakfast I was picked up from my hotel by Serge, one of my friends from the Tour Du Canada in 2010 and taken out for the day. 

It was great to see him after 5 years and it didn't take us long to rekindle our friendship again despite my very poor French and Serge's slightly better English. 

We had a packed agenda planned and were soon on the road out of Geneva and on the lakeside.  We passed through some stunning villages with panoramic views over the lake and mountains and then through vineyards clinging to the ever steepening hills. 

After an hour or so we arrived at the Olympic Museum. The museum was really interesting and we spent a couple of hours doing an audio tour.

We then headed off to the home of the Fondue at Gruyerés, another beautiful ancient castle based town surrounded by the minor Alps.  

After a fondue and white wine we had a brief walk around the city walls and then headed for the third most visited site in Switzerland, the Cailler's Chocolate factory, where, following another audio tour and sampling of products, I stocked up with some goodies for Zoë. 

Serge then drove me back to the hotel and dropped me off. It was a really enjoyable day out and I hope it's not 5 years before we meet again. 

The countryside today was stunning, I heartily recommend people to visit. I've already added it to my list to revisit. 

The new arrivals for this leg are here and we have been out for a pleasant meal tonight. The next 4 days are billed as the most beautiful section of the trip. There is a lot of climbing to do but that means scenery and descents. 

It's an early start tomorrow so we can do the group photo at the lake and then beat the traffic as we head back into France. The weather is set fair so all is good. 

Onwards and upwards !

Ready steady.......

That's it then. The training has finished and I'm sitting in my hotel room in deepest darkest Blackheath. 

The week has not been without incident though. Sod's law prevailed and I awoke on Monday morning with a stuffed up nose and sore throat. I'm not sure whether it's a touch of hay fever or a cold but although it's got a little better I'm still not 100% and I'm popping pills in an effort to cure whatever it is before we kick off tomorrow. 

The journey down went smoothly and after a quick breakfast in "the Village" Mark left me to my own devices. The bike and bike box is looked in a store room and I've been for a wander around Grenwich Park, done the tourist thing  and visited the observatory. 

After watching the cycling on the TV I grabbed a quick siesta and then went and found the DA staff and signed in, picked up my baggage labels then headed into town. After a short walk around and nearly passing out at the house prices in the local estate agent I grabbed a pizza and headed back to the hotel. 

I'm glad I signed in early as the reception was somewhat chaotic with cyclists arriving from all directions when I got back.  All the DA staff are here now but I don't recognise any from our last trip. 

Tomorrows start is early, a 5:15 am wake up, breakfast at 5:30 and then at 6:15 we muster outside the hotel ready for a briefing and a 7am depart. The weather looks ok, sunny spells but a chilly tail wind so I guess I'll wrap up to start with and peel off if I get too warm.  We are booked onto the 6:30pm ferry at Dover and it's down to us to feed ourselves whilst we cross the channel. With the loss of the hour as we enter France it will be about 10pm by the time we get to the hotel in Calais so I'll try and get the blog done on the ferry. 

I might sneak down for a cheeky pint later and see if I can meet up with any of the Facebookers and then grab an early night. 

Onwards and upwards!!

Flamimg June --- I hope

June seems to have arrived very quickly and as I write I am only 6 days away from the start of the ride. Since my last blog I have had a frustrating time with the bike despite which I've managed to get some good training in.

You will recall that I broke my wheels again on my last big day out in Yorkshire. Since then my local bike shop has sorted me out a refund for the old set of Fulcrum wheels and now I am the proud owner of some Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheels. Despite my interest in the sport I am no anorak when it comes to kit but I am reassured that these are a step up from the old wheels by the fact that most of the AJ's cycling group use Mavics. 

Whilst its great to be up and riding again it did take a couple of weeks to get the wheels sorted as they had to come across from France. This meant I had to break out Old Faithful, my older Trek bike, in order to keep the mileage up. Getting back onto the old Trek was a bit like getting out of a racing car and into your Grandads old Jaguar Saloon. |It really comfortable but with the old worn out wheels on it was bouncing all over the place and felt so sluggish.

I came down with a stomach  bug last week, which was kindly donated by my Granddaughter and Son in Law, that not only wiped out a few rides but also cost me a weekend trip to Belgium to referee at a rugby tournament. It is a great annual trip and I was not a happy bunny to miss it but in the context of the L2N trip I knew it was the right decision to pull out. As it turned out I was able to get back on the bike over the weekend anyway so it wasn't a total washout.

The last week has been great, I finally got the Madone back complete with new wheels and fully serviced ready for the trip. Consequently I have been able to get a couple of decent rides in culminating in the longest of my life on Saturday.

The plan had always been to complete a 100 mile ride before I left for London, for no other reason than to prove to myself that I was fit enough, so along with the other London to Paris guys from AJ's, we planned a testing ride, one that I did last year in preparation for LEJOG where coincidentally my Fulcrum wheels first let me down. However the weather was looking grim for the planned date and so we changed days and hopped onto an EMCC (East Midland Cycling Club) ride around Cambridgeshire. Although the ride was only planned to be 68 miles long , it started in Huntington some 20 miles away from home so a group us cycled from home to the start , completed the 68 miles and then cycled home again.

In total I covered 112.4 miles, some 6 miles longer than my longest ever ride, which was in Canada 5 years ago, where I remember trailing in behind One Sock moaning about having a sore knee and that I had to cook that night whilst he kept the wind off me and entertained me with stories about family and work etc. It always amazes me how the memories of that trip are still so vivid.

The EMCC ride went through some beautiful villages with thatched cottages and the archetypal tree surrounded cricket pitches on the village greens etc, my colonial friends would have loved it. Although not particularly challenging from a climbing point of view compared to some days I know are coming in the Alps, we still managed about 2400ft during the day with a couple of cheeking little "stingers" here and there so overall it was a decent challenge.

EMCC Lunch break.

I was really pleased with my overall fitness. My legs were still going strong towards the end and although I knew I'd put some miles in, I finished in relative comfort. I also averaged 16.4mph which is about 1 mph above my average this time last year which shows my fitness has improved significantly.

So now as we enter June its time to start easing off the mileage and sort kit. Much to the amusement of the wife I have starting laying out kit on the spare bed and putting aside clothes. As with these types of trips the rule is to lay it out then remove about 30% of what you've put out and that's about right. This week I start to taper and will probably only go out for a brief 40 miles or so. I've  changed my tyres to 25mm width ones so that will make the ride even more comfortable. All that's left after the final ride is to wash the trusty steed and set her up for the trip.

I'm starting to keep an eye on the weather which looks as if it might start to improve locally in a few days and heat up a little. The down side to that is that if the UK is warming up then that tends to rely on it drawing air from the European continent meaning the air flow is from South to North and that means head winds for the trip. Still, I think I'd rather have a head wind than be soaked and cold so I'm prepared to trade!

My next post will hopefully be once I'm booked into the Hotel in London on June 9th, the day before we start the trip. 

Onwards and Upwards in a generally Southerly direction!!

London to Paris Day 4

Compiégne to Paris

Stats 

Total miles. 62

1852ft Climbing

Avg Speed 11.7

Max 30mph

Another sunny and pleasant day dawned  and although several of the group were a little worse for a heavy night we all made breakfast and headed off into another head wind. 

The scenery was very pleasant early on with tree lined roads and magnificent chateaus dotted along the route. 

The first drinks stop was very early and we seemed to be at lunch without too much effort but we knew the second half would be a slow process as we rode further into the city. 

After about 30 miles we hit suburbia and the roads became congested and full of traffic lights etc slowing our progress.  I actually quite like city riding so just got stuck in and knocked the miles off until we arrived at our holding point at one of Paris's public parks. We were held here for about an hour so that we could all go into the centre in one big group.  The weather was really warm so it was a good chance to have a sit down and an ice cream before we rode the final miles. 

Once all together we took a slow ride around the Arc. de Triumph down the Champs Élysées  and onto the finish near the Eifle Tower. Although the traffic was really bad it was a great way to finish the day. Many of the riders had friends and family to meet them and we did all the photo stuff before heading off across town again to the hotel, a torturous ride through rush hour traffic. 

The evening meal was a happy affair and because it was an end of section they threw in a bottle or two of wine which went down well. 

So Part 1 is done. Now we move onto Part 2 which takes me to Geneva. I will lose Chris my roomie whose company I have enjoyed both on and off the bike as he is off home. 

Onwards and Upwards!!

London to Paris Day 3

I

Day 3

Arras to Compiégne. 

Stats

Total miles. 82

Climbing. 2415ft

Avg 13.5 mph

Max speed 38mph

Today has been another lovely day.  Unfortunately a strongish headwind has dogged us all day and made what would have been a relatively easy day much harder. 

The morning started with a weather warning. As we left Arras we were told we were heading into a huge thunderstorm some 10 miles south of us. We all made sure we had our waterproofs with us but luckily despite coming across soaking roads we never actually got wet.  We all dumped our extra clothing at the first water stop and the rest of the day has been in short sleeve order. 

About 20 miles South of Arras we came across our first of many First World War Cemeteries. 

All of them are immaculately kept and very thought provoking. Our first water stop was at the Somme Memorial, which is truly stunning. 

From that point on we cycled along the Somme Valley through some very small villages and then across a huge agricultural area which was a bit like cycling across the Fens, very exposed. 

Late in the day we called in for a quick beer in a village Tabac followed a few km's later by a very nice strawberry tart from the local bakery. 

Tomorrow we arrive in Paris and with the weather forcasted to be sunny and 27deg it should be a fun ride in. 

Onwards and upwards !!

London to Paris Day 2

Day 2 Stats

Total miles 79

Climbing 2452ft

Ang speed 14mph

Top speed 3mph

Today has been great. The weather gods have been good to us and the sun has shone all day. 

We set off at 8am into what sadly was another headwind, as it appears to have changed direction overnight and is blowing from the South. 

The first 7 or 8 miles were along a canal so very flat with lots of wildlife on view. 

After the easy start it started to get a bit lumpy and for the next 30 miles or so until lunch we were rolling up and down across beautiful countryside. 

After a quick coffe break there were a couple of cheeky little Cat 5 climbs but although longer they weren't as steep as yesterday. 

Lunch was good with salads, pate and breads. 

After lunch I declared summer by getting the Canning skin out on display,  a rare thing indeed.  

Almost immediately after lunch we had another Cat 5 climb of about 7% for about 2 miles which I just ground my way up and then the rest of the day was fairly flat but more often than not into a stiff breeze which made it harder than it needed to be. 

We rolled into Arras for tonight's stop at about 4pm and the plan is to pop out for a quick shandy or two before dinner at 8pm. 

Tomorrow the weather could be thundery in the morning but should brighten after lunch. It a flatter day and we've got some sightseeing to do through the WW1 and 2 battlefields. 

Onwards and upwards!

London to Paris Day 1

Today's Stats :  83 miles

Approx 1772m climbing

Avg speed 14 mph

Fastest 40.7mph

After a very early rise, quick breakfast and a briefing we set off, all 76 of us in one group into the London commuter traffic. As you can imagine we were quite popular but in all honesty we soon strung out and most of the city stuff was in single file. The first 20 or so miles was very much stop and start with loads of traffic lights and roundabouts to deal with. 

Almost the second we crossed the M25 at Dartford all the cars seemed to disappear and for the rest of the day we cycled along quiet country roads through some beautiful villages and small towns. 

Drink were at 20 miles and then lunch after 40. Then the work started. 

The second half was a little testing with a succession of sharp climbs not helped by  what seemed to be a continuous head wind. 

I've teamed up with a farmer from Wolverhampton as he seems to ride at about my pace and we've taken it steady all day really as we both know this is a marathon not a sprint. 

The group is mixed and almost 50/50 male/female. I'd say I'm about in the middle in terms of speed. 

After about 7 hours we arrived in Dover at about 3pm well ahead of schedule. Because we were so early we were able to catch an earlier ferry getting us to France at least and hour and a half earlier than planned

Dinner tonight was fish and chips on the ferry, which was a little choppy but not too bad. Once off the ferry we went in a slow convoy to the hotel which were about 5 miles away checked in and then headed for the bar. 

Overall a good start to the trip, tomorrow is flatter and we go through the Somme so I'm looking forward to that. 

Onwards and Upwards!!