London to Paris - Day One Reflections

Well I'm safely back home in York having survived the London to Paris ride. It really was a great event and between us the team will have raised over £100,000 for Christian Aid.

There were 73 of us in the team and we covered over 300 miles and climbed over 16,000 feet during four days of cycling. We all made it to Paris on Saturday and we had the great thrill of riding up the Champs Elysees just like our Tour de France heroes. Unlike the Tour de France there were no positive drugs tests although some of us could have used some EPO at times during the ride, particularly on Day Two!

I thought that over the next few days I would reflect back on each of the days of the ride and give a bit more detail , and some more photos, of what happened.

Day One - London to Calais

Day One started bright and early with a 5.30pm breakfast before a 7am start. The previous evening I had a good look around the assembled bikes and felt quite intimidated by the quality of them, Cannondales, Specialized, Bianchis, Trek and Scotts were there in abundance. If these guys legs were as good as their bikes I was going to be in trouble!

The route down to Dover was surprisingly hilly but I think we were all pumped up with adrenalin and we set a cracking pace. First water stop was at Rochester and it set the pattern for the coming days as we fuelled up on bananas and energy bars.

The route had been well signposted with yellow and black arrows by our support team and we set off along the Kent lanes to our lunch stop in a lovely village called Old Wives Leas. A great lunch was served up by the catering crew who were able to conjure up wonderful food out of the back of a refrigerated Transit van. One of the odd aspects of the ride is that a lot of the time you have no idea where you are, you simply follow the yellow and black signs. Apparently at one point this afternoon we were only two miles from Canterbury but I had no idea, I could have gone to the Lambeth Conference if I had known!

My fears about the high quality of the bikes were not borne out. There are some good riders here but fortunately not too many super fast riders. I have a theory that you get mid life crisis bikes in the same way that you get mid life crisis cars. Whereas some men hit their forties and go out and buy a sports car others hit their forties and go out and buy a flash road bike. I'm ashamed to admit that I have fallen into both of those categories over the last two years!

I cycled most of today with a lovely lady called An. She is a vicar's wife, originally from Belgium but now living in Harwich. She cycles like a true Belgian and sets a cracking pace up the hills!

The afternoon was really hot and the fast pace of the morning was maintained. Before we knew it we were in Dover at about 1.30pm. In fact we had ridden too fast and we had to wait three hours for a ferry. We had a good calm crossing which was followed by what should have been a short ride to the hotel in Calais. Unfortunately the group that I was in missed a sign and we ended up taking a 6 mile detour through the back streets of Calais. I saw parts of Calais that I have never seen before and I'm not sure that I want to see again.

After that it was a healthy supper of steak and chips washed down with a beer before settling down for a well deserved nights sleep before what would prove to be the hardest day of the ride. My room mate tonight was David, a really nice South African now living in Weymouth. He told me that his wife was expecting a baby in a few weeks time so he was hoping that it wouldn't arrive early while he was away on the ride.

Index to Photos - From top to bottom (click on the photos for bigger versions)

Me at the lunch halt

The lunch halt at Old Wives Leas

An - My cycling companion for today

Waiting for the ferry at Dover