Wednesday 22nd July – Kingston to Dieppe – 90 Miles

 

An early morning start at 5.30am and out of the halls at Kingston University at 6am.
5 of the Essex Roads were looking forward to the adventure ahead. These being Chris Carrott, Isabel Kershaw, Andrew Shaw, Jackie Mills and Tony Griffiths.

 

The ride started at 6.45 as we had to get down to Dover by 4pm to catch the ferry so we said bye to our luggage.
Then we were off and on the line one of the other riders punctured but not us.

 

Ahead of us was 91 miles of undulating countryside. Something that undulates has gentle curves or slopes, or moves gently and slowly up and down or from side to side in an attractive manner. This was not the case as the hills were not gentle and did more ups than downs. There were 2 nice 20% hills that just didn’t seem to stop and this was the first day. However we had lovely weather and once we got out of London the roads were nice and quite.

 

Lunch on the first day couldn’t seem to come too quickly as by this time we were feeling the effects of the hills.
We got to Dover with time to spare then had to back the bikes into the back of the Truck not to be seen until day 2. Then it was a 1˝ hour ferry crossing followed by A 3 hour transfer to Dieppe.
We arrived at 12.30 and by the time we showered it was 1am when we got to bed.

 

Thursday 23rd July – Dieppe to Lisieux – 90 Miles

 

The start of day 2 didn’t look promising as at 6.30 am the skies were black and the rain was beating down.
However when we started it had cleared up a bit and the rain had stopped.

 

The cycling in France was great as the roads were good and the hills were just drags. However the French have a habit of moving the direction signs and if taking them down so there were issues of getting lost.
Myself and Isabel were OK as we found a shortcut, however Andrew did an extra 7 miles.

 

There were some great bridges to cross and on top of these some great views.
The problem was that you had some hills to get up to them.

 

But we did have some nice coffee stops on way.
However just after the coffee stop we had the rain which was horrible and meant that the rooms looked like a Laundry factory.

 

Friday 24th July – Lisieux to Vernon – 70 Miles

 

This was the fastest section so far. Lovely weather and with the wind behind along with the flat sections led to some beasting (Sprints).
It started with Andrew taking a picture of the 5 miles to lunch sign, which then meant that the rest of us sprinted off at over 30 mph.

 

Andrew had to do 36mph to catch up with us. This carried on al day which meant that we had an average of 15.1 mph with a top speed of 44 mph.
However this was nothing compared to Andrew’s top speed which was 62 mph (However he may have had a dodgy Speedo!!!!!).

 

Saturay 25th July – Vernon to Paris – 65 Miles

 

The last day and it was Paris here we come. Again another fast time up to lunch but then we had to cycle through Paris. However we had to stop for coffee again and I paid 14 euros for 4 coffees!!!!!!!!! Starbucks then looked cheap.

 

Then after 4 days we arrived in Paris. Yippee!!!!!

 

Finally we met up with the other 3 routes which meant that we had 600 cyclists going up the Champs De Elysees.
We stopped the traffic in Paris but the roundabout at the top of the Arc de Triomphe was a bit scary but we all survived and made under the Eiffel Tour.

A GREAT TOUR AND LOTS OF MONEY RAISED
FOR ACTION MEDICAL RESEARCH.
A MUST FOR ALL CYCLISTS

Chris