John's London to Paris Challenge

Back to our Home Page

The Result

Well if you weren’t aware I did it and to be truthful looking back it after all that training it wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, yes demanding, but after doing over 5000 miles of training it proved its worth.

To all of you who have pledged money and sent it, my eternal thanks go out to you, for those who pledged to send it once I had completed the event please would you be so kind as to post a Cheque or Postal order made Payable to The Joshua Foundation, please download one of the following forms and complete it so that the foundation can claim back the tax.

The form is located by clicking here

I will once all the money is in, send out a confirmation and breakdown of all the money received, so that you can be assured it has gone to the cause.

Thank-you all once again for your support.

Best wishes, John

_________________________________________________________

The Night Before

My input into the ride was the organisation of the minibus and support drivers, this meant that we couldn't leave until 18:00 as the minibus was n't available until then.

We were staying at the Piccadilly Back Packers Youth Hostel which was only £21 a night and was only a mile up the road from Westminster.

As I was used to driving large vehicles, I drove down to London, but it meant not arriving until gone 22:00 by which time I had missed the opportunity to load up with more carbs and as the minibus had to be parked over a mile away in a secure car park at £35 a night, so I never got to bed until gone midnight.

Bloody Hell was it noisy or what it was like sleeping in a zoo, no one respected that anyone else should sleep and I managed just a couple of hours before the alarm went off at 05:00.

Day One

One of our sponsors - The West Cornish Pastry Company (Great Site btw) had agreed to supply 75 pasties for the first day, and mugsy me had to collect these from Waterloo Station at 07:00, in between time I had to get myself sorted and breakfast, fortunately there was a McDonalds just up the road who did Oatso Simple porridge, so I managed to get a couple small bowls down before riding.

After what seemed an eternity we met up on Westminster Bridge, 23 riders and my son and his mate as driver/support for the minibus. I was expecting to see a load of fit well prepared riders, but it soon became evident that some had never heard of training, bike maintenance or buying sufficient inner tubes, gels, chain lube etc. and expected to sponge off others! Any way photos duly done on the bridge and we are off at about 08:20, now having been brought up in London, I have never been scared of traffic, but a lot of the lads were, so it meant being extra vigilant of them getting lost as well.

The road surface was not too bad, better than I expected, no real hills and we made steady progress out of London, one of the least organised lads had a puncture at Lewisham and immediately after another due to a pinch and then declared that he had no more inner tubes for the entire ride!

I soon lost my patience with people like that and split to ride with my mates who had put the time and effort in.

The A20 was soon upon us and it was quite amusing seeing a bunch of lads pull over at a junction for a natural break tiptoeing through tall grass so as to not be conspicuous in their bright Lycra!

We had been fairly lucky as the wind had not picked up but about 25 miles from Dover an Easterly became quite strong, hampering progress.

I think it was about 10 miles from Dover that we came across what was for me and most people a big climb, the profile indicated about 800 ft over half a mile and I'm ashamed to admit that ever conscious of my damaged but repaired VMO muscle that I walked about 300 yards of it! Many claimed that it was the worst hill that they had come across, I'm not sure, but secretly hoped that there was no more like that.

Soon we arrived at the port, however due to the previous unorganised lads they got lost had more punctures and had to have the minibus go and find them and recover them to the port, meaning that other riders were inconvenienced and never managed to grab anything else to eat as the minibus was never in the vicinity. The net result of this was that we missed our sailing and had to wait until the next one at 18:30.

I managed to grab a little protein by way of some eggs and a milk shake on the ferry and all too soon we had arrived in France and had unloaded at the hotel which was functional but miles outside of Calais which eventually made no difference as by the time I had collected the riders from the port who had brought too much stuff with them with them and couldn't ride their bike, it was nearly 22:00 and if I didn't hurry I was going to miss another meal opportunity.

I made it with minutes to spare and was presented with a nice carb rich cheese tartlet followed by some pasta which because of my condition I struggled to eat, but did manage a rather nice traditional French desert tart that upped my carb intake a little more. I finally got to bed around 23:45, but had volunteered to share a room with my son who has a sleeping disorder and sleeps like a buzz saw!

Day Two

I managed at the most 4 hours of sleeping, I hoped this would be enough as this was in theory the hardest day with at least 113 miles and nearly 7000 ft of climbing.

Although I had brought down porridge oats and milk, there was little time to prepare it, so I grabbed some muesli which I figured would at least have some oats in and a chocopain, anything more would have been too filling.

The morning was a typical European one, a hazy bright start with the sun trying to break through, dry and with the promise of some tail winds.

The first thing that struck me was just how smooth the roads were, they were gorgeous, this was soon followed by how courteous the public and drivers were, it turned that they loved cyclists with many lorries tooting support and much calling of Allez, Allez or the casual Bonjour, it was really quite wonderful.

The first scheduled stop was at the war memorial site at Etaples about 40 miles in. After paying our respects it was evident that some riders did not subscribe to the theory of "Big" and felt uncomfortable riding at least a metre away from the kerb and fearing that we were jeopardising their safety suggested that if we didn't ride to suit them that we should ride alone, problem sorted, the seven of us who had made the training effort and were the fastest agreed to ride off at our pace which was a lot faster, this made things so much more manageable and to be truthful more enjoyable.

With renewed vigour we found it so easy to hold a pace of between 22-25mph, the roads made it so easy and with the holiday feel and sun at our backs we made great progress through Boulogne and south bound heading towards our overnight stop at Amiens.

Stopping for food did not occur to me as I was carrying 4 of the new High 5 4:1 carb bars and a couple of their normal ones, the biggest problem appeared to be fluids as the temperature was in the high 20's, a friends words of hydration echoed in my head and by the end of the day I had consumed 8x750 ml bottles of fluids and only had one small wee break!

Trying to find somewhere to eat was difficult, one place we did try wanted at least €50 for a meal, which we felt was extortionate, some miles further on we stumbled across a camp site and enjoyed a most rewarding ice lolly and topped up with a litre of chilled water, carrying on afterwards we felt so refreshed and the roads just got better and better.

Some 20 miles before the end of that days ride, one of the lads collided with car at a cross roads in a small village, apparently there is not a right of way in such circumstances, only that you should proceed with caution at each junction, he was not badly injured, just some road rash, sprained hand and a scratched shifter, but he made a great dent in the wing of the car. The whole village appeared to come out upon discovering the incident and it took at least an hour to resolve before we could get on our way.

We finally arrived at our hotel surprisingly fresh despite the 114.1 miles and nearly 7000ft of climbing. We had time to unload, shower, and chill before the first signs of the other riders appeared, the hotel had previously agreed to provide a carb rich dinner, which sadly turned out to be just a buffet. I finally had a chance to get some recovery drinks inside me and as we had completed the day so quickly, it gave a chance to recover sufficiently for the next day’s ride, sleep was another matter as I was lumbered with my son again.

Day Three

We decided to let the other group leave about 20-30 minutes before us, giving them a chance to arrive at Paris together, but after probably only 40 minutes we had caught them and overtook them, probably because we were quite disciplined with drafting and churning the miles in, in addition we had all done sufficient training to maintain such a pace.

The roads again were beautiful and just rolled up and down for most of the way, we maintained a steady speed of 22-24 mph on the flats and it just seemed so effortless.

We finally reached an area of large hills, looking at the Garmin I could see that the road weaved backwards and forwards for many kilometres over these lumps, so with my normal fear of hills was a little anxious. I believe this particularly climb had been previously used in tours as there was considerable white writing all over the road marking the 1km & 2km distance etc. so I scrambled for my 34/25 combination, relaxed and just spun at a nice steady pace up the first length, fearing that as I rounded a corner that it would kick up, but it didn’t and it kept like that for the entire climb, it turned out the climb was between 7-10% and I was quite relived to have reached the summit without getting off!

Some short distance afterward the Garmin said we needed to turn left into what appeared a natural beauty spot (Chantilly) with a aquamarine coloured lake and a Typical French Chateau overlooking it, the road along it which turned out to be the only option was cobbled and just riding it for 200 metres proved to be very challenging, it was a lot rougher than your normal cobbled roads and I’m sure we all lost fillings riding down it, the solution finally was to ride on the dirt path at the side.

Stopping for a photo, we now had just 38 miles before completing the ride, the roads continued for another 13 miles to be smooth and beautiful and then we reached the main A1 at Charles De Gaul into Paris, although blindingly busy, the road was smooth and we rolled up and down effortlessly.

All of a sudden I lost all of my ability to keep up with the others, I had hit the Wall, although I had eaten at our last short stop, it would appear that it was not enough, I pulled onto the verge and grabbed a couple of gels, ate another High 5 bar and consumed half a bottle of 4:1 drink, within 5 minutes I had recovered sufficiently to commence riding again and Mark who had waited back with me allowed me to draft him to catch up with the lads, who had kindly pulled over and waited for me.

The lads were most accommodating with my dilemma and we took back off at a slightly slower pace of about 20mph, shortly we started to hit the traffic as there was some serious road works leading in on the last 18 miles, even riding a bike we were blocked by single lanes and contra flows and that last 18 miles we only managed an average of 9.1 mph as it was impossible to build up any speed.

We passed a line of school kids whilst riding down one of the bike lanes, all who insisted on giving us a “Hi 5” as we passed....truly memorable. We finally arrived at the Champs Elysees, notable as the final stage of the Tour de France, the road was cobbled and it was amazing to see just the 18” smooth strip at the edge where many riders rode in order to maintain the pace at 30mph, that day was not one of the days as it was so full of traffic.

At the top, one of the lads asked if we were going to ride around the Arc de Triumphe notorious as being the busiest roundabout in the world, we answered but of course and kept together on the inside of the roundabout allowing the traffic to block each junctions influx so that we could proceed safely, adrenalin pumping we made it and our speed increased as the only thing between our destination and us was a bridge over the River Seine, three of the lads had the energy to get into a sprint until the lights changed.

We finally rode under the Eiffel Tower, where the first thing I saw was my Wife, Daughter, Sister-in-law and friends, such an emotional moment that I had to hold back a tear and keep a stiff upper lip.

What an achievement the final day were 96 miles + another 6 miles to the hotel making it 102 miles and another 5000ft of climbing. I arranged to meet my wife back at the hotel and the six of us enthusiastically rode there, feeling quite confident now, I stupidly miscalculated the height of a kerb and my wheel failed to make it, I crashed onto the pavement just one mile from the hotel, I just laid there stunned until the reality sank in and feeling returned to my side, damage was limited to road rash, torn Assos shorts, scratched glasses, small scratch to my chain stay, cycling shoes and some bruising...phew

Would I do it all again...you bet and plans are afoot now for doing Paris from a different direction next year, but this time doing it with people we know are dedicated and making the rides shorter so as to see a little more of the overnight stops, endurance is not such an important issue as this year and it is likely that we will do it from Caen, through Upper Normandy into Paris, some may join the ride from Portsmouth, others will want to do it from London, our route is designed to be flexible.