CHALLENGE TWO;
CYCLE; LONDON TO PARIS - BOOKED - APRIL 2016.
So Challenge Number 2 came around pretty fast and it was a challenge just making sure I was ready for the cycle, commencing on Friday 15th April 2016.
The biggest issue was that I’d forgotten I’d need to get a road bike on a plane… Woops! A bike bag was bought and taken to Halfords on the Tuesday afternoon, big thank you to them who ‘broke it down’ on the Wednesday and then re-built it in the local store down in Twickenham on the Thursday afternoon, ready for me to add the finishing touches too on Thursday night from the comforts of my hotel room as I listened to Liverpool beat Borussia Dortmund!! (I had been in a pub for the first half and decided to sack it given the score… What a naff decision that turned out to be!!).
Anyways, Friday morning arrived, darkness looked at me and I wondered what exactly I’d just gotten myself into – road cycling is not and never has been a favourite of mine… But it’s all for a good cause and the bigger picture is all about the money being raised for CLIC Sargent.
I wandered through the streets of Twickenham, bike bag on one arm, weekend clothes on the other arm, pushing my bike as I went before a familiar face appeared in front of me! Sarah Milan (along her brother Mark) who had done Mount Kilimanjaro with me last year was also on the cycle and we had a good wee catch up about the 14 month gap in between our last challenges – this was deliberately planned!
After about half an hour of yapping, everyone else had arrived and we received our briefing from James who was to be our lead man as such on the first day of cycling – we also had Susan Blunt, Angus Kille (both cycling) and Ashley Harrison was the ‘man with the van’ – a place I didn’t want to find myself in over the next 3 days as that would mean disaster!!
I genuinely wasn’t sure what to expect on this cycle, I’d done long distances prior to the event but with no-one alongside me to train with, I had no comparison as to how I was actually doing. James then informed us that basically from here to Paris there were orange flags directing the way and we went at our own pace – if you got to a roundabout / T-junction, you’d gone the wrong way and had to give Ashley / James a phone and they’d either find you or direct you back to where you should be!!
We all got on our bikes and went off on our merry way as the rain started… Passing shower we thought… That would be incorrect – the whole day rained from start to finish. We stopped at a forestry lodge on the Friday afternoon and had a much needed coffee & chicken curry before cracking on again for the second session; 40 miles completed. The afternoon was a slog, the muscles seized up in the cold, the rain continued to batter down on us and it was horrible weather. The most annoying thing… The hills!! These slowed me down greatly, on the straights and downhills I was able to keep a steady pace but I honestly have no idea where in Aberdeenshire I could have had any practise on what we faced on Day 1 :’).. The only comparison I can make is like we were cycling up The Glebe for what seemed like miles at a time – different, painful but we got there!! We all arrived at a local swimming pool down in Portsmouth and had a quick shower etc. before cycling in our jeans / dressy clothes down to the ferry (and yes, it was still raining!!).
The ferry was a laugh, Mark, Phil (whom was to become my new best friend) and I were put together in the same cabin – cosy is a nice way to put our room for the night!! Once we sat down on the various beds, there was no moving us and we were all but passed out for the night; except Phil, who took about half an hour to turn off the lights in the cabin – me and Mark would have helped but neither of us could a**** moving once we got settled hahahaha. We were awoken at about 4.30am by the weirdest of music but it worked nonetheless – Mark was up and about and off for breakfast before Phil and I had even said ‘Good morning’, when we did get up however, we couldn’t find out where to go for food and had to settle for Kellog’s cereal bars!! A late dash to another part of the boat resulted in Phil finding us some bacon and we scoffed that before grabbing our bikes and heading off the ferry… What greeted us when we stepped off the ferry? I’m going to be Bradley Walsh here and give you three options;
A. Rain B. Rain C. Rain
Well done if you guessed Rain!!
Again, Day 2 followed a similar pattern to the first.. Off to a flyer until the major hills kicked in. The difference today however was the pains I was suffering – right above the right knee cap, every push down on the bike was agony but I kept my head down and went for it. The rain persisted, the pain persisted and lunch consisted of Beef – something my body was going to become very accustomed to over the next 48 hours!! Sadly, the afternoon session was a disaster as my knee had swelled up to twice it’s size and you could genuinely fry an egg on it. James sat me down and basically said; ‘if you don’t get in that van and rest your leg, you won’t complete tomorrow’s cycle and that’s more important…’ – so into the dreaded van I went, dropped off at the hotel, leg up resting and drying out from the rain.. The evening wasn’t the best, a lot of pain, more beef and trying to keep the spirits up despite knowing there was 70 miles of pain looking my way the final day.
Sunday morning came around and this was it, topped up on Ibuprofens, Paracetamol and a knee strap on – I had one plan, go off as fast as I could and man up. Fortunately, we had this thing called sunshine greet us today and it was a definite morale booster! The head went down and I channelled my inner ‘Kilimanjaro zone’… It’s a weird thing to describe unless you’ve felt it and I it’s genuinely like having an outer body experience the whole morning session – the pain was so bad that I was numb.. Yet at the same time.. It didn’t feel anything – totally zoned out and focussing on putting one leg in front of the other. Me, Mark & Jon made 20 mile water stop in about an hour and a half – Ashley was ripping me for being in the front group for a change (cheeky bugger) and the 3 of us headed off to find a café in the next wee village we came to – it was a success and we were able to flag down our fellow cyclists as and when they got near. Again, the head went down and everyone in the group absolutely smashed it to lunch time – amazing what a bit of sun and good weather can do. The final 7 or 8 miles to lunch time were a joke, constant uphills, followed by massive downhills, then up, then down.. By this point I was just laughing at the whole situation – I was in absolute agony but Susan, Tammy & Sarah had caught up with me by this point and telling me we’d already passed the 40 mile mark kept me going to lunch. We got to lunch, had beef again – this time in the form of a lasagne – and the body had seized up greatly, knowing we only had 20 miles to go though was crazy – everyone’s spirits were high and we cracked on with the final part of the cycle. 3 miles out, we got our first sight of the Eiffel Tower and we all had a stop here before Ashley in van & Paul in a car sandwiched us as a convoy into Paris itself. By this point, nothing was stopping any of us from making the finish line, irrespective of our sore bits!! Into Paris we got, the traffic was hands down the stupidest bits of driving I’d ever seen – made Aberdeen drivers look like Gods but alas, the Tower was reached and everyone was overcome with joy that we’d made it!!
The necessary photos and phonecalls were made to the important people, champagne was downed, medals were handed out and one final cycle to the hotel meant our 240 miles were complete and Challenge Number 2 was over.
For the 3rd night in a row, Phil and I room shared (and the beds were separate despite what the picture looked like… We promise!!) And we had a good laugh at the journey of rooms we’d found ourselves in over the previous 72 hours; a squashed cabin (night 1), a decent enough room with thin walls (guess what we heard… Night 2) and finally, the main event, the 19th floor of the Novotel in Paris overlooking everything and space to walk around and even an English setting on the TV – champions!!
For the 4th meal in a row, beef was served and thanks were given to James, Susan, Ashley, Paul, Ben & Angus for their boss planning and control over the last 3 days. We then hit the bar at the hotel which disappointingly shut at 12am but that wasn’t stopping some of us; Me, Mark, Phil & Sarah found ourselves a 10 pin bowling alley at 12am which was open until 3 and we were soon joined by Angus, Heidi & Ben – the chaos that ensued over the next few hours were hilarious! 10 pin bowling, alcohol and 7 folk who had just burned about 50,000 calories between them over the last 3 days was always going to end up in chaos and it rightfully did!
The Monday came – kit was packed and Mark, Sarah & myself headed to the train station early, dropped our bags off (one locker fitted all our bags… Or Mark… We had a tough decision to make on who / what to leave behind…!!! ;p) then set off on as much sightseeing as we could! Of course, dodgy knee and all, we decided climbing 200 steps to the Sacre Coeur on our travels was a wise idea and we also went to the Place de la Republique Memorial and paid our respects. Very hard hitting seeing that and everything that went with it.
The Eurotunnel was decent – over in no time although I went to sleep for an hour yet slept for about a minute; when I dozed off, it was 3.30pm French time and woke up at 3.31pm – confused, I realised that my clock had reset itself to English time – DUH.
We all said our goodbyes and I’ve now got to do my best to coax them all into joining me on Challenge Number 3; Machu Picchu Trek which is booked for October 2017!
A massive thanks to all those who sponsored The Flag for this challenge – your sponsorship is much appreciated and anyone who wishes to get on The Flag prior to Challenge Number 3, get in touch!
Next stop, the cricket season!!
Over and out.
Liam.
www.justgiving.com/liamthom