The
Royal British Legion organises all accommodation, routes, route closures,
transport and logistics to offer you maximum enjoyment whilst riding your bike.
Day 1 - Greenwich
Park to Dover Ferry Port
The
view from Greenwich reminded me again how much I love London!
After
a short rider briefing you set off in a group. The ride to get out of London is
as expected quite slow and must be very frustrating for the drivers.
I
started at the back and realised that I've lost David & Gus really quickly.
I then tried to play catch up in my search to find then. After about 45km we
had our first stop at the Royal British Legion Industries Village in Aylesford.
I arrived with only a few people hanging about. Being me I immediately felt
deserted thinking they just carried on without me. :-( After a visit to the
ladies I went outside and suddenly there were heaps of cyclist including my
side-kicks. Apparently they had a comfort break saw me going past, called after
me, wanted to chase after me, but got stopped by a ride captain to regroup. I
was delighted to have my company back. We swore a truce to stay together till
the end from there onwards.
The
last few times I went out on my road bike my coccyx got really sore. I thought
it was because of a hard rear tyre & no suspension. Well the opposite was
true, it was a rear tyre that lost air slowly.
We
were just in the mix after lunch when the inevitable happened, rear tyre
puncture! I pulled over, David with me, put my hand in the air, service van
stopped asked me how many gears, classic TC answer, maybe 9 or 10... No I mean
10!
Back
wheel changed and off we went, David & I that is! :) Gus long forgotten the
truce. We were now right at the back! David put the hammer down and all I had
to do was sit in his back wheel as he powered on. We were picking up people the
whole time. Eventually I took a few turns at the front. We eventually caught
Gus where he was drafting behind 3 ladies!
He
looked a bit pooped and I force fed him one of my treasured salty potatoes!
Apparently he was just fine, but obliged anyway. David cracked on, almost left
me behind, I managed to catch him again, but we lost Gus in the process. So
much for our sworn truce. J We stopped for our
well-deserved much needed lunch bang on 1 pm!
We
had only 30km left to Dover with Dover Hill our biggest obstacle. David and I
rode along with Steve Sherry from Royal British Legion Industries (note they
are different from RBL). I realised that Steve has been on our Christmas card
list for the past few years and that last year I’ve mistaken RBL & RBLI for
the same place and phoned up RBL with confidence to ask for Steve’s address.
Finally the penny dropped.
Negotiating
the fly-over leading into Dover hill was much harder than Dover Hill itself,
the road surface are very uneven and your legs just feel a bit ughh! Dover Hill
was not as bad as I remembered it from last year which I am very thankful for. We celebrated conquering the hill with the
traditional beer at the very conveniently placed pub. From there it is a long
fun descent into Dover where we board the ferry.
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| White Cliffs of Dover |
Day 2 - Calais to Abbeville
The
day started with a ceremony at Calais before we headed to our normal coffee
shop waiting for the groups to start. There was a bit of confusement as to
which group started at 9:45 as the booklet were incorrect. I confirmed via the
ride captains that the fast group were starting at 9:45 and the intermediate
group started at 10:00. Mark & David were still questioning me, “Tharina if
we are in the fast group…?” I couldn’t help but laugh at that as I wish I had
the guts to per accidentally sign us up for the fast group, but then my P45 would
quite possible be on my desk as soon as I get back to London, so better not to
risk it. Hehe.
I
find it weird how I can remember and visualize mountain biking routes, but when
it gets to road cycling, I just go blank. The guys reminded me of the Tower
climb, all I could remember about it, is that I didn’t really like it… This
year it seemed to be a lot better than last year. I think I have to thank the
Wales Epic from two weeks before Pedal to Paris for getting me in shape. I felt
really strong and were mixing it up going up the short steep climbs! One of the
outriders was brilliant, he has this really old playlist on his motorbike and as
soon as we hit a hill he rides alongside us turning up the music and the ride
basically becomes a moving spinning class! My best memory of this was going up
a hill on the beat of U2’s, Beautiful Day! Merci Monsieur!
To
the English eating potatoes during exercise is almost as weird as being offered
a chicken and egg baguette for lunch in France! I firmly believe in potatoes,
the Cape Epic does it, so it must be right! I snacked on my pre-boiled salty potatoes every day and had only one left by the end of Day 4. Salty potatoes are the rocket fuel for champions. :)
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| Riding buddy for the day, Chris Gray |
We
regrouped at the last drinks stop of the day before entering our final
destination as one big group. We were cycling along flat farmlands and to my
delight they were harvesting fresh potatoes. Now listen, you can take me away
from the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of me! I was in my element! The
smell of fresh soil along with being totally amazed at this potato harvester!
The plants were all gone, this thing was digging it out, rolling it over some
rollers to get rid of most of the soil, then moving it into a drum before being
ferried out via a conveyor belt into a wagon! Amazing!!! The reason for my
amazement was the whole process, I love a process and also in SA, there is no
such technology that I know off yet. This was a one man job, in SA this would be a 10 man job over the course of a week or 2!
Back
to cycling… We were riding along at quite a nice pace in one big group, not as much stop
starting as last year and almost in Abbeville when I got my second puncture,
this time it was my front wheel! Phuutt, hand up, van pulled in, wheel change & back
I go. We were at the back again… One of the ride captains pulled in front of
me, whilst a motorbike pulled in front of him and Chris jumped on my back
wheel. We were given a freehand at chasing back to the pack! Man this was great!
This was the most fun we had all day!!! It wasn’t for long before we caught up
and had to settle down to a very tame pace. :(
I
had a great day and loved it even though there were times that I would’ve loved
to be able to go faster!
At
dinner I was sitting next to one of the ride captains and we were discussing
the day etc. I mentioned that I was battling on the two long hills. He then
asked, “Did you walk up it?” (insert a frowning face) I wasn’t quite sure what to answer as I didn’t
quite expect to be asked that question. Knowing that all my riding partners
were looking at me in anticipation of my answer to him I was under pressure to
have a good come back… So I thought the only way to answer him instead of
giving him a complete scalding is to answer with a question, "Would you
like to ask that again?” END of story!
Day 3 – Abbeville to
Beauvais
I
remembered this day as my favourite day last year. I rode most of the day with
Paul & Tim. We had a great ride captain, Danny who allowed us to play a bit
leaving a nice gap between us and the pace car. This helps as it doesn’t have
an immediate effect on the peloton when the pace car slows down, the ripple
effect of breaking is a lot less.
Apparently
I was very moany and for some reason I can’t remember much about Day 3,
that must be the reason!
Just
before lunch we picked up a bit of speed and were back in our outdoor spinning
class with Mr Motorbike and his sound track. I needed that!
Today
we were treated with a ham baguette and an amazing French tartlet! Wow – they do
taste as good as they look.
After
lunch however we were back onto the tail of the pace car and were just pulled
along some flat lands. I was counting down the km’s to the street party in
Auchy as I was starting to feel pins and needles in my right lower back area. On
one of the hills one of the other girls came past me, I jumped on her wheel,
she pulled us to the top where I took over on the flat bit and pulled us back
to the pace car – that team work was fun-fun-fun!
I
went to the masseuse as soon as we arrived and he literally clicked my back in
and manipulated it a bit, I was so relieved.
One
thing I’m still not used to or will ever get used to is the amount of panic in
the peloton at the sight of gravel. As soon as the first one shouts the dreaded
word gravel, the echoes of gravel, gravel,
gravel becomes louder as the panic grows! The thing with gravel is that you just slow down a little bit, don’t change your line &
keep on pedalling…
We
regrouped and cruised together to Beauvais where we had an evening ceremony.
Unfortunately we were surrounded with dark black clouds and we couldn’t out
sprint the rain.
The
mayor of Beauvais invited us for champagne in the Town Hall which was very nice!
Tim
joined us for dinner and whilst not saying much during our ride all of my
observations (moaning) were thrown out there for us all to laugh at… Schucks I did moan a
lot today, the poor man!
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| David, Gus, Mark, Lil, TC & Steve |
Day 4 – Beauvais to
Paris!!!
I’m
not sure why, but the night before the last day we are all a bit like children
who didn’t want to go to sleep! This morning was a slow start for me, getting
ready to double the time it normally does!
There
was a nice presentation of a yellow jersey to the top fundraiser of the event.
Rob was awarded with it and decided to ride in the intermediate group for the day,
he had a bunch of friends around him riding for him on the hills and keeping
him in the group. It was lovely to see how they worked together. That is what makes
cycling so special!
The
peloton started out in silence as fatigue definitely kicked in. People were using
hand signs rather than shouting hole etc!
It
was a much harder day than what I remembered from before. It started out with a
steady long climb which thankfully was much better than last year, I was quite
surprised and thankful that my legs didn’t disappoint me. The first half was
quite undulating surprising us with lots of short steep climbs! I got to cycle
with Gus a bit and as it was the last day the pace car had a sense of urgency
to get us at our lunch stop in time, so it was a bit like shut up & pedal
to get there, but it was good.
Chris
started the day not feeling great! Mark & Steve were looking after him
before lunch. After lunch David, myself & Gus took over, riding with him in
his hour of need. Pacing him, feeding him & encouraging him.
We
stopped about 4km from the Arc d’Triomphe to regroup. It worked really well
this year and as expected it was truly special to arrive together in a big
group and in one piece after 4 days and 460km on our bikes!
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| Our moment of glory |
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| With my favorite Scotsmen, David and his best friend Gus! |
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| Made it! |
Final Observations
It has been a great experience yet again on and off the bike. This blog is too long already to try and fit in everything so I tried to keep it top level, but unfortunately I write as much as I talk. We were a much smaller team, but it was great as we got to spend more time with each other and we all looked after each other whether making sure we were awake in the morning, holding a seat at the table, buying drinks, carrying a bag, offering a back wheel, seeing the Medics on behalf of someone else, getting a plaster for bruised peep-peeps. You name it, we did it! Thank you all for all the fun we had and looking after me.
I’ve been amazed by everybody who rides it regardless of their ability, size, type of bike or the type of clothing they wear, it just proves that anybody who puts their mind to something can do it! One of the ladies on our team, Davina started riding in April 2015 only a mere 5 months ago and she completed it. I feel inspired by her guts!
Our team is planning to get back together on 11 October to ride the Boxhill Sportive and I know some people have been so keen and have signed up already for next year.
The best gear to take along apart from the essentials
https://www.facebook.com/TangoCycling
Routes can be found on Garmin Connect or Strava
https://www.strava.com/athletes/182654
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activities
To sponsor us click on the link beow:
https://www.justgiving.com/TCridestoParisagain
The best gear to take along apart from the essentials
- Arm warmers - The comfort of pulling them up and down without having to stop is invaluable
- Gillet - The best way to regulate your core temperature without over heating with the extra material of sleeves and also much easier to take off whilst riding, not that I have perfected that on my road bike yet.
https://www.facebook.com/TangoCycling
Routes can be found on Garmin Connect or Strava
https://www.strava.com/athletes/182654
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activities
To sponsor us click on the link beow:
https://www.justgiving.com/TCridestoParisagain
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| Team Manpower 2015 |