London2Paris.co.ukThe 2009 London to Paris Bike Ride

Hi all,

I hope all is going well with everyone training for the big London to Paris bike ride in September.

I wanted to start thinking about sponsorship and see what you all thought.

A few choices to think about – should we:

1. all find a common charity we wish to get sponsorship for and have a team charity
2. each find our own individual charity to get sponsorship for
3. not worry about charity sponsorship at all

If we want to go down the sponsorship route then I will add details of this onto our site so that people can visit our website and complete the whole sponsorship process online.

Let us know what you think.

I came across this website a few weeks ago and have been meaning to post it: http://www.enjoytheview.eu.

It’s a personal site from a couple of guys (Paul and Mark) from the UK who completed the London to Paris bike ride on their own in 2008. They have a few blog posts from their trip on their website which are really interesting to read and have a load of photos taken from their trip on there too. Their tips and suggestions are a real help – thanks Paul and Mark, it’s a great site.

The guys have a couple of videos that show some of the highlights of their trip London to Paris trip which I have added below:

London to Paris by bike (Part 1 of 2)

London to Paris by bike (Part 2 of 2)

Next week is “Bike Week 2009″. “Bike Week is the biggest nationwide cycling event in the UK. A national celebration of cycling, Bike Week helps you get more out of life – by getting you on your bike and exploring your local community”.

There are load of cycle events happening all over the UK to celebrate Bike Week 2009 so take a look at the official website to find out something near you: http://www.bikeweek.org.uk.

Apple and I are planning to attend an event in London to get some on-road practice in, to help to keep us focused and motivated by cycling with lots of other people in formation.

Here’s some details of the one in London we’re gonna attend:

Event name:

Open Garden Squares Weekend Ride

Event date:

14th June 2009 – 10:00am – Approx 5:30pm.

Location:

Ride starts outside Marylebone station.

Distance:

Adult beginners /easy ride (Not sure on exact distances!)

Description

Use your bike to visit some of the 190+ London secret gardens specially opening to the public this weekend.

The ride is free but you will need an £8 ticket to visit the gardens. You can buy this on the day or in advance – see their website.

Participants may choose to leave or join the ride along the way.

More info on the London “Open Garden Squares Weekend Ride”

Montagu Square, London. An example of what you get to see on the way.

If anyone wants to take part in this event then let us know. You don’t need to register, you can just turn up on the day. We’re gonna take our bikes down on the train and then try enjoying a day on our bikes and a bit of sunshine too (we hope!!). Might see you there then.

It’s been real hard work in the last 4 weeks. Before deciding to attempt this challenge, I was far too lazy for too long – not doing much in terms of exercise and eating far too many ‘good things’ and through the winter I was very much turning into a couch potato.

So because of this I have started my training with a pretty bad level of general fitness. I have certainly paid this laziness in the last 4 weeks. Starting in week one with getting out of breath very quickly, feeling dizzy and sick and with legs that felt like jelly – and that was from just 30 minutes on the bike!!

Still, having this challenge to aim for has mean’t that I have had to push myself. I contacted a few people who already cycle long distances, visited a few online forums, read some books and from all this I set-up a training plan which you can see on The Training Page. This has now become a constant reminder of what I need to do, when I need to do it to get me to the point where I can achieve success and power myself from London to Paris by bicycle.

By the end of week one, I was pretty sure that I had gone mad agreeing to do this trip, but thankfully I pushed on with the training and I am now starting to feel the benefits of it.

Yes, I am exhausted after the weekly 2 hour cycles and my back-side hurts from being on the bike saddle but at least the legs are getting there and the dizziness gone. I have been quite surprised at how quickly the body gets back into regular exercise. The weekday cycles are enjoyable (when the weather is good) and I am now just concentrating on trying to keep up the pressure on myself, slowly increasing my average speed and trying to build up the strength in my legs. I’ve got a long way to go for sure, but I think I am on track and am looking forward to the big cycle trip itself so much that the training time I have had to put in is now starting to become a pleasant routine.

Here’s an interesting stat that I found whilst researching for the training plan:

In terms of intensity and endurance, comparing cycling and running is about 4:1. So a comparable cycling distance to running a marathon is about 100 miles.

Now, I’m not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. If that’s right, then that means in just 4 days cycling from London to Paris we would have done the equivalent of 2.5 marathons!!

Anyway, here is where I got the stat from, it’s a rather useful guide: An Amateur’s Quick Guide to Long-Distance Cycling

I have been looking into the route in more detail over the last few days and as a result, I have some questions that I need to run by you all.

Here was the initial route idea:

• London to Dieppe via NewHaven (Approx. 64 Miles):
  Thursday 17th September
• Dieppe to Rouen (Approx. 38 Miles):
  Friday 18th September
• Rouen to Beauvais (Approx. 55 Miles):
  Saturday 19th September
• Beauvais to Paris (Approx. 53 Miles):
  Sunday 20th September

This route was created from suggestions by those who have completed the trip already as well as trying to take in the major sights along the way. As you can see by looking at the route on a map, it’s the most direct route possible and takes in some really nice places (well in France anyway!).

I’ve been looking into the ferry times from Newhaven to Dieppe and here is where the problem lies. The ferry times have now changed and are as follows:

• Departure: 09:30 / Arrival: 14:30
• Departure: 22:30 / Arrival: 03:30

Ferry small print Times are subject to tidal variations. Check-in starts 2 hours prior to sailing time. Passengers arriving less than 45 minutes before departure may not be granted embarkation. [Ferry Website]

The original plan was to get from London to Newhaven in one day and get onto the ferry as soon as possible and sleep in Dieppe for the night ready for the next days cycling. Problem is, the ferry doesn’t leave until 22:30 which is very late. Providing the boat is on time then we will not arrive in Dieppe until 3:30am, and from there we still need to cycle to our hotel. It could be 4.30am before we arrive and get to sleep. This would be too hard after a very long day’s cycling!

I have a couple of ideas of how we can get around this and wanted to get your opinions on them.

Option 1

• London to NewHaven (Approx. 64 Miles):
  Thursday 17th September
• Newhaven to Rouen via Dieppe (Approx. 38 Miles):
  Friday 18th September
• Rouen to Beauvais (Approx. 55 Miles):
  Saturday 19th September
• Beauvais to Paris (Approx. 53 Miles):
  Sunday 20th September

We cycle from London to Newhaven and stay in Newhaven for the night. This reduces the pressure on us to make sure that we arrive in Newhaven in time for the ferry (however late the ferry is!). It means that we can wake up and relax for a few hours on the ferry (4 hours on ferry) before we get cycling from Dieppe to Rouen.

Only problem with this option is that we will arrive in Dieppe late in the afternoon. It will not be till 3:30pm before we get cycling, and with around 6 hours cycling and that sunrise at this time of the year in France is 07:30 and sunset 19:50, it means that we will be cycling in the dark and won’t arrive until late – something I was hoping to avoid.

Option 2

• London to NewHaven (Approx. 64 Miles):
  Thursday 17th September
• Newhaven to Neufchâtel-en-Bray via Dieppe (Approx. 23 Miles):
  Friday 18th September
• Neufchâtel-en-Bray to Beauvais (Approx. 39 Miles):
  Saturday 19th September
• Beauvais to Paris (Approx. 53 Miles):
  Sunday 20th September

The same as option 1 in that we cycle from London to Newhaven and stay in Newhaven for the night. We take the morning ferry the next day but instead of cycling all the way to Rouen, we miss Rouen out completely and cycle the shorter distance of just 23 miles (about 2.5 hours) to Neufchâtel-en-Bray and stay there the night instead. Should be able to get there around 6pm – well before sunset.

This option also means that the trip from Neufchâtel-en-Bray to Beauvais is just 39 miles instead of 55 miles from Rouen to Beauvais shaving off over 45 miles from the whole trip.

What do you think? Which option do you think is best? Any other ideas?

This has been the toughest week so far, long hours at work, recovering from the bank holiday and the seemingly endless amounts of alchohol and burgers that were consumed and the worst of all, chronic pains in my knee which I thought I had said good riddance too…

Still training in the gym, which I realize is not the best preperation for a trip of this proportions but I have no bike, and taking this into consideration I felt that this was better for me than just simply sitting at home and exercising my fore arm whilst honing my crisp eating skills, which are, quite formidable.

So far this week I have done a total of 1 hour 20 mins on the gym bike and done a grand total of about 21 miles which isn’t that bad, but when calculated into practicing on the road, this distance will be greatly reduced….

With regards to the team there are a few nicknames to be decided on, one of the names I would like to suggest for instance is Ed ‘The Cracken’ Moore…. this is a reference to his record breaking builders crack, which has continued to grow even though Ed himself has stopped, in the middle of this century it will be somewhere near his ears…

Another is Alan ‘8 meals’ Bull, this is due to his amazing ability to be lighter than your average 4 year old but still manages to eat the equivalent weight of a Killer Whale in food everyday..

Another is Scott ‘The God’ Metcalf, due to my intelligence, wit, and never ending pearls of wisdom which are revered throughout the western world, it would be the entire world but I don’t want to be arrogant and anyway half of the eastern part don’t speak my language so would not be able to understand me, so they would just have to be content with my intense good looks instead… I know some people would think this is arrogance but its not, its truthfulness, a huge difference..

There is also Apple ‘ The Apple’ Bull, a wonderful person with a wonderful personality who continues to take the mickey out of me to hide her love for me in front of her husband…

I’m signing off now, I’m salivating about what idiotic comments I’m going to write next week already..

I don’t know what made me want to do this. But strange enough, I’m so excited about it.

But I still need to do a lot of training. When I say a lot of training, I mean a lot!

I’m the person who is not so fit, I’m very lazy when it comes to exercise so I think it’s a good excuse for me to make myself fit again after giving birth to my beautiful Alishia just 5 months ago.

I’m very excited about the fact that I will be able to say to everyone that the first time I went to Paris was by bicycle.

So bring it on!!!!

You never know one day I might decide to do London to Thailand if it can save me the money on the airfare there, ha ha ha.

I am pleased to confirm two new members of the London to Paris bike ride team. These two were crazy enough to agree to this challenge today, and my best wishes go out to you with the training!

• Luke O’Sullivan
• Dave Gillham

Welcome to the team guys and I look forward to trying to keep up with you both who I’m sure will fly through the 200 miles that’s between us and Paris.

As stated in my last post, the realisation that I would have to pull my finger out became a reality.

So as I am lucky, I went for a ride whilst at work in full kit. And comparing my efforts with the training plan, pleasantly surprised. 10.2 Miles in 1.12hours with an average of 8.4 miles per hour.

I feel I should note that it wasn’t all fun , I did reunite a lost child with her mother.

So there have been lots of people saying how interested they are in completing the London to Paris bike ride in September. But as always with these highly challenging events, actually getting people to commit to doing it takes some time as there is lots to think about and consider and the reality of taking part in such a challenge can be quite overwhelming. Most will decide against doing it but there is always a few who are really up for it.

A few of us had the chance to meet up yesterday to chat a little about the trip and what equipment is needed and of course what training is needed.

So, in terms of “the team”, we now have the first 4 confirmed members and the date has been set for the London to Paris bike ride.

The team so far:

• Alan Bull
• Apple Bull
• Scott Metcalf
• Ed Moore

The date: Thursday 17th September 2009

Unfortunately, Darren Clarke was not able to confirm that he will take part in the bike ride. Although, if you do change your mind Darren, there is always room on the team for you mate!

I’m expecting a few more people to confirm over the next few days and shall post back then with details and will update The Team page shortly after!

If you’re reading this and are interested, then please let me know. The more people the better I say!