I have been waiting for this government backed scheme to start again for almost 3 months now. I have been using my Specialized mountain bike I bought from Evans Cycles a few years ago for all my training so far. I love my bike, it’s a great bike and a pleasure to ride, but it is heavy and the tires very bulky – not ideal for long distances.

I had always planned to get a new bike in time for this trip, but I never realised it would take this long for the scheme to start again – but the almost 40% discount is well worth the wait as it means I can get a much better bike that I could normally.

So I have registered, completed all the necessary forms and I am now just waiting for my vouchers to come through in the next week or so.

My work has teamed with Halfords to supply the bikes and equipment – whom are not famous for their great customer service. Choice there is limited in the higher end, but thankfully they do offer the award winning Chris Boardman bike range which I have my mind set upon now.

I am after a hybrid bike that’s lightweight, and a pleasure to ride long distances. Essentially I am buying the bicycle for this trip, but I very much plan to use it often after returning from Paris. The Chris Boardman 2009 Hybrid range offers 4 models: Competition, Team , Pro and Pro Ltd. All of them get great reviews, which is reassuring but I can’t decide on which one is for me.

I have shortlisted the Pro and the Pro Ltd but I need help deciding which one I should actually go for. Here come the comparison:

Model	Hybrid Pro	Hybrid Pro Ltd
Price	£799.99 (Around £400 with discount)	£999.99 (Around £500 with discount)
Frame	Ultralight super butted	Ultralight super butted
Fork	Lightweight carbon fibre with alloy steerer	Lightweight carbon fibre with alloy steerer
Headset	Semi integrated cartridge bearing	Semi integrated cartridge bearing
Spacers	Full carbon 4×5mm, 1×10mm	Full carbon 4×5mm, 1×10mm
Stem	Ritchey Comp OS 31.8mm	Ritchey Pro OS 31.8mm
Handlebars	Ritchey Comp Flat OS 31.8mm	Ritchey Pro Flat OS 31.8mm
Bar End	Ritchey Comp	Ritchey WCS
Seatpost	Ritchey Comp 27.2mm	Ritchey Pro 27.2mm
Saddle	cboardman, Cro-Mo rails	cboardman, Cro-Mo rails
Brakes	Avid Elixir R hydraulic disc brakes, 160mm rotors	Avid Elixir R carbon hydraulic disc brakes, 160mm rotors
Shifters	SRAM X7 9 speed	SRAM Rival Double tap 10 speed
Rear Mech	SRAM X9	SRAM Rival
Front Mech	Shimano R440	SRAM Rival
Cassette	SRAM PG950 11-32T	Shimano CS-5600 12-27T
Chain	Shimano HG-73	Shimano CN-5600
Chainset	Truvativ Touro compact 50×36T	Truvativ Touro compact 50×36T
Bottom Bracket	Truvativ GXP	Truvativ GXP
Rims	Ritchey Pro disc rims	Ritchey Pro disc rims
Hubs	Sealed bearings	Sealed bearings
Spokes	Stainless steel double butted black	Stainless steel double butted black
Tyres	Maxxis Detonator 700×28c	Maxxis Detonator 700×28c
Pedals	Alloy body, steel cage, toe clips & straps	Alloy body, steel cage, toe clips & straps
Weight	21.2 lbs	20.6 lbs

More information about these bikes can be found here: Chris Boardman Bikes Website. Chris Boardman bikes are exclusive to Halfords – see the full range of Chris Boardman bikes at Halfords

So, what do you think? Which one should it be?

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.

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?

I got an email in March (just before my holiday) from the British Heart Foundation inviting me to get a team together to complete the London to Paris bike ride in September 2009.

Whilst I really liked the idea, I didn’t think too much about it at first, but whilst on holiday Apple and I started to think about it more seriously and we both thought that it may be worth aiming for and was sure that we’d find some friends who would also be interested in taking part.

Unfortunately, after deciding that we’d find out more about it, I was told that the trip was fully booked as the numbers are limited. They have did have another new date planned because of the popularity of the trip, but it seemed too soon to train properly for (August).

So, instead of waiting till next year – and in that time probably manage to talk ourselves out of the idea – we tried looking for other organised cycle rides from London to Paris before autumn and it gets to cold and wet to want to even consider such a quest. Many of the ones I found were either too soon to train for, too expensive just to take part in or if an organised charity bike ride – the minimum sponsorship level seemed out of reach.

We didn’t want to just give up, I think it’s good to push yourself every now and then. Therefore, we started thinking that it might be an idea just to get some friends together and go it alone.

We might still end up joining and organised event if we can find one, but the plan for now anyway is to organize our own trip.

As many of those looking to ‘join the team’ live in different areas I decided to use my web skills to create this blog for all of us to use. It took me quite a bit of time after work this week to get it all setup, but I’m sure it’ll be worth it in the long run. The idea is to create one central resource for all of us to keep in contact, and track our progress during training and the event itself.

Hopefully, the content we all add here may help others thinking about cycling from London to Paris in the future. It would be great for those who have already completed this route to get in touch and give us any handy tips and advice – I think we’re gonna need all the help we can get.

So far 6 of us have provisionally agreed to take part, and talking to a few people about the event this week, a couple more have taken a serious interest in getting involved too which is great – the more of us the better.

So as you can imagine, it’s been a busy week all around but things are starting to take shape now. We have a rough date in mind of when we want to start the trip, a very basic route idea, and training – however informal – has now begun for most. Well thinking about when to start training anyway!

This blog has been set up by one of the team for all of us to report on our progress through training and of course through the cycle trip itself. Expect many random posts, comments and pictures and videos as we put ourselves through hell to complete this trip is just under 4 months time!