London2Paris.co.ukThe 2009 London to Paris Bike Ride

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!

After discussing the details of the trip I’m wondering whether you need to talc up before riding whilst wearing Lycra?

Finally checked the training plan and now I’m starting to think I need to really pull my finger out.

Also I’m now wondering whether you can get Lycra Hot Pants for men?

I have also foreseen a hidden danger whilst bending over, will other people park their bike where they really should not?!

I have been asked a few times this week, “who’s crazy idea is it to cycle from London to Paris!”. So thought it might be an idea to add it to the blog.

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.

Now we’ve finally made the decision to go ahead and cycle from London to Paris in September 2009, I am finally – a whole week later – only just getting to grips with the idea. Now we’ve said yes, it all seems so real and there’s just seems so much to organise and do now.

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!

That’s right, now that we have all agreed to complete the London to Paris bike ride in September this year it’s now time to do some serious training and preparation and actually complete this challenge.

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!