Our plan was to ride from London to Paris unsupported in 3 ½ days and then fly back to the UK. We were also going to use the first two days as our qualifying ride for Ride the Lobster.
Our ride was to start on the River Thames in Greenwich, London. Paul Royle, Mark Wiggins and I met up at 7.30am, for a 7.50am start. We were all riding big wheels and carrying extra gear in our packs, as we were riding unsupported. It was a chilly start to the day due to the clear skies. We followed Sustrans Cycle Network Route 21 out of London which seemed to take a lifetime even though the route was well signed ? it was all those endless junctions and so countless dismounts!! The weather continued to be excellent, apart from the cold throughout the day. Once out of London things became hillier and more off-road. At times we thought the route would be better suited to a muni and not the 36ers we were riding.
It became obvious that this ride was going to take a lot longer than planned. Our ferry wasn?t going to leave until 10pm that evening, so we thought we had plenty of time. This was not the case!! The hills slowed us down, the rough off-road slowed us down, the mud slowed us down, getting a little lost a couple of times slowed us down, saddle soreness certainly slowed us down and I?m sure riding in the bitterly cold and dark with no street lighting slowed us down (we had minimal riding lights due to weight saving). The Sustrans route didn?t exactly take us the most direct route, but a more scenic zigzagging way from London to Newhaven on the coast.
The only decent stop we had was for a late lunch in a pub. Mid afternoon it became apparent that we chasing time to catch our ferry. Taking a wrong turn before Brighton in dark didn?t help either ? nor did the endless traffic lights as we rode through Brighton. We gave stopping for food on the sea front a miss as we were struggling for time. The last 3 hours were in the dark and on mostly unlit country lanes with one off-road section that almost ended our plans of catching the ferry. This particular off-road section was across the cliffs above our destination, Newhaven. It wasn?t lit at all and we decided that it wouldn?t be possible to ride it, even during daylight ? it really was rough. Then it was through the streets of Newhaven to the port. After taking a wrong turn into the ferry port, then getting stopped at two level crossings, we boarded the ferry with only 15 minutes to spare.
That first day was the hardest, as we clocked up 84 miles (135km). Over 20 miles (30km) were off-road and 3 hours of it were in the dark. It was bitterly cold once things got dark, not to mention for the rest of the day. We did manage to climb 1150 metres and descend the same. To make things even harder we were carrying up to 8kg on our backs with gear and water. On the ferry we had a 4 berth cabin with a shower that was well used that first night. We all felt extremely tired, but relieved to actually make it to the ferry in time. 14 hours from leaving London to getting on the ferry - not good.
10/21/2007
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Unfortunately we couldn't even have a decent rest that night on the ferry as we were woken at 5.15am to disembark at 6am. To make things even worse, we lost an hour due to having to adjust our watches to French time. So really it was 4.15am UK time that we were awoken. We didn't really have an early night either as we needed to eat once we boarded and have showers. That meal on the ferry was our first proper food in 10 hours as we had no time to stop and eat on route in fear of missing our ferry.
We got off the ferry at 6am into one hell-of-a 'grim' place. Dieppe at 6am in total darkness, at -1 deg C, with a freezing sea mist blowing across the harbour, with no sign of life, it was certainly one of our low points. It was definitely cold that morning and was not helped by the fact that we were all wearing cycle shorts!
It was like a different world wandering around those streets in Dieppe looking for any sign of life, in the form of somewhere that we could have breakfast and warm up. While riding around the streets we noticed the temperature was indicating -1 deg C. There was just the one place open, which happened to be a shop selling bread, croissants and the likes. There wasn't anywhere to sit, so we stood there eating freshly baked croissants - really delicious. After four croissants we had another look around town in the hope of finding somewhere we could sit and have a hot drink. Another bread shop had now opened, so we had a further two croissants! Still dark and cold we wandered again - this time a cafe had opened. We sat in the cafe having hot drinks until things were light outside. It was 9am and 3 hours after arriving in Dieppe before we finally hit the road.
The first thing we noticed was the awful camber on the roads, as we're now riding on the opposite side of the road to the UK. We're not use to riding with the camber going the opposite direction - and pretty steep at times as well. This camber was to plague us over the next couple of days. Several miles out of town and we picked up a cycle path running along a disused railway line for the next 40km. This was very smooth, no camber and only a slight incline. Later that day things got slightly hillier as our route took us along small country lanes. In the end we clocked up 504m of ascent in 50 miles (80km). The weather was sunny all day, but remained cold throughout. Oh, we did stop for another croissant as well.
We checked into a hotel in Gournay-en-Bray at about 6pm, so it was another long day. It wasn?t a particularly long distance; we were just tired from the previous days ride.