Welcome to Nowhere

We started the morning in Beauvais , with a day of staggared start and a goal of 90km to the finish line at the Eiffel ,as my bike had it’s chain replaced very early in the morning the start of the ride was delayed untill the change took place and then I Hit the road .

This morning another rider and I decided to ride together drafting and alternating positions , so when we got out of the town we picked a nice pace of 34km/h and started piling up the miles , toward the first water stop .

A Hugh hill along the way ,3.2km /2mile of slow climb gave us a pause and we were caught up by two lovely female riders that joined our pack to enjoy the speed and the company – and for us Y chromosome beings , the view ;-)

Along the path we saw some of the other riders that stopped at a Cafe or a pub for a short drink and we greeted them and joined in once.

About 8km /5 miles to the lunch break I had to pause for my knee to take a breather and the group did the “Top Gear” approach and stormed on , so again I was riding alone and in a slower pace , and we hit a town roads , twisting and winding via one way roads that are so full of pot holes I thought by spine will break and the bike frame will shutter .

Red lights began to dominate my path and I had the misfortune to hit all of them , not one of the traffic lights i approached was green so every time it was to unclip my shoes and get a good position to start , this went on all the way, but i wanted to catch up to the group , so I kept on paddling .

All of a sudden , the Lunch point was there and it was all clear , only the truck and 2 more bikes , and the table had no food , my first thought was ” I am the last one in and all have left already” , turns out i was the 3rd to arrive , and the food was not yet ready , about 15 minutes later my group arrived , the ladies had to have 2 pit stops and i just went past them not knowing they were behind me .

The stop was on teh banks of the Seinne on the outskirts of Paris and from there we had 14km/8miles  to the “changing point” . I joined the group and we cycled all the way in a nice pace with the rain keeping us cool but not to soaked .

In the change stop we got our T-shirts and I replaced my Clits paddles to regular paddles so it will be easier to Stop/Start in the streets of Paris , I sent Linor the place to meet us and off we went in a large convoy making and much noise as we could and taking pictures while riding .

From the change point to the Eiffel Tower is was 3.2 km /2 miles and we did it in 20 minutes of tedious slow ride .

As we got to the Arc De triumph we hit the traffic and we all had a bit of a shake about the horror stories of it’s traffic , but we managed to clear it out with not major incidents.

Seeing Linor at the end was worth all the pain and hurt as I did it …I Cycled from London to Paris !!!

Total Distance 480km /300 Miles