Welcome to Nowhere

During the weekend I’ve participated in the Glasgow to Edinburgh Challenge ride , for me this was closing a circle .

As last year I considered this ride the starting point of the training for the L2P , completing this event today was my inner way of closing this chapter and moving on.
This years ride was along the same route as last year but the weather was not as accommodating with winds and some rain , I had a much easier time with the physical aspect , but also it was a one long cycling trail as we were told there we 16,000 ( yes ,you are reading correctly) rides taking part in the event .
This caused the entire length of the path to be full of riders and also in some place made overtaking the slow rides difficult ( and some time down right dangerous ) as the morons where riding two abreast and blocking the path, and if you wanted to go past them, you had to move in to the car’s lane.

So , as this is the last entry regarding the L2P cycling and related activities , the Blog will change it’s focus in the coming weeks , But do keep coming back as this will be the place to hear about my next Failed saving Throw.

In the 3-4 of September I spent the days in the Pets at Home branch in Hemel for the last time raising money for the L2P cycling .

The full amount for the ride is due for the 10/9 , and the amount needed is £1350 , which is another £250 from the amount i raised so far.

Although I had to cut my stay short ( only half a day on Sunday), I managed to raise £298.28, which nearly brought me to the £1400 I wanted to raise ( I would have been happy to get even more), but I do feel satisfied about the amount I was able to gather from Friends , co-workers and on donations.

Thank you All for donating .

Since the Gallery on the word press is not working , here is a link to the Picasa Gallery
Picase London To Paris Gallery

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

I am a Muppet … to those not familiar with the expression , it is a polite way to say a person is an idiot .
Imagine you are going on a long ride/hike/run , a sensible person will make sure he has as many things he can arrange to make the journey as painless and as comfortable as possible right ?? Well , apparently I don’t .
In all my planning and preparing I did not account for a padded shorts or padding on my saddle , So by day 3 even the thought of placing my bum on the seat gave me shivers of pain .

During the night i managed to charge up my phone so I can use the tracker software , or so I hoped , but as I started in the morning , the cloud cover was so think that the App just couldn’t get a Satellite signal and I had to shut it off.
We had a staggered start this day , meaning slow riders leave early while the faster riders can leave about an hour after , I opted to start early , so I will not be the last to arrive to the hotel that night ,relative to the other days this was an easier day , we were riding via rural France with small villages and not too many big hills , after about 30km I felt an odd roughness on my rear wheel , and knew I was riding flat . I stopped at the side of the road and saw everyone passing me by as I fixed the flat .
When I put the tube in, I decided to save time and use one of the compressed air canisters I have to pump up the tube, it went great in the first 10 sec and then there was a loud pop and all the air was out again – it actually burst the tube – creating a huge hole in it.
So I had to start it again and this time I used the manual pump to get me road ready.
Once that was sorted I started moving again , I noticed two riders closing in on me and as they passed I started Drafting them, I think that was the best decision I made the whole day , as they kept a good pace and at some time we were averaging 38Km/h and going up hills with a fast pace I was not even noticing it was hills .
We covered a long distance , past the lunch stop and then we hit a hill where my chain fell off , and I lost the guys .
I fixed it and kept on , but the pace was slow and the rain decided to come back again .
In one of the villages I saw a couple of the riders stopped at a Cafe , and joined them for a hot Chocolate , which was a good thing as it warmed me up just enough to give the boost to cycle to the hotel , but unknown to me at the time was that my chain was bent and due to that it kept on altering the gear during the ride , and I had to do 14 km with gears rattling and shifting with out my control .

When I got the hotel I handed the bike to the mechanic and only in the morning we found this issue .

Total distance covered today 107 km

We woke up In Calais with the sun thinking about making an appearance , but the clouds decided to cancel that show , a quick breakfast and on to the bikes , “turn right when you leave the hotel and follow the signs” , turn right we did and hit the wall of the head winds , I don’t know how fast the wind was blowing but riding head in to it was rough to say the least.
Having my knees sore from the day before I put on the bracers ( applying Vaseline under it so it won’t chafe to hard) i paddled
on , for the first 11km I was using the two lowest gears cause I just couldn’t put more pressure on the knees .
Then we hit the “undulations” or in the riders plain terms “Big F*&king hills” , sore bum , aching knees and a hill do not go well together but I managed to soldier on to the first water stop of the day where I took the knee bracers off only to see that they rubbed me so bad i had clotted blood in the under side of my knees, No worries , it will pass.

From there on I rode with out the bracers and it was actually better , I managed to pick up some pace and made the lunch break ( a lovely spot near a pond – don’t ask me for the name of the place) , where the Nokia phone battery decided to die , taking the GPS tracker with her, so now I don’t have a track record of the route from the water stop to the end ( this was at the 80km point ).

Lunch was a welcome stop as they broke out the hot food , a warm plate of Pasta with Chicken , was brilliant , I didn’t even bother looking at the rest of the food.
After that we climbed on the bike and we resumed our way to Abberville which will be our resting stop for the night , with the crew saying 40 km to go , in relatively smooth and easy road , My Ass will testify other wise !!!
The road was rubbish and the hills were not flat … unless you are a Sherpa !!! , and to top it all up the wind died down .. to our joy .. only to have a serious pissing heavy rain come down on us for the next 40 km.
The water proofs were a bit of help and we put on our rear lights , to say that by the time I got to the hotel I was soaked will be an understatement in the least .

Day 2 over and another 120 km done .

The day started early , 5:15 wake up , and 5:30 breakfast , everyone was excited and we joked about the shape of the antena near the start point – pictures will be posted later and you’ll see what I mean.
A quick briefing and we handed our bags before we were about to set out . The day was divided to four sections (at least according to the brief) leg 1 , a 22 mile (35km) to the first water stop , as we rode it became evident that the mileometer on the support car needs calibration , first stop was at 26 mile (43 km) , from there to the lunch point we were told 30 miles (50 km) , again it was more then that.

By the time I reached the lunch break my knees were screaming bloody murder , so I put on the knee bracers and soldiered on ( we were told that we only have 30miles left (50km), divided to 2 legs each 15 miles (24km) in true one leg was 18 mile and the other was 12. on the way we encountered some hills that put Devil’s Dyke to shame and in the state of my knees I had no option but to get off the bike and walk up the hills .
After the last water break myself and another rider started toward Dover ,we had a good pace and i was able to keep with him fairly well, then we hit a snag : the road turned to an M road , which we can not ride on , that was our first indication that we may have taken a wrong turn somewhere , turns out the sign fell off and was put in place about 30 sec AFTER we went past that junction , this caused us to visit flagstone and waste 3 attempts to get back on the main route only to find ourselves heading to the M road again .
Eventually we took the “scenic” route and arrived at the end point roughly 10 minutes after the first ones . We left the Bikes with the Staff and headed for the pub for a much deserved Pint!
The total distance covered today (including the ride from the ferry to the hotel 162KM (101 miles) , My knees are sore and unwilling to bend without protesting , I soaked them in the bath for 20 min and will let them rest the night , so they will be ready for tomorrow.

The last 20 hours before I get on the bike and start the ride to paris , and just like any sane person the doubts creep in : Am I ready , Did i prepare for this properly ? will my knees be able to withstand this ? Am I crazy or delusional for picking up this challange ?

I know that this will be an incrediblle experiance , but will I arrive to Paris on the Bike or on the support car ?

Thank you all that helped me raise the funds to get to this point and for the spiritual support.

Tenchi –This One’s For you !!!

I did a full training session yesterday , a full 20 miles ( 30K ride) .

Knees were Ok for most of the ride , with some slight discomfort in some stages , the shoes worked better and the sole of my feet did not hurt as much as it did before , I think that is due to me tightening the laces and the replacement padding I put in the shoes.

The discomfort lingered to the morning and I guess that during the ride I’ll need to use the knee bracer’s as well , but at least I did not fall .

One week left …

After the musical number my knees performed on me (see the dunwich post) , I did some slow rides and found that if I secure my legs in a straight position the pain is gone.
So yesterday I went to a bike shop and bought Clits and shoes , Got home,fixed them on the bike and set out to learn how to use them.
The main issue with clits is the fact that you are SECURED to the bike and when you stop , if you don’t unsecure yourself fast enough , you’ll hit the floor .
My count for the first day is 3 hits on tarmac and 6 on grass (out of 14 stops).
The shoes are3 still not best fit top my flat-foot legs , I’ll need to put in the pads , but I will need to get used to them FAST .