Back In Blighty By Adam Hutlestone

Sat, 14 Apr 2012 10:34:02 +0100

Today was a bit of a surreal day. Even though it has only been a fortnight, it seems as though it has been so long since we have been in the UK that saying “Good Morning” to people seemed like a novelty.

The team were surprisingly buoyant after a brilliant 5 hours sleep in a cabin on a boat. We were a little surprised that our bikes were still intact, having had a small communication issue with the French Brittany Ferries forklift driver that was charged with loading them. Having just cycled 142 miles last night, I wasn’t really in the mood to watch someone kick my bike into place…

We rolled off the ferry at 6:30, Charlie managing to successfully navigate the ramp this morning, and got in touch with Lloydy who is glory hunting supporting us for the last 2 days of the ride!

To his credit, Lloydy had fixed up at a real swanky joint for breakfast (See pic.). I’m fairly sure the place was owned by the De Vere group or some other corporate hotel chain. The tab must have been a small fortune but luckily Lone (Biff’s Mum), who joined us from Paris, picked up the bill.

After more than a few pit stops after some pretty serious saddle issues on my part, we finally made it out of the beautiful historic town of Pompey.

The riding was hard going, a lot of us were hurting after yesterday’s 142 mile ‘sprint’ for the ferry. We were also missing the European roads (bar some mega rough spots in France) as Hampshire evidently does not have a budget for potholes. After a soaking when the heavens opened, and a spot of lunch, we decided that we would take it a little easier and cruised at between 14 and 16 mph.

We reached the Railway hotel at Culham at about 6pm, after a short stop at The Boat House pub about 10 miles away for the Grand national and a well earned pint of Guinness.

Some top nosh and a kangaroo court later, where Councilor Homer and Ricky probably came off worse, the team let their hair down as tomorrow will be a relatively easy 60 miles, followed by an emotional reunion with our beloved Evesham RFC.

SEE YOU ALL AT THE HOMECOMING PARTY FROM 2PM!!!

Twin Town By Austin Packer

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:39:56 +0100

Today was our last day on the continent, by the end of the day, we would be on the ferry, fast asleep in our bunks. But first there was the small matter of cycling 142 miles to the ferry port.....

Typically our day started relatively leisurely, why wouldn't it? We had 14 hours until we had to check in for the ferry. We had a nice breakfast and undertook a vote on whether we should visit the town of Dreux - twinned with Evesham, the vote was unanimously no, however, living in a democracy dictatorship, Adam over ruled, and decided that it was a worthwhile idea to undertake a 31 mile detour to Evesham's twin.

Needless to say, on our arrival, we discovered that it wasn’t worthwhile. At the very least though, it would be nice to get a photo by the sign, that declared the proud fact that this French town was twinned with Evesham. What sign? Further investigation by our support crew allowed us our photo opportunity, a street name, 'Place de Evesham'. Handily located outside of the McDonalds restaurant, the highlight of Dreux for most (If not all) of the team.

Following our pit stop, we pressed on, it was announced we had a further 116 miles to go, this would normally sink hearts, but spirits have remained high throughout the trip and they were not dampened by this news, we were heading for a ferry to take us back to the UK, and I'm sure I speak for all when I say, that northern France and its roads will not be missed.

Especially by Ric. The morning was rough on Ric. A number of people had identified that his bike had several issues and this was clearly playing on his mind, but we began to have bigger problems when someone pointed out that his knee didn’t look right and that he looked hungry. Fortunately with Cath on hand with the Ibuprofen, and the team able to refuel him Soreen and Jelly babies, he was good to go for another 100.

The team began to put a dent in the miles, 40, 50, 60, 70 miles were all ticked off, 80 came and went, but before 81 could be reached, we had our first mechanical issue of the day. My rear deurallier hanger sheared off (Some say due to the power going through it), and the rear deurallier ended up ripped to pieces and required replacing. You could see the joy in Adam Hs face at the opportunity to get his tool box out. The joy for the rest of the team was due to the fact that the cars had arrived with food and was an ideal time for lunch.

Bush also took the time to resolve a minor mechanical issue with his self servicing bike by instructing Adam H to do what was required to his back wheel - an issue that arose for two reasons, a) it is not really a self servicing bike and b) Bikes that are not self servicing occasionally (certainly inside the 3000 miles he has probably covered on it between training and the trip) need there bearings checked occasionally.

At the end of lunch, we had the usual 'How many more miles today?', which was typically met with various guesses about the actual mileage. Becky Parkinson with the sat nav informed the team that we had another 80 to go. Lead balloon springs to mind, and the generous 14 hours to make it too the ferry were now looking less generous. But with that information on board, fuelled up, we set out at a good pace, led by Tom Appleby and Matt Jaques. the miles were rolling by.

During these miles, the team remained focused and in formation, all with our different methods of concentrating. Councillor Homer had obviously had some thinking time about the disappointing trip to Dreux. He had attempted to use his position to get various local dignitaries out to meet us and failed dismally, and on one ascent, the embarrassment of this failure caused him to bring his dinner up over the front of his bike.

The long day continued and miles were continually eaten up, until a pleasant surprise was a sign that said Caen 32km. But we had been told we had 80 miles to go? This probably goes down as another great mystery of the Sat Nav - or as popular opinion suggests, Becky had pre programmed the Sat Nav with the errands which she had to run in the car and wasn't strictly the route that the cyclists would be taking.

A typical 'Now we are in the town, how do we get out of it?' scenario ensued on arrival in Caen, and Dave Granger and Adam H concluded that the best way to the ferry was down the rather fast French motorway, which was faster and had a smaller hard shoulder than the one that Mo had taken us down not an hour earlier. Fortunately, like most of northern France, the police did not appear to be working and we continued untroubled to the ferry port where we were met by our welcome committee.

France and Italy had now been conquered by the team, and everyone had made it injury free (Sadly with the exception of Caitlin whose fall had cost her - but get well soon!). There was a massive sense of achievement within the team who had cycled just under 1300 miles in 13 days. Although we hadn't made it yet, the finish line is in sight, and it is certainly showing with an uplift in the already high team spirit.

Ou Est Le Ric? By Adam Scott

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:17:57 +0100

After a relaxing night at our chateaux involving a four course meal, a swim in the outdoor pool and a game of football in the morning on a pitch that would show up Wembley and a quick profile picture for the website later, we set off.

A shorter route lay ahead of 80 miles. With this in mind we decided that the best course of action would be to travel at a snail’s pace and horse around for a couple of hours. The first of this horsing around started when Ric decided to cycle 40 yards ahead of the group. As punishment for this, we decided to take the next available right turn and hide from him. Yep, 10 fully grown men, hiding from another adult. The confusion from the support van and Ric was immediately evident as a short time later contact was made with Dave Granger via our walkie talkies.

“Where are you?”

“We went right, where did you go? Oh and are you with Ric?”

We then let Mo in on the joke and decided to get him to send Ric back up the road and look for us. We then thought that the best thing would be to run to the other side of the road and hide in a field as Ric cycled past. Ric’s quick glance to his right-hand side to see us all laying in a field made the joke worthwhile.

We trundled on and when I say trundled I mean it. It was decided that we would have a sing song and ‘Boom Shake the Room’ by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, would be the one. The team rehearsed the song but as I knew it by heart, I decided not to take part in this rehearsal. Pfff, Amateurs. As I was the only one who knew the song off by heart, I lead to the team. The first verse and chorus were smashed. My lack of rehearsal and over confidence began to become evident as I forgot the second verse. Epic fail.

The next 60 miles went by fairly uneventfully, more rolling hills and beautiful scenery. In fact, you could tell we were getting closer to England because at times the countryside felt almost identical. It was Tom who said that he expected to turn onto the Lavender fields above Snowshill, at any moment!

5 miles from the finish, what could go wrong? Nothing I imagine. Oh no hang on, after another mis-navigation we found ourselves yet again, on a motorway. Luckily though this time, it was only for 3 miles or so and were turning off for our hotel before we knew it. It’s safe to say that it was no chateaux. When you see a sign for L’Hotel Economique, you know what you’re in for.

80 miles smashed with relative ease. However there was the matter of 130+ miles to the port of Caen looming the next day. Oh dear.

Moulin to La Ferté-Imbault by Adam Huttlestone

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 19:14:15 +0100

Today was a great day for team building. We all found that we had at least one thing in common other than Bracey and for most of us Rugby. We concluded that we all have a strong dislike for long, straight, undulating roads, for today was a ridiculous day.

Save the last 15 miles, the day consisted of dodging rain clouds cycling along straight roads that were impossible to build up any kind of rhythm on. Every 1/2 mile there was a climb of a hundred or a few hundred feet, followed by a gentle descent, followed by 1/4 mile flat, followed by a climb, and so on and so on. For those of you that have not cycled much, it is these roads that sap all of your energy, and make your legs burn after over a week of cycling.

In terms of events, today was fairly straight forward. We got up, went to room 19 for breakfast (classy hotel with no facilities!), caught up with Oli on The Breakfast Show on Touch FM, jumped on our bikes (very delicately by day 11...) and cracked on. Don’t get me wrong, the French countryside is beautiful and we were cycling through one of the nicer parts south of Orléans, but after 103 miles it was fairly tedious. So much so that at one stage a water fight broke out between Jaquesy and the support van. Kids...

The main milestone for today is that we hit 1,000 miles since we started! In theory we have only 400 miles left which is a great feeling as we are all very much looking forward to giving our legs a rest and seeing all of our friends and family.

The Brilliant news is that we are staying in a Chateau! There are unfortunately no 1* hotels within a reasonable distance and super Becky Parkinson managed to find a real life Chateau for €60 a room!

Thank you again all for your support. Today saw over £700 come in so far which is brilliant and really motivates us when we are beginning to think about feeling sorry for ourselves! We have also had great Support from BBC Hereford & Worcester with daily updates. For more news on Caitlins arm click here!

See you all Sunday at the Rugby club x

Wash Moulin Right Out Of My Hair by Dave Granger

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 18:24:04 +0100

Normal start to the day plan was breakfast at 7 am then ready to roll at 8; 30

Breakfast we normally stock up on things that are a bit better than gels and energy bars, Scotty, Charlie, Bush where caught red handed, police not called this time so we thought we where off scot free not until Linda paid the bill and extra charge 21 Euros robbing French bush was heard saying am going back for more

How things can change in the blink of an eye just like the riding

The route for today was straight up the A8 simple until Adam H got hold of the map, even worse when he is on a bike!

Finally rolled out 9:45 steady pace set by rick who has the highest cadence on the planet he has been watching to many Lance Armstrong DVD all the same good works at the front

The miles just rolled by as quick as it takes Jacques to comb his hair in the mornings all was good until the heavens opened up 30 miles into spirits where still high despite the rain as we where travelling down hill what seamed to be forever at 35 miles a left turn that looked like a hilly section Austin and Adam H a pow wow with the van driver Yorky Bar Mo quick check of the map and sat nav and off we were back down the road we just come up oh those extra miles we just love them!

Still moving at a great rate of knots slightly down hill to lunch was finally coming at last what we needed was a hot drink when you cold and wet.

50 miles done chat on radio to yorky bar, please find somewhere to have a hot drink stopped in a small town in a bus shelter at least in the dry for awhile

The support crew did a great job in finding a small café that did our hot chocolate!

‘Lush to have something warm inside you’ Jacquesy was heard saying with a big grin on his face.

Refuelled ready to go then this old guy turns up must have been on the local council seamed really interested in what we where doing asking all sorts of questions sue telling him what it was all about Charlie on the other hand had other ideas telling him do you know who I am local councillor and was nearly town mayor lost by one vote old guy was not impressed waving his hand in disbelief Charlie saying yet again ‘No really I am a councillor lost buy one vote yes, one vote just one’

Photos taken with the council guy and we where off into the rain.

After about an hour the sun come out great we thought quick stop remove some layers as a few started to over heat me included the sky was clear this is it for the rest of the day but mother nature had other ideas 30 minutes later rain, rain and more rain, jackets back on

Again all going great until about mile 70 then this side wind hit us on a very busy main road not great when a arctic goes passed you, you get this big wave of air turbulence pushing you all over the place even worse when we had a long decent of rolling hills for the last 15 miles to the finish clocking In some parts 40 mph Adam H was loving it, his power to weight going down hill comes in handy (not so good up hill) the finish was a welcome relief from the battering we had over the last 30 miles.

The lads have been doing an awesome job just getting on with it not a moan in sight, a few swear words maybe at the hills on occasions, but in general the effort they are putting in day in day out on tired legs and sore bottoms has been truly awe inspiring.

I am so proud of these guys they have come a very long way since my very first ride way back in December.