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@noiser
so managed to do it in 5 days! woop! it was in order to raise awarenes of Time to Change, so if you have a moment, please check them out!
last year was 7 days (about 50% of the route the same), fixed. it was in ways much harder, getting lost on the second day and injured right at the end of the third day aside; carrying a lot more weight, and of course doing it fixed. however in ways much easier; i had time to take photos, and leave and arrive in daylight.
this year, i was geared. ohmygodgearsareamazing. freehubsareamazing. however, i had very little time in the day to do anything other than eat. especially as there was a 15kmph headwind days 3, 4 and 5. that headwind effectively removed the joy from the trip. knocking 3-4kmph off my average speed, i had another hour or two cycling three days. i woke up at 5am every day and was on the bike by 6:30am, when it was still dark. i arrived at 9:30pm every night expect the first and last, when i was fresh and had nothing to save, respectively. that sucked. however i learnt quite a bit (had common sense confirmed...) about covering distance in time and for planning for such a trip, which i'll share below x
Route
Day 1 - London to Dover, Calais á Arras
http://www.strava.com/activities/196897907
Day 2 - Arras á Troyes
http://www.strava.com/activities/196897803
Day 3 - Troyes á Berzé-la-Ville
http://www.strava.com/activities/196897780
Day 4 - Berzé-la-Ville á Valréas
http://www.strava.com/activities/196897779
Day 5 - Valréas á St Tropez
http://www.strava.com/activities/196897787
Bike
Make sure your set-up is sorted WEEKS before you set off, riding 100km fully loaded. I did neither. Saddle adjusting cost me two hours total. Small stones getting stuck under the front guard cost me another two, and the pleasure of half of the descents. Derailleur tinkering cost me another two, though I still don't know for sure why ticks kept developing. Shit.
A poor fitting light/ mount combo (silver front) almost cost me a nasty, nasty crash; the light came off in my hand whilst descending in the pitch black. Terrifying.
Check your chainring bolts every 500km, if you have the time. Annoying (to lose one).
I'd not bother with the front guard. Though that may be because when it rained it was torrential, and it wouldn't have made a difference... and because I didn't have enough clearance.
I had the the front light not in use, the main light's spare battery, the USB battery and USB cable for the garmin in the top tube bag. Perfection.
Kit
Had everything I needed. Remember it is cold in the morning, especially in open, misty fields before sunrise when you've not warmed up. For most i think knee warmers would be necessary, thankfully my legs are insensitive to temperature. If time constraints mean you're going to have to cycle in the rain you'd think that overshoes would be a good idea, but my experience has been that showers pass, feet dry and that when it rains hard you get wet. Maybe they're worth it if its going to be seriously cold.
A musette is great to have in one jersey pocket for rapid shop raids, along with cleat covers. Both phones, multi-tool, bus-pass/ wallet/ route info in the second pocket. Food in the third and final.
Planning
Pre-planning allows you to cover so much more distance. Not speaking French, I used to think it was essential, however airBnB has changed that. It is amazing. You could probably cover 200km a day not knowing where you are spending the night. I reckon 250+ wouldn't allow enough time in the day. Your route is also more limited.
Garmin Connect is shit. It is awful. I used RideWithGPS, paid for the Write To Garmin feature and used each waypoint (used one whenever there was a turn) on the map as a waypoint on the Garmin (which it advises against). I divided each day into two routes. I found this to be essential on Garmin Connect for routes above 200km. I would advise on RideWithGPS too. All worked pretty much flawlessly. Also printed A4 turn-by-turn instructions along with a map of the route and an elevation profile. Came to about 20 pages. I didn't use anything other than the elevation profile - as you can see in the photo above. This was REALLY useful in judging when you should get food in, water on, off, could/ couldn't afford a break etc. (Cellotape-laminate these flashcards.)
The photo a few above also shows a list of potential food-stops, along with distance into the day and the town/ village they were in. All were chosen as they would have all the food I could possibly need. You MUST use Google Street View to confirm these actually exist, or are where you want them to be. I found that sticking to these helped keep pace. If you don't, you risk potentially stopping somewhere which looks good but isn't, requiring another stop. And every time you stop you risk wasting time not resting, not eating - even if the place is right.
I had parcel sent to each place I stayed at on the way, four in total. Each contained a t-shirt, pair of pants, mini pot of chamois cream, nivea cream: essentials; 250g of pasta, a tin of tomatoes: dinner; 3 sachets of porridge and a chocolate bar: breakfast; 3 cliff bars, 250g of dried fruit and nut mix: some bike food. And a stamped address envelope to return the clothes. Night 4 I stayed at a proper BnB who sorted me a proper dinner. It was bliss and massively lifted my mood, not essential as I was one day from done. If doing 10 days of this I'd have a couple such nights. Getting to someone's house (airBnB) at 9:30pm and basically being anti-social as you can't afford to waste time chatting as you need to make dinner, sort everything for a quick pre-sunrise departure and get to bed sharpish is fucking hard.
Riding/ Eating
Really, really important to be disciplined when you stop for anything. Treat shopping, eating, toilet as work. Once you've finished work, you can rest. If you rest, try to relax completely: lie down limp, don't perch on a ledge etc. If you can eat quickly and efficiently whilst lying down, great. You may find right after eating you are good to press on right away, ideal. Try not to stop too often. Try to avoid getting into a situation when you need to ride at a pace that feels hard, even towards the end of the day. Eat on the bike. All that is pretty obvious, but not as easy to stick to as you might think. Plus it is easier said than done once you see a lovely boulangerie.
Riding/ Mental Arithmetic
I spent a huge amount of time riding performing arbitrary calculations in my head. This stopped me staying in the moment, enjoying the surroundings and the cycling. If I could do over, I'd include three extra columns on my waypoint flashcard: target time of day, corresponding riding hours elapsed, corresponding rest hours elapsed. Comparing these to your garmin display will help you quickly identify 'where you are (non-literally)' and gauge your effort. again, It is really important you avoid spending too long at an effort level that is uncomfortable; for obvious physical reasons, and mental reasons that are only producible by/ understandable to an exhausted brain.
Before/ After
