London to Monte Carlo 03-09-11 to 11-09-11

Day 1 & 2
Eighteen nervous souls, clad in lycra, met at an unearthly hour in Lime Street on Saturday. With them were two drivers (one doubling as a cook), a physio and a mechanic. At 08:00, pedals turned and the party set off towards Dover on the first stage of their ride to Monte Carlo, raising funds for Combat Stress, the charity that cares for service men and women affected by post traumatic stress disorder ( http://www.combatstress.org.uk/pages/cs_tv_advert.html ).
The ride to Dover is not an easy one. A quick glance at the map shows both the North and South Downs stuck in the way. Nasty leg punishing climbs followed by technical descents along pot holed roads presented themselves, one after the other. The riders rode through them without mishaps apart from losing one of their number (later recovered) a few punctures and a couple of minor crashes. A flooded road by a cattle farm ensured that all the immaculately cleaned and serviced bikes were soon coated in a delightful smelling layer of cattle dung.
Every 30 miles or so, the peloton was greeted by a cheery support team providing water and food to fuel to southward rush.
The ride to Dover followed, for a considerable time, the Pilgrims Way and it is tempting to start this blog with a Prologue in which Chaucer's characters are presented as members of our party. The temptation is strong but my memory of medieval literature fails me. Suffice to say that Peter Harris, the ride organiser and leader does have a passing resemblance to the Wife of Bath.
Although there was a temptation to hammer the hills, sense prevailed and a gentle pace saved legs for the coming days. A delightful ferry crossing was followed by a charming ride through the industrial heartland around Calais to an equally charming hotel whose care and consideration at the time of check-in ensured that we were in our rooms within a couple of hours of arrival.
The Calais Hotel proudly announced that on Sundays it served breakfast late. Too late – and so it was that our cook and driver, Steve Hall, set up his kit in the car park of the hotel and cooked porridge and coffee for us all before our 7:30am departure. French roads are a joy to ride on after training in south east England: smooth, with considerate drivers and gentler gradients. In England, because hills are generally smaller, our forebears felt able to drive their sheep straight up providing us today with roads that rise straight upwards. Gradients of 20 and 25% are not uncommon and on Saturday we hit one long drag that rose to 17% In France, climbs are longer but less sharp and so it was on the second day of our ride that we undulated up and down for most of the day.
A stop for bacon sandwiches and eggs was followed by a long haul into a head wind. Every (but there were few) flat stretch and all the downhill sections were straight into the wind. A gruelling leg sapping sort of day. Forty miles from the end, after some 90 miles, the party stopped at the monument to the unknown fallen of the Somme, a poignant reminder of the reason for the ride.
When I say "the party stopped", I should clarify. Having been dropped from the bunch on a climb and having failed to catch them on the fall or descent, I was alone hoping to regroup at the memorial. I sailed straight by it and ended up riding the last 50 miles alone. Sundays in northern France are very quiet occasions. No shops or cafes appeared to be open and so it was by chance that I found the only one in 50 miles that was and managed to get water just as I was fearing terminal dehydration.
And so it came to be that I managed to arrive in Saint Quentin ahead of all the others who were still waiting at the monument for me. Hopefully I can regain some of my erstwhile popularity before the end of the trip.
Tomorrow: 140 miles and an early start.
If you’re interested, here’s the route:
Day 1
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=222465

Port to Hotel
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=300610
Day 2
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=301290
Day 3
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=301190
Day 4
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=301072
Day 5
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=300933
Day 6
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=301044
Day 7
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=246813
Day 8
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=300498
Day 9
http://www.bikeroutetoaster.com/Course.aspx?course=251961