Day 9 – The Big One!

We awoke bright and early on a sunny Sunday morning to set off up the ginormous mountain overshadowing the house. With it being a beautiful May morning, there were a few other cyclists out on the road doing the same thing. The team splintered off as we all developed our own rhythm to get ourselves up the hill. The awesome Uncle Bazoit (his new French name) was up and down, taking photos of us all gurning as we worked our way up the mountain. It was very hard work and just kept going – relentless as Filipe had warned us. 

We all made it up to the top to find an amazing view and smug sense of satisfaction. Things got even better as we headed down the mountain, flying past the other cyclists who hadn’t been quite so keen to get up early and get on the mountain!  That descent was ridiculous – hard earned and amazingly good fun.  Brakes were wearing out quickly, and we were knocking on the door of 50 mph. 

After some well-deserved lunch in Bedoin, we had a relatively short journey to the beautiful Avignon where a very cold swimming pool awaited some tired cyclists!

Route details can be found here; I’m really not sure how you can recreate the experience of immense pain, so maybe you could just bang your head against the wall for a bit and then jump out of a plane, followed by a bike ride along a big river.

https://www.strava.com/activities/306440150 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/306437981 (David)

Day 8 – 4 seasons in 1 day

We had learnt our lesson from the previous day and wrapped up in our thermal gear to head out into the mist and sleet. It was a chilly 3.5°C as we climbed nearly 1,000 ft in the 1^st 5 miles of the day. Things got better as we headed down a rather large hill, 1,000 m drop in 10 km… We all enjoyed it immensely! After a quick coffee at the bottom to warm ourselves up we headed down (not quite as steep, but yes, still down!) the valley towards Aubenas. Lunch was eaten outside in roughly 20°C sunshine and we headed out to do some of the hills, after a few of those with the temperature rising to 26°C it was decided that the thermals from the morning were no longer appropriate and a roadside costume change was in order. Summer gear on and local drivers traumatised, we continued on our merry way.

I think it’s fair to say that we benefited from a favourable tail wind, because as the roads flattened out we were still easily hitting speeds of 30 mph on the flat. This made our 113 mile trip seem a whole lot easier!  Speeds in excess of 40 mph were achievable on the flat with some effort. There were a fair number of cyclists coming off Mont Ventoux, heading in the opposite direction who didn’t seem quite so happy with the condition!  The shadow of Mont Ventoux and it’s legendary status in cycling history loomed large as we headed into Bedoin for the evening. We hit the pasta hard in preparation for the big day! 

Route details can be found here, we recommend viewing them initially in your winter thermals and then change into your summer shorts halfway through in public, whilst not giving a damn:

https://www.strava.com/activities/306439902 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/306436130 (David)

Day 7 - Il A Plu

The morning of Day 7 found us in a damp Issoire; we may have slightly underestimated just how chilly it was going to get as we climbed up to over 1,000 m! Fair to say that by the time we got to Siaugues-Saint-Romain we were tired, wet, cold and hungry. We piled into the only restaurant in town and had a quick change into dry clothes before tucking into an amazing lunch of chicken & lentils (a Le Puy delicacy)… Obviously, the plan was to power us the remaining hills in more than one way!

At the top of the hill, the rain was whipped into our faces so they stang, which was nice after a massive climb!  With the help a reasonably strong (mostly) tailwind we made it into our accommodation in Les Marconnes just before the rain came down to find the most wonderful hosts, Luc & Karen, who lit the fire and washed all our wet stuff for us before producing an incredible dinner of gratin and veal as well as some local fromage (mange tout, mange tout). We met up with the fifth member of our gang, Nick; whilst the wind and rain might have terrified him, the food and wine helped ease any worries!

The route details can be found here, we recommend sitting in a cold, windy shower, with someone slapping your legs whilst viewing to recreate the ride:

https://www.strava.com/activities/305033501 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/305035411 (David)

Day 6 – Brutal beast

Day 6 was always going to be a bit of a challenge, so we got ourselves out on the road nice and early. With it being a bank holiday in France, it meant that we didn’t see anyone else on the road until about 11.30… The day was just over 100 miles with over 2,000 m of climbing, thankfully we did get to do some downhills too, made even more fun by overtaking combine harvesters and people on tandems with small trailers behind them to give them extra momentum. The route might have been a bit shorter if we didn’t have gps units attempting to send us up dirt tracks only suitable for mountain bikes and goats.

The tough day meant that an afternoon stop in Nébouzat was perfect for fuelling us up with coffee and flapjacks for the last of the big ascents. Above all else, 2 things got us up the big hills:

1. The huge amount of money that you have all been donating (thank you!)
2.  The lovely text message that we got from Nick (who heads out here to join us tomorrow evening), half way up a beast of a hill, reminding us that what we’re doing is helping out people who really do need it

The song stuck in Nobby’s head for the entire day was, of course, The Climb by Miley Cyrus. Safe to say counselling is required for all concerned.

Route details can be found here, we advise sitting on a rock hard saddle for 7 hours before viewing to try and recreate the ride:

https://www.strava.com/activities/304420029 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/304418435 (David)

Day 5 - Scorchio

Following on from the perfect day on day 4, day 5 started with a lovely breakfast prepared by Debs at Molante Farm in St-Pierre-de-Maillé. The sun was shining down on us as we headed out to roll through the beautiful French countryside. The temperature continued to rise throughout the day, hitting 33°C after lunch and staying that hot until the end of the ride… This meant that when we were sent on a diversion around Guéret (where we could actually see our hotel, only to be sent in the opposite direction!) the tar on the road had actually melted, which made cycling somewhat interesting. Eventually we decided to suck it up and sneak around the road works, where they had kindly left us a small patch of road!

Route details can be found here, we advise looking at them in a sauna to try and recreate the ride.

https://www.strava.com/activities/303763795 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/303768593 (David)

Day 4 – quite frankly, it was (relatively) easy!

After a couple of monster days, we were looking forward to a gentle 70 miles with very few hills. A little morning fog meant that we didn't quite have the perfect conditions, but apart from that, pretty much everything else went our way. Flying along at an average speed of 20 mph following the River Vienne, the sun came out and the miles flew by. We arrived at our beautiful gîte to find a swimming pool, incredibly accommodating hosts and an amazing pizzeria for dinner. All in all, a great day!

Comedy moment for the day was provided outside the café by a chap nearly falling out of the car as his friend tried to start it in gear. I think we managed to stifle our giggles… Kudos to Dave and Uncle Bazo for removing a stone in the brakes of the car which was making the strangest of noises.  Bikes serviced too. 

Route details can be found here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/303016718 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/303041596 (David)

Day 1 and the Grand Depart seems so long ago now.  One third down, and building momentum.  Thanks for the kind messages.  And happy birthday Edward!

Day 3 – Simon giving us all heart attacks!

Thankfully, the previous day’s wind had died down significantly and we had a gorgeous sunny morning start. Day 3 was always planned to be a reasonably long one (105 miles) and a bit of a diversion around Mayenne, meant that we expected it to be even longer still. But it did come as quite a large surprise after 40 miles when Simon announced that there was 85 miles to go. So heads down and some epic team cycling meant that we got to lunch feeling that we had at least taken a reasonable amount out of the total. It was at this point that we discovered that Simon had no clue how to use his GPS unit and we did not have to do 125 miles! Another minor diversion meant we cycled 112 miles, with temperatures hitting 31°C we needed to take on lots of fluid… unfortunately the only bottled water available at the supermarket was a lightly gassed number; which, when loaded onto bikes and shaken vigorously gave our legs a refreshing wash at unexpected times, or exploding bottle lids into our faces!

The evening was brightened up by the news that we’d hit £5,000 in donations; thank you all, you wonderful lot! Accommodation in Les Loges was generously provided by the Hull family, thank you!

Route details can be found here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/302453124 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/302667514 (David)

I realise it may seem that most of our time is spent in cafés, but I promise we spent quite a lot of time on the bikes!

Day 2 – a bit a whoper!

After the previous day’s endeavours, it took us a little while to get going in the morning. Whilst it was reasonably sunny day, there was a beast of a headwind all day long. With nearly 100 miles to cover and 1,400 m of climbing (or 1,500 m if you’re Dave!); it was a long, hard day in the saddle.

Route details here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/302453131 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/302665281 (David)

Highlights of the day include:

• Uncle Bazo taking stalking to a whole new level by following us onto a cycle path, taking Simon so much by surprise that he wet himself.
• Nobby’s inability to spot a rather large kerb.
• Several sense of humour failures (what goes on tour stays on tour!)

Day 1 – Le Grand Depart

Given that it was rather early on a Saturday morning, there were a surprising number of people out in Cholsey to wave goodbye – or perhaps it was just to make sure that Dave was really leaving for a few weeks… I suspect that the excellent bacon butties provided by Claire, Sheila and Mark were also a strong contributing factor.  What a turnout!  Thanks for the great send off.

It didn't take long for the 1^st puncture and an even shorter time after that for puncture number 2, it was just a bit mean for them to happen to the same person! Despite a few minor setbacks, we made good time to the cake & lunch stops provided by Claire, Rachel & the team in good time. Our team of domestiques delivered us to Fareham on time and well protected from the wind, thank you!

For more details of part 1 of the route, our Strava profiles can be found here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/302453128 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/302662860 (David)

A slightly windy ferry ride got us into Cherbourg and it was straight back onto the bikes to get to our accommodation for the 1^st night. Thank you very much to the lovely Sarah Temple-Phillips, who has the pleasure of working with Dave at the Canal & River Trust, for letting us stay at her house in Le Vretot. And thanks to Brittany Ferries for getting us to France.

Part 2 of the ride can be found here:

https://www.strava.com/activities/302453096 (Sinéad)

https://www.strava.com/activities/302663831 (David)

(If anyone can explain why David always has more elevation than me when doing the same route, please do! And no, it’s not because he starts from a lower height…)

I think it’s fair to say that day 1 was a long day and 3 very tired cyclists quite happily crawled into bed after burger & chips (dinner of champions!)

Why is Rachel so interested in your giblets?

In previous blogs we've explained why we're raising money for Penny Brohn Cancer Care and WaterAid. We're also supporting another good cause, but we're not after your money for this one... We're asking people to give us their giblets and to explain why, I'm going to tell you a little more about my incredible little cousin Rachel.

In a slightly stereotypical way, on the Irish side of the family I have 18 cousins (sorry to the 2 cousins not in the photo, this was the most recent one I had). Amongst us we have those who look after others and those who uphold the law, we have theatre buffs and science geeks, teachers and engineers. There are some talented musicians and pretty impressive sporting achievements to boast about (but we’ll keep quiet about the idiot who fell over on the side of the hockey pitch and ruptured her ACL…) But most importantly, we can certainly occupy a dancefloor!

Sadly, the youngest of our number never quite got the chance to work out who she was going to be. Rachel was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis when she was 16 months old and spent the next 14 years struggling to deal with all that comes with having this disease. She spent a lot of time and energy fighting off infections and going in and out of hospital. However, this never got the better of her and she would always be seen with a cheeky smile on her face and mischievous plan being cooked up. A particular favourite of mine was getting her dad to put pink nail varnish on and then getting the nurses to hide all the nail varnish remover! By the time she was 15, Rachel’s lungs had deteriorated to the extent that her only hope was to be put on the lung transplant list. She was left hoping that someone she would never meet, and their grieving family, would give the most incredible gift during their time of tragedy. Unfortunately Rachel was not fortunate enough to find a match and she passed away at home. 

I’m not telling this story to make people sad, I’m trying to put into words what it’s like to cross your fingers so hard it hurts. There are so many other families whose stories are similar to ours; 10,000 people in UK require an organ transplant. There are success stories, 4,655 people received organ transplants last year from 2,466 donors. But 1,000 people each year will die because no donor has become available and they are removed from the list as they would not survive the transplant operation.  This is why we’re asking people to sign up to the organ donation register, so that when you no longer need your giblets, someone else in desperate need can be given a chance to work out who they are going to be.

 http://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/

The main thing to note about organ donation is that it will be up to your next of kin to pass on your instructions. So we recommend that, in addition to signing up to the register, you let your next of kin know exactly what your wishes are.