Abbeville to Villier St Paul

With 80 miles Ahead of us the 5 am storm did not bode too well for us today. After a bit of supply shopping we left Abbeville heading south for Villier St Paul, after my slight altercation with a bus we began to make good progress in reasonable weather.
The weather soon turned sour, giving us a good soaking for our efforts! Pete seems to have perfected hill climbing leaving me for dead on most of the steep gradients, something us Norfolk boys are not used to. We have passed through some fantastic scenery and ridden on the best roads ever, it's a pity it has to end soon.
Riding together we have both had our 'darker' moments, when being on a bike, lost, in the middle of France in the rain is the last thing you want to do. But having a great mate with you to spur you on is a real tonic. Chapeau Pete.
We have decided to sack our 'guide dog' Jack, he has been of no use at all, he never seems to be able to send us in the right direction at all!
Having just returned to our room after our meal and a couple of pints of 'painkiller' thoughts once again return to friends and family, we are missing you all immensely and cannot wait to be home. Today's highlight must be reading our sponsorship total at over £1800 !!!
It makes everything so worth while. Thank you all so much xxxx Ride safe guys Shaun x


Ps

Abbeville

Calais to abbeville looked like it was going to be wet and windy, it soon changed becoming sunny and quite warm the windy was strong but in our favour most of the time.
The journey consisted of 40 miles of some quite long up hill rides then flatting out for awhile with the last stretch giving quite rewarding down hill sections.
On arriving at our cubical the long awaited hot soak was not possible with no room for us and the bikes.
A vast quantity of food was consumed to replenish what had been zapped from us on the route.

Laying here in bed I hear thunder and rain so not really looking forward to cycling today as the terrain holds some long climbs for us Norfolk boys.

Calais

After leaving London we cycled in to the Kent rolling countryside well it felt more like the alps in places. We stopped for a pasta lunch in Maidstone which went to a very good home, only stopping for about 1/2 hour taking on more fluids for the rest of the trip down to Dover.

The weather has been very kind to us so far with only light rain as we cycled from London into Kent.

On the ferry we had been chatting to a coupled who were driving down to see the tour, while waiting to exit the ferry the woman came over and handed us £20 asking us to donate this to ride4ruby, how very generous we don't even know there names.

With a well deserved pain killing beer last night we checked our route down to Abbivile then off to bed.

And in my bag I packed...........

Pete and I have been trying to 'organize' ourselves for the trip. We are both taking rucksacks, problem is what do we take with us? I have been packing and unpacking my bag with various bits and pieces, the usual toothpaste and deodorant comination will of course prevail, but as far as clothing goes I cannot get my luggage down to a reasonable size.!
I will be making another trip to Cycles UK later this week and the more I think about things the bigger the list is getting, the list of 'spares' seems to increase the closer the departure date gets!! Maybe just one more spare tube, or another pack of gels? I haven't even considered how much underwear to take (maybe I can get away with turning certain items inside out?)
All in all I am sure Pete and I are going to have a great experience along the way, we have been avidly watching the Tour De France. It's strange to think in a few days time we will be in France watching the great race ourselves, hopefully we will have managed to do some laundry along the way !!

Ride safe,
Shaun.

100 not out!

We had a great ride out on Sunday, completing the Norwich 100 mile ride in 5 hours and 37 minutes.
As you can see the ride wasn't without it's moments of hilarity, as Pete gets some 'advice' on how to repair a puncture from the locals in Cromer! It has been a number of years since I have ridden amongst so many groups of riders, it really is an excellent feeling being towed along by bikes in the group. The warning shouts of cars and trees (yep, I very nearly came to grief with a fallen tree in the middle of the road!) helped immensely, as well as the very courteous car and motorcycle road users!

The route took us out from the Norwich Cathedral at 7am and towards Reepham, Binham, Hindolveston. The  North Easterly wind was firmly in our faces all the way up to this point, then as we hit the coast the wind did give us a very welcomed assist. First time this year I have seen the sea crashing against the sea wall at Walcott, giving everyone a cool shower along the way. The coast road from Sheringham along to Sea Palling is one of my favourite stretches of coastline in Norfolk and cruising amongst a group of fellow cyclists made it even more special. Thanks must go to Velo Norwich rider Chris Preston for showing us how to hit the climbs (and showing us a clean pair of heels!).

It was a perfect day and a perfect ride in readiness for London to Paris, well organised and a great route.
Ride safe,

Shaun.

Getting closer to the Paris ride now!

Its may the 22nd already this means it's only 2 weeks to the Norwich 100, which we have been looking forward to but it's also a test to see how well we can cycle the next day.

This week we have finally booked the trains to and from London, the ferry has been booked and the extra night in France due to the cost of returning on the sunday via TGV.

Ruby has demanded that Jack (the dog) comes with us also she is now saying she will cycle with us as she has ran 100meters before so a 100 miles should be easy.

Training has been going well for both of us while we have not trained together much I feel we are both up to the task.

Och Aye Laddie!!

Well, we did have a good look, but despite all our hard work we did not find Nessie in Scotland! I have just returned after a weeks break in the Highlands and all I can say is 'why the heck didn't I take my bike!'. The weather was fantastic, and the scenery stunning. We did manage to hire mountain bikes for a couple of days which helped to keep the legs feeling good; Norfolk really does not have any hills!

As Pete has already said the guys at Cycles UK Norwich have come up trumps and donated a couple of great jerseys for us to use on our trip. We will be having photos taken this weekend to post on here and on the JustGiving site. The training has been going well and we are both looking forward to doing the Norwich 100 on the 5th of June and hopefully we will be riding directly after on the 6th to see what it is like riding straight after a long day in the saddle!!

Just managed to catch a bit of the Liege-Baston-Liege today and Philippe Gilbert is on top form at the moment, 3 spring classic wins to his name, very , very impressive! Will be interesting to see how well he does in the Giro D'Italia .

Ride safe,

Shaun.