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Walton On Thames to Paris

Bike it in 4 days?

Five colleagues from the Stagecoach offices have trained hard to ready themselves for a rather difficult challenge – to cycle from Walton On Thames to Paris in three days (0ver 200 miles).

They are doing it to raise awareness of their favourite charity, InterAct.

Perhaps if you were Bradley Wiggins you might be able to cycle from Walton On Thames to Paris before lunchtime. Fair enough.

But Carol Newton, Mike McNulty, Mike Cowan, Steven Peters and Julia Early are 5 novices who are mostly desk bound rather than saddle bound. Some of them find it difficult to walk to their cars ! So this is no easy challenge!

Dates: 2nd September 2009 – 4th September 2009

DAY 1:
A 10 am start from Walton allows us to avoid the rush hour. Our route takes us SE away from the main routes past Sutton and on through the Sussex countryside to Newhaven where we catch the ferry to Dieppe.

DAY 2:
After breakfast we head south through beautiful French countryside. Our route will take us along small quiet roads through villages and small towns. Night in Beauvais.

DAY 3:
This morning after a couple of tough days in the saddle our legs may feel a little tired. Today we continue south through villages and along quiet French roads to the more forested region around Compiegne before we meet the outskirts of Paris. We cycle through the busy Parisian streets to our finish at L'Arc de Triomphe. Celebration meal.

Watch this space for ‘braking’ news on their adventure...

Wednesday 2nd September 2009-
- 10:45 - The team set off from Stagecoach Head Office, Walton-on-Thames to the cheers and shouts from the ensemble gathered chez Stagecoach. Where's Paris? Ooh La La!!



- 15:30 - Lunch stop at Turner's Hill (half way on London to Brighton for those who've done that) just over half way for us today! Rain has stopped play for a couple of minutes and Mike C has had a puncture! Starting again after lunch is not easy but we've done it!!

- 19:00 - Quick stop off in a pub in Lewes to warm up after the last 20 miles in the rain! Spirits are high again as it's only 7 miles to the ferry in New Haven!

- 20:30 - The Team battle through what turns out to be 7 gruelling miles in heavy rain through some very picturesque countryside (that we couldn't see). Well done to all for keeping going! The sight of New Haven's lights across the hills lifts our moral and we arrive at the ferry checkin. Time to get dry and grab some food!

- 22:15 - We push through a very windy ride from the checkin straight onto the ferry. Lock the bikes and find some seats.

- 23:00 - The ferry sets sail 30 minutes late but at least we're off. We hear from Dave who is in France! He's driving the backup vehicle with our bags and bike tools. He's had an interesting time getting through customs after he was asked if he packed all the bags himself! Dave made it through of course and is searching Dieppe for our hotel!

Thursday 3rd September 2009-
- 04:15 - After a choppy crossing we land in Dieppe! Now time to get back on the bikes and meet up with Dave.

- 04:45 - Arrive at the hotel which is an unmanned Campanille Hotel and we have a code for the machine to get our keys! We try the code it's easy: one, two, three, four! It won't work Dave's already tried it many times, we all try it! We try everything even rebooking rooms and nothing works! In desperation Mike McN goes over to the rooms (we know the numbers but just need the keys) - he finds a staff member who has just got up to start breakfast! He comes to the dreaded machine and enters: une, deux, trois, quatre and the keys appear!!!

- 05:30 -Joyfully we go to bed!

- 10:30 - We're off again - first things first let's get some breakfast!



- 14:00 - 20 miles under our belts along Avenue Verte, which is a long and thankfully so far flat route past small villages, idillic farms, lots of sweetcorn and la meadow beaucoup de vache. Heading for Neufchatel de Bray for lunch.



- 14:15 - Puncture No 2 - Steven this time and he fixed it himself! We're very proud of him! It's mostly glorious sunshine with minor interludes of driizzle. Onward into Francais!

- 16:00 - The Team leave the lovely Avenue Vert without climing a single hill! We've reached Neufchatel de Bray (renamed swiftly by Steven to Chateauneuf du Pape which is much easier to remember). We have coffee and croissants in a streetside cafe to the sounds of La Radio Ville Fete which are beating out of speakers dotted about the centre ville.

- 16:30 - We depart on the road and sadly find hills straight away! However the going is good as the sun is shining and the hillls are rolling rather than steep.

- 17:00 - Group working well in tandem grinding out the km towards Beauvais. Rain, wind, fading light but the team in high spirits. Stop by a chateau when kindly french gent offers humour and water....comes back with full bottle of Perrier fizz!

- 19:30 - We continue towards Songeons but the rain beats down heavily! Eventually we stop for shelter in a bus stop all soaked. The rain subsides and we continue towards Beauvais.

- 20:30 - We reach Beauvais but thanks to having the wrong address printed on the hotel reservation information we cycle continuously around the town finally finding our rooms at 21:45.

- 22:00 - Dave had checked us all into our rooms already - fantastic! Thanks Dave! We're knackered but we have to get out again straight away to get dinner! Steak all round (well except Julia). We all feel much better.

Friday 4th September 2009 -
- 09:00 - After a good nights sleep we all make breakfast at the last minute. We all enjoy a fantastic French breakfast and eat our fill and more. Julia's french is good enough for her to persuade the staff to wrap extra baguette et jambon for later!



- 10:30 - After our daily bike checks we're rolling again! The sun is shining!

- 11:30 - We're going fast today until we reach a couple of gruelling hills coupled with a few dots of rain.




- 13:00 - We reach Chambly and find a popular cafe for lunch. It's steak again! Piece de Beouf avec haricot verte et frites goes down very well!

- 14:30 Off again that was a long lunch but well worth it. We try to keep to the smaller roads but do end up dicing with death on some dual carriage ways! We all make it of course
 
- 17:30 After Puncture No 3 (Steven again) we join smaller roads through the suburbs of Paris!! A cheer goes up when we see across Paris from a hill.

- 18:00 We're within a few miles now - maybe it's actually kilometers here! Ooh La La!!

- 19:00 We are a long way into Paris now - the rush hour traffic is in full flow! The Parisian drivers don't seem to realise that we are on a charity bike ride and have cycled nearly 200 miles! Although they do beep their horns at us occasionally in an enthusiastic Gallic manner!

- 19:55 We're on Avenue de la Grande Armee and we can see L'Arc de Triomphe in the distance - a cheer goes up from each of us. It's still very busy there are hundreds of people about - are they all here to cheer us on for the last stretch of our journey? If so they don't do a very good job of it - we cheer ourselves on.

- 20:00 We reach the famous Arc de Triomphe roundabout - it's as busy and hectic as we expect - we dodge our way through the speeding cars and even faster scooters and reach the middle! The Ooh La La Challenge is complete! We've done it 203 miles in all.

- 20:00 (plus a few moments) We celebrate our achievement with hugs and photos next to L'Arc de Triomphe, but it's not long before the police are on to us - apparently bicycles are a security risk so are not allowed near L'Arc and we are moved on, we try to ignore the Police woman but she is politely insistent and we are forced to negotiate the crazy roundabout again!

- 20:10 We reconvene a safe distance from L'Arc and take the glory from friends and family via our mobile phones.

- 20:30 Now we have to find our final hotel and with our track record this could be interesting. We know that Dave is already there but his sat nav had directed him to a fruit and veg shop! We do find the hotel after spotting Dave stood outside it waving at us.

- 21:30 We've got ourselves sorted and head out for a celebratory drink! Carol has a surprise for us - she gives us each a medal inscribed with 'Ooh La La Challenge 04.09.09'. We all feel proud that we have made it. It's been a great adventure.