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Andy and Russell have just had four hot but very enjoyable days riding from Blackheath, London to Paris. We left at 07:00 on the Wednesday morning along with 128 other folk all aiming to raise funds for their chosen charities, more of which later. After a slow crawl out of London through Bexley we went under the M25 and finally felt that we were in the countryside of Kent and for some reason, known only to our organisers we were to climb up and over the North Downs 3 times before we arrived at Dover. Whilst they may look pretty in the car, they really are quite tough hills and a good test for the days to follow. What we hadn't really anticipted was the extra 10 miles ride to our hotel once we got to Calais! A celebratory beer was consumed.
Day 2 started under fog and cloud cover and we expected the worst. This however changed to clear skies and shade temperatures reaching 38C as we rode south towards Abbeville. En route we had a 'deja vu' moment as we arrived in Montreuil and realised that we had been through there on our training ride 5 weeks before. More heat through the afternoon saw us arrive safely in Abbeville where we were greeted by incredible thunder and lightening as we sat down for dinner.
By the next morning we knew that we had been sitting on our saddles for a few hours and gingerly set off under cloudy skies expecting rain. This was the opportunity to wear our shoe covers so that we kept our feet dry only to be accused of looking like a pair of Smurfs! This was compounded by more heat, no rain and high humidity - result wet feet from being too hot before we got the Smurf boots off. We rode to Beauvais to find that our hotel had an outdoor swimming pool and so we were obliged to cool off for a couple of hours with a swim and beer. Paris was now almost too close.
Day 4 came and went almost too quickly. Lunch by the river in Auvers and a ride, for the first time, back into traffic, traffic lights and potholes. The arrival in Paris was really a two stage affair, first a meeting point at Parc Monceau followed by a procession of all 130 of us round the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs Elysees before crossing the Seine to pass in front of the Eifel Tower, arriving at the middle of the park behind. The irony of meeting at Monceau was that this is only a few hundred yards from Andy's house and so we had the benefit of being met twice as we 'arrived' in Paris and then 'arrived' again.
The organisation behind this event was fantastic and made it a joy to be involved. The 130 individuals raised over £180,000 for their chosen charities and we would like to thank you all again for supporting us and the Samson Centre. We are proud to have been involved - see the attached photos to get a flavour of the trip.
Stats:- 290 miles; 22 hours riding; average speed 13 mph; top speed 42 mph.
Russell and Andy
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