A note to thank all our fantastic sponsors and supporters…

If you google “London to Paris bike ride” (aka “L2P”), it’s quite a well-established charity event. The pictures all have blue skies, smiling faces, fields of sunflowers, arriving in Paris in daylight….

OSB’s version of the challenge went a little differently… (thank goodness we had amazing support / sponsors to keep us going!)

Day 1 - For starters 20 miles out of London, Richard D crashed and landed in a puddle. Pride a bit hurt, sponsored “My Shining Star” jersey a dirty brown mess, a puncture and a bit of road rash, but nothing terminal. We rode on to our Maidstone branch (thanks for the hospitality btw!) and then to Dover for the ferry to Calais and a shortish ride towards Dunkirk. Day 1 then - 13 hours start to finish, 100+ miles ridden. Weather not too bad, spirits high and good to have some company from Johnny Smit part of the way. 

Day 2 - was always going to be our longest day mileage-wise and we somehow managed to add to our estimate with over 130miles ridden…into a headwind. The weather, after a short stop at the Menem Gate in Ypres, was mostly showers, interspersed with heavy rain - the French Met office had issued a weather warning for gusts of 80km/h+ plus and by the time we finished, branches were literally being blown into the road in front of us. We arrived at St Quentin and staggered to the restaurant… at 11pm, after more than 13 hours of riding. We were all shattered. A very tough day for all.

Day 3 - was supposed to be the glorious freewheel into Paris. For us, it was another 100+ mile day and again featured that headwind. Richard was not feeling great, passed on lunch in favour of a kip and then threw up outside. 60 miles to go and he was regretting telling us all “if you’re going through hell, keep going” at our company MVV day last year, as clearly that would make jumping into the van a bit #awkward 😉. We finally arrived in Paris at 10.30pm, after a rather fine final 30k along an amazingly smooth canal path, as always guided by our director sportif, Andrew Hogben. A mixture of exhaustion, relief and delirium prevailed. You don’t see those mad eyes on those google images either! Hopefully neither will you see the pictures of the meal that followed.

Some points we’d like to tell google to include for the benefit of other aspiring “L2P” cyclists:

• There are more direct routes to Paris but we wouldn’t have “enjoyed” paths, cobbles, fields and the occasional road that featured on our unique route. 
• We ended up clocking 350 miles in 3 days with 36+ hours in the saddle. Take it from us, there’s no saddle cream that’s up to that challenge! 
• The best way of getting to and from Paris, and in our opinion the best views, are by Eurostar at 180mph+ . The scenery didn’t change much at our 12mph average
• French infrastructure isn’t yet ready for our type of all-electric support van – their own product!
• Richard Maycock, driver of said van, is an absolute legend for sitting at numerous electric charging points for a couple of hours each time, that would take him precisely 12 miles down the road, while managing to smile throughout. Amazing guy and the whole team are incredibly grateful to him.
• Energy gels are frighteningly effective – living proof is the Duracell bunny that is Matthew Hill, who lived off these and caffeine shots the whole trip. 
• Every day Gav confidently expected us to finish in 8 hours, but we never managed less than 12 – someone needs to tell Google, arriving in Paris in daylight is fake news!
• Sad that Will Wicks was unable to join us, as he was injured on his bike while training for the event. Next time Will…
• We wouldn’t have done it without the amazing support of our sponsors. We all had low points on the trip and this was what kept us going!

On which note, as of 10th June, we’ve raised over £7400 and OSB are generously going to fund match. You’ve all helped our Company Charity My Shining Star with your gifts large and small – we appreciate them all.