The Project

Hi all, Michael and I aim to cycle from Portsmouth to Leon, Spain. This will total up to  900 miles and will barring unusual circumstances be achieved over 9 days starting on the 15th of August 2010. 

Below is a quick explanation of our motives behind this slightly idiotic and soon to be exhausting cycling marathon. The money that you will hopefully, generously donate will be used help two charities of our choice. The first is the Bomber Command Memorial pavilion in Green Park, Central London (you can see the proposed plans easily with a quick search on Google). The second is Naomi House Children's Hospice. This will also be the first real exercise that Michael has managed to do since breaking his back last year.

Bomber Command was an often controversial part of the war effort in World War II, and as a result none of those who served in this section of the Royal Air Force received any recognition recognising their extraordinary courage whilst serving this country; their commander ‘Bomber Harris’ turned down a peerage in protest against the government’s refusal to even give his men a medal commemorating their service. Obviously the R.A.F. itself was crucial in our survival throughout WWII and the men who served in the Bomber Command were amongst the most courageous and brave taking part in many of the most dangerous missions, from the truly remarkable ‘Dam busters’ to numerous raids over Berlin through countless anti-aircraft batteries. The rate of casualties was among the highest anywhere in the armed forces, over 55,000 from 1939-1945 among the highest loss rate of any major branch of the British armed forces.

In our opinion it has been a national travesty that these incredibly brave men have been ‘shoved under the carpet’ by countless politicians and their obsession with political correctness since the 1940’s.

These were extraordinarily brave men who were following orders, orders they believed would help save our great country and maybe even Europe from Nazi aggression.  

The least these men deserve is this memorial, and we hope we can do our bit to help correct this injustice.

- For more info I would suggest a quick read of this article - http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwtwo/air_war_bombers_01.shtml

As we've said above we'll also be raising money for Naomi House Children's Hospice. They provide invaluable care for children and young people with life-limiting conditions in the Wessex region. Their care starts from when a child is referred to them, which may be from birth or young childhood, and this care lasts for as long as the family needs them. This support which is known as palliative care includes: Respite care, End of life care, emergency support, bereavement support, family support and a hospice at home service.

There is a real need for this childrens hospice to be supported as it costs around 3 million pounds a year to run with only 10% coming from the government, and the rest of the money coming from donations, from the public. 

As I hope you'll agree this is a very worthwhile charity and one that needs support in order to continue doing its invaluable work day in day out.

If you need any more information, more is available on their website: http://www.naomihouse.org.uk/

Lastly, please do feel free to tell others about this!

Thanks a lot.

The first stage - preparation

A change of plan resulted from the loss of our Support driver for health reasons a couple of days before departing. We therefore set off without the back up intended. We were fortunate to obtain a deputy support vehicle for days three and four - not long but a help!

The Ride

Well, we have finished. In 7 and a half days Andrew cycled 440 miles and Michael cycled 710 miles, a total of  1150 miles between us. This is unfortunately not what we had originally planned for. However, Andrew's body decided to self destruct completely on the fifth day. Not surprising in hindsight given that the first four days consisting of 100 miles each were happily set in an area of never ending ups and downs... The next day we lost our deputy support driver to previous commitments in Blighty. This led to a number of reorganisations in the plan.

The Route

As far as possible we tried to stay on D roads (equivalent of B roads in the UK). They suprised us greatly by being generally well maintained and nice and quiet, with only a few lorries a day. Nice change from crowded English roads, where everyone wants to see if they can get their car to touch you on the way past!

Day 1

Cherbourg-Avranches (90miles) (Lunch at Coutances)

Quite a horrible day, cold and wet, and by lunch it was raining very hard. Not very nice when we had forgotten one waterproof! Met a Yorkshireman cycling bits of our route in reverse and got some good advice: Cognac and Coffee for lunch! Didn't stop raining untill 4ish, but by 6 (90 miles) it was a lovely evening and we had some of the most enjoyable cycling  all trip.

Day 2

Avranches-Angers

Today, we spent most of the time on N roads, much more populated. We both agreed on how good the French drivers were at giving us lots of space and if they couldn't, they would wait behind us for quite a time before it was safe. This was brilliant and makes it so much more safer cycling.

Day 3

Angers-Niort

We made the mistake twice by going to Angers and Niort as they are both too big to cycle in easily. It was frustrating when finding a place to stay could result in  adding  a good ten miles at the end of the day - not ideal at  7 in the evening, particularly when Andrew's knee was causing agonising pain by this stage!

Day 4

Niort-Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire

A day of long rolling slopes - we had been forewarned that the land flattened out!

Days 5 to 8

Chalais 
We had to call a halt to cycling due to the knee problem mid morning in Chalais. Visits to Pharmacists to find painkillers and review the plan for the forthcoming days followed. The remainder of the day allowed for a rest with a visit west of Bordeaux to the coast to see why the tourists flock to this area!

The shortened version  of the following days was  that Andrew became the driver, accommodation fixer and rehydration bloke, (our car being left for us), whilst I cycled on (much to the amusement of numerous Gaelic characters) in the 40C heat with the new aim of reaching Pamplona.

Langon,  Villandraut, Luxey, Tartras (too hot to cycle!!), Orthez and  Saint Pee sur Nivelle were visited to name but a few. The change  obviously cut down the amount of cycling time available, whilst the hordes of French filling all the accommodation on our route made for a couple of interesting nights attempting to find an upgrade from sleeping in the cramped Skoda.

Finally, we popped over the Pyrennes after selecting a couple of beautiful peaks (850ish and 750ish metres each) and on into Pamplona for a suitably embarrassing photo shoot.  We loved cycing in the Pyrenees and would recommend it to anyone.

Thanks.

Thanks a lot  to all those who have donated and are still considering it. Apart from the obvious benefits of giving to charity, you would be surprised as to how much it meant to us especially over the third and fourth day. So thanks.