Saturday morning and we're going to Paris. No rosy fingered Dawn to greet us but instead it was cloudy, gray weather and the need to put on glare filters instead of the regular sun glasses from previous days. Breakfast at the Ibis more than made up for dinner the night before. Lots of lovely fresh croissants and a tremendously tasty potato frittata along with plenty of fresh orange juice; plenty to fill up on, even though we were only travelling about 95km or so for the day. A good nights sleep had me feeling much better too.
It was quite exciting to think that by around 2pm we'd be in Paris waiting to take our bow at the Arc de Triomphe before heading to the Eiffel Tower. Bag packed and into the waiting DA van, bike checked out and ready to go. Plenty more water this time, plus plenty of gel packs in reserve to get me through the day if needed. One of the bikes was being worked on by the DA team and upon return to its owner, he complained that the motor didn't seem to be working. Everyone seemed to be in high spirits at the thought of finishing our adventure that day.
Following the orange arrows, it was far quicker getting out of Compiegne and onto a bicycle path that ran alongside one of the main roads through the Foret dominalie de Compiegne heading in the direction of Lacroix St. Ouen. That was a gentle warm up to get us going. Lacroix St Ouen was very quiet, some traffic lights to slow us down, and then to St Vaast and up a hill of about 150 metres spread over 2km with me sputtering on 1 and 2 (i.e. the lowest ratio gears before you start breaking your chain) at about 11km/h. I will do this trip again, and when I do I'll have spent plenty of time climbing hills in order to take on these undulations. Especially after Matt and Alex steamed past me with Matt calling out "down and give me 20"! Sometimes it felt like I couldn't even cycle over a railway bridge.
The first water stop appeared suddenly at a much shorter distance than I had expected. We were next to the Golf du Raray - lovely French Chateau with a proper golf course. The group was quite large as we hadn't spread out too much by this time. It was nice to meet up with the others after being separated in Compiegne and there was a real buzz that this was our final day and Paris was just down the road.
Off again and Karen and I travelled through some very nice, not too hilly, countryside following the D100 south. At one point, and I think this was near Montepiloy, we crossed some cobbles (spoke breaking territory here for the heavier boned) and I was admiring the beauty of the village and stopped to take a photo. As I was putting the camera away I hear Rachel calling out "You OK Tony?". "I'm fine I replied" in my happy little world, as I was just about to clip myself back in to start following the path. "You know you missed an arrow back there?" "Ah, thank you very, very much!!" I humbly replied as without this warning who knows where I would have ended up. I think I still own Rachel a beer!
Now, fortunately back on the right path thanks to Rachel and continuing on to the lunch stop we caught up with the Uni Boys in a largish bunch as we cycled through a couple of larger towns that even had people outside in the daylight. In one town there was a boy of about 10 using an electric scooter to travel back from a shopping errand. I began to seriously contemplate offering him a swap of my bike for the scooter as it looked so easy to be bobbing along the pavement on it. A little later and we passed through another town with cobbles; in hindsight I probably should have walked my bike over them but luckily I navigated them unscathed. On the other side of the cobbles, Alex had popped a spoke and was waiting for the DA van to come and collect.
Coming up to lunch and we saw a sign labelled "Survilliers"; I suddenly realised with great excitement that we weren't all that far from Paris. On our summer journey, we'd stayed at the Survilliers St Witz Novotel for a night when going to Paris and I knew we didn't have much further to travel. Lunch was in a car park by the local indoor swimming pool. Not much protection from a biting wind that had sprung up and lots more grey blankets to keep everyone warm. However with smiling faces everywhere and an energetic buzz about the lunchtime chat you could tell we weren't far from our goal.
Second last big briefing from Jo. We had to be at the Parc Monceau by 2pm or we'd miss the chance to do our lap of honor in Paris. Mark from DA was la voiture balai, tagging along at the back and sweeping up any stragglers into his van that might miss the cut off time.
This last leg into Paris was the most enjoyable one for me. Just out of Survilliers we had a little climb and then a dip into a village, another climb out and then, and I'm guessing here because I really lost track of time and space at this point, about an hour on a fairly exposed ridge and then a cycle path beside an N road where Matt, Alex, Karen, Martin (from the Uni Crew), Ian, myself and maybe a 6th person (possibly Nathan, maybe Olivia but again, no idea who as I was just lost in the moment), spent the time cycling in formation, rotating the front rider, tailing each other like a proper group of cyclists and, for a bunch of pure amateurs, basically belting along at around 30 km/h into a pretty stiff wind. It was really disappointing to hit the outer reaches of Paris and be back in a big city with lots of traffic and slow progress. Karen's chain came off and it took a few minutes to get it sorted and we ended chasing hard until we caught up with Matt and Alex again. Then Alex came to a rapid halt; I thought he needed a rest for his foot but he'd popped an intercostal muscle in his back and was in great pain. I gave him a quick massage of his shoulder to help ease the pain (it's a really nasty place because you can't reach it yourself) and to get him back on the bike. The four of us plus John the Builder (who'd caught up at this point) continued to navigate the outer suburbs of Paris.
We eventually reached the Seine and followed, in what seemed like a very big circle, to eventually find an orange arrow to the left and after a little bit more cycling we found ourselves at Le Garcon de Cafe for a well earned cup of tea, water and beers with Matt, Alex, Barry, John, Karen and myself. We spent about half an hour relaxing, and Barry very kindly paid for our drinks. Back on our bikes and we passed a large contingent of our group sitting in a bar enjoying the sunshine. We eventually found our way to the Parc Monceau, parked up our bikes and waited around for instructions from Jo. Lots of time for photos, chit chat and the odd ice-cream, but the simmering excitement of being so close to the end was palpable.
Finally, the final briefing, well almost, from Jo about how we needed to travel as a bunch and stick together to stop the Parisian traffic from cutting us off and we were off on our bikes being book-ended by the two DA vans. For me, it seemed to take ages to get to the Arc de Triomphe, but it was quite a sight to travel round it on bicycle and then onto the Champs Elysses with lots of cycle bells ringing. Past the offices of HSBC (which felt quite odd as I was there only a couple of weeks earlier), and then some major excitement as some idiot driver of a people mover decided to open a door in front of Em. Fortunately he missed but it was very tempting to punch him as I went past.
Right off the Champs Elysses and another circular trip to get round to the front of the Eiffel tower and then past the tower, left and left, round the fountain and we were there!!!! Lots of excited friends and family to great the various people in the group and then time for hundreds of photos, group photos, more screaming ( mostly Em's friends) some annoying gorilla suited people, but more than anything, the feeling of accomplishment at finishing the challenge. I felt elated for being there.
At the end, Cat, Em, Nathan, Karen and I headed for our hotel at the Pullman Rive Gauche. Em said she needed to stop for a post card. Which was a lie. She was actually getting cards as it was Karen's birthday, which was a really nice touch. We pedalled very slowly for our hotel; I honestly didn't want to stop cycling but knew we'd completed this trip. We met up with Dr John and managed to find the DA van at the back of the hotel and left behind some bikes that had served us faithfully, some more than others, through four days of our journey. I hadn't suffered any mechanical failures and, despite my man-flu, had not suffered any physical problems that stopped me from finishing the ride. Jenny from DA was there to had out room keys and we had a quick drink of champagne before finding our backs and staggering off to our rooms. Mine did smell a bit weird, but I was too tired to really care.
After a shower, it felt quite strange to be wearing proper clothes and know that tomorrow I'd be on the Eurostart back home. Downstairs and the bar was just getting warmed up. The hotel prices were ridiculously expensive, even by Paris standards. I didn't feel like drinking, so instead I managed to get some really good photos of the people we'd travelled with over the last four days. I couldn't care less that Australia had managed to lose to Ireland in the rugby, I was just happy to be in the bar.
Dinner was in the banquet hall at the back of the hotel. More photos and lots of smiles all round when we found our medals for completing the journey. The food was pretty good, although there seemed to be some confusion again about how many vegetarians they had to serve. Old John gave a very good speech thanking the DA team for their efforts. It was quite entertaining, though borderline as you never knew quite where some of his insinuations were going. Jo gave a speech and what turned out to be the final briefing, along with the direction from the DA crew to head for the pizzeria over the road for cheaper beer and the chance to party all night.
In the pizzeria, Karen had the Uni Crew sing a very good basso-tenor "Happy Birthday" and the place was filled with the DA crew and Alzheimer's cyclists, all having a brilliant time. I spoke to many of the people I'd travelled with in the pizzeria, and it was a fitting end to a colossal four days where people cycled their hearts out for a great cause but were there for each other when needed. For me, before I had started the journey and was stood on Blackheath with a bunch of random strangers, I thought it would be like any other tour with a large group where you follow the chosen route and at the end don't speak to each other ever again. This felt more like a pilgrimage with an outcome of great joy; I met some fantastic people along the way who made it possible to simply love the time I had on the road with them; without these people, the experience would have been a long cycle with those unknown strangers.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Day 3 - Arras to Compiegne - Part 2
Nathan, Claire, Stewart, Olivia, Karen and myself left the lunch stop together and with the weather starting to warm up it was promising to be a better afternoon for cycling then the rain and cold of the morning. We headed along the main road for a couple of kilometres before taking a left onto the back roads once more. Nathan, Karen and I stopped at the next corner for the others to catch up and then headed off again in convoy. Nathan and Karen were keen to forge ahead and I just tagged along behind. We noticed that Claire, Stewart and Olivia had stopped moving and Karen went back to find Claire had a front puncture from an earlier pitstop. Luckily Jo showed up in the DA van and fixed it, which included removing the nasty little bit of stone from the tyre that was the cause of the problem.
After this was all sorted, Nathan, Karen and I continued on some fairly open terrain between various mounds of sugar beet that were deposited by the road side. I had thought they were turnips, but apparently Emma, our resident farm girl, had set Karen straight on the type of vegetable being harvested. In one village, an elderly resident gave us a wave and a cheer of "Allez", which was quite heartening.
Jo went past us in the DA van, heading for the water stop. Karen, Nathan and I were directed slightly further right down a very rough country lane with lots of dirt and mushed up vegetable matter on the road. At least it wasn't fertiliser! We came into a little village and left onto the main road and Nathan and I charged ahead until we heard Karen call us back. Missed an orange arrow, so lucky one of us was paying attention. I'm sure that Nathan has repaid his debt for being saved!
Up another "undulation" just before the water stop and back onto the flat and then off into the forest and stopping by a little lake surrounded by trees. At this point I realised I probably hadn't had enough to drink at the lunch stop as I felt quite light headed and in need of a rest before continuing on. In the end I just sat on the grass for a while, eating and drinking plenty to make sure I could get to Compiegne. Karen and Nathan kindly agreed to take it slowly on the final leg as I wasn't sure I'd make it to the hotel without assistance from the DA team if we kept up our previous pace.
Cat, Emma, Stewart, Claire and Olivia caught up with us and a little later Vicki and Holly arrived. Em tried taking off her cycling outer top without removing her helmet, a tricky manoeuvre that failed miserably. It ended with me unclipping the helmet for her, which is something I've only ever done for my children. Em started getting out her gel packs to see if anyone was interested in them; Em and Nathan were then engaged in some light hearted banter about the opportunities for dealing in gel packs in Wales. They were certainly tastier than the Powerbar ones that I'd brought with me; mind you though it's difficult to disguise the taste of the equivalent of six teaspoons of salt and 50mg of caffeine. I gulped down my gel pack to help with the last 30 km and Nathan, Karen and I headed off for the last leg of the day.
There was a sweeping long down hill into the village of Lachelle, big open road and well made (a general feature of the French roads was that they are less potholed than their British equivalents) and we were able to zoom into the village at high speed. After passing school kids on the way home and crossing a little bridge over a small stream, the buzz from the zoom was tempered by the need to cycle up a fairly steep hill. The next down hill took us to an Artisan boulangerie and choclatiere. The tarte au sucre was great, and Karen had some chocolates but alas there was no cafe to sit and have a coffee or a drink of any sort. Back on the bikes and up another hill to find a very busy dog running up and down chasing the cars and bikes from the inside of its fence. Karen realised she'd left her sun glasses behind and went back to get them while I waited with the dog watching me. The hound was definitely quite annoyed that I wasn't moving, this clearly wasn't part of his game. He started running up and down again when Karen came back and we headed towards Compiegne.
Down the hill, over the railway crossing and we found Cat, Emma, Nathan and others looking to figure out which way we were supposed to go. No orange arrows in Compiegne, so a little tricky to navigate through the town. Google maps works as well in France as it does in the UK, which is fortunate, and just as we'd agreed which way to go, Jo showed up and pointed us in the right direction with the added bonus that we were able to follow her for a while rather than trying to use our tired minds to follow the directions we were given. I think we missed the correct turn to take a diversion under the main road into town and instead found ourselves at a give-way sign waiting for gaps to appear in some very busy evening traffic. I managed to find a smallish gap and then cycled slowly waiting for the others to catch up. I eventually reached the bridge where we were to cross the river and turn back for our hotels and waited there until the group was back together.
We then cruised through some fairly leafy suburbia and after what seemed a very long while found our turn offs to our hotels. I was in the Ibis with about 22 or so of the group, the rest were billeted in the Campanile which according to reports did a much better meal than the one we ended up with. Disturbingly, the Ibis was inside a fenced off compound and surrounded by what appeared to be the sort of social housing estates that exist in London in places like Peckham Rye, White City and Croydon.
Arrival time was around 6:30, which made for a very long day and even though we'd cycled at the same average as the day before, around 22km/h, we'd obviously had a lot of down time with our various stops during the day. In all, we'd travelled about 135 km for the day.
Feeling totally knackered, Matt offered me a beer but it seemed I'd developed an allergy to the stuff, possibly from the previous night, and I decided it would be better to sort my room out and get changed for dinner. Turns out that the hotel only had 1 vegetarian on it's list out of 7 and our vegetarian meal was boiled rice with carrots and beans. Quite unappetising and difficult to eat, though the company of Angus and Alan and his daughter Claudia and her best friend Carly helped take my mind off what I was eating.
At 8:30 pm I decided to call it quits and headed for bed. That was the third day and, after another Lemsip, I slept until the early hours of the next morning, and that was much better.
After this was all sorted, Nathan, Karen and I continued on some fairly open terrain between various mounds of sugar beet that were deposited by the road side. I had thought they were turnips, but apparently Emma, our resident farm girl, had set Karen straight on the type of vegetable being harvested. In one village, an elderly resident gave us a wave and a cheer of "Allez", which was quite heartening.
Jo went past us in the DA van, heading for the water stop. Karen, Nathan and I were directed slightly further right down a very rough country lane with lots of dirt and mushed up vegetable matter on the road. At least it wasn't fertiliser! We came into a little village and left onto the main road and Nathan and I charged ahead until we heard Karen call us back. Missed an orange arrow, so lucky one of us was paying attention. I'm sure that Nathan has repaid his debt for being saved!
Up another "undulation" just before the water stop and back onto the flat and then off into the forest and stopping by a little lake surrounded by trees. At this point I realised I probably hadn't had enough to drink at the lunch stop as I felt quite light headed and in need of a rest before continuing on. In the end I just sat on the grass for a while, eating and drinking plenty to make sure I could get to Compiegne. Karen and Nathan kindly agreed to take it slowly on the final leg as I wasn't sure I'd make it to the hotel without assistance from the DA team if we kept up our previous pace.
Cat, Emma, Stewart, Claire and Olivia caught up with us and a little later Vicki and Holly arrived. Em tried taking off her cycling outer top without removing her helmet, a tricky manoeuvre that failed miserably. It ended with me unclipping the helmet for her, which is something I've only ever done for my children. Em started getting out her gel packs to see if anyone was interested in them; Em and Nathan were then engaged in some light hearted banter about the opportunities for dealing in gel packs in Wales. They were certainly tastier than the Powerbar ones that I'd brought with me; mind you though it's difficult to disguise the taste of the equivalent of six teaspoons of salt and 50mg of caffeine. I gulped down my gel pack to help with the last 30 km and Nathan, Karen and I headed off for the last leg of the day.
There was a sweeping long down hill into the village of Lachelle, big open road and well made (a general feature of the French roads was that they are less potholed than their British equivalents) and we were able to zoom into the village at high speed. After passing school kids on the way home and crossing a little bridge over a small stream, the buzz from the zoom was tempered by the need to cycle up a fairly steep hill. The next down hill took us to an Artisan boulangerie and choclatiere. The tarte au sucre was great, and Karen had some chocolates but alas there was no cafe to sit and have a coffee or a drink of any sort. Back on the bikes and up another hill to find a very busy dog running up and down chasing the cars and bikes from the inside of its fence. Karen realised she'd left her sun glasses behind and went back to get them while I waited with the dog watching me. The hound was definitely quite annoyed that I wasn't moving, this clearly wasn't part of his game. He started running up and down again when Karen came back and we headed towards Compiegne.
Down the hill, over the railway crossing and we found Cat, Emma, Nathan and others looking to figure out which way we were supposed to go. No orange arrows in Compiegne, so a little tricky to navigate through the town. Google maps works as well in France as it does in the UK, which is fortunate, and just as we'd agreed which way to go, Jo showed up and pointed us in the right direction with the added bonus that we were able to follow her for a while rather than trying to use our tired minds to follow the directions we were given. I think we missed the correct turn to take a diversion under the main road into town and instead found ourselves at a give-way sign waiting for gaps to appear in some very busy evening traffic. I managed to find a smallish gap and then cycled slowly waiting for the others to catch up. I eventually reached the bridge where we were to cross the river and turn back for our hotels and waited there until the group was back together.
We then cruised through some fairly leafy suburbia and after what seemed a very long while found our turn offs to our hotels. I was in the Ibis with about 22 or so of the group, the rest were billeted in the Campanile which according to reports did a much better meal than the one we ended up with. Disturbingly, the Ibis was inside a fenced off compound and surrounded by what appeared to be the sort of social housing estates that exist in London in places like Peckham Rye, White City and Croydon.
Arrival time was around 6:30, which made for a very long day and even though we'd cycled at the same average as the day before, around 22km/h, we'd obviously had a lot of down time with our various stops during the day. In all, we'd travelled about 135 km for the day.
Feeling totally knackered, Matt offered me a beer but it seemed I'd developed an allergy to the stuff, possibly from the previous night, and I decided it would be better to sort my room out and get changed for dinner. Turns out that the hotel only had 1 vegetarian on it's list out of 7 and our vegetarian meal was boiled rice with carrots and beans. Quite unappetising and difficult to eat, though the company of Angus and Alan and his daughter Claudia and her best friend Carly helped take my mind off what I was eating.
At 8:30 pm I decided to call it quits and headed for bed. That was the third day and, after another Lemsip, I slept until the early hours of the next morning, and that was much better.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Day 3 - Arras to Compiegne - Part 1
Another early alarm. My Blackberry starts singing "Chasing Cars" at the usual 6:45am and I stagger up for a Lemsip, pack my bag and get ready for breakfast. Surprisingly I feel OK, but that might be the paracetamol kicking in. Breakfast is in the street level dining room overlooking the paving that leads to the market square and the train station. At 7:30 am on a Friday morning it's surprising to see people hurrying across the brick work towards the station, some even breaking into a little jog.
Another great breakfast with plenty of fresh croissants, baguettes and boiled eggs. A dodgy orange juicer for use with whole oranges seemed to make more noise than was warranted, given the amount of juice it was producing. Lots of people milling around, some looking a little lost or just stunned; breakfast with Dave was quiet by my standards. This was due to the fact that I could barely talk, a fact that may have related to the bug I was carrying rather than the small amount of Stella I'd consumed the night before.
Finish breakfast, clear out my room, bags in the hall for delivery to DA and the Hotel Ibis in Compiegne and then off to the balcony to find my bike. A little tricky due to the sheer number of bikes squashed together. I carried out a few bikes before mine could be retrieved. Lots of bikes on the ramp outside the hotel, and strangely not too many owners to claim them. Interesting to be leaving from the side of a reasonably busy city road where local buses would come round the corner and charge up the hill while avoiding the milling cyclists and DA vans that were hogging their lane.
Another lovely cool morning, not too cold, but just right for another day of cycling. I wasn't too keen to get started and watched two waves of people leave for the top of the hill. Then I noticed that both lots I'd seen depart were just sitting at the lights waiting to turn left. After a short pause, I decided I might as well join up. Quick sprint to the lights. And stop. We seemed to wait for ages, in reality not more than a couple of minutes; even pressing the button for the pedestrian light didn't facilitate a change. Finally the lights went green and we were able to get underway for the day.
Long straight road heading south out of Arras with a few lights at junctions but not much traffic along the way. I was tailing Alex and Matt when a Porsche overtook me, separating me from them. The driver was clearly frustrated by having to keep to the 30 km/h speed limit and started revving his engine and threatening to overtake them but was thwarted by the nasty bumpy separator in the middle of the road. Eventually he managed to whiz round and head off for his very important appointment.
At this point I realised I couldn't keep up with Alex and Matt; they were too far ahead of me to chase as we turned onto a track with a sign saying that only farm machinery could use the path ahead. As this was our signed route, we just followed it through the fields; it was quite rough and not great for cycling. Here I was cycling along with Olivia and Claire and again it was the pleasant chitter chatter along the way that helped keep our minds off the distance in front of us and just enjoy the moment cycling. Claire insisted in cycling in 8th gear, which is really hard work on the legs. Apparently a friend she cycled with used to call the higher, easier, gears "Granny Gear" and taunt here about cycling in granny gear when they were going to work. Olivia on the other hand had joined a cycling group and was really quick up the hills and zipped along at great speed. We passed through some small towns and at one point over took a group who were watching one of their number get up from the road side; apparently one of them had touched some scree at high speed and suddenly found themselves lying on the road.
We continued on to the water stop at Thiepval which is located at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, a massive monument containing the names of over 75,000 French and British soldiers whose bodies were never recovered. Alex found his grandfather's name on one of the plaques, which was quite humbling as it's hard to appreciate just what those soldiers went through in the name of a very stupid war.
Back on the bikes and Claire, Olivia and I headed off for the next stop and continued through the side roads before getting onto a more main road and then heading up a hill to stop at a panoramic view looking over the marshy expanse of the Somme. At this point the weather, which had slowly been getting colder and grayer, finally decided it was time to rain. Fortunately this was the only time on the whole trip we had any precipitation whilst cycling, but it was a little tricky heading down the hill to the river as the water on the road made for wet brake pads and almost no stopping power. There was another climb to a ridge above Eclusier Vaux and as we cycled along the wet road, Olivia reached for her water bottle, clipped the soft verge of the road and fell off her bike, hitting her elbow on the tarmac and giving her shin a good scrape. I stopped and looked back to see her lying under her bike, which is a very unusual way to crash. This was also quite worrying as the shock caused Olivia to get cold and start shivering; we were a long way from lunch and hadn't seen the DA team since the water stop. Turns out Olivia was OK, some antiseptic wipes and the application of a plaster and then back on the bikes again.
Down hill into the transcendently beautiful Eclusier Vaux; a series of lakes and trees with the road passing between them into the village. Local people fishing and canoing in the still, mirror like waters that ran past the village. I could have stopped here for the day. We passed through the village and saw the orange arrows pointing left up a hill and as we headed out of the village we met a group of school students heading down the hill back where we'd been. Later we found out that others who reached the same village saw the orange arrows pointing right and had managed to get totally lost. No prizes for guessing who changed the direction of these arrows!
Karen caught up with us at this village and a number of us continued towards our luncheon prize. Along the way we swapped our stories of why we were raising money for Alzheimer's. My grandmother had suffered from dementia and it was just the gradual loss of her that seemed so sad. When my father moved his mother from her him, she spent 8 months living with us before my father could find her a bed in a nursing home. I just remember my father having a really tough time with the challenges of my Grandma's mental state and the difficulties he went through trying to find her a decent place to live.
We managed to get over a major motorway and over a busy crossroad without further incident, passing Stan with a flat tire on onr really dodgy side ride and past Jo who was mending puncture 72 for the day. Then it was onto the final stretch to find the lunch stop. And no food.
Apparently the lunch crew thought they were supposed to wait for Jo to arrive before they could serve up lunch. According to Jo when we were having dinner, lunch was supposed to be ready for 11:30 am. Net results, 20 or so damp, very hungry and very cold cyclists waiting to get something to eat whose patience was wearing quite thin. One of the DA vans showed up and the food magically appeared. By this time though, 75 year old John with one eye had decided he'd prefer to head off and keep warm rather than hanging around freezing to death and was arguing the point with the DA crew member. Matt was shaking at the picnic table with a plate of food and starting to turn an alarming color of purple. Our very sensible DA rep quickly took out blankets for the colder ones and old John was sat in the passenger seat of the van with the heater running to warm him up. I've a great photo of a motley mob of refugees in the back of the DA van scarfing down their lunch and trying to warm up by sharing body heat like penguins. While we were there, the sun came out and for me it was refreshingly warm just to stand in the shelter of the DA van and warm up in the glorious sunshine.
This was a long stop; the DA team didn't want us to head off until Jo had caught up (lots of punctures on some of the more scrappy roads we'd been on) as they needed to have one of the DA vans ahead of us for the second water stop. We ended up hanging around for a quite a while until everyone had eaten and sorted themselves out. This was quite a low point for some people as it was just chaotic and unpleasant to be so cold and hungry
Another great breakfast with plenty of fresh croissants, baguettes and boiled eggs. A dodgy orange juicer for use with whole oranges seemed to make more noise than was warranted, given the amount of juice it was producing. Lots of people milling around, some looking a little lost or just stunned; breakfast with Dave was quiet by my standards. This was due to the fact that I could barely talk, a fact that may have related to the bug I was carrying rather than the small amount of Stella I'd consumed the night before.
Finish breakfast, clear out my room, bags in the hall for delivery to DA and the Hotel Ibis in Compiegne and then off to the balcony to find my bike. A little tricky due to the sheer number of bikes squashed together. I carried out a few bikes before mine could be retrieved. Lots of bikes on the ramp outside the hotel, and strangely not too many owners to claim them. Interesting to be leaving from the side of a reasonably busy city road where local buses would come round the corner and charge up the hill while avoiding the milling cyclists and DA vans that were hogging their lane.
Another lovely cool morning, not too cold, but just right for another day of cycling. I wasn't too keen to get started and watched two waves of people leave for the top of the hill. Then I noticed that both lots I'd seen depart were just sitting at the lights waiting to turn left. After a short pause, I decided I might as well join up. Quick sprint to the lights. And stop. We seemed to wait for ages, in reality not more than a couple of minutes; even pressing the button for the pedestrian light didn't facilitate a change. Finally the lights went green and we were able to get underway for the day.
Long straight road heading south out of Arras with a few lights at junctions but not much traffic along the way. I was tailing Alex and Matt when a Porsche overtook me, separating me from them. The driver was clearly frustrated by having to keep to the 30 km/h speed limit and started revving his engine and threatening to overtake them but was thwarted by the nasty bumpy separator in the middle of the road. Eventually he managed to whiz round and head off for his very important appointment.
At this point I realised I couldn't keep up with Alex and Matt; they were too far ahead of me to chase as we turned onto a track with a sign saying that only farm machinery could use the path ahead. As this was our signed route, we just followed it through the fields; it was quite rough and not great for cycling. Here I was cycling along with Olivia and Claire and again it was the pleasant chitter chatter along the way that helped keep our minds off the distance in front of us and just enjoy the moment cycling. Claire insisted in cycling in 8th gear, which is really hard work on the legs. Apparently a friend she cycled with used to call the higher, easier, gears "Granny Gear" and taunt here about cycling in granny gear when they were going to work. Olivia on the other hand had joined a cycling group and was really quick up the hills and zipped along at great speed. We passed through some small towns and at one point over took a group who were watching one of their number get up from the road side; apparently one of them had touched some scree at high speed and suddenly found themselves lying on the road.
We continued on to the water stop at Thiepval which is located at the Thiepval Memorial to the Missing, a massive monument containing the names of over 75,000 French and British soldiers whose bodies were never recovered. Alex found his grandfather's name on one of the plaques, which was quite humbling as it's hard to appreciate just what those soldiers went through in the name of a very stupid war.
Back on the bikes and Claire, Olivia and I headed off for the next stop and continued through the side roads before getting onto a more main road and then heading up a hill to stop at a panoramic view looking over the marshy expanse of the Somme. At this point the weather, which had slowly been getting colder and grayer, finally decided it was time to rain. Fortunately this was the only time on the whole trip we had any precipitation whilst cycling, but it was a little tricky heading down the hill to the river as the water on the road made for wet brake pads and almost no stopping power. There was another climb to a ridge above Eclusier Vaux and as we cycled along the wet road, Olivia reached for her water bottle, clipped the soft verge of the road and fell off her bike, hitting her elbow on the tarmac and giving her shin a good scrape. I stopped and looked back to see her lying under her bike, which is a very unusual way to crash. This was also quite worrying as the shock caused Olivia to get cold and start shivering; we were a long way from lunch and hadn't seen the DA team since the water stop. Turns out Olivia was OK, some antiseptic wipes and the application of a plaster and then back on the bikes again.
Down hill into the transcendently beautiful Eclusier Vaux; a series of lakes and trees with the road passing between them into the village. Local people fishing and canoing in the still, mirror like waters that ran past the village. I could have stopped here for the day. We passed through the village and saw the orange arrows pointing left up a hill and as we headed out of the village we met a group of school students heading down the hill back where we'd been. Later we found out that others who reached the same village saw the orange arrows pointing right and had managed to get totally lost. No prizes for guessing who changed the direction of these arrows!
Karen caught up with us at this village and a number of us continued towards our luncheon prize. Along the way we swapped our stories of why we were raising money for Alzheimer's. My grandmother had suffered from dementia and it was just the gradual loss of her that seemed so sad. When my father moved his mother from her him, she spent 8 months living with us before my father could find her a bed in a nursing home. I just remember my father having a really tough time with the challenges of my Grandma's mental state and the difficulties he went through trying to find her a decent place to live.
We managed to get over a major motorway and over a busy crossroad without further incident, passing Stan with a flat tire on onr really dodgy side ride and past Jo who was mending puncture 72 for the day. Then it was onto the final stretch to find the lunch stop. And no food.
Apparently the lunch crew thought they were supposed to wait for Jo to arrive before they could serve up lunch. According to Jo when we were having dinner, lunch was supposed to be ready for 11:30 am. Net results, 20 or so damp, very hungry and very cold cyclists waiting to get something to eat whose patience was wearing quite thin. One of the DA vans showed up and the food magically appeared. By this time though, 75 year old John with one eye had decided he'd prefer to head off and keep warm rather than hanging around freezing to death and was arguing the point with the DA crew member. Matt was shaking at the picnic table with a plate of food and starting to turn an alarming color of purple. Our very sensible DA rep quickly took out blankets for the colder ones and old John was sat in the passenger seat of the van with the heater running to warm him up. I've a great photo of a motley mob of refugees in the back of the DA van scarfing down their lunch and trying to warm up by sharing body heat like penguins. While we were there, the sun came out and for me it was refreshingly warm just to stand in the shelter of the DA van and warm up in the glorious sunshine.
This was a long stop; the DA team didn't want us to head off until Jo had caught up (lots of punctures on some of the more scrappy roads we'd been on) as they needed to have one of the DA vans ahead of us for the second water stop. We ended up hanging around for a quite a while until everyone had eaten and sorted themselves out. This was quite a low point for some people as it was just chaotic and unpleasant to be so cold and hungry
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