So, as I said, i'll finish this blog properly when I get home. We are currently on the way home via a couple of cities (Amsterdam now) and are finding it difficult to find the time to write any blogs or even find wifi.
I left the last blog in gent, Belgium. Since there I rode through Belgium, holland and all he way up to the Northern german town of Eckenforde, the finish line.
Happily, I maintained a good enough daily mileage to reach the end on target. August 12th, my birthday. It meant putting in some big days, the biggest being 110miles across Germany. Usually that wouldn't be so bad, but when the bike is 20+kg, its a bit of a ballache!
The weather was a pretty big factor too, it rained EVERY DAY I was in Germany, every frikkin day. Waking up on your own to rain lashing down on your tent knowing that you're going to be getting really wet is not a pleasant experience!
I met some interesting people along the way, and some bellends too. I also met a few more policemen than I had bargained for. Mostly due to the illogical way roads are labelled on the continent. You would assume that if a road was labelled as 'B' and you could ride 50 odd miles on it in the morning, that you could stay on said 'b' road until its end. Not the case, I had a few motorway pant changing moments!!
I have notes on each day so i will get this all properly updated over the weekend, I'm just uploading some of he photos now.
I also made a video, its a bit rubbish but it gave me something to do and was an odd companion for the trip. We'll be putting that together over the next few weeks.
Briefly, the route was:
Rugby - Portsmouth - Caen - Arromanche - Hubert Folie - Argentan - Gace - Rouen - Amiens - Arras - Gent - Antwerp - Aarchot - Hechtel - Roemond - Goch - Reichswald Forest - Onsabruk - Luneburg - Trittau - Bad Oldsloe - Kiel - Eckenforde
it was a really rewarding and arduous journey that I am very proud to have done. We have raised so much money!! Massive thanks to everyone who donated!!
Oh, also, I'M GETING MARRIED! :)
A blog following the preperation for, and execution of a 1500 mile solo cycle following the route of my Grandads regiment during WWII
Tuesday, 16 August 2011
Friday, 5 August 2011
Another day, Another dolla
I'm in Belgium!!
I like it here, well not here in this hotel in a crappy part of Gent, but Belgium, and Belgians have been awesome so far!! Very friendly, helpful and very bike friendly. Good bike paths everywhere, a brilliant cycle network following the rivers on actual roads and almost no hills!!
I need to catch up about 10 miles or so over the next few days so i'm going to try and push hard tomorrow.
Body feeling good, Brain getting better, wallet taking a beating!!
Eating enough to sustain the effort required is an expensive business, especially with the Euro at near parity, as well as buying water each day in fear of some sort of euroaids!!
Anywho, i'll update this properly when I'm home.
Off to massage my legs with my trusty wooden spoon
KISSES
I like it here, well not here in this hotel in a crappy part of Gent, but Belgium, and Belgians have been awesome so far!! Very friendly, helpful and very bike friendly. Good bike paths everywhere, a brilliant cycle network following the rivers on actual roads and almost no hills!!
I need to catch up about 10 miles or so over the next few days so i'm going to try and push hard tomorrow.
Body feeling good, Brain getting better, wallet taking a beating!!
Eating enough to sustain the effort required is an expensive business, especially with the Euro at near parity, as well as buying water each day in fear of some sort of euroaids!!
Anywho, i'll update this properly when I'm home.
Off to massage my legs with my trusty wooden spoon
KISSES
Wednesday, 3 August 2011
The trip so far...
I'm gonna bung this all in one post - the combination of this notebook and the french wifi makes it a giant ballache!! I'll fix it all and add pics when I get home. **I'M GONNA SMASH THIS NETBOOK!! HENCE THE LACK OF ANY HUMOUR!!*
Day 1 - Rugby to Portsmouth
I was met by lots of my awesome friends and family at the remembrance day gates for my departure. To say I was nervous would be an understatement!! After some photos and goodbyes I left, all on my lonesome. The 1st 40 miles were fine but I soon realised my bike was far too heavy when I reached some hills!! Its amazing , and surprised me how quickly I wanted to give up. This was day 1 chamone!!
At Steves house im Pompey, I left a load of crap I didn't actually need to lighten the bike as much as possible'
Day 2 - portsmouth to Arromanche
Ferry at 0730. A long, very nervous crossing left me wondering what I let myself in for but as soon as I was on the bike, I felt good and was enjoying myself!
Arromanche is where Grandad and his regiment landed, I found it a very emotional place - I will go back with more time soon.
Camped, sorted out kit and spent my 1st night alone. Didn't sleep much!
Day 3 - Arromanche to Gace 86 mles
Here's a giant lesson; use common sense, not technology! The Garmin (sat nav) took me some back routes, including single track roads through fields!! That meant the progress was slow. I got to Huberts Folie where there was a nice monument thanking the Brits and Canadians for liberating their village- I left a poppy.
Continued down to Falaise and Argentan a broken man after terrible roads.
This is when I made the decsion to alter the route and use only main roads. So thanks to some conversations with Sonny back home, I have a new route each day, still taking in the important towns.
Camped in Gace, met an awesome couple who charged my stuff in their caravan and even managed to convince a closed restaurant to cook me some food all in French!!
Went to bed feeling much more positive!
Day 4- 100 miles - Gace to Gournay-en-bray
With a route planned involving only main roads, I woke up feelin good. A chance to prove to myself that I can do this, and I can do it consecutively.
The 1st 25miles were so flat!! Awesome roads and no wind meant I was having my 1st coffee at 0930, 25 miles in!
Feeling good I carried on through to Rouen where I bumped into a leather faced Frenchi on a bike who, after some broken conversation rode with me all the way through the city to where I needed to go. Unfortunately, that was a mental motorway junction like Spaghetti junction, pretty scary on a bike in Lycra.
Hilly last 30 miles and i'm in a hotel. the owner has the best moustache I EVER DID SEE!
Day 1 - Rugby to Portsmouth
I was met by lots of my awesome friends and family at the remembrance day gates for my departure. To say I was nervous would be an understatement!! After some photos and goodbyes I left, all on my lonesome. The 1st 40 miles were fine but I soon realised my bike was far too heavy when I reached some hills!! Its amazing , and surprised me how quickly I wanted to give up. This was day 1 chamone!!
At Steves house im Pompey, I left a load of crap I didn't actually need to lighten the bike as much as possible'
Day 2 - portsmouth to Arromanche
Ferry at 0730. A long, very nervous crossing left me wondering what I let myself in for but as soon as I was on the bike, I felt good and was enjoying myself!
Arromanche is where Grandad and his regiment landed, I found it a very emotional place - I will go back with more time soon.
Camped, sorted out kit and spent my 1st night alone. Didn't sleep much!
Day 3 - Arromanche to Gace 86 mles
Here's a giant lesson; use common sense, not technology! The Garmin (sat nav) took me some back routes, including single track roads through fields!! That meant the progress was slow. I got to Huberts Folie where there was a nice monument thanking the Brits and Canadians for liberating their village- I left a poppy.
Continued down to Falaise and Argentan a broken man after terrible roads.
This is when I made the decsion to alter the route and use only main roads. So thanks to some conversations with Sonny back home, I have a new route each day, still taking in the important towns.
Camped in Gace, met an awesome couple who charged my stuff in their caravan and even managed to convince a closed restaurant to cook me some food all in French!!
Went to bed feeling much more positive!
Day 4- 100 miles - Gace to Gournay-en-bray
With a route planned involving only main roads, I woke up feelin good. A chance to prove to myself that I can do this, and I can do it consecutively.
The 1st 25miles were so flat!! Awesome roads and no wind meant I was having my 1st coffee at 0930, 25 miles in!
Feeling good I carried on through to Rouen where I bumped into a leather faced Frenchi on a bike who, after some broken conversation rode with me all the way through the city to where I needed to go. Unfortunately, that was a mental motorway junction like Spaghetti junction, pretty scary on a bike in Lycra.
Hilly last 30 miles and i'm in a hotel. the owner has the best moustache I EVER DID SEE!
Saturday, 30 July 2011
Here We Go!!
Everything is sorted and packed, I am good to go!!
Heres all the crap I'm taking:
I am amazed it packs down to this!!
Have you noticed I found a website that cools up my photos? It is very possible I have been going overboard.
So, what of tomorrow? Where does D-Day end? To paraphrase Craig (Of Craigs tune-up shop) I have decided to remove my Vagina and to try to get all the way down to Portsmouth tomorrow (125miles)
We'll see how that goes!
If you're interested, here's a rough version of the Euro part of the route in 2 parts:
Part 1 (click)
Part 2 (click)
So there we go.
GIANT thanks to Gem today for helping me get all the last minute stuff done - I'll hopefully see some of you tomorrow. 0845, rememberance day gates, Rugby.
BOOM
Tuesday, 26 July 2011
Bike Geek Blog
This is what everyones been waiting for, I know how everyone loves it when the bike geeks get chatting in the pub *white noise*
The bike is finally sorted!! Look how pretty it is :)
Its my trusty Bianchi via nirone thats been on all my adventures thus far - Alu frame, carbon forks, 105 groupset.
I changed the front wheel to a Planet X model B and got Leisure Lakes in Daventry to build me a rear wheel. 32 spokes, Mavic A319 rim and a Shimano 105 hub, should be nice and strong. It needs to be!
I had the Planet X rear wheel too after some forum reccommendations, a spoke went on its 1st ride!! So sacked that right off - especially as they had no spare spokes!! -20 points to them.
To be self sufficient I fitted a Top peak Super tourist Pannier rack to the rear, and some Ortleib back roller Panniers for all my stufff and mounted the tent on the top of the rack (Quechua ultralight T2 Pro)
Its heavy!! 23KG so far, more liek 25 once its fully loaded up!! That means that any gradient over 2/3% becomes a ballache - Craigs upgrade shop fitted a SRAM 12-32 cassette on the rear which means I almost have a 1:1 ratio possible to get up steep hills, slowly but painlessly. I had to steal a deraillieur from a mountain bike to accomodate the dinner plate of a rear cog, still its 105 so I'm happy.
The lovely people at Leisure Lakes Daventry not only built my wheel and gave me a 15% discount on anything i needed bt they also serviced my bike - It was clunking a lot and wasn't smooth at all until now! Its like i'm riding a cloud, loves it!
The ferry finally got booked today after waiting and waiting for a response from Brittany ferries abotu some sort of charitable discount, which did not happen. Swines.
0815 Portsmouth - Caen, it means day 2 needs to start at 430am - Can't wait for that!
T minus 5 days!!
The bike is finally sorted!! Look how pretty it is :)
Its my trusty Bianchi via nirone thats been on all my adventures thus far - Alu frame, carbon forks, 105 groupset.
I changed the front wheel to a Planet X model B and got Leisure Lakes in Daventry to build me a rear wheel. 32 spokes, Mavic A319 rim and a Shimano 105 hub, should be nice and strong. It needs to be!
I had the Planet X rear wheel too after some forum reccommendations, a spoke went on its 1st ride!! So sacked that right off - especially as they had no spare spokes!! -20 points to them.
To be self sufficient I fitted a Top peak Super tourist Pannier rack to the rear, and some Ortleib back roller Panniers for all my stufff and mounted the tent on the top of the rack (Quechua ultralight T2 Pro)
Its heavy!! 23KG so far, more liek 25 once its fully loaded up!! That means that any gradient over 2/3% becomes a ballache - Craigs upgrade shop fitted a SRAM 12-32 cassette on the rear which means I almost have a 1:1 ratio possible to get up steep hills, slowly but painlessly. I had to steal a deraillieur from a mountain bike to accomodate the dinner plate of a rear cog, still its 105 so I'm happy.
The lovely people at Leisure Lakes Daventry not only built my wheel and gave me a 15% discount on anything i needed bt they also serviced my bike - It was clunking a lot and wasn't smooth at all until now! Its like i'm riding a cloud, loves it!
The ferry finally got booked today after waiting and waiting for a response from Brittany ferries abotu some sort of charitable discount, which did not happen. Swines.
0815 Portsmouth - Caen, it means day 2 needs to start at 430am - Can't wait for that!
T minus 5 days!!
Sunday, 24 July 2011
Custom jersey and Fundraising stuff
BOOKA
1 WEEK TO GO!!! AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH
Its ok, I am in control.
promise.
So I got my jersey through! Well happy with it! Big thanks go to Gem for buying iot for me, and my bro for the help in designing it - Check it out!!
At least now en route people will know whats going down. I did however put it on very excitedly like a small child at xmas and spilt dinner down it. Standard
In other news, the LOVELY and SEXY guys at THE VAULT the new home of metal heads and Grebs in Rugby have offered to help with some fundraising.
They have a new drink in, a Cinnamon Whiskey called 'Fireball' - Its BLOODY GORGEOUS and the club have said "100% of the profit from this drink will go to support the blackbull run".
AWESOME - That means you can get leathered AND support a good cause!! WIN WIN
So if you see this behind the bar, GET SOME:
Not only that, they are putting some collection boxes on the bar. What lovely people!
Make sure you come along to Next weeks Full metal Racket At Vault (click here) as that is in aid of the ride too.
MASSIVE THANKS to Callum and Mike and all at Vault for their support.
RESPEC!
1 WEEK TO GO!!! AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH
Its ok, I am in control.
promise.
So I got my jersey through! Well happy with it! Big thanks go to Gem for buying iot for me, and my bro for the help in designing it - Check it out!!
At least now en route people will know whats going down. I did however put it on very excitedly like a small child at xmas and spilt dinner down it. Standard
In other news, the LOVELY and SEXY guys at THE VAULT the new home of metal heads and Grebs in Rugby have offered to help with some fundraising.
They have a new drink in, a Cinnamon Whiskey called 'Fireball' - Its BLOODY GORGEOUS and the club have said "100% of the profit from this drink will go to support the blackbull run".
AWESOME - That means you can get leathered AND support a good cause!! WIN WIN
So if you see this behind the bar, GET SOME:
Not only that, they are putting some collection boxes on the bar. What lovely people!
Make sure you come along to Next weeks Full metal Racket At Vault (click here) as that is in aid of the ride too.
MASSIVE THANKS to Callum and Mike and all at Vault for their support.
RESPEC!
Thursday, 21 July 2011
Equipment test run - Rugby to Hull
YO!
I just got back from a weekend in Hull with some mates - I cycled there and they brought me home. They are the same mates who are meeting me in Germany when I finish so it worked well as a test to make sure all the stuff goes in a car and the bike is ok on the back of a car. Sterling work Matthew, and Ms Cooper.
The plan was to leave friday afternoon as I had to work in the morning, do 80ish miles, camp somewhere and do the rest of the distance to Hull on saturday to make sure a: the kit is ok b: my legs are ok and c: I don't go mental on my own.
C: will be the biggest issue it appears :)
I packed up my panniers strapped on the tent set up the Garmin and left. The bike is so heavy!! I haven't weighed it yet but I suspect its between 20-25kg!! Slightly unpleasant uphills but thanks to Craig Mckee's upgrade shop, I have a giant cog (32!!) on the back to get me up the hills slowly but with no major drama.
82 miles went by pretty uneventfully apart from a horrifically scary section of the A1 (I think) and I arrived in Welton, just North of Lincoln feeling strong still. After getting bent over to the tune of £14 for a 2 man tent a a camp site, I grabbed a shower and went about setting up my shizz for the very first time.
Not a bad view to wake up to
The tent is awesome - Only 2Kg and plenty of room for me and the monsters I will undoubtedly wake up to in the middle of the night somewhere in Europe. Its a Quechua ultralight T2 pro if you're interested, which you probably aren't. in fact I'd be suprised if you're still reading!
More bending over ensued when I got dinner at the campsite which I didn't eat due to it being pretty rank. I decided instead of a dinner of kings, 3 Guiness and 2 packs of pork scratchings. WINNER.
Turns out a night on your own in a field is pretty boring, must address this. Maybe a harmonica, or something inflatable - WINK
Woke up to pissing rain, put off leaving as long a possible then just got wet, really, really wet. Once you are soaked though, all is ok. You can't get more wet so its ok, as long as you're moving. Legs felt good again and made it to Hull (53 miles) before 1pm - with the weather I was pleased with that. Here's me just getting to my bro's ringing out my gloves
note to self: get waterproof gloves.
I LIKE RIDING MY BIKE
I just got back from a weekend in Hull with some mates - I cycled there and they brought me home. They are the same mates who are meeting me in Germany when I finish so it worked well as a test to make sure all the stuff goes in a car and the bike is ok on the back of a car. Sterling work Matthew, and Ms Cooper.
The plan was to leave friday afternoon as I had to work in the morning, do 80ish miles, camp somewhere and do the rest of the distance to Hull on saturday to make sure a: the kit is ok b: my legs are ok and c: I don't go mental on my own.
C: will be the biggest issue it appears :)
I packed up my panniers strapped on the tent set up the Garmin and left. The bike is so heavy!! I haven't weighed it yet but I suspect its between 20-25kg!! Slightly unpleasant uphills but thanks to Craig Mckee's upgrade shop, I have a giant cog (32!!) on the back to get me up the hills slowly but with no major drama.
82 miles went by pretty uneventfully apart from a horrifically scary section of the A1 (I think) and I arrived in Welton, just North of Lincoln feeling strong still. After getting bent over to the tune of £14 for a 2 man tent a a camp site, I grabbed a shower and went about setting up my shizz for the very first time.
Not a bad view to wake up to
The tent is awesome - Only 2Kg and plenty of room for me and the monsters I will undoubtedly wake up to in the middle of the night somewhere in Europe. Its a Quechua ultralight T2 pro if you're interested, which you probably aren't. in fact I'd be suprised if you're still reading!
More bending over ensued when I got dinner at the campsite which I didn't eat due to it being pretty rank. I decided instead of a dinner of kings, 3 Guiness and 2 packs of pork scratchings. WINNER.
Turns out a night on your own in a field is pretty boring, must address this. Maybe a harmonica, or something inflatable - WINK
Woke up to pissing rain, put off leaving as long a possible then just got wet, really, really wet. Once you are soaked though, all is ok. You can't get more wet so its ok, as long as you're moving. Legs felt good again and made it to Hull (53 miles) before 1pm - with the weather I was pleased with that. Here's me just getting to my bro's ringing out my gloves
note to self: get waterproof gloves.
I LIKE RIDING MY BIKE
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)