Massive long ride to the terminal this morning, about a mile as
the crow flies but in typical fashion Will re-routed us and added about
50 miles onto the journey! Seriously though, Will has actually got us
out of some tight spots and onto some very nice smooth and quiet back
roads by re-routing using his Garmin GPS over the course of the last
week, much appreciated by us all! Heejung and Sue have been wonderful
all week, providing the support we needed and much more... The cars
smell interesting! I don't know how they managed to spend so much time
in there and not pass out from the stench of decaying food,
sweat-soaked (and very sexy!) cycling lycra and damp camping gear.
Unfortunately we have to now try and remember how to play our various
instruments; there has been some attempt by the trumpeters to practice
on a pocket trumpet. Not sure how useful it is as the octaves seem to
be an interval of a 7th!! We have been attempting on the ferry to
replenish the calories burnt on the trip by eating massive quantities
of toblerone...
Total breakages and bike problems:
2 punctures
2 tyre bulges
1 broken spoke
1 buckled wheel
Stretched derailer wire
Don, Adam, Tandem crashed
Don- broken collarbone and ribs
Total distance 5140 miles. 670 miles/760 miles for Will, Adrian and Adam.
Total calories burnt 330,000KJ. Equivelent of 8.8kg of toblerone each.
About the same weight as one of our bikes... mmm, a bike made from
toblerone...
Total water consumed 290 litres. + unknown amount of alcohol in the evenings...
Sorry to all that this blog has appeared on our return rather than
while we were away... obviously modern technology hasn't reached
coastal campsites yet! Nevertheless we hope you enjoy reading about all
our adventures and help us raise lots of cash for charity!
Wednesday, 7th July... Saint-Just to St-Malo, 75 miles
The final fling... 75 miles over beautiful, gently rolling
countryside to the port of St-Malo. We've really got the hang of riding
as a group now and stuck together for the entire day, rolling along
quite quickly for most of the day. We stopped at Becherel for lunch
after 40-odd miles, beautiful little town on a hill with quaint looking
old buildings and basked in the blazing sunshine for an hour or so
before setting off on the final 30-odd miles. We can ride at a
reasonably fast pace over this type of terrain and the countryside is
so lush that it distracts your mind from the fact that you are working
in extreme heat and have sore "bits" to cope with! It was really nice
getting to our destination nice and early, leaving plenty time to mooch
around, shop, swim, tidy sweaty gear and head out for a nice fishy meal
later on. Very good meal; not just grub, it was fantastically presented
and extremely well cooked; delicious!
Tuesday, 6th July... Aizenay to Saint-Just, 90 miles
Today was wonderful... now the terrain has changed into gently
rolling countryside that allows us to roll along at a decent pace, with
gentle climbes that were balanced with long downhill slopes and
stretches of flats that encouraged us to hold our pace over long
distances. This felt so nice compared to the last couple of days which
had been mind-numbingly flat and featureless. Unfortunately we lost
Paul (Elm) shortly before the lunch stop but Sue rescued him and got us
all together again after a short ferry ride (which was free) across the
river and we rolled on together for the rest of the day, striking a
decent pace again.
Monday, 5th July... Soulac-sur-Mer to Aizenay, 130 miles
Bloody long day... 130 miles! Mostly flat which ought to make
for good pace and a reasonable arrival time but we spent most of the
day battling a head-wind! This was incredibly frustrating since we
planned the trip south to north to avoid exactly these conditions... if
we had been going the other way today it would have taken us half the
time! The result was that we left early and arrived very late... took
us around 12 hours! The campsite was interesting... it a very small and
basic site that was ruled by a lady who watched every single move we
made, even patrolling the toilets as we showered and brushed our teeth!
Between us we received several bollockings from her, including stepping
over a fence that was about 2 feet high... we were meant to walk around
this apparently.
Team pleasure crashed today! As we all went through one of those double
gates that are placed at the junctions of cycle paths, there was the
usual tracks to the side rather than having to get off and walk
through... difficult to get a tandem through them anyway. On the other
side though was a high jump back onto the path which we didn't make...
and then neither of us could twist our way out of the pedals before we
ended up on the deck! No harm done... just some laughing!
Paul (Allen) loaded his bike up with food using several bungies and
provided a BBQ meal on arrival with delicious local Cider and Rose.
Adrian did a wonderful impession of a builder while BBQing the meat,
flies undone and full beam on the crack! We all slept very deaply until
some bugger turned up in the middle of the night and pitched a tent
right next to us, banging pegs in and generally faffing very loudly.
Still... we had a relatively late set-off time to look forward to in
the morning.
Sunday, 4th July... Mimizan to Soulac-sur-Mer, 112 miles
Long day today
of 112 miles but very flat. We all kept together pretty much the whole
way, staying in a pelaton to save the legs... really helped to grind
out the miles because we could all take it turns to be at the front to
take the head wind (unfortunate that- we decided to go from santander
to st malo rather than the other way round to avoid a head wind but
hasn't worked out that way!). A few problems with irate motorists
wondering why we were not using the cycle lanes parallel to the road-
would like to see them try and cycle 100 miles+ on gravely broken up
cycle lanes. We also took a short ferry across a channel to avoid a
40mile detour inland which worked out fine even though it looked like
we were going to lose our bikes in the Atlantic because they
precariously balanced the bikes on top of the boat without barriers....
they have survived the experience! Adrian and Will thought it would be
amusing to attempt to draft mopeds as they pass; without much success
but much fun had with the effort.
The campsite is a great improvement on yesterday and we all settled
down to several pizzas (2 each), chips and a yard high tube of beer...
great!!
The stats don't really do this day justice, it was a really long
day in the saddle with some climbing at the beginning but once we were
past Biarritz & Bayonne it was as flat as a pancake. Trouble was we
had a headwind for a while which obviously slowed us a little but the
main thing was that the scenery and terrain were uninspiring and
therefore made for a slightly tedious grind, and sore backs and bottoms
from being in the same position for that length of time. Today has gone
well though... all riders made it without any mishaps and so far no
punctures!
Team "Pleasure" lost the pack very early on today just as we were
crossing the border into France. The early part of the day was nice
running along the gorgeous coastline up as far as Bayonne where we
stopped to walk around the market and admire the cathedral and a male
voice choir singing in the busy streets. We then discovered neither of
us had any money or had bothered to find out where the rendezvous point
was, so we were rather lucky to find the others hadn't eaten all the
food when we did eventually catch them up at the meeting point about 50
miles in. Sue made some lovely meaty snacks and fruit, we were starving
by then and worried we might have to survive on the couple of cereal
bars we were carrying! The rest of the ride was quite tedious with lots
of froggy cars beeping at us because we refused to utilise the bumpy
and puncture inviting cycle paths that bordered the roads... Helen kept
us going by teaching me lots of naughty French words!
So... Don spent the day with Heejung! Poor chap was on the receiving
end of a tyre failure yesterday. Having already riden all day and
conquered the Jaizkabel, only a few downhill miles from the campsite
the front tyre blew off the rim on a tricky descend and sent him to the
floor hard enough to break his collarbone. He is absolutely fine apart
from this though and is now cheering us on from our support vehicles
and making us laugh a lot. The doctors have given him an interesting
recovery position which none of us have been taking the piss of
whatsoever!
Tonight we had a fantastic BBQ cooked by Adrian and enjoyed a recovery stroll along these amazing surfing beaches.
Friday, 2nd July... Mutriku to Hondarribia
Sorry... no pictures yet since my phone can't swim! There is some news
though... we've had a spectacular accident! A proper one... broken
bones and blood and screaming and... but that happened right at the end
of the day so let me tell you how the rest of it went.
Today started with a nice climb out of Saturraran that resulted in a
really long gradual descent for a few miles that set up a generally
relaxed day of riding. We set our sights on a tapas lunch in San
Sebastian that didn't disappoint! We chilled there for the best part of
two hours before embarking on the final 17 miles. However, we hadn't
banked on those 17 miles being a massive climb up the fabled Jaizkabel
mountain east of San Sebastian... a monster of a hill that caught us
all by surprise. Anyway, it was immensely satisfying climbing up there
and reaping the reward down the other side to the campsite at the base.
Only problem was one of us decided to test the elasticity of the tarmac
on the way down!!!
So... we arrived at the campsite then Paul (Allen) went off up the
mountain on his motorbike to see how those behind us were doing and
discovered one on the deck. He quickly rode back down the mountain,
wearing out the knee slider he had on his jeans and alerted us to what
had occured way above... So, he & Brian went off in the car of the
future to rescue the afflicted and recovered him to the campsite before
quickly getting him to the hospital. The hospital was amazing! We were
in and out of there in the space of about an hour, Xray and strapping
applied!
Broken collarbone and probably a couple of ribs too!
I've given you a clue as to who it might be by saying it's a boy...
Seriously though...we have to cover 320 miles in the next three days!
Wish us luck... sorry there aren't more pictures, Brian's phone is
still gargling for air!!!
Team "Pleasure" relaxing after a hard day in the saddle... Will &
Adrian chillin' after discovering that riding a tandem is an art they
obviously are lacking!!!
So.. today looked like being the hardest day we had because the
terrain
in this area is rather unforgiving, so we were expecting an arduous
day. It wasn't the gradient that made the day though it was the
weather! Soooo hot, got up to 37C! We are all starting to look rather
ridiculous with
crazy lines where our clothing stops the sun! Anyway, it was 80 miles
of mixed riding under a searing heat, some climbing and very quick
descending at the start out of Laredo, we all met (apart from team
"Jolly" - Don & Eliza) to navigate our way through Bilbao, a very
quick run out the other side towards Durango then left up over the
mountain (which was bloody hot), down into Ondarroa and around the
corner to the campsite in Saturraran. The steepest descent of about 12%
gave us the opportunity to try and break the top speed record- hoping
to get over 50mph but unfortunately making only 49.5mph. Sue and
Heejung were brilliant...
meeting us before Bilbao and near the bottom of the climb out of
Durango to feed and water us.
Paul did a "Roy" today... Roy set the trend on Land's End/JoG by
getting lost and finding his own way off the top of Dartmoor, today
Paul found himself on his own and diverted into Durango. Trouble was
no-one knew where he was or how to get in touch with him. We eventually
found him later on after most of us were home and of course he was
absolutely fine and rode all the way to the campsite. Bravo Paul!
So, it turns out that riding a tandem actually is pretty tricky. Will
and Adrian had a crack at a quick lap of the campsite. despite the fact
that their knees were up around their chins (not saying anything about
the size of the usual riders) they managed 2 very shaky, wobbling laps
before retiring to the supermarket to faff around buying the
ingredients for what could be a quite fantastic meal. or a disaster,
we'll soon find out. Wine, beer, local produce and a brilliant,
slightly odd campsite should make up for the fact that the sun's
finally gone away for the evening.
We managed half a mile out of Santander before Adrian had to turn his
wheel round, then stopped 20 yards down the road to figure out how to
cross a motorway and were lost in various industrial and housing
estates. Will saved us by using his flash Garmin 705 to conjure
up a route out that avoided the motorways and quenched the building
frustration! By the time we managed to leave the memorable town that is
Santander, it was as though we had become part of the local fabric -
that may have had something to do with the fact that we circumferenced
the city ring road thrice in one hour. Meanwhile Paul and Pauline
were enjoying cake in a bar in Loredo not to be confused with Laredo
(except by Paul). The cyclists arrived at the campsite to find all the
tents erected - thanks to Paul, Pauline, Sue, Heejung and modern technology that
dictates that tents can erect themselves but take an hour to
recollapse. Adrian took a shine to a massive male rhinocerous beetle and proceeded
to find a female... and then found a Fantastic meal - paella in a local place near
the site. No punctures or stunt riding so far!
Brian has discovered that iphones do not like being submerged in the
sea!
Don't expect any calls from him in the next 10 days!!!
"You make my legs turn to jelly when you do that..." This was the
ultimate compliment payed to Brian today by Helen, just as we were
entering the campsite after a very quick and twisty descent from the
preceeding dizzying heights. Helen did quite a lot of screaming today
actually... she loves going down quickly!
Today was a short day, the real stuff starts tomorrow...
Tuesday, 29th June... Portsmouth to Santander
The sad news is that Roy hasn't been able to come because the couriers
in charge of delivering his passport have lost it! Roy... you should be
here and we all miss you very much.
Adam/Heejong/Pauline/Helen/Don/Will/Eliza/Paul
Paul/Sue/Heejong/Adam/Pauline/Helen/Paul
Adrian has hollow legs!!!
Monday, 28th June - the prologue!!! London to Portsmouth
90 miles/6 hours/av15mph/42.7mph/5426ft climbing
So... now it begins! Today... Adam, Will, Adrian, Heejong and maybe
more (I'm not exactly sure who has gone today) cycled down from London
to Portsmouth and are currently enjoying their first night out in the
open (we are camping ALL the way). They covered about 90 miles...
climbing over those HUGE mountains that separate London from the south
coast and eagerly awaiting an ARDUOUS journey by boat to Santander
tomorrow which will take 24 hours and enormous amounts of energy
getting between our cabins and the bar! The rest of us will join them
in the morning in Portsmouth...
About a month ago...
So... Helen has broken her elbow while stunt riding in France!!!
