1000 miles ride from Cherbourg to Esbjerg for The Christie & Papworth Hospital

[BAtoo]

Day -1
At last the end of the run-up to the ride is here. I've been talked into a 1000 mile, 14-day ride from Cherbourg to Esbjerg as a charity fund-raising ride. It's got me back into riding, got me somewhat fitter and helped me loose a stone in weight so far!
Tonight I pack and tomorrow I drive to Poole to get the ferry to Cherbourg on Sunday morning for our first ride - a "gentle" start of 40-ish miles to Carentan.

I'll try and update this as I go...

 

[BAtoo]

Day 0
I'm now in Poole to catch the early ferry tomorrow morning to leave for Cherbourg.

I nearly forgot my passport but remembered just in time as I left my keys with a neighbour- unlike two of the team who forgot their ferry tickets and had to turn back and haven't made it yet. The others arrived the same time as me after their trip from Manchester.
Rubbish trip down, the roads were full and was stop-start on the M25 & M3, the weather quite wet too. I stopped to but some waterproof over-trousers in view of the rain. The hire-car was OK - new Corsa - and the bike fitted in well with the wheels off. Journey was 247 miles; 3 miles under the included limit!
Staying in a decent B&B 10 minutes from the ferry, unfortunately we're off too early for breakfast tomorrow so will have to endure a ferry breakfast.
Off out to the pub for supper now...

 

[blondie35]

Day 0
I'm now in Poole to catch the early ferry tomorrow morning to leave for Cherbourg.

I nearly forgot my passport but remembered just in time as I left my keys with a neighbour- unlike two of the team who forgot their ferry tickets and had to turn back and haven't made it yet. The others arrived the same time as me after their trip from Manchester.
Rubbish trip down, the roads were full and was stop-start on the M25 & M3, the weather quite wet too. I stopped to but some waterproof over-trousers in view of the rain. The hire-car was OK - new Corsa - and the bike fitted in well with the wheels off. Journey was 247 miles; 3 miles under the included limit!
Staying in a decent B&B 10 minutes from the ferry, unfortunately we're off too early for breakfast tomorrow so will have to endure a ferry breakfast.
Off out to the pub for supper now...

Hi - am new to this forum. Just seen your thread and that sounds like a pretty amazing challenge. Good luck!!! The M25/M3 are always rubbish in my experience. Not sure that a ferry breakfast is a good basis for the first part of your ride though....

 

[BAtoo]

Hi - am new to this forum. Just seen your thread and that sounds like a pretty amazing challenge. Good luck!!! The M25/M3 are always rubbish in my experience. Not sure that a ferry breakfast is a good basis for the first part of your ride though....

Thanks for your message, I'll be careful with the ferry brekkie! And to the forum!

 

[Georgem123]

thanks for this - im planning a similar ish trip myself

can i ask how much your ferry tickets were? an how many miles are you looking to do on average per day?

 

[BAtoo]

Day1
Well that's day 1 done!
Very pleasant ferry crossing to Cherbourg; coffee and croissants for brekki and then about an hour before we landed Lasagne & salad & apple tart for an early lunch - all quite reasonable considering it was a ferry!
Disembarked and collected the foot passengers having loaded their bikes into the van last night.
Changed into my gear in the back of the van whilst waiting to leave the ferry - doors suitably closed so as not to frighten the other passengers.....
One minor problem with a cross-threaded pedal so the spare bike was brought into action before we left the car-park! The other problem was no water for our bottles !! The waitress on the ferry said their tap water was "not safe" so we'll buy some in a shop - but it's Sunday in France. ..... so just 1 1/2 bottles between 4; good job it's only 37 miles.
Two of us with Garmins which both agreed which way to leave and off we set. First traffic lights against me and I go to un-clip - wouldn't come until my heel was nearly out at 90' and almost a clipless moment! So I rode the rest of the town unclipped on one side.
Then we came to the hill leaving Cherbourg - well a Mountain really for us flat-land Suffolk boys

Anyway we soon got up that and the stopped and sorted out my cleat - loose screws soon tightened and re-aligned.
The rest of the ride was pretty good; the main problem was Garmin getting confused and short warning times for junctions - oh and the farm track it insisted was correct but we ignored it and just followed the road signs which seemed a pretty good cluue to our destination....

Three hours after leaving Cherbourg we got to Carentan our first stop.. 37 miles at 13.9mph so not too bad for a start. Also got a Strave trophy - 7th fastest on the http://www.strava.com/activities/145431987/segments/3327905893 (wherever that was.....) EDIT - just looked at the other times and the top two were 55 & 61mpf so really it's a 5th..
So tonight staying in Carentan Kyriad Hotel; nice friendly relaxed staff, clean and comfortable room although a bit basic (but that's what they do); ate here as were a bit far to walk to a restaurant and had a decent 3-course meals for E21..and a the beer was good, as was the wine - all in moderation of course

9am start tomorrow so breakfast at 7.45.

Night night.

 

[BAtoo]

thanks for this - im planning a similar ish trip myself

can i ask how much your ferry tickets were? an how many miles are you looking to do on average per day?

Hi, I'm not sure how much the tickets were - the organiser bought them for all of us and the bikes were in the support van. Sorry.

 

[BAtoo]

Day 2
87 miles today; the weather was overcast with a gentle N wind which kept the temperature down just a gnats too low but it was dry and no coats needed.
Garmin was not behaving, or probably our route planner was a bit off in his course as it tiredto send us across fields and some dodgy tracks... We did the first one as the start didn't seem too bad but soon deteriorated into a track across the field between the wheat and sugar beet !! It was really not designed for a road bike - the mud and grass clogged the brakes so we had to stop and clear them and at the end we had too take the wheels off to clear the brakes for the road.

Muddy bike after the farm track. At Pegasus Bridge

Just after here we had a decent lunch at cafe-bar attached to the local Carrefour and picked up the three who missed their ferry yesterday - they went to Poole not Portsmouth !!
This point left us about 28 miles to the end but with some dead-end mis-routes we did 31.5. Just towards the end at mile 75 was a 10-11% hill - I rode it all but had a breather half way up - not bad for a flat-lander I thought
Tonight at Ferme de Geoffoise a very comfortable gite type place and I'm in a converted barn or grain-store probably. Excellent meal at the only restaurant in town that's open on Monday.

Tomorrow is a flat-ish 65 miles to Saint Pierre Du Vauvray; the young are doing 75+ on a cider tour - with hills!

Night night...

 

[BAtoo]

Day 3

Relatively straightforward 60 miles today with only 2 climbs; one before lunch and one afterwards. These were onto the two adjacent plateaus, and both preceded by a bit of a gentle climb. The second plateau was good and the two of us maintained something around 20mph for quite some time - with the (gentle) wind behind us; at the end a long gradual descent where we had some good speed on the now-dry road.

The weather was damp and drizzley for most of the morning and early afternoon so full leggings, two top layers and a jacket. These layers were varied through the day but by the end I had short sleeves &rolled up leggings.

Poor lunch; some vegetable soup which was quite cool and not much better when we asked for it to be warmed up. We'd asked for some chips too & Madame said would you like a sausage with it? We said yes, and then got a "very artisanal" offering; someone said it's made with everything from the pig except the squeak - well I made the mistake of opening my sausage and found something that could well have been the squeak..... anyway Dijon mustard helped a lot...... no bad results so far...........

On arriving in St Pierre our route guide said the hotel was on the island in the branch of the Seine & we duly found the said island. Off I rode down onto the isalnd looking for the Hotel; none to be seen.... At the end of the lane I found a lady taking photos of her roses; in my best Franglais I asked where the hotel was; you're English she said (God knows how she determined that) in a perfect English accent !! Turns out she lived there and was very helpful; lovely lady and in the chat she asked where we had come from and what we were doing; once I explained our charities it turns out her brother had been in The Chrisite so we hopefully have another donation coming!
Another good result from the day was the broken bike from Day 1 (cross-threaded pedal) was sorted for e5 in a LBS! Thought that would be £100ish for a new bit as it's a reasonable specced Treck... but it's not my son's !!

The Hotel tonight is good; a Logis hotel - The Hostellierie - on the banks of the Seine; decent grub and very helpful owners. Comfortable bed too - but they all seem to be after the rides.

Anyway, night night; long day tomorrow...

 

[BAtoo]

Day 4
Saint Pierre Du Vauvray to Pierrefonds.
105 miles today, cold wet and miserable when we eventually set off; no one was keen to go...... Constant moderate rain or drizzle until mid afternoon. Our moving Strave average was OK, I think, in view of the conditions at 12.5mph and 3400fft climbing - which for a Sufflolk Flatlander is a lot
I didn't drink enough through the morning - probably beacuse of the weather and 30M to 50M was hard work. Realised this at the 50M feed and took on pizza, fluids (water and energy drink) & ibuprofen and felt somewhat better. 50-75M was pretty good when we got the train going and the average speed went up somewhat...
We got a bit mis-routed in the forest at 85M which added a bit to the distance & probably dragged in the last 400ft climb.... I was tired again by this point and the last 10M was a bit of a slog
In our group of 7 we had 4 punctures in the day, 3 before 50M, 1 after - none for me on my brand new Gatorskins courtesy of advice on here...
Tonight in Hotel Boudin at Pierrefronds. Nice hotel although I'm in an attic room but its clean and comfortable (& cheaper). An excellent meal - 3 courses for 21e- has been provided.
Madame who owns the hotel offered to dry our obviously wet clothes but insisted on washing them first - result, even I thought they were a bit smelly.......

Anyway 50M-ish tomorrow so night night...

 

[BAtoo]

Day 5, Pierrefonds to Ay
Where did I get 50 miles from? It's 87 miles, with the odd detour, from PF to Ay and 3000ft of climbing.......
Quite a lot of faffing around as someone had 2 flats overnight and then 2 more within a short while. Then someone else had a puncture mid-ride.
Overall the weather was OK; slightly chilly at times but apart from the punctures we progressed well. We did split with the punctures as these seemed to happen with the younger fitter riders so they could catch up!
We all rendezvoused at the British military cemetery at Raperie by chance and all spent a quiet few minutes walking through the beautifully tended place - if you have to be buried on foreign land after a war it very fitting. I'm not sure who tends the place but it was immaculate. We passed several more during the day too.
Lunch was on the hoof in a car park at about mile 38 - local pate baguettes and a large sort-of round custard doughnut.... I'm not sure I'll loose any weight on the trip with all I'm eating
We pressed on as we had an appointment inAy to view a Champagne house. As I left I felt a tightness in my right calf muscle which I tried to ride off - after 5-6 miles it was still and quite sore there so I called it a day and got a lift in the support van which fortunately had not left the lunch stop -as I had another 9 days of riding I thought discretion was the best course.
As we passed the group who had ridden on after I let them know I was stopping we found them with another puncture...... One of the group was fortunately a Physio who gave me a quick run-through of some exercises to do which helped a lot.
We were fortunate to be staying in a very nice hotel in Ay and had a great tour of one of the (many) Champagne houses which one of the group does some business with - and sampled some too. Very interesting indeed and quite mind-blowing with the amount produced and the money involved.Even better they treated us to a wonderful dinner with even more Champagne......
A great end to the day...

 

[BAtoo]

Day 6
Ay to Inor

Three of our group departed for home today - the 3 30-ish ones, two of whom had completed Ironman challenges a few weeks ago.... - including the physio....
Pleased to say the leg felt OK this morning. A very good breakfast at the hotel - slightly spoiled by a couple of very frosty guests.
So today there were 4 - the two youngest and the two oldest.
Scheduled 84 miles today & off we set in good weather and sun. Relatively easy start; fairly flat once we left Ay. We then hit a routing problem about mile 20 where we were sent down a farm track towards a road - seemed ok so off we went only to find a 2m fence at the end - so all the way back. We sorted that out and carried on OK. Another lunch on the hoof -banquettes and cake again.
Another routing issue trying to send us down farmer's fields so we ended up planning as we went. We still had the approximate 600ft climb and managed to fit in another decent one too.
It's very hilly around here and quite beautiful in places - the end of today's ride is in the Ardennes region. By the end we were all quite tired..
A swift beer on arrival and the checked into the hotel - quite pleasant outside but very dated inside. The bedrooms are very basic and need brining up to date; the bath is tiny so a cold bath was difficult as was the warm bath afterwards. However the food was pretty decent and we had some nice Gewürztraminer wine.
The hotel does have WiFi - hence this - but it has a 26 digit alpha-numeric case sensitive access code - why? There's no one nearby to hack it..

Any way a high 70 miler tomorrow so night night

 

[BAtoo]

Day 7
Inor to Igel
A scheduled 85 miles or so... depending on the accuracy of the route.
Started out OK on a hot and sunny day with a 10mph-ish headwind which made the going that bit harder which coupled with the hills made it even harder. Only two of us again and this too slowed the pace but probably reduced the amount of stop-staart that can happen with an informal group such as ours.
We soon crossed the border into Belgium at Ecouviez with no fuss but the obligatory photo at the border - so into country number 2.
We had a fairly uneventful ride across Belgium only to be stopped by a cycle race going along the road we wanted to cross - good number of out riders (private and police) and we waited for the first group and some 6 or 7 sped past tyres humming and doing a huge speed - high 30's? maybe - tight together and followed by about 100 in the peloton at a similar speed - we pottered on....
We then crossed into Luxembourg with even less fuss - hardly a sign marked the spot.
By lunchtime my legs had started to hurt quite badly but I made it to the lunch stop for fluids and some pasta which seemed to help.
We restarted and got on OK for a while until the pain returned and I could only walk the 600ft climb at mile 55. I carried on to Altinista ( a small village) where I had to give up as the muscle pain was too much and the legs were fatiguing badly.
Anyway I'd managed some 62 miles.
I got a lift in the support van for the afternoon and my legs gradually recovered.
We had a decent enough hotel in Igel just into Germany where one of the cycle teams - possibly from earlier were staying. All the lads were dressed alike in black t-shoots and orange trainers.
Anyway that was the end of the day.

 

[BAtoo]

Day 8
Igel to Ellenz

The morning dawned clear and bright with a forecast for the same during the day - and a continuing 10mph headwind.
I made sure of a decent breakfast in case some of the problems yesterday was nutritional.
The route was 85miles or so; all down the banks of the Mosel river for 50 miles then a big climb at 54 miles.
The Mosel valley is beautiful and we had a decent cycle track nearly all of the way. A course deviation on our part led to some wandering for a bit but we mostly carried on OK; dodging the Sunday walkers and cyclists in a fairly steady stream. My legs were holding out well for the first 30 miles or so but the speed wasn't great - partly me, the headwind and the others out and about. After 30 miles the pain increased somewhat but was manageable until mile 38.5 when we had a steepish rise to cross a bridge and then a rise after when my legs said no more. I stopped without falling and that was it for the day. It was even painful and difficult to walk. Support van in action again , fortunately he was only 4 miles away.
My ride partner carried on with us in support as there was a scheduled 600ft climb at mile54 to do on a hot day.
He eventually completed that and we then moved onto the hotel in Ellenz.

I've spoken to my Osteopath daughter in England and we're pretty sure it's just muscle fatigue as I recover after resting and I've no other (cardiovascular) signs. I've been given some remedial things to do - hot-cold water on the legs and even more stretching exercises so we shall see tomorrow.
I'm sure she's right, I just don't have sufficient stamina but to date this ride I've averaged 70ish miles a day for 8 consecutive days, done an imperial centuray ( my first) and climbed between 1000 & 3400 feet a day according to Strava.
Anyway we shall see tomorrow, up early for the added rouitnes.