StuAff
Silencing his legs regularly
- Location
- Portsmouth
Did the bit to Newhaven back in 2012, this was the first time I'd made it over the water. Well worth the effort, though with a slight tinge of regret at not making it to Paris, naturellement. I might have got another bit of The Lemon Meringue Pie (that requires capitalisation) for one thing!
Despite the touring gear (smoking jacket, kitchen sink and so on were left at home, thank you very much!), I stuck with going up to the smoke after work. The (slight) weight and bulk of the uniform was a small price to pay for saving a day's leave. I could have gone home and then ridden along the coast instead, but that would have been very dull indeed (unlike the IOW night recces, boringly flat, as least as far as Brighton, and not picturesque), so nope, I'd much rather spend the night with you lot! Unlike the rest of the week, on Friday night the late shift made a couple of minutes, which meant I had enough time to get to the station for the 9.38 train, rather than hanging about for another half hour. So over to Victoria it was for the traditional indoor meet-up & £1 bucket of tea, before joining the compact and bijou gathering (25 I think?) at HPC, including a couple of new and/or returning people (Wilkommen in der Dunkelheit sprang to mind..). Anyone know why one of the chaps on a Brompton had a spare wheel?
Farthing Downs is great (apart from the cattle grids- more tolerable on Mr Gravel), though I agree not a good idea in the wet. Ross's very unfortunate mechanical was the only real enforced stop of note, though I think there were a few punctures. M&S in the petrol station was a better idea on the night than McDonalds, at least for those of us who really wanted tea or coffee and aren't fond of burgers. A cup of tea, a pasty and a cinnamon bun were much more to my liking. Can't recall ever having that bother exiting Gatwick before, perhaps that road is busier than the ones we leave the terminal by. I vote for terminal-by-the-back-door next time..
As @TimO has noted, we continued to make almost too-good time and had to slow down a bit, even then we still were at Luna Rossa early. Excellent breakfast- not in the top rank, but still very good. I had the mega and cleaned my plate (this will surprise no-one). And, for six of us, then to the ferry. DFDS service at Newhaven was rather more cyclist-friendly than their head office- we were all on the boat quickly enough. After a sporadic kip on the crossing (enlivened by many blasts of the ship's horn & shy retiring children), we made our way into Dieppe, again with some speed (I can only hope my experience of being last off the boat at Dover was an isolated case). Our exit from the town was somewhat more rapid than my arrival had been in May (not difficult, we didn't go round the same roads multiple times!) and we got down to Saint-Saëns in a couple of hours. My B&B was excellent- nice quiet location, all mod cons, very reasonable rate, and just round the corner from the centre of the town (Domaine de l'Abbaye is a little further out). We all met up again for a most pleasant dinner at Au Relais Normand (four courses for €25!!) before I bade Team Paris farewell, they had a somewhat earlier start in the morning.
After demolishing a quality breakfast, time to head to Le Havre. There were a few navigational errors, some of them from the Garmin greatest misses catalogue (such as the old favourite, 'I know I'm on the route but I won't give you any prompts'), and a new one- exiting the town it kept giving me directions when I was in fact off course, and eventually tried to send me into a farm (!). I backtracked to the D-road I should have joined anyway....Later on, I got to this roundabout. Take the second exit, says the Garmin. Fun and games ensued, the correct answer (ascertained by using Osmand on the phone, viewing exactly the same course on the same map data, go figure...) was the third exit. Those little shenanigans added a few miles and some time, but in view of the distance, the headwind, the need to be at the ferry port by half four, and the need to find some lunch from somewhere open, I had made plenty of allowance for that. Lunch was from the U Express in Yvetot (it closed 12.30, I was there by 11.45 and was out of the shop at noon), and the last stretch into town (after that roundabout) proved straightforward and cyclist-friendly. If you're ever in Le Havre, I recommend the Jenner Tunnel, it was a blast (freewheeled the whole length, and no fumes like Rotherhithe). The route to the port was straightforward and mostly off-road paths, no problems at all. At the car lanes by 3.45, and there wasn't much point getting there earlier anyway. 65 miles in under seven hours elapsed, not bad despite the headwind and the GPS issues. Ferry was bang on time into Pompey, home at 10.05. And relax....
Excellent job Olaf, and thanks everyone else!
Despite the touring gear (smoking jacket, kitchen sink and so on were left at home, thank you very much!), I stuck with going up to the smoke after work. The (slight) weight and bulk of the uniform was a small price to pay for saving a day's leave. I could have gone home and then ridden along the coast instead, but that would have been very dull indeed (unlike the IOW night recces, boringly flat, as least as far as Brighton, and not picturesque), so nope, I'd much rather spend the night with you lot! Unlike the rest of the week, on Friday night the late shift made a couple of minutes, which meant I had enough time to get to the station for the 9.38 train, rather than hanging about for another half hour. So over to Victoria it was for the traditional indoor meet-up & £1 bucket of tea, before joining the compact and bijou gathering (25 I think?) at HPC, including a couple of new and/or returning people (Wilkommen in der Dunkelheit sprang to mind..). Anyone know why one of the chaps on a Brompton had a spare wheel?
Farthing Downs is great (apart from the cattle grids- more tolerable on Mr Gravel), though I agree not a good idea in the wet. Ross's very unfortunate mechanical was the only real enforced stop of note, though I think there were a few punctures. M&S in the petrol station was a better idea on the night than McDonalds, at least for those of us who really wanted tea or coffee and aren't fond of burgers. A cup of tea, a pasty and a cinnamon bun were much more to my liking. Can't recall ever having that bother exiting Gatwick before, perhaps that road is busier than the ones we leave the terminal by. I vote for terminal-by-the-back-door next time..
As @TimO has noted, we continued to make almost too-good time and had to slow down a bit, even then we still were at Luna Rossa early. Excellent breakfast- not in the top rank, but still very good. I had the mega and cleaned my plate (this will surprise no-one). And, for six of us, then to the ferry. DFDS service at Newhaven was rather more cyclist-friendly than their head office- we were all on the boat quickly enough. After a sporadic kip on the crossing (enlivened by many blasts of the ship's horn & shy retiring children), we made our way into Dieppe, again with some speed (I can only hope my experience of being last off the boat at Dover was an isolated case). Our exit from the town was somewhat more rapid than my arrival had been in May (not difficult, we didn't go round the same roads multiple times!) and we got down to Saint-Saëns in a couple of hours. My B&B was excellent- nice quiet location, all mod cons, very reasonable rate, and just round the corner from the centre of the town (Domaine de l'Abbaye is a little further out). We all met up again for a most pleasant dinner at Au Relais Normand (four courses for €25!!) before I bade Team Paris farewell, they had a somewhat earlier start in the morning.
After demolishing a quality breakfast, time to head to Le Havre. There were a few navigational errors, some of them from the Garmin greatest misses catalogue (such as the old favourite, 'I know I'm on the route but I won't give you any prompts'), and a new one- exiting the town it kept giving me directions when I was in fact off course, and eventually tried to send me into a farm (!). I backtracked to the D-road I should have joined anyway....Later on, I got to this roundabout. Take the second exit, says the Garmin. Fun and games ensued, the correct answer (ascertained by using Osmand on the phone, viewing exactly the same course on the same map data, go figure...) was the third exit. Those little shenanigans added a few miles and some time, but in view of the distance, the headwind, the need to be at the ferry port by half four, and the need to find some lunch from somewhere open, I had made plenty of allowance for that. Lunch was from the U Express in Yvetot (it closed 12.30, I was there by 11.45 and was out of the shop at noon), and the last stretch into town (after that roundabout) proved straightforward and cyclist-friendly. If you're ever in Le Havre, I recommend the Jenner Tunnel, it was a blast (freewheeled the whole length, and no fumes like Rotherhithe). The route to the port was straightforward and mostly off-road paths, no problems at all. At the car lanes by 3.45, and there wasn't much point getting there earlier anyway. 65 miles in under seven hours elapsed, not bad despite the headwind and the GPS issues. Ferry was bang on time into Pompey, home at 10.05. And relax....
Excellent job Olaf, and thanks everyone else!
