Day 1 – Tuesday 24th May 2011
Yesterday, as I was in town buying a few last things for this trip, I bumped into an old friend of mine. During the course of the conversation he asked what training I’d done. So I told him I’d cycled 80 miles in one day... about a year ago! The truth is that I had intended to do some training: 90-100 miles in one day; 50 miles for 3 days in a row; and 30 miles cycling in the wet. But time just seemed to escape me.
Another friend, a unicyclist called Sam (who, the last I heard, has a few World Records with his unicycling), had told me that with any event like this, it’s not about how much training you do, it’s about setting a date and getting on with it.
The last time I rode more than 20 miles in a day was just after Christmas and I’ve been pretty bad at keeping myself fit since. But I set the date, and here I am, having ridden over 70 miles today!
It’s been a great day: the sun has been out (I now have red arms and legs) and it’s just been really enjoyable. I’m not where I should be, according to my 8-day partial plan, but I’m not far off... maybe about 20 miles. The thing is, as I was getting off the ferry this morning, there was another heavily laden bike parked behind me – he had front and rear panniers, a huge hiking rucksack across rear panniers and even another rucksack on his back. He’s headed down to Marseille – good luck to him! But he said he was headed over the Pont de Normandie (roughly translated to the “Normandy Bridge”: a spectacular piece of architecture which spans the Seine estuary). When my dad and I have been on motorbike trips, we’ve sometimes been over this bridge. On the opposite side to Le Havre is a lovely little seaside town called Honfleur. I had wondered about going past there (a minor detour to where I wanted to be going) but thought that the Pont de Normandie was autoroute and therefore cyclists were not allowed. The guy on the ferry said otherwise and it got me thinking, “It would be nice...”
We got off the ferry and I overtook this guy twice... in my attempt to avoid going on the autoroute out of Le Havre I ended up going round the block... and feeling like a dimwit. Even so, I ended up going on a bit of autoroute by accident and had a few cars beeping their horns at me. Never mind, that’s another silly thing I’ve done!
I came off the autoroute and found myself going in the wrong direction for the bridge. Turn around and back I go... almost back into Le Havre and a waste of 45 minutes. I found a way closer and stopped on a roundabout (a habit I’ve picked up off my dad – he always does that when he’s lost... oh wait, “checking the directions”: he doesn’t get lost). There was a big sign showing “Pont de Normandie” with the autoroute symbol right next to it. There was another sign indicating no cyclists. Marvellous. A French police van was nearby so I knocked on the window. The sliding door opened to reveal 4 coppers playing cards. Nice to see them hard at work. They said it was possible to cycle on the bridge, just follow the autoroute. I pointed out the “no cyclists” sign so they said to go ask at the garage on the other side of the roundabout.
The lady at he garage said, “Yes.” I just had to go back over the roundabout and at the 4th set of traffic lights turn right and follow the estuary route. But that was a dead end. I figured I’d misheard. Instead of saying the 4th (“quatrième”) set of lights, maybe she said, “quart mile,” meaning a quarter of a mile, at the lights. That would be the first set of lights. Back I went. The mileage started mounting. That turning was a factory. But everyone seemed to be taking a break and there were a few nice motorbikes parked up (including a BMW R1100RT – a bike my dad’s owned for about 10 years), so I had a chat with a few of the guys. They were very helpful. Back down the road a few kilometres and turn right before I get to a little bridge. Great – I hadn’t gone far enough the first time. If I didn’t find it, I had 2 options: jump on the autoroute regardless and hope I don’t get caught (I’d done it accidentally already, after all); or give up on Honfleur and actually get some distance between me and Le Havre.
But sure enough I found the right turning, and it was the estuary route and all seemed well. Except that my backside was starting to ache and I noticed the front wheel of the bike was a little loose. I didn’t care – onwards!
Honfleur is only about 10 miles from the ferry, and on a motorbike it’s very straight forward. But I had managed to get there... with the speedometer showing 39 miles and taking 5 hours. It was nice to be sat, looking at more motorbikes parked up, eating some lunch where we’d sat eating lunch on past motorbike trips, and I’m thinking it’s a little weird being here on my own, especially with a push bike.
Well, time was getting on and it would be a real shame to knock off for the day at Honfleur’s campsite having not even reached 40 miles, and even that could be considered to be in the wrong direction. I took the liberty of fixing the front wheel and giving the tyres some air and now she rides beautifully. Maybe I’ll come up with a name for her by the end of the trip... or would that be a little sad?
The rest of the day’s riding was pretty uneventful, just pleasant. I found myself doing 23 mph on the flat at one point, so that was a nice surprise with all the luggage on. Plus there was a 7% downhill where I got up to 38 mph.
I decided to rest for the night at this little town called Bourg-Achard, sort of South West of Rouen. The campsite’s nice and there’s an Intermarché about a quarter of a mile away. I managed to get a few more spare parts I’m likely to need: another inner tube (I only had one with me until now), and some brake cables (it’s only a matter of time before the ones on the bike give way...). I still haven’t bothered to put the new tyres on, partly because I was actually quite exhausted after today’s riding, but also because I’m interested to see how long they’ll last. They are really thin (especially for touring) and the rear one has a small crack in the side. But this is me, and this is what I’m like!
I’m not sure if it’s worth trying to press on all the way to the outskirts of Paris tomorrow. It’ll be a long day if I do, but it’ll really feel like I’m getting somewhere. I suppose I’ll just have to see if I can still sit on the saddle first! Anyway, it’s 10:10pm and I’m tired so I think it’s bedtime. Goodnight!
Stats
Mileage = 72.14 miles
Riding time = 6 hours 6 minutes
Average speed = 11.8 mph
Top speed = 38.1 mph
Total mileage since start = 72.1
Yesterday, as I was in town buying a few last things for this trip, I bumped into an old friend of mine. During the course of the conversation he asked what training I’d done. So I told him I’d cycled 80 miles in one day... about a year ago! The truth is that I had intended to do some training: 90-100 miles in one day; 50 miles for 3 days in a row; and 30 miles cycling in the wet. But time just seemed to escape me.
Another friend, a unicyclist called Sam (who, the last I heard, has a few World Records with his unicycling), had told me that with any event like this, it’s not about how much training you do, it’s about setting a date and getting on with it.
The last time I rode more than 20 miles in a day was just after Christmas and I’ve been pretty bad at keeping myself fit since. But I set the date, and here I am, having ridden over 70 miles today!
It’s been a great day: the sun has been out (I now have red arms and legs) and it’s just been really enjoyable. I’m not where I should be, according to my 8-day partial plan, but I’m not far off... maybe about 20 miles. The thing is, as I was getting off the ferry this morning, there was another heavily laden bike parked behind me – he had front and rear panniers, a huge hiking rucksack across rear panniers and even another rucksack on his back. He’s headed down to Marseille – good luck to him! But he said he was headed over the Pont de Normandie (roughly translated to the “Normandy Bridge”: a spectacular piece of architecture which spans the Seine estuary). When my dad and I have been on motorbike trips, we’ve sometimes been over this bridge. On the opposite side to Le Havre is a lovely little seaside town called Honfleur. I had wondered about going past there (a minor detour to where I wanted to be going) but thought that the Pont de Normandie was autoroute and therefore cyclists were not allowed. The guy on the ferry said otherwise and it got me thinking, “It would be nice...”
We got off the ferry and I overtook this guy twice... in my attempt to avoid going on the autoroute out of Le Havre I ended up going round the block... and feeling like a dimwit. Even so, I ended up going on a bit of autoroute by accident and had a few cars beeping their horns at me. Never mind, that’s another silly thing I’ve done!
I came off the autoroute and found myself going in the wrong direction for the bridge. Turn around and back I go... almost back into Le Havre and a waste of 45 minutes. I found a way closer and stopped on a roundabout (a habit I’ve picked up off my dad – he always does that when he’s lost... oh wait, “checking the directions”: he doesn’t get lost). There was a big sign showing “Pont de Normandie” with the autoroute symbol right next to it. There was another sign indicating no cyclists. Marvellous. A French police van was nearby so I knocked on the window. The sliding door opened to reveal 4 coppers playing cards. Nice to see them hard at work. They said it was possible to cycle on the bridge, just follow the autoroute. I pointed out the “no cyclists” sign so they said to go ask at the garage on the other side of the roundabout.
The lady at he garage said, “Yes.” I just had to go back over the roundabout and at the 4th set of traffic lights turn right and follow the estuary route. But that was a dead end. I figured I’d misheard. Instead of saying the 4th (“quatrième”) set of lights, maybe she said, “quart mile,” meaning a quarter of a mile, at the lights. That would be the first set of lights. Back I went. The mileage started mounting. That turning was a factory. But everyone seemed to be taking a break and there were a few nice motorbikes parked up (including a BMW R1100RT – a bike my dad’s owned for about 10 years), so I had a chat with a few of the guys. They were very helpful. Back down the road a few kilometres and turn right before I get to a little bridge. Great – I hadn’t gone far enough the first time. If I didn’t find it, I had 2 options: jump on the autoroute regardless and hope I don’t get caught (I’d done it accidentally already, after all); or give up on Honfleur and actually get some distance between me and Le Havre.But sure enough I found the right turning, and it was the estuary route and all seemed well. Except that my backside was starting to ache and I noticed the front wheel of the bike was a little loose. I didn’t care – onwards!
Honfleur is only about 10 miles from the ferry, and on a motorbike it’s very straight forward. But I had managed to get there... with the speedometer showing 39 miles and taking 5 hours. It was nice to be sat, looking at more motorbikes parked up, eating some lunch where we’d sat eating lunch on past motorbike trips, and I’m thinking it’s a little weird being here on my own, especially with a push bike.Well, time was getting on and it would be a real shame to knock off for the day at Honfleur’s campsite having not even reached 40 miles, and even that could be considered to be in the wrong direction. I took the liberty of fixing the front wheel and giving the tyres some air and now she rides beautifully. Maybe I’ll come up with a name for her by the end of the trip... or would that be a little sad?
The rest of the day’s riding was pretty uneventful, just pleasant. I found myself doing 23 mph on the flat at one point, so that was a nice surprise with all the luggage on. Plus there was a 7% downhill where I got up to 38 mph.I decided to rest for the night at this little town called Bourg-Achard, sort of South West of Rouen. The campsite’s nice and there’s an Intermarché about a quarter of a mile away. I managed to get a few more spare parts I’m likely to need: another inner tube (I only had one with me until now), and some brake cables (it’s only a matter of time before the ones on the bike give way...). I still haven’t bothered to put the new tyres on, partly because I was actually quite exhausted after today’s riding, but also because I’m interested to see how long they’ll last. They are really thin (especially for touring) and the rear one has a small crack in the side. But this is me, and this is what I’m like!
I’m not sure if it’s worth trying to press on all the way to the outskirts of Paris tomorrow. It’ll be a long day if I do, but it’ll really feel like I’m getting somewhere. I suppose I’ll just have to see if I can still sit on the saddle first! Anyway, it’s 10:10pm and I’m tired so I think it’s bedtime. Goodnight!
Stats
Mileage = 72.14 miles
Riding time = 6 hours 6 minutes
Average speed = 11.8 mph
Top speed = 38.1 mph
Total mileage since start = 72.1
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