The Tour - Day 7 to 9 (THE END!)

After far too little sleep (about 3 hours, a waste of a hotel room really!) I was up at 3 in the morning for a quick blast through the streets of Dieppe to get on my ferry. The ferry took about 4 hours during which I actually managed to get a few more minutes of sleep. After about 10 months I was finally back on British soil and for the first 2 minutes it felt great. After that I made it onto British roads and was reminded that drivers here really don't give a crap about cyclists. To emphasise the point a French car was beeped for not immediately overtaking me as we left Newhaven.

As I was staying at Pete's that night and I arrived in London at about 2 I decided to have a tourist-y ride around the centre. I crossed the river to Buckingham Palace, rode down the mall, through Trafalgar Square, past St. Paul's and down to London Bridge.... hence all the photos. I ended up at Pete's not long before he arrived home from work. That weekend I stayed in London and had my first rest day quickly followed by my second.

After my two rest days I was back on the bike for the last leg. As I had become used to not sleeping in the tent I decided to leave all of my camping gear at Pete's house to save weight. I pre-booked a hotel in Nuneaton to spend my last night at before home. The route from London to home was pretty much straight up Watling street all the way.

Despite the strong headwind all day I got to Nuneaton quite early and had time to chill in my room for a while until I was ready to go and destroy the biggest steak on the menu at the restaurant next door. The next day I had only just over 70km to go so I woke late and ate my crappy Travellodge breakfast and got back on the road. Even though it was only a short distance the last day wasn't brilliant as the wind was even stronger and more directly in my face than the day before!

Above is the route that I took, marked with the stops I made each night and below are the statistics for the last 3 days.


Day 7 - Dieppe to Southgate
Distance: 124.85km       Time: 6:09                Average Speed: 20.29kmph


Day 8 - Southgate to Nuneaton
Distance: 147.78km       Time: 6:39                Average Speed: 22.18kmph


Day 9 - Nuneaton to Stone, HOOOOME!
Distance: 71.69km         Time: 3:17                Average Speed: 21.76kmph


So that is it, my travelling adventure (great big holiday) now all finished. This is the last blog entry , I hope you enjoyed it or at least tolerated it or managed to ignore it. I guess now it is time for me to get one of those job things and stop avoiding life or whatever...

Le Tour - Jour quatre à six

After the previous day I was expecting to wake up relishing my day off. Instead I decided that I shouldn't completely waste a whole day and should at least cycle a few towns north. After 20 minutes on the bike I realised that my legs weren't in too much pain and more importantly neither was my ass and so I called off the rest day. 

It ended up being a good decision as after the first few kilometres the roads flattened off and stayed that way all day. As I got near to the end of the day I picked a town on my map to stay in, Patay. Now, I cannot stress this enough, FUCK PATAY. It was marked on my map which means it is a relatively large town but when I arrived I couldn't see signs for a campsite, quite unusual in France. I was told that the nearest campsite was probably about 25 km back the way I had come... at this point I had done over 150km and didn't really feel like going another 25 in the wrong direction. Instead of doing that I went in search of a hotel. The town had 2 buildings that looked like hotels and in both I was told "non, l'hôtel est fini". Brilliant. So the nearest open hotel... 30km in the wrong direction.

Eventually I found out that there was a hotel in a town about 10km away and thankfully it was actually still a hotel and had a room free. In the end I rode just over 100 miles (random switch from metric to imperial for no reason) that day and had never been so grateful to have a bath and a real bed! The hotel was actually well priced considering that it was quite a fancy place with beamed ceilings and strange textile padded walls. In the end I got carried away in the restaurant (I hadn't eaten much other than pasta and baguettes up to this point) and spent nearly as much as the cost of the room in food and drink. 

After the previous day I woke up feeling surprisingly good again and so decided that I would rather get home quicker than bother with any rest days. The next day was thankfully uneventful and took me to about 100 miles from the coast, unfortunately back in the tent again. I planned to do two nice easy days up to Dieppe to take the ferry. 

Typical breakfast

Of course with all my plans I changed my mind and for a really quite stupid reason. About 10km into the day it started to absolutely hammer down with rain. Instead of sticking to the plan and doing a short day in the rain I decided to push on and ride all the way to Dieppe in one day through the rain. This didn't go so well. I managed to get lost several times, and got my second puncture. The puncture conveniently happened as I was riding down a small section of motorway  to avoid a 10km detour whilst trying to hide from the police. Luckily I didn't have to sit in sight as I repaired it as I could slip into a nearby wood to shelter and do the repair. 

My Korean mask (courtesy of Katie) protecting me from the
polluted French countryside but unfortunately not from the rain

By the time I finally reached Dieppe it was about half past 7 and as I went to get something out of my bags I realised that the manufacturer's idea of waterproof was obviously very different to mine. All of my stuff was soaked and dyed red from my shirts so I decided I would stop in a hotel for the night again. When I got into the room I wasn't the happiest person so I filled the bin with wet stuff and anything heavy that I could do without.


So that was the French bit done, nearly 800km in 6 days. Here are the statistics for the second lot of 3 days.


Day 4 - Châtillon-sur-Indre to Tournoisis
Distance: 161.26km       Time: 6:57                Average Speed: 23.19kmph


Day 5 - Tournoisis to Anet
Distance: 135.59km       Time: 5:28                Average Speed: 24.80kmph


Day 6 - Anet to Deippe
Distance: 161.43km       Time: 6:55                Average Speed: 23.31kmph

Le Tour - Jour une à trois

So with my brilliant planning and preparation I was ready to leave. I had a new bike, all the gear I would need (I went slightly crazy with the last of my cash in a bike shop) and it was all strapped to the back/stuck to my skin inappropriately tightly. 

As I had done so little training I though I would start of with a few easy days to ease into the ride, probably having a rest day every 2 days. As with all my plans I completely ignored it as soon as I had started. The first day was quite tough and after nearly 2 weeks of overcast and slightly cool weather at my Grandad's, France picked my first day to give me full sunshine and nearly 30°C. This weather, the lack of training and the fact that some of the worst terrain of the whole route would be in the first 2 days meant that halfway through the second day I was starting to think I had bitten off far more than I could chew. The type of high rolling hills that I was on was becoming very disheartening with every crest giving a view of the next hill. I was beginning to wonder where the boring flat France of the long car journeys of my childhood had gone!

Luckily at the end of the second day I found a campsite in the garden of a pub right next to a lake in a typical small French town. Sitting with a beer as the sun set meant I didn't really care that I hadn't gone as far as the previous day. I also tried to remind myself that I hadn't planned to ride as far as I had done and that I had planned a rest day after one more day in the saddle.

On my third day everything seemed to be going well and the terrain had started to level out slightly. Obviously it was time for my first problems to strike. Just as I was looking for a place to get lunch, about 60km into the day, I had my first puncture. Luckily I had prepared for this and after unpacking all my bags on  the side of the road I found one of my spare inner tubes. It was at this point that I discovered that the pump that my Grandad had kindly donated couldn't actually give me the pressure I needed for the tyre! I spent about 25 minutes in the midday heat desperately trying to get just enough air in the wheels to lift the rim off the road. Eventually I managed this and had to ride 20km on a still very flat tyre until I could find a place to buy a pump that worked. 

The problems of the day weren't quite over though as at the end of the day when I was ready to stop the campsite in the town I had reached was closed. Using my terrible French I managed to ask some old ladies for the nearest one and was told it was either 5km back the way I had come or about 9 or 10km north. Going back didn't seem like an option so I pushed on. 9 or 10km later I reached a signpost for the town I was aiming for... it was another 10km away. Anyway I made it and collapsed into my tent cursing old French ladies and their lack of concept of distance.


Some stats for the first 3 days if anyone is interested...


Day 1 - La Concarde, Queyssel to Brantôme
Distance: 104.21km     Time: 5:11                Average Speed: 20.04kmph


Day 2 - Brantôme to Montrollet
Distance: 99.93km       Time: 5:14                Average Speed: 19.08kmph


Day 3 - Montrollet to Châtillon-sur-Indre
Distance: 135.35km     Time: 6:07                Average Speed: 22.08kmph