Blog: Three men reach Paris
Monday 28th June 2010, 7:00AM BST.
Richard Ward, Simon Davis and Mark Harris in Paris
Richard Ward, Simon Davis and Mark Harris, three friends from the Shropshire village of Berrington, near Shrewsbury, are cycling from London to Paris to raise funds for the British Heart Foundation.
Day 4. We were all up and ready for the last day (except Rich had a dodgy stomach in the night, so was feeling a bit ropey) for an early start.
We left at just after 7am, meandering along the almost deserted roads. The first 10 miles were lovely, gently rolling and some straight flat roads. We stopped for a stretch, where James then prepped us for what was about to come – another monster hill, two miles at >6% gradient all the way, and what a hill.
Once up from that, we had a great stretch where the roads were fairly flat or gently down, and we picked up our pace, often hitting 17/18+ miles per hour.
We did then have a very busy main road piece for about 10 miles, with dual carriageway, lorries etc. Once we turned off on to the less busy roads, we meandered through some lovely villages, stopping for a coffee by the river Oise about half way to Paris.
It was now getting hot, and so we set off again, with a long drag up and over a railway line, then we started to reach the outskirts of Paris.
About 18 miles out from our goal, Rich was caught out with a glass puncture. Dirty fingers and 15 minutes later, we were back on the road.
We stopped again for a break at Sannois, enjoying a Diablo and Coffee. Twelve miles to go, and we passed through the Algerian Quarter, then we just kept heading in and in and in.
We made one or two wrong turns near to the Arc de Triomphe, but negotiated that carefully, and headed down Rue D’Elena to the Pont d’Elena, over the Seine, and arrived to a rapturous reception from our families, with banners, flags, trophies and general cacophonous noise to welcome the intrepid and hot cyclists, who were over the moon to have made it.
We travelled more than 280 miles overall, up many, many hills, drank a few beers and glasses of wine, and we have MADE IT!
Hooray, and thanks to all the supporters, and our families, for making this such a memorable and successful journey.
