LONDON TO PARIS CYCLE JUNE 2008

By Natalie Brettell

In January 2008 after some changes to my life I decided I wanted to challenge myself and try to raise money as well as awareness for Leonard Cheshire Disability.

When I looked on our website when trying to decide what to do I saw the perfect challenge – Cycle London to Paris!  My immediate thought was ‘that’s 200 miles, the most I have ever done is about 10 in a day, and that did take all day!’  So this kind of challenge was going to take some serious hard work and determination!

So I signed up and began ‘training’.  I started by going to the gym much more regularly and getting my fitness levels up.  By March I was feeling fitter but getting nervous that there were going to be some serious cycling fanatics on the trip and that I would never keep up!  By the end of May I had done a couple of long cycles, perhaps the most being around 30 miles.  The write up about the actual ride said we would be doing around 65-75 miles per day, would I ever be ready for that?!  At the beginning of June as a last ditch attempt to prepare myself I chose to cycle from Barnstaple to Tiverton and back, it was an incredibly long day and the link road was so full of hills I thought I was headed for the moon!  But I did make it, could barely walk for 2 days, but did make it.  At this point despite telling people I was confident and it was going to be fine, deep down I was racking my brain for a good excuse to get out of it!  I considered many options but eventually concluded that the very people I was trying to do the challenge for had faced far more and bigger obstacles than this in their lifetimes and that I would do it for them. So the big day loomed ahead and I made plans to meet up with a couple of other Leonard Cheshire Disability staff from our home in Brixham so that we could journey together up to London for the start. 

We met up the day before and had a rather interesting journey up to the capital! As always I managed to get us lost but after a long drive, train, walk and pizza we settled into our room to get ready for the big day. We got up at 4.30am on Thursday morning, not sure what to expect but a long day ahead and sore bums in the evening.  We gathered together at 5.30 at the bridge, and our hearts sank as we saw around 40 cyclists in professional gear with top of the range racing bikes.   As you can see Shaun from Brixham turned up in a Barbie helmet and Caroline had got her bike from the tip!

Our group quickly became known as ‘those who chose to go slow.’  John Snow (the channel 4 news reader) saw us off from London Bridge and we quickly rode through the busy streets of London.  After a couple of hours we had made it to countryside and stopped for our first break where the support lorry set up a picnic table with fruit, water, nuts and a friendly smile.  After a few more miles of cycling and the most serious hill I had ever encountered, we made it to the lunch stop at Turners Hill.  After a good rest we headed back off for the final leg to Newhaven to get the ferry.  We got on the ferry, and the journey took around 4 hours, during which time we ate, slept and drunk coffee to keep us alive!  On our arrival at Dieppe we cycled to our hotel where we got to bed at around midnight. 

The next morning we were woken at around 6 for breakfast, and then got our bikes out ready for another long day, 75 miles!  We were still a little sore from the day before but nothing like I imagined it would be!  It was raining and a bit cold but thought perhaps that was a blessing in disguise?  As we got to our first stop, Saint Sans, it really was raining hard so we found a little café to get a coffee.  Sadly the woman wasn’t used to being overwhelmed by 50 thirsty cyclists so we never did get the coffee, but the seats were comfy for 5 minutes!  We then carried on going till our lunch stop where we had a group photo taken after another carb filled meal.  Our final part of the day took us through to Bouvais where we had a lovely meal and a bit too much French wine.  We made some new pals that night and had some fun. 

Our final day, to Paris, was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.  Amazingly, I was not too sore or achy and felt good.  We encountered some incredible hills that seemed to go on for miles and miles, and some lovely woodlands, French villages and towns.  Then, as we neared lunch time, the worst thing began to happen.  My knee started to give up, it had been clicking for a few miles but I had managed to ignore it.  However it wasn’t feeling good anymore and I saw the first aider –  Will, who said I ought to stop.  I thought he was probably being overly cautious so asked him to bandage me up and I would carry on.  

So we carried on.  Everyone was buzzing at this point as we were only 30 miles away from the finish line.  As we got into Paris, there were traffic lights upon traffic lights and at one point even the leader took us the wrong way for a good couple of miles but then we started to go down a little hill and saw the tip of the Eiffel Tower behind some trees. 
A little further on we could see the welcome party, where some of the cyclists friends and relatives had come to greet them, people were cheering from what seemed like every direction!  It was amazing, we had made it!

We had a party and awards ceremony that evening and carried on the celebrations till the very early hours of the next morning.  We were exhausted but elated, and no amount of tiredness was going to stop us.   We made some fantastic friends and have vowed to keep in touch, if only on facebook for now, and some of us are thinking about doing it again next year!

I raised over £1200 for Westmead House (before expenses), and feel like I really have achieved something. This really proves that if you put your mind to it, you really can achieve anything! Thanks to all those who sponsored me, and I hope anyone who hasn't and has read this will consider doing so. Also a big thanks to all who supported and encouraged me from Westmead, particularly the residents for giving me the inspiration in the first place!