London to Brussels cycle challenge 2013. Day 1, Thursday 5th September.

I've talked enough about the training, the build up, why i did it etc, so this post is all about the ride itself. The 240 miles (379km) I and 80+ others cycled from blackheath common in London, to Brussels in Belgium, via Kent, Dover, Calais, Brugge, Ghent and eventually Brussels itself.

Day 1 - Thursday 5th September 2013 - London to Calais, 83 miles, 'undulating' (yeah, right!!)

My alarm went off at 5.30am, yes you did read that right, half past 5 in the morning!!! I'd already laid my kit out the night before so I could stay in bed as long as possible! After wolfing down some breakfast and meeting some of the group for the first time, we walked over the road from the hotel to the meeting point, on the common by the side of the road on a large expanse of grass. After waiting for everyone to turn up, labelling up our bikes and bags , we were given the green light to set off.

Now at this point I need to state that it was 7am and very foggy, and we were in London. On the edge of London I accept, but far from the quiet country lanes I have trained on in rural North Yorkshire! This was my first problem that I had to overcome, as we had approximately an hour of riding to do before we got onto quiet b-roads and the volume of traffic calmed down! I had done no training for all the cars cutting me up, or the frequent stops at traffic lights, or trying to cross 2 lane a roads in front of buses and angry half asleep commuters in big cars, in thick fog, whilst remembering to unclip, signal where I was going, avoid the motorbikes etc etc etc. In a nutshell, it was horrible, no other way to put it. Not an experience I want to repeat any time soon, and not a good start to the 3 days!

Anyway, london was eventually out of the way, thankfully, the fog was starting to lift and it was getting hot very quickly. Eventually the thermometer hit 30 degrees for most of the day which didn't make for pleasant riding!

The first day was supposed to be 'gently undulating'. This was to become an infamous phrase throughout the 3 days as day 1 in particular was anything but undulating. For undulating, read hilly......my kind of terrain incidentally and just what I had trained heavily for (specifically so I could get up any hill they threw at me without getting off to walk!!).

When we started hitting the first of the hills the % gradient started to go into double figures very soon (despite what the pre ride briefing info had lead me to believe!!). I gave up counting how many climbs we went up in total, but someone told me we had 4000 metres of climbing over the 83 miles (132km) we rode on day 1. That included numerous 10%'s, a few at 12 and 13%, 2 that got to 15% and I think one which touched 16% for a few meters. One which was probably a mile and a half long that averaged 12% and finished with the peak at somewhere called the devils kneading trough, and a few which emerged out of nowhere in some forests and were followed by some very gravely, very dark steep descents....scary when you're going 45kmph! I passed a lot of people who had got off and walked, although I was determined not to follow suit. Up the steepest of the hills, even with 40 or 60 miles in my legs I was shouting at my legs to stop hurting and reminding myself that Norwood edge and Kearby cliff where I had done all my training, were twice if not 3 times as steep as the hill I was currently riding on. Result, I got up them all, every climb, in the saddle, and succeeded in vindicating all my training, and ticking a big box that I had trained a long time for. If you had been there when I reached the top of every hill that day, you would have seen a huge smile on my face :-)

Every day we had a water stop after 20 miles which had water to fill your bottles, juice, fruit, energy bars etc. After a toilet stop and a few words with others in the group you were on your way. Lunch was at 45 miles which was very well catered, including a choice of pasta dishes, veg, fruit, cakes, crisps, more juice, more energy gels, a few stretches and another toilet stop and for some a chance to grab a quick power nap! And then at 60 miles Ish we had another final water stop before a final slog onto the finish line. The same routine every day, and it made for a nice distraction to break up the ride.

Anyway, I digress. Back to day 1. After lunch we continued in the heat towards Dover. Passing more people walking up hills, while i was secretly loving the terrain and not complaining at all (far from it), the miles whizzed by and I wondered if we would ever see the white cliffs.

Eventually we did (arrive at dover) and I was overjoyed. It had been the hardest and longest single ride I have ever done, my time at 6 hours may not have been the fastest ever ( a few did it twice as fast!!), but I'd done it. Apart from a gentle 5 mile parade ride from Calais docks to our hotel, in the dark, day 1 was in the bag. 

Bed, meet my new room mate alexei (top bloke) and try and get some much needed sleep before day 2 tomorrow and an alarm call after 6 hours sleep which felt like 3 hours!!!

More to follow soon on day 2.........

Phil