Ha ha, sorry
Have got some of it down (London into France) , but haven't finished it. Will get onto it  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

Bloody hell bean, you could cycle it quicker than write about it In Spain - 2018 F Pace - Frightened away from the Sports due to crank failures
Gone - A couple of RRS, A couple of Disco's. However thinking of another Sport.

Just a small(ish ) write up of my recent challenge to cycle from London to Paris in under 24 hours…… at last I hear you say……

Saturday 6th July....
The day started at 6:30 am and yet ANOTHER big breakfast of a bowl of porridge, a bowl of yogurt with granola and some fruit - you can never under estimate how much fuel the engine needs

Final checks were made to the kit and then off to Blackheath. We arrived at around 9am and there were already a fair few people there, the temperature was on the rise too, and by 10am it was 22 degrees!
Logistics were sorted and bags/bike boxes dropped off to various vans to ensure they made their way to Paris. After a safety briefing, there was an inspirational speech from a young girl who SCOPE had helped first hand, this really got you and made you think of the real reason we were all there to do the challenge.

12:00 came and we set off for Dover. The traffic was hellish for about 10 miles with traffic lights, buses, cars and junctions in abundance (I saw 2 people knocked off, albeit that they were ok, it was very unnerving), it wasn't until we passed Dartford that things settled down.
I was riding with 3 friends and we gradually stepped up our pace until it as just us 4. We bypassed the first stop at 19 miles as this was the ONLY optional stop. It didn't take long before we arrived at the first mandatory stop at just over 50 miles. The weather was scorching by now and it was just in time as I'd run dry in my bottles (2 x 750ml) and needed to replenish them. What we didn't realise is that we were actually the first group to arrive, the SCOPE team were cheering and welcomed us in - a regular and very welcome experience.

Now having done a similar event a couple of years ago (London Amsterdam in 48 hours) I knew the support (food, drink etc.) was good, but they'd really upped their game, you name it, it was there, all nicely chilled and plenty of it. I snacked on a sandwich and topped my drink bottles ready for the off.
We headed back out onto the roads and set our minds on Dover, 40 miles away.

There were a couple of cheeky hills on the way to Dover, the biggest of which was just outside Folkstone. It's about 1000m long, but runs at about 10-15%, under normal circumstances I'd have breasted up this, but with still 190 miles to go, I dropped down the gears and spun up it. I was amazed people were killing themselves trying to blast up it (at the opposite extreme some people were getting off and walking , but I stuck to my plan and made it up without draining too much energy. The benefit of the climb was that there was now 9 miles of decent between us and Dover, I grabbed the drops, head down and picked up the speed, hearing the seagulls and ferry horns was a great boost. It wasn't long before we were at the rest stop just outside the ferry terminal. About 10 riders arrived just before us, so with another array of food, we topped up and feasted before the short trip to the ferry terminal.

At this point it was clear some people were starting to struggle, as we left for the port about 45 minutes later, some riders were only just arriving! We cycled the short journey to the ferry terminal and made our way through the border patrol and customs. I remember the French border control guy, he couldn't believe we were cycling through the night to Paris and was insistent that we must be joking and staying the night in Calais. We convinced him that this wasn't the case and as we parted he uttered the fantastic words "you crazy English"! We passed through the customs buildings and joined our line to board the ferry. Sadly there was an hour delay waiting for our ferry , when it finally arrived, we made our way up the ramp onto the boat . This was treacherous as the decks are covered in oil/diesel , I opted to carry my bike, not wishing to get my wheels covered with diesel, something many others did too.
Once we were on the boat, we dashed upstairs to find somewhere suitable to snatch a few minutes shut eye, with 240 like-minded people, that wasn't an easy task, but we found a few sofas and rested for a while. We also got changed into some fresh (warmer) clothes and prepared for the remaining 180 miles.

The next part of the journey is where your head starts to get messed with. We left Dover in daylight and a relatively warm temperature; we arrived in Dover, just 20 miles away and a couple of hours later, to pitch black night and 14 degrees. Seeing some 240 cyclists disembark with lights flashing and snaking out of the ferry complex was a sight to behold, clearly others thought so too with person after person in the returning ferry queue taking photos of us!

We’re not sure how this happened, but we seemed to find ourselves at the back if the group getting off the ferry, it was a short hop to the first bag drop off point, then onward for the another 45 miles. We barely stopped at the drop off point, only to pass over our bags and top up drinks bottles again (a common misconception is that in colder conditions (ie night time) you don't have to drink as much, but due to having warmer layers on you still sweat almost at the same rate.

We left the rest point and headed on our way again. Straight away more concentration was needed, drains and potholes became less visible, working as a team to highlight these to each other became critical, it also helped you to engage and concentrate on the task in hand. We passed through the first small village and by now we were in a group of no more than 10 people. Up in the distance (some 2-3 miles ahead, over the rolling countryside you could see the red lights of small groups of cyclists, we decided that they would be our targets and we would try to close the gap between us and them over the course of the night.

Now this is where time seemed to disappear, we covered mile after mile at a decent pace and passed through village after village, but as I try to recall events, I come up blank. I do remember that there were always dogs barking as we came into the towns, I guess the French keep them outside? Another memory is the fantastic support that the locals have us, bearing in mind it was the middle of the night, they would pull over shouting 'Allez, Allez, Allez' and 'Bon Chance'....a very welcome lift between rest stops.

On the subject of rest stops, they continued to deliver, providing an array of hot/cold food to tempt you. As the hours/miles racked up eating became more of a struggle as trying to fuel yourself became harder and harder. I tried my best to eat at every stop, but by about 5am (some 17 hours after setting off) I was done, and couldn't stomach another thing. I remember trying to eat a flapjack and spitting it out whilst on the bike. It was at that point for the first time I resorted to the energy gels I had on me. If anyone's had them you'll know they are very sickly, but they do provide a carb/sugar boost and I knew if I didn't do something I wouldn't make it to Paris on the energy I had.

6-8am on the Sunday morning was the lowest point for me, one reason was I was incorrectly dressed and hadn't removed some of my layers, meaning I was over heating; another factor was just sheer tiredness. It seems at that point that we weren't going to make it in the targeted time and that in turn played on our minds and moral in the group dropped. At the penultimate stop, we pulled in and whilst sitting down for a couple of minutes, I fell asleep (albeit for only 1 minute), my body was physically and mentally exhausted!

…..but then something weird happened. I grabbed a coffee (4 sugars and 3 spoonful’s of coffee ) and then started to compute the remaining distance and time in my head. We had 5 hours to complete 60 miles, suddenly I perked up, this was doable, we'd been averaging 18 miles per hour till now and we only had to average 12 for the rest to make it in time!

We set off from the rest stop with two 30 miles stints to complete. It was starting to warm up now, the sun was out, the roads were flattish and we seemed to cover miles quicker than before. The distance had taken the toll on us all though, with various aches and pains apparent in all 4 of us. I was starting to get an excruciating pain in my foot which resulted in me taking copious amounts for paracetamol and ibuprofen to try and numb the pain At one point I remember popping 2 paracetamol and 2 ibuprofen tablets together

The final stop loomed in the distance and as we arrived, the support teams we cheering and shouting encouragement. They all amassed here and knew that people would be flagging here, so seeing a crowd of people cheering you on as you arrived as fantastic. We set down the bikes and quickly consumed some food and drink for the final push to Paris. Sun cream went on here too as the temperature was already reading 28 degrees at 10am As we left the rest point for the final time we knew we would make it in time. The legs were spinning faster and it didn't seem long before we could see Paris on the horizon. Le Defense to be exact. By now it was about 11:30 on a Sunday morning in Paris, the temperature was approaching 35 degrees and the traffic was horrendous. We seemed to get stuck at set after set of traffic lights. My Garmin was saying we had 3 miles left, which seemed odd as I could see the Eiffel Tower seemingly a lot closer. The reason was that the route to the finish took in some of the landmarks of Paris. Most notably, the Arc de Triomphe and the Champs Ellyses. Being a cycling fan and Tour de France follower it was a brilliant experience cycling around there, albeit very daunting as we navigated the roundabout surrounding the Arc.

We rounded the last bend and what can only be described as the most welcome sight was ahead – the SCOPE banners marking the end of the ride. At this point I was overcome with emotion, I was physically and mentally drained and seeing my wife and son there to see me cross the line was an amazing feeling. We crossed the line with the clock at 22 hours 51 minutes, a massive achievement, even if I say so myself. It turned out we were the 40-43 people to cross the line and out of 279 people taking part, only 80 made it within the time limit.

As soon as I crossed the line, I put my bike down and ran back to find my family, I was in bits, emotion had overcome me and it took a while for the enormity of the challenge to sink in. Unfortunately one of my friends had turned a pale colour shortly after crossing the line and was suffering from dehydration, but was seen to by the medics, fortunately he didn't have to take a trip to hospital, unlike 4 others who finished with the same condition but it showed that this was a serious challenge in every sense of the word.

I set out to do this challenge initially as I thought ‘how hard can it be?’,…………… the answer to which is VERY. I completed in excess of 2000 training miles in the 4 months leading up to the challenge and I can honestly say, I could have done more. It’s not only difficult to prepare for the number of continuous miles that you do in the saddle, but also the sheer mental exhaustion you will face too, BUT at the end of the day it was thoroughly worth it, with the very generous help of a lot of people on here I raised just shy of £3,000 for SCOPE…..and let’s be honest….that’s what matters

Sorry, it was a,little longer than planned.

Some pictures....
Ready for the off (2nd from right):

Click image to enlarge

Click image to enlarge

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Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated

great read and a amazing thing to say you have done, especially when its for charity

Beany - fabulous write up, thanks for taking the time to do that and well done again  FF 4.4 V8 Soooo looking forward to this bad boy
Ex 2006 RRS SC - garbage
Ex 2016 135i M Sport - dream car
Ex 2003 RS6 Avant - piece of cr*p
Ex 2014 320d X Drive, M Sport Touring - ok I guess
Ex 2007 RRS TDV8 - bloody loved it
EX 2007 FL2 XS - not so bad

Well impressed - exhausted just reading it  Wanted a Series 2 LR since childhood but previously owned MY16 Disco Sport HSE TD4 Auto, MY13 RR Sport Black Edition TDV6 Auto, MY10 RR Sport HSE TDV6 Auto, 2007 Freelander 1 Freestyle TD4 Soft Top, 2009 Freelander 2 GS TD4 Auto, 2007 Freelander 2 GS TD4, 2004 Disco 2 Metropolis Auto, 2002 Disco 2 GS, 2000 Freelander 1 SE TD4 SW

Still hoping for a S2 one day!

FANTASTIC............

Now put some photos in your gallery, you should be a proud man  In Spain - 2018 F Pace - Frightened away from the Sports due to crank failures
Gone - A couple of RRS, A couple of Disco's. However thinking of another Sport.

Fantastic write up Beano, and once again a great achievement, well done.























Judging by the photo of the four of you on your bikes, did you leave any food for the cyclists behind you? What was it? First come first served?





Only kidding Nothing a few sit ups won't cure.

Feeky Chucker !!!!  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

Great write up BC.
An amazing personal achievement and a fantastic amount raised for charity.
Well done. MY13.5 Autobiography, Santorini Black, Privacy Glass. Gone
Driving a milk float for now.

How did you friends fair RM? ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

Amazing

Beancounter_74 wrote:

How did you friends fair RM?