Update and the future

Fundraising Update

Cheers! And a big thank you to everyone who has donated. We are very grateful for your support and appreciate all the support that you have offered us.

Money is still rolling in and we are currently more than £13,000. We are hoping to raise in excess of £15,000 by the end. If you have not yet donated, please do so and help us reach this target. It really will make a difference for the families helped by The Jessie May Trust.

As the grand finale to out bike ride, we will be arranging a comedy evening(s) at the end of October, so keep an eye out for further details on this.

Vernon to Paris

Day 4

A freezing start to the day saw the team caught by surprise, leaving all warm clothes in the support van, and cycling off into the valley leading away from Vernon . With the mist gradually clearing, we cycled through Giverny, past Monet's garden before it had opened to the public, heading on to our breakfast spot where we knew a van full of pain au raisin would be waiting for us.

Having fuelled up, and with a sniff of the finish line (as well as the promise of a barbecue in the Saint-German forest on the outskirts of Paris ), the team headed off. The barbecue was an undoubted highlight with more steak, sausages, potatoes and bananas than we could eat (or rather than we thought we could eat). Again, Alyson, Paul and Stephanie (a friend from Franklin law firm in Paris ) excelled themselves with a fantastic spread laid out on a tablecloth with flowers in the table, taking eating en route to new levels!

Weighed down by our exertions over lunch, the final stretch into Paris was not quite as quick as we had hoped, but we still had time for one final outdoor "pit stop" in the Bois de Boulogne before setting off on the avenue up to the Arc de Triomphe. Huw bravely led us through the traffic only to suffer our third (and last) puncture with the finish in sight. A quick change of tyres before jumping back on the bike and launching the peloton back up to the Arc de Triomphe where Chris used his years of experience to jump ahead of everyone and grab the yellow jersey at the last minute. We were greeted by Alyson, Paul and Stephanie with very welcome glasses of champagne and by a group of fascinated tourists who seemed more interested in taking pictures of us than the Arc de Triomphe. Having enjoyed a few glasses of the sparkling stuff, we took our lives in our hands by jumping back on the bikes with berets on, and cycling round the Arc de Triomphe. Thankfully, we all survived.

All in all, it was a fantastic few days, a great team effort by all and we will have some fantastic memories (as well as bruises and scrapes) to remember the trip.

Le Havre to Vernon

Day 3

After a fitful night's sleep, our elite team arose as the boat was approaching France to fuel up with an "all you can eat" fry-up (the true athlete's breakfast). Spurred on by this, there was much faffing as we departed from the ferry and everyone decided what they were going to wear in the car-park by the support van. Alyson was firmly in trucker mode and the huge Mercedes van provided to us by Scott Law – a million thanks for your unbelievable support – was emptied of food, drink and chosen the appropriate outfits. Slightly warily, the team set off in search of the big hill we had been promised out of Le Havre . Thankfully, this never arrived and we were able to ease into day 3 with a ride out along the Seine with only Jamie's squeaking brakes intruding on the morning silence of Le Havre .

With a glorious sunrise and a growing hunger, we pressed on for 36 miles for the morning's (second) breakfast. Arriving at our agreed rendezvous, we were greeted by the welcoming sight of the Scott Law van and Paul and Alyson laden down with pain au raisin, pain au chocolat, French sticks and brioche. Paul and Alyson had also located a convenient café to give us a quick caffeine hit. With the promise of sandwiches, pate and tarts for lunch, the performance directors (Paul and Alyson) were excelling in their role.

With a decent number of miles already under our belt (and the pain au raisin around the belt region), we were able to enjoy a stunning ride through French countryside to lunch in the classic French picnic spot – a busy road lay by.

With sports drinks being guzzled in the heat – many thanks to Nick Howe and Baxter Storey for our food and drink – the team were forced to take regular roadside 'pit stops'. The girls adopted the brazen French approach and, in the process, managed to expose themselves to the rest of the team, a smiling French cyclist who then proceeded up the hill to comment to the boys "mauvais choix" ("bad choice"), and a couple walking their dog.

Heading off from lunch, we finished the day with a cycle into the pretty town of Vernon to be greeted by a rather grim-faced Alyson, who had already been to inspect our accommodation. After her experience the previous night, Alyson appeared to be expecting a step up from a ship's cabin, but was rather disappointed to find that the hotel booked by Huw was even more basic. The €30 per room that we spent on this was perhaps the best value night you can get if you include the hour's rant we got from Alyson, the naked men running down the corridors all night and the magician who arrived back in the hotel at 7:00am to greet us for breakfast after an all night bender.

Warminster to Portsmouth

Day 2

A great start to the day, with big bowls of porridge and hot toast courtesy of Sue and William Neville. Incredibly, we managed to hit our 7:45am departure time, despite having a number of the "biggest faffers" in the firm on board. Led by William in the yellow jersey, we set off for a stunning ride through the mist from Warminster to Salisbury , arriving at Salisbury Cathedral in time for an early morning hot chocolate. Soon after Salisbury , we picked up one of William's friends, Ed Martin, who was responsible for leading us safely across the New Forest . Ed did us proud with a stunning route passing through the village of Nomansland and a minor diversion to take in the sight of the wild New Forest ponies being herded off for transportation to France . Would we be able to beat them there?

Having been challenged at the breakfast table with accusations that he had "shot his bolt" the previous day, Chris was in inspired form and set the pace for the morning, although there were suggestions that his speed was more to do with the table he had booked at the Ship Inn at Lymington, rather than any natural speed.

Having established the motto of "it's not about the bike, it's about the food", we maintained our stunning performance by tucking into a fantastic spread of enormous burgers and chips (the athlete's lunch) before jumping onto a ferry across to the Isle of Wight . On departure, the team's ability to "faff" was shown in its true light as Rich Stovell waited until we were already leaving to go to the little boy's room. We all cycled off the ferry, expecting Rich to join us. 15 minutes later, we discovered that he had been locked into the toilet and only just managed to escape before the ferry turned round and headed back to Lymington.

The route across the Isle of Wight was unfortunately straight into the wind and the team took up its (until then unpractised) peloton formation. The heads went down and the miles were churned out with only the thoughts of the flapjacks and brownies waiting for us in Portsmouth to spur us on.


On arrival in Portsmouth , we headed off to Cannons Gym, who had very kindly offered to allow us free use of their facilities to warm down for the evening. Our research had shown that the gym was just round the corner from the ferry port. Unfortunately, we discovered 30 minutes of riding later that our research was not quite as accurate as we had hoped! The warm welcome we received at Cannons and the massaging hands (for those who indulged) made it more than worthwhile. A big thank you to everyone at Cannons for their support, it really was fantastic for us to be able to relax and wind down after the hard slog across the Isle of Wight .

Another session of carbo-loading before we jumped on the ferry across Le Havre . A final highlight to the day was Alyson's face when she discovered that the cabins on the ferry did not have their own facilities and she would have to join the masses down the corridor for her ablutions.