Sponsor our team here: http://www.bmycharity.com/V2/cycleride2010
Wednesday 18 August 2010
Sunday 15 August 2010
Update on the road
From Matthew:
It's been a long wait but we are now, finally, on our journey to Lourdes.
We left Islington yesterday at about 11.00am and had a relatively smooth ride out of London.
Patrick had ingeniuosly included the South downs as part of the route to Portsmouth, so we traversed some incredibly beautiful and enchanting forest roads coupled with extreme climbs and brisk descents through the ridges of Midhurst and Petersfield.
We arrived in Portsmouth about 7pm and the bike computers were reading 86 miles in 5.5 hours. (Not bad at all :)
The Travelodge hotel was a welcoming sight and our brilliant support team (Dail, Alex and James) had already checked us and our luggage in. (Thanks guys)
Today we spent squeezing everything including the bikes onto, inside and around the car and getting the 14:45 speed ferry to Caen, which got us into France at 7pm.
Tomorrow's a hard day so I'm having an early night (mustn't forget we're riding on the other side of the road tomorrow !!! ')Bon nuit xx
It's been a long wait but we are now, finally, on our journey to Lourdes.
We left Islington yesterday at about 11.00am and had a relatively smooth ride out of London.
Patrick had ingeniuosly included the South downs as part of the route to Portsmouth, so we traversed some incredibly beautiful and enchanting forest roads coupled with extreme climbs and brisk descents through the ridges of Midhurst and Petersfield.
We arrived in Portsmouth about 7pm and the bike computers were reading 86 miles in 5.5 hours. (Not bad at all :)
The Travelodge hotel was a welcoming sight and our brilliant support team (Dail, Alex and James) had already checked us and our luggage in. (Thanks guys)
Today we spent squeezing everything including the bikes onto, inside and around the car and getting the 14:45 speed ferry to Caen, which got us into France at 7pm.
Tomorrow's a hard day so I'm having an early night (mustn't forget we're riding on the other side of the road tomorrow !!! ')Bon nuit xx
Saturday 14 August 2010
They're off!
They're off! Patrick and Matthew have started on their long 600 mile journey to Lourdes. Thank you for your sponsorship so far! Please sponsor us at: https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/CycleRide2010
Monday 9 August 2010
5 days to go
From Matthew:
Hello supporters of Patrick and Matthew’s big bike ride to Lourdes.
Well in less than 5 days we’ll be heading off from Islington, London and in 13 days we’ll have arrived in Lourdes, France.
Somehow I’ve clocked up about 800 miles in three weeks, assisted by a particularly punishing 126 mile marathon with Patrick last Sunday. We decided to emulate a ’difficult’ day by cycling from London to Cambridge in 4 hours, a 45 minute lunch (lasagne courtesy of my mother x) and then a gruelling dash back to London - chasing the setting sun. I haven’t really experienced leg muscle pain like this before and found that, towards the end, the stopping and starting at traffic lights became a much more painful experience than going up any of the hills. It sometimes feels that what I’m attempting to do is beyond me - the body just isn’t going to cope with this 6 days in a row. But it’s remarkable how the muscles rejuvenate and recover so quickly over night, proving that our bodies are capable of doing so much more than we think!!
The great bonus of all this training is that I get to eat loads and loads of cakes and pasta. I also routinely prepare a selection of chocolate raisins and jelly babies that go in my jersey back pocket. (Patrick prefers his wine gums) It’s quite an art form twisting the left hand round the back and into the pocket for a handful of goodies :) For me, it’s the ‘raisin d’etre !!! (sorry).
I’m going to leave you with a few impressive statistics from Patrick’s bike computer report from his last 2008 bike ride from London to Lourdes:
Amount of time: 6 days
Total Distance cycled: 635.12 miles
Time in the saddle: 44hours 57 minutes 20 seconds
Elevation Gain: 33,077 feet
Average speed: 14.1 mph
Average bike cadence: 72rpm
Calories burnt: 34,570 calories (how many bags of wine gums is that Patrick???)
Please, please sponsor us xx
Lots of love
Hello supporters of Patrick and Matthew’s big bike ride to Lourdes.
Well in less than 5 days we’ll be heading off from Islington, London and in 13 days we’ll have arrived in Lourdes, France.
Somehow I’ve clocked up about 800 miles in three weeks, assisted by a particularly punishing 126 mile marathon with Patrick last Sunday. We decided to emulate a ’difficult’ day by cycling from London to Cambridge in 4 hours, a 45 minute lunch (lasagne courtesy of my mother x) and then a gruelling dash back to London - chasing the setting sun. I haven’t really experienced leg muscle pain like this before and found that, towards the end, the stopping and starting at traffic lights became a much more painful experience than going up any of the hills. It sometimes feels that what I’m attempting to do is beyond me - the body just isn’t going to cope with this 6 days in a row. But it’s remarkable how the muscles rejuvenate and recover so quickly over night, proving that our bodies are capable of doing so much more than we think!!
The great bonus of all this training is that I get to eat loads and loads of cakes and pasta. I also routinely prepare a selection of chocolate raisins and jelly babies that go in my jersey back pocket. (Patrick prefers his wine gums) It’s quite an art form twisting the left hand round the back and into the pocket for a handful of goodies :) For me, it’s the ‘raisin d’etre !!! (sorry).
I’m going to leave you with a few impressive statistics from Patrick’s bike computer report from his last 2008 bike ride from London to Lourdes:
Amount of time: 6 days
Total Distance cycled: 635.12 miles
Time in the saddle: 44hours 57 minutes 20 seconds
Elevation Gain: 33,077 feet
Average speed: 14.1 mph
Average bike cadence: 72rpm
Calories burnt: 34,570 calories (how many bags of wine gums is that Patrick???)
Please, please sponsor us xx
Lots of love
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