Friday 5 July 2019

Parents to Paris 2019

I'd been looking forward to this day since I finished last year's fundraising ride with the diabetes dads. So this year we wanted branch out & invite Mums & Dads to join us. We ended up with 3 mums - another 2 had to withdraw unfortunately through illness - and also had Jack, son of Andrew & Kate, both riding, a young person living with type 1 diabetes.

It hadn't been an entirely stress-free experience in the lead up - trying to get people who would commit, booking ferries & trains, getting sponsorship, planning routes & hotels, worrying about fitness levels, worrying about their bikes & their ability to fix a puncture...Luckily we had Kev as Le Patron, a veteran of 3 previous rides, who took on all of the hotel booking & route planning, even though he was supposed to be taking a back seat this year, and did an absolutely fantastic job. All the rest of us had to do was turn up, load up the panniers & ride!

This fundraising all started a few years ago after I met some other parents in a facebook support group for parents of children living with Type 1 Diabetes, with a shared love of cycling. Initially we cycled Nightrider together as a grouo of Dads, then upped the ante to do London to Paris last year, before inviting Mums this time!

Over the years we've raised close to £50,000 for JDRF, the UK's only charity dedicated to funding research into a cure for type 1, so while none of us want to be in this position, it's been a great opportunity to raise funds & awareness of this relentless condition.

There had been plenty of banter in our what's app group and on the facebook page, and it was good to finally meet up with people on the Wednesday night in the local 'spoons in Penge - the ladies joining us felt a bit like they were on a blind date; even though we'd all known each other virtually for months, this was the first time we were meeting IRL! So I was pleased that they weren't put off and came back for a second date the next morning at the Grand Depart in Beckenham - shaving off a good 10 miles from last year's start at the JDRF offices, and a whole lot of stressful traffic!

Throughout the trip Kev was recording short videos for our JDRF instagram takeover on Sunday, and you can see some of them & others, on our facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/ukdiabetesfamilies

Day 1 - 86km, 1000m (53 miles, 3277 feet)

We gathered from 10 at my place for last minute packing / unpacking / bacon rolls, and set off around 1115, waved off by various neighbours, partners, children, as well as Amy from JDRF who had popped over to see us off. 11 parents and 1 teen with T1D. We got out of London and into the lanes without incident (other than going along a cycle path which turned out to be overgrown with nettles & brambles & led to the uncomfortable choice of cycling though one or the other!) and really enjoyed cycling through the beautiful rolling countryside of Kent & Sussex on a day which was warming up, but not yet too hot to ride. Stopping occasionally to regroup and fill up our water whenever possible, we made good progress to East Grinstead, where the sneaky hill up into the town always catches you unawares. But soon we all gathered in the salubrious surroundings of the Sainsbury’s car park, to grab a quick lunch, more water, ice cream, and have a bit of a break before cracking on.

Whereas the same route last year had been miserably wet & ridden in persistent rain, this year was absolutely glorious - maybe the extra month helped. Straight after our lunch break, we were up a hill towards Turners Hill, then had a long & rolling stretch to the top of another hill into West Hoathly. By this time we had established that young Jack was a big fan of the hills, and was powering up all of them – often turning round to come back & do it again! While we waited for everyone to catch up, an ice cream van stopped at the junction, and in a master class of Yorkshire brassneckery, Vince asked him for some free ice cream in lieu of a charity donation. Much to our surprise, the nice chap from Venice Ices pulled over, and proceeded to hand out lollies to all of us – asking us to make a donation ourselves, which we all subsequently did!

Onwards towards Newhaven, and we had an extended break at the now traditional level crossing stop in Cooksbridge before pressing on into Lewes and then down the valley into Newhaven. Halfway along this road Jack started to wobble aound a bit, and we realised he was having a hypo so stopped by the side of the road in a driveway. The lady whose driveway it was arrived back from work a few minutes later, insisted on bringing Jack into the house & sitting him down, giving him time to get his BG back up again & to recover. While the others pressed on, I stayed with Jack & his parents, and the delightful Penny looked after us all. The kindness of strangers. After about 40 minutes or so, we were able to continue and carried on to complete the last 5 miles to Newhaven, in the late afternoon sunshine, with no further incident.

Following dinner & beer in the pub we made our way down to the port & managed again to get past the cars in the queue to check in. We had a chat to the drivers of a support van for some lunatics who had cycled down from Edinburgh, and were riding a much more direct route in the following day. In the waiting room we chatted to others, also aiming to complete the ride in 24 hours - as opposed to our leisurely 4 days - one of whom very kindly gave us a fiver for the cause. Then it was onto the boat, into the cabin, quick shower & bed (or drink then bed) to try & catch a few ZZZs before the ferry docked a few hours later.

Day 2 - 115km, 492m (71 miles, 1614 feet)

The dulcet tones of the announcer dragged us from our fitful sleep at 0330, 0430 local time, and we were off the ferry & on our way by 0530. What a difference a year and a month makes. Last year we rolled off the ferry still in our soaking gear from the previous day & set off through the mist, which didn't burn off until late morning. This year the sun was rising, there wasn't a cloud on the sky & we could see our surroundings - it was well worth it.

The route out of Dieppe takes you along the Avenue Verte, a long cycle path which cuts across Normandy towards Paris. It's been extended in the last year, so there's even more off road. We rolled along at a nice pace with the sun appearing over the top of the hills, until the inevitable puncture - the first one of the trip going to Svenia & her tubeless tyres, courtesy of a broken bottle on the cycle path. Matt fixed it eventually - took 3 goes - and we carried on a few more km until Megan also had one, which was also swiftly dispatched.

As last year, we were aiming for Neufchatel en Bray for Breakfast, and we went back to the same place, only to find the chef wasn't there yet! Fortunately, someone who could rustle up some omlettes arrived, so we had those, a couple of folk had the now traditional cheeky 9am stella - essentially a lunchtime drink, given we'd been on the move since 5am - and on we went.

One of the local cafe owners took great amusement in the Brits lathering themselves with suntan lotion at 9am in the morning, but hey, an opportunity for meme's an opportunity for a meme in any language, right?

After a brief stop at a sports shop for more tubes, we pressed on, still on the Avenue Verte, towards the Super-U at Serquex for supplies...mainly water as it was heating up. Then we were off the cycle paths and into the quiet rural rolling roads towards Gournay - lovely to be out in the open with sweeping vistas, but with the sun getting higher, we were glad of any shade when we got it.

We arrived in Gournay & decided against buying a picnic to eat in the car park, and retired to the McDonalds for some air-con & blessed relief from the sun. However, we also had some mechanicals to deal with at this point, a broken wheel rim & a broken spoke, which meant that Andrew & Steve couldn't carry on, as well as some likely lads with a white van, overheard discussing which bikes they were going to take, so it all got a bit fraught for a few minutes while we tried to sort it all out.

On the map, Beauvais is just a straight 20 miles away, so of course there was no train, and no taxis anywhere locally who were close enough / willing enough to help out. So with a last throw of the dice we went to a car mechanic place, and the very helpful guy there was able to help us to get a taxi to come from Beauvais to pick up Steve & Andrew, and their bikes, and take them to the Decathlon in Beauvais to fix everything.

The rest of us carried on, and after a brief bit on the road, we hit another section of shaded cycle track through the forest for most of the way to Beauvais! It was wonderful - but even with the shade & the breeze, I was still dousing myself with water to try & keep cool. A couple of hours later we popped out into the mid-afternoon furnace of Beauvais, but it wasn't for long and we were soon at our hotel on the outskirts.

Cold showers, cold beers, power naps followed, until we met again at a surprisingly good all you can eat & drink buffet, Crocodile (bizarrely themed as a railway station, given the name), nearby for a nice meal, before heading back for the night.


Day 3 - 77km, 610m (48 miles, 2000 feet)

Even though the hotel had some form of rudimentary aircon and it was at the end of 2 very long days. I don't thing anyone slept particularly well, so it was a relief when the alarm went off at 6 and we could officially start getting ready for the day. This was supposed to be the hottest one, with the weather due to break that evening, and it didn't let us down.

The first part of the ride was lovely though, out through a pretty village, up quite a long drag to be rewarded with glorious views, then down and back up a longer drag before we stepped on it and set a good pace across and down to Meru where we stopped for breakfast. Well, I say breakfast, but it was actually just some vienoisserie from the boulangerie and a coffee from the cafe, as apparently no one needs to eat at the weekend in rural France, so the chef wasn't working! Tant pis for us!

After our breakfast we pressed on towards Van Gogh territory, through ever more beautiful countryside, and forgiving roads. Not too many hills, though I did get a bit of flint in my tyre on the off-road section which caused the 3rd puncture of the trip - a pretty good record really. Once that was changed, and with it getting hotter all the time, and having squirted my sticky energy drink over myself instead of the water by mistake, it was nice to have some smooth roads down towards the Oise, and we stopped in a village where the lady in the Mairie filled up all of our bottles. Kev was very keen for us to see some culture, or to get in his Van Gogh joke, and the route out of the village took us up such a sharp hill that young Jack decided to turn around and do 2 more reps of it! The lunacy!

It was now getting towards late morning and was seriously hot! We still had about 30km to go, but stopped in Auvers-sur-Oise to buy some lunch (and stand next to the freezers for a bit), and then went to eat it in a shady spot on the banks of the Oise. It was hard to tear ourselves away, but we had been trying to avoid the heat of the day, and having failed miserably to do that, just wanted to get there.

At this stage, which the temperature over 100 in the hottest June heatwave recorded in France, heat exhaustion wasn't far away. Most of the water was going over our heads every few minutes, and whenever we weren't cycling into the hair dryer breeze, the heat as we waited at lights was searing. At one point we came around a corner to the rare sight of an open bar, and piled in to fill up the water, have ice cream (some cheeky stella too), and shelter for a few minutes before pressing on. It's a real shame that the heat was so brutal, as it was a really lovely route along the banks of the Oise, past some beautiful grand houses, and we really weren't in much of a mood to appreciate it! You can't control the weather though, so we just got our heads down and pushed on. There were a couple more energy sapping hills before we arrived at the hotel at around 4pm.

Phew, what a scorcher it had been. And better yet, this hotel didn't have any aircon at all - though they did have fans which we could use. I waited with Jack in the relative cool of reception for his folks & Kev to arrive, and the others stood in cold showers and lay under wet towels and did whatever was needed to recover - but blimey it was hot!

Later, after refreshments in the Carrefour, we all went to the Bureau, an English themed pub & restaurant, whose main attraction was the cocktail menu including "le brexit" - naturally we all had one, and surprisingly they weren't that bad! They certainly weren't as bad as all the hilarious puns anyway. We presented Jack with a t-shirt for his supreme riding for the previous 3 days, and after a meal and some more drinks, we headed back to the hotel & to bed, for another hot & sticky restless night.

Day 4 - 46km 353m (29 miles, 1158 feet)

It was another early start, but the heat had definitely broken and there were even some clouds about. Nevertheless, we had to push on as we wanted time in Versailles for breakfast & enough time at the Trocadero to enjoy it before we had to go.

The route was through the woods to Versailles first, with another long drag to get us warmed up. Last year I'd had a broken spoke & Vince had fallen off on tjis stretch, but we all survived unscathed and headed for Versailles.

After a quick photocall outside the palace, we stopped for a quick breakfast of cake & then carried on through the town, up the hill on the other side, then through the fantastic St Cloud park until suddenly there it was. Paris. The Eiffel Tower. The end of the road. Ian managed to fall off his bike on the excitement to get going & Svenia had a close encounter with a bus in Versailles, but we were otherwise unscathed.

It's a really special feeling to arrive in another European capital having got there under your own steam, carrying your own stuff, with no support vehicle to help, and throuh the hottest June temperatures France has ever seen. But we had made it, and the last few celebratory miles through the streets & along the river were infused with excitement. All thoughts of tiredness were gone.

It was lovely to arrive together, and to see Steve's wife Sam & their 2 girls waiting for us. Cue balloons, hugs, handshakes, some warm fizz & the usual photos of the finish. What a thrill. 

After spending some time at the Trocadero we had to get going - firstly because we had a train to catch, secondly because we needed to get a picnic before the shops shut, but mainly because the route to the station took us around the Arc de Triomphe a few times & down the Champs d'Elysees! Yes, the Champs d'Elysees. And around the Place de la Concorde, not quite channelling Renshaw leading out Cav but enjoying the memory.

At this point, and with impeccable timing, Jack had his second hypo of the trip, fortunately next to a supermarket, so we were able to get our lunch & he was able to recover. The power of Android APS looping!

It was only a mile from the end now, at the Gare du Nord, where we found our way to the baggage dispatch area, got the bikes loaded up, then went to check in & start the picnic. The much anticipated shoelace to open a bottle of wine trick didn't really deliver on its early promise, so it was the old push the cork in job instead.

Once on the train, Vincent made the mistake of dozing off & paid the price. It also later transpired that his achy wrist caused by a crash on the day before we started was actually fractured, so it was an epic effort from him.

Once back at St Pancras, we picked up our bikes and said our goodbyes, heading our separate ways after 4 fantastic, brutal but unmissable days. 12 people brought together by our association with type 1 diabetes,  and everyone a hero - Kate, who hadn't ridden over 50 miles before & certainly not in the heat, Andrew & Jack, just 16 & so strong throughout, Svenia & Lewis who both only started riding this year, Megan, le Patron Kev with all the organisation, Steve, Vince, Matt, Ian - all of whom made my job of riding at the front following Kev's superb navigation to the Eiffel Tower so much easier.

So thanks to all of them, and thanks to all our supporters - we've raised over £11,000 for JDRF now, but please continue to give generously.

www.justgiving.com/fundraising/parents2paris2019

Merci for reading!