Well what an amazing day. Inspired by the fact that we only had 80 miles to go and by tea time we would be in Compiegne. We set off about 8.30am fully re-charged by a good nights sleep and a good breakfast. It was a fantastic day's cycling, mostly on level-ish ground but on a wide variety of road surfaces, some wide, sweeping, smooth 'A' roads giving us the opportunity to make fantastic progress, cruising at 15mph plus, very enjoyable. Some challenging rough, flinty, overgrown, farm tracks, not ideal for the road bikes and needing lots of concentration to try to avoid the worst holes but all the bikes held up amazingly well, even those on 23mm tyres (we felt every bump).
Once again Martyn (with a little help from Davy's satnav) navigated us through some interesting terrain, except the debate which started at a T-junction in the middle of nowhere with the words "It's supposed to be a crossroads in the middle of a village." We did eventually find the way and met Shaun once again.
We had a few hills to climb but nothing like the previous 2 days, however, once again we were waiting all day for 'The Climb', a hill longer than any we had faced before! Yesterday we climbed over 4000 feet, today we only climbed about half of that but most of it was one hill - it was a shocker, but Martyn and his little band of 'ducks in a row' just kept peddling. The upside was of course the downside - an amazing downhill freewheel, winding through the woods, cool breeze, knowing there were only 10 miles to go and met by the sight of Shaun at the bottom with the kettle on - the best moment of the trip without doubt.
Shaun was ready with the kettle on every time we needed him (well roughly every 20 miles) so we were able to keep well stocked with food and drinks - we couldn't have done it without him.
The last few miles were probably the most interesting. We followed signs to Compiegne, cruising steadily into town and suddenly there was a sign showing how many towns Compiegne is twinned with. We accosted a random frenchman to take our photo under the sign (once we'd re-grouped as Martyn and Jen seemed to think the sign was about a mile back down the road) and then headed off to find Avenue de Bury St Edmunds - then the fun began. Compiegne is a bit tricky to navigate and has quite a lot of traffic, we decided to take an underpass to get across a rather busy road and unfortunately Griff collided with Davy and he had to do a quick mudguard repair before we could carry on. I started to feel that my back tyre was a little soft and in the process of trying to look at it narrowly missed Kim's back wheel and ended up nearly falling off and rather ungracefully staggering into the middle of the road in front of an on coming car. A few minutes later I definitely had a very soft tyre and Davy leapt into action once again for a quick repair. Eventually we did get to Avenue de Bury St Edmunds and were met by Shaun and Matt who has come to take us home. We had pictures taken under a rather unimpressive sign, were presented with some lovely medals by Martyn and celebrated with a bottle of champagne. What an amazing achievement, 300 miles, who knows how many hills climbed, lots of laughs, no arguments and lots of money raised for an amazing project to support the children of St Monicah's.
Quotes of the day:
"Eyes front." - Jen when using a convenient tuft of grass.
"I only just missed a bomb." - Sarah when using a convenient hedge only to spot a large explosive shell in the undergrowth.
"Do you think it might have been dead?" - Jen when asking about the bomb.
"It's a bit like child birth, give it a few months and you'll have forgotten the pain and only remember the good bits." - Sarah
"There are no significant hills between Bury St Edmunds and Compiegne." - Sarah reminding Martyn of his encouraging words just before she signed up for the challenge.
"Don't tell them about the hills beforehand, it will only discourage them." - Martyn to Davy.
"This orange juice is better than the one at the hotel this morning." - Keith
"The problem with the French is that they don't do very much with their front gardens." - Keith
"This is nothing new, he's been moaning for as long as I've known him and that's about 25 years." - Sarah about Keith.
"This man's daughter was married to an English man, he's an engineer, 25 and lives in Lyon." - Robert after a long conversation to a random french man.
"Martyn you are amazing." - Everybody.
Today's statistics: 78 miles, 6 hours travelling, average speed 12.92 mph, climbed 3097 feet, descent 3238 feet, top speed 38 mph.
Sarah B
Please sponsor us at https://my.give.net/thedoxaproject
 |
| It's supposed to be a crossroads in the middle of a village! |
Once again Martyn (with a little help from Davy's satnav) navigated us through some interesting terrain, except the debate which started at a T-junction in the middle of nowhere with the words "It's supposed to be a crossroads in the middle of a village." We did eventually find the way and met Shaun once again.
We had a few hills to climb but nothing like the previous 2 days, however, once again we were waiting all day for 'The Climb', a hill longer than any we had faced before! Yesterday we climbed over 4000 feet, today we only climbed about half of that but most of it was one hill - it was a shocker, but Martyn and his little band of 'ducks in a row' just kept peddling. The upside was of course the downside - an amazing downhill freewheel, winding through the woods, cool breeze, knowing there were only 10 miles to go and met by the sight of Shaun at the bottom with the kettle on - the best moment of the trip without doubt.
 |
| Phew what a stinker! |
The last few miles were probably the most interesting. We followed signs to Compiegne, cruising steadily into town and suddenly there was a sign showing how many towns Compiegne is twinned with. We accosted a random frenchman to take our photo under the sign (once we'd re-grouped as Martyn and Jen seemed to think the sign was about a mile back down the road) and then headed off to find Avenue de Bury St Edmunds - then the fun began. Compiegne is a bit tricky to navigate and has quite a lot of traffic, we decided to take an underpass to get across a rather busy road and unfortunately Griff collided with Davy and he had to do a quick mudguard repair before we could carry on. I started to feel that my back tyre was a little soft and in the process of trying to look at it narrowly missed Kim's back wheel and ended up nearly falling off and rather ungracefully staggering into the middle of the road in front of an on coming car. A few minutes later I definitely had a very soft tyre and Davy leapt into action once again for a quick repair. Eventually we did get to Avenue de Bury St Edmunds and were met by Shaun and Matt who has come to take us home. We had pictures taken under a rather unimpressive sign, were presented with some lovely medals by Martyn and celebrated with a bottle of champagne. What an amazing achievement, 300 miles, who knows how many hills climbed, lots of laughs, no arguments and lots of money raised for an amazing project to support the children of St Monicah's.
Quotes of the day:
"Eyes front." - Jen when using a convenient tuft of grass.
"I only just missed a bomb." - Sarah when using a convenient hedge only to spot a large explosive shell in the undergrowth.
"Do you think it might have been dead?" - Jen when asking about the bomb.
"It's a bit like child birth, give it a few months and you'll have forgotten the pain and only remember the good bits." - Sarah
"There are no significant hills between Bury St Edmunds and Compiegne." - Sarah reminding Martyn of his encouraging words just before she signed up for the challenge.
"Don't tell them about the hills beforehand, it will only discourage them." - Martyn to Davy.
"This orange juice is better than the one at the hotel this morning." - Keith
"The problem with the French is that they don't do very much with their front gardens." - Keith
"This is nothing new, he's been moaning for as long as I've known him and that's about 25 years." - Sarah about Keith.
"This man's daughter was married to an English man, he's an engineer, 25 and lives in Lyon." - Robert after a long conversation to a random french man.
"Martyn you are amazing." - Everybody.
Today's statistics: 78 miles, 6 hours travelling, average speed 12.92 mph, climbed 3097 feet, descent 3238 feet, top speed 38 mph.
Sarah B
Please sponsor us at https://my.give.net/thedoxaproject
