2 days in, sore bum but doing ok!

So here we are in Abbeville, some 157 miles from London as the fat boy cycles....weird to think we left London less that 36 hours ago......[wavey lines].......

After arriving at the Clarendon hotel, a lofty 794 out of 1,150 hotels in London on Tripadvisor, I was not to be disappointed, tiny ariless rooms, service with a grimace and a shower that barely trickled. My room mate was to be Sunil (more of him later) who seemed a nice guy if an inveterant snorer...I got two hours sleep, he was up at 4am...

After breakfast and last minute checks on the bike we made it across the road to Blackheath green (?) where we had a bit of a briefing, dropped our kit off and started out on our (sort of) epic journey.

Just before leaving the hotel


Waiting for it all to start


Within a mile we had a beast of a hill and this set the tone for the day - hills, hills and more hills...the weather though was great - no wind and glorious sunshine for long distances. The day was punctuated with a couple of water stops, lunch and a couple of toilet breaks (unscheduled). For the whole day we were against the clock as our ferry was due to go at 5.50...however I managed to get to Dover for 3.57, about 40th of the group of 130 - quite pleased with that! A lot of the day I was cycling on my own but every now and then someone would come past and stop for a chat - it really is amazing how many different reasons people are doing this ride for, we have loads of people from Christians Against Poverty (they're all really *nice*), and other charities, Ataxia, Loros etc etc....the nicest thing is that everyone looks out for each other and has a nice word to say if passing or at a stop.

We finally made it into Calais after 40 mins or so delay and were then taken, in convoy, to our hotel, except it wasn't our hotel - they got the wrong one. Another 3 miles and we finally got to our hotel, my new room was Martin, another GP (Sunil is one too) from Scotland.

A good night's sleep was had by all, and we headed off at 7.45ish on our second day - the first 23 miles (to first water break were really tough (and I mean really tough), but once we got there it was relatively easy - long flat buit with the wind behind us 'til lunch followed by a few nasty hills but nothing major. I cycled all day with Sunil and it makes a huge difference having someone egg you on and pace you.

These pictures are (in order) - the hill profiles for each day, Martin having a well earned rest, Sunil at lunch, day 2, beautiful water wheel and me....ruining another picture!







Routes and hill profiles - just to keep my bro happy :)