Live Blog

Look out each day of the challenge for our evening updates.  

Sunday 24th May 2009

Well what a great start to the challenge.  We met at 8am down at the London eye to find ITV and the Press Association waiting to interview Will….and Oli himself who made it down to the start to see the guys and take some photos (coming soon).

The cycling itself went pretty well…a couple of comedy falls and a few wrong turns later and at 1630, most of the riders had made it to Dover in one piece.

Getting out of London did seem to take and age and the boys from Belfast and Glasgow must have been a bit fed up with the number of lights slowing up progress in those first few hours.  

Look out on BBC London Radio and TV for a telephone interview with Nick who caught a bit flat footed by a journalist half way through the day.

After arriving in Dover we boarded the Ferry and grabbed some much needed food…we have a licence to eat what we want given we are burning around 8000 calories a day!

The day ended with a coach journey from Calais to the Dieppe, most people where very much asleep!

Monday 24th May 2009

What a day!!!!

120 miles today (probably a bit more when you consider the wrong turns).  Not onbly that but temperatures hit 34 degrees celsius!  It was extremely hot and we had to ensure we took on enough water throughout the day.

The bikes are taking a bit of punishment and there were a number of mechanical issues today but all have now arrived at our hotel in Meaux.  We have just ordered a load of pizzas (although we may be a bit short as apparently they do not have enough dough to make 24!)

The trip through northern France today was stunning and we were mainly on countrside roads all day with fields and chateaus a plenty!  The highlight was definitely cycling through the beautiful town of Chantily - isn’t that where the cream comes from?  Anyway, there are a few aching bodies this evening and Dave Snook, our physio is being kept very busy upstairs.

Today is the longest day any of the riders will have done and we are all pleased to have made it and the general feeling is very good.  With 4 hard days left we are all becoming aware of the little niggling pains but everyone seems confident we will be ok.

Tomorrow we head to the historic town of Troyes travelling 92 miles sop hopefully we should find that slightly easier - you will find out tomorrow night!

Tuesday 25th May

Today was a good day cycling wise.  We had good weather in that it wasn’t good - cloudy, nice temperature and not too windy.  Most of us are a little worried about tomorrow as we are back up to 120 miles again but we also have around 1600 metres of climbing!

Some highlights of the day included Paddy falling over into a car waiting at some traffic lights and a freak thunder storm catching out the last remaining riders still coming over the last few miles.

Speaking of thunder storms, there was an incredible lightning show last night.  It was a really muggy night and when most had just managed to get to sleep, the thunder and heavy rain hit us and we were all up again.

Tonight we decided to get out of the hotel we are staying in and head towards town.  Some landed in an all you can eat chinese which may or may not have been a good choice - we shall see.

We are all enjoying the experience so far and we are all confident we will make it to Morzine but we know we are in for a very difficult 2 days as we start to hit some proper hills/mountains for the first time. 

Snooky is still very busy and every rest stop and lunch with rub downs and strapping a plenty but he is being very good ensuring we are strectching and eating and drinking the right things!

That’s it for tonight but I am sure there will be a story or two after tomorrow’s epic day!

Wednesday 27th May

A hell of a long day.  Most riders where setting off before 7am as we knew we had to cover nearly 125 miles during the day.  It was also shceduled to be quite hilly.

The start of the day found us hitting a fairly main road to start with but soon found us entering the beautiful champagne region.  Some were tempted to stop off (I think some did).  The scenery during the day was absolutely amazing and we passed through some stunning french villages.  

The Docs from Belfast spent a long day in the saddle (13 hours) but it was worth it and everybody felt exhilarated to get our longest day over with.  Most people would agree that it was the most scenic day and therefore, because of the heat on Monday, that was definitely worse!

This evening lots of the guys headed to a big grill bar and indulged in some steaks whilst watching the Champions league final.  We are all a bit nervous about tomorrow as it is the biggest climbing day.  Early start for all - hopefully ity won’t be too hot!

Thursday 28th May

That was one of the most amazing days ever!!!!

We were all incredibly nervous this morning before setting off and even more so when one of the early hills proved to be slightly steeper than we envisaged when planning the route.

The rest of the day was incredible.  We did a lot of climbing but after 5 days in the saddle, everyone felt strong and handled the hills very well.  The scenery and drops from the edges of the road where amazing and we were trying to concentrate on our cycling whilst trying to admire the Jura mountain range.  

Everybody cycled extremely well and when we made it to the top of the Juras there was a real sense of accomplishment felt by all.  We then had the very pleasant downhill run to Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) where we indulged in a beer by the water and even had Chow  and Skilts jump in for a swim! 

We are now just about to head out to have a nice meal and a beer before our final climb tomorrow up to Morzine.  We are near the end now but it is safe to say that today has made everyone’s challenge.  Until tomorrow…

Friday 29th May

What a fantastic feeling…we have made it to Morzine!  Apologies for the delay in writing this but we I got caught up in the celebrations last night!

The day started in the city of Geneva and we had a very difficult first 25 miles into a strong headwind along the flats around Lac Leman.  This was a lot more diffficult than we had hoped but eventually we hit the town of Thonon where we started the climb towards Morzine…at this point people were really looking forward to the climb??

Before that, Bushy managed to crash into the back of a young lady taking her driving test in Thonon town centre…very funny  although Bushy did manage to bump his head and get a bit of a cut!

We had our first rest stop at the bottom of the mountain and at this time, our girlfriends all passed in convoy and stopped to say hi.  This seemed to motivate the guys and everybody was very keen to reach the end and we headed up the hill.  I have drivin this very road 30-40 times but I was blown away by how amazing it is cycling alongside the Dranse river through the valley with mountains looming on all sides.  It was the perfect end to a perfect week and all the riders could not have wished for a more pleasant run up.

We arrived in Morzine and the champagne opened!