Frog's legs and snails....

“Why are you doing that? Why don’t you just get the Eurostar like everyone else?” This seems to be the response of most people when I tell them how I’ll be spending 3 of my days in June.

For some time now I’ve wanted to do a cycling challenge but everything that usually seems interesting usually involves a huge fee or fundraising effort, which is why I was pleasantly surprised to see that some like-minded individuals on BikeRadar had decided to organise a cycling trip to Paris, off their own backs and at a price that didn’t require that I sell body parts to fund it.

London to Paris, approximately 300 miles in 3 days is the challenge and at present there will be 23 of us doing it, each and everyone with their own reasons. Some for charity, some for recovery, some for the beer and some just because they’ve got nothing better to do.
I guess I’m doing it for the challenge and for something to keep me motivated. Come June, there will be nowhere to hide. I don’t want to be “that” guy at the back complaining that I can’t hack the pace or that I should have trained harder. I would much rather be “that” guy at the bar, drunk with an inner tube tied around his head playing air guitar. “That” guy sounds fun. Maybe I should buy “that” guy a drink and we could hang out together. If you are “that” guy, bell me up and we’ll do lunch – a liquid lunch.
And so the work now begins. I must train harder so that I can show those Frenchies how us Brits roll (downhill in someone else’s wheel…..)

Somebody needs to alert the French media and tell them they're about to witness a cycling display that they haven't seen since Tommy Simpson tackled Mont Ventoux. Oh wait, Tommy died ascending Mont Ventoux.......