A post on yacf  entitled “le 1000 de St-Germain (9 or 10th of July 2014)” caught my eye back in January. The route looked great, another 20 BPF controls to pick up, and an excellent prep ride for PBP. However it was scheduled to take place in the last week of term so impossible for me. However, while viewing the website of the event I noticed that immediately afterwards there was a 400km brevet, themed on the D-day landings. This was possible, being on the Sunday after term ended. After convincing cycling buddy Carlos to give it a go, we made plans…

We had both done one 300km audax in preparation so felt that the distance was achievable, however we were not sure if we should plan a short 2 hour sleep stop at around midnight. In the end we decided that by minimising the time we stopped at controls we could easily ride through the night and finish in the early hours. I felt that a 1am finish (20 hours) was a good target to aim for, Carlos said he’d be happy to beat 3am. Looking at the profile it seemed that once we had reached Falaise at about 145 miles would be downhill to the coast and then an easy ride past the D-Day landing beaches back to the start!

That was the plan, this was the ride…

We drove down to Portsmouth and parked up in a conveniently placed school car park. We had planned to arrive earlier enough to find a nearby pub to eat before parking up but horrendous traffic around Oxford and on the approach to Winchester delayed us too much so that we arrived in Portsmouth one hour later than planned and bang on when we had arranged with Paul the caretaker to let us in to the car park. After loading up the bikes we pedalled off 2 miles up the A3 to the ferry port.

We were camping at the start so that meant we had a 15 mile ride from Cherbourg to St Germain de Tournabut carrying too much stuff for bikes with no racks…

 

As I remembered from a previous jaunt, you have a reasonable climb out of Cherbourg, made less pleasant by Carlos leading the way at a pace and out of town on the N13, not actually a motorway but not far off, also adding 5 miles to the ride. Now off route we continued on until we came to the first available exit, which was some distance along the way but by zooming out on my Garmin it was possible to judge a satisfactory back road way to St Germain. Arriving at the event HQ at 9:30pm we were mistaken for early finishers of the 1000km event. We had to pose for photos, shake hands etc, while trying to explain that we had in fact just arrived from Angleterre and where could we put up our tent? Eventually, despite our schoolboy French, we managed to make ourselves understood and we were able to sign in and then led through the village to the President’s garden where we could pitch our tent.

I had warned Carlos that the tent was a small one! It was getting on for 11pm by the time we got our heads down so that was 5 hours sleep before the alarms woke us at 4am on the Sunday morning. Having already packed everything needed for the ride, we just had to get dressed, clip on the bar and saddle bags, unlock the bikes, switch on lights and pedal up the la mairie (village hall) which was the event HQ.

After a quick wash in the loo, insertion of contact lenses and breakfast, it was back outside to make ready.

The first 60 minutes was magical, ridden as a group, 32 riders (including one tandem) riding down to Utah beach in the dark through the drizzle. We turned inland at the Utah Beach memorial and soon after the “peleton” began to break up into groups. Carlos and I formed a group of three with a Frenchman and quite soon found ourselves in the lead. Try as I might to get Carlos to take it easy as there was still 235 miles to go, he would insist on going to the front into the wind instead of following wheels, which is how we found ourselves out in front.

Just before Dead Man’s Corner, the tandem came screaming past only to stop suddenly in a layby, I guess for a toilet stop, but that was the last we saw of them, I suspect they abandoned as tandems are usually very fast on the flat, particularly into the wind.

Stéphane (the organiser) took a video as we passed Dead Man’s Corner which I will link to once he uploads it. After 40 miles we arrived at Le Cimetière Militaire Allemand de Marigny. Here we dallied, taking photos, eating biscuits and generally let a whole bunch of riders get ahead of us.

After 77 miles we hit Avranches and it was time for breakfast at 10am.

PART 2

It continued to drizzle for the next stage to Mortain. Here we had intended just to get our cards stamped and push on but as we arrived in town, Carlos clipped the kerb as we stopped to get our bearings and managed to fall off, then the heavens opened. We sought coffee and shelter in the same small bar Robin and I stopped at during our Normandy tour last year. We weren’t the only ones as it seemed to be the only place open in Mortain that day. Soon the bar was full of very wet cyclists, all eating bread and cakes bought from the Boulangerie next door as it was too early for the bar to serve food. Eventually (after 25′) we decided that the rain wasn’t going to let up so out we went and onwards to Falaise.

Falaise was our planned main meal stop after 145 miles, and we arrived there at 4:20pm. By now the rain had abated and we rolled into the home town of William the Bastard in warm sunshine. After a leisurely stop of about an hour we were back on the road for what should have been a mainly downhill 30 mile leg to Pegasus Bridge. Although we had expected that this would be the easiest section, the strong headwind made it seem like the hardest, not too bad though as by sharing the work we still managed 13.7 mph.

Crossing the new Pegasus Bridge (not the original which is now in the museum nearby) at 7:30pm our aim was a light meal here and then non-stop to the finish. On the west side of the bridge are two cafe/bars. On your left is the old Café Gondrée, one of the first houses liberated in Operation Overlord and now run by Madame Gondrée, who was 5 years old on D-Day. This was my preferred option but as we rolled up it was shutting up for the evening so we were left with the new bar across the road to get our cards stamped. This was very busy with what seemed like a coach party of Bits having just arrived. Unfortunately the bar was not doing food (something to do with it being a Sunday in France!) so we survived on a bag of crisps and a coffee, although Carlos did manage to throw is coffee mostly over the floor, the sign of things to come perhaps?

It turns out that the “coach party” of Brits were on a charidee bike ride from Paris to London. They had completed a 75 mile day and were about to tuck into a large pasta based meal, we on the other hand had ridden 175 miles, had another 77 miles to go and had a bag of crisps between us! I did think about cadging some food from them but that would have entailed indulging in polite conversation and we didn’t want to dally for too long here. So after half an hour we were back in the saddle for the last leg.

A key to a successful long ride in the summer is to ensure your water bottles are never empty, so it is always a priority to plan refill stops particularly in France on a Sunday. Even more so late on a Sunday evening. My plan for our next water stop was a campsite in Arromanches I had stayed at the previous year, so I knew exactly where the drinking water tap was. The next control was an unmanned one at Grandcamp-Maisy, which we approached via Omaha Beach including the best bit of riding of the whole day, from Moulins to Vieirville-sur-Mer in the dark with the waves crashing against the sea wall, simply magical!

At Grandcamp-Maisy we stopped for POP (proof of passage), which in this case was a photograph next the village sign. Not long this control Carlos started to get sleepy and at one point felt that he actually fell asleep while riding! Luckily I had some Kendal Mint Cake stashed as emergency rations, which seemed to do the trick, as after a few minutes he was off like a rocket with me in his wake. Every so often he would slow and I would feed him more “rocket fuel” and off we go again, all the way to the finish with a brief stop to see the dangling paratrooper stuck on the spire at Sainte-Mere-Eglise.

We arrived at the finish at 3am, just a shade under 22 hours in total, 18h39′ riding time and an average speed of 13.5mph. On completion we were given a bottle of D-Day cider and we hit the food table. 45′ later we got back on our bikes to ride the 500m back to our tent. Just as we settled down to sleep our alarms went off, the ones that we had set to ensure we got to the start on time – we had been awake for exactly 24 hours, almost all of which had been spent in the saddle!

 

 

 

 

 

I entered this last year but was a DNS due to illness. I wasn’t going to enter again this year as I intended only to ride 100km events fixed and this was too hilly to ride fixed. The reason for this was that you only get audax points for events equal or longer than 200km, but you geta  FWC (fixed wheel challenge) point for 100km.

I did end up riding it though, as my friend entered and it was his first audax so I agreed to ride it with him. As it was only 100km, I had to ride fixed to gain any points. It would be hilly, but not too bad as long as I didn’t push it too hard.  Carlos then suggested that we ride out to the start in Leicester. As this was just over 50km, by riding there and back, the extra 100km meant that we could enter what is called an Extended Calendar Event or ECE.  Therefore I now had my month’s 200km ride sorted.

We met opposite the George in Oundle at 5:15am and after some faffing to get my gps sorted out, we set off into a head wind and light rain. We had chosen a 35 mile ride out via Corby and the Langtons. As heavy rain was forecast later on in the morning, I was carrying a complete change of cycling clothes in my saddlebag which I was planning to change into at the start after the rain was forecast to have stopped. In the end the rain held off and I could leave my change of clothes, along with my lights. unused at the start location.

Due to the headwind we didn’t arrive at the start as early as we had hoped and although we could have started on time with the other 100+ riders, we decided to take our time and have a cup of tea and a biscuit or three before setting off again.

The first leg out to Oakham and the first control at the cafe in Whitwell on the north shore of Rutland Water was fast and the hills were OK going up with a nice strong wind on our backs although I struggled spinning my 66″ gear on the downs. Carlos however was recovering from a cold and I suspect that we went out a bit too fast considering. After a longer than anticipated stop at Whitwell for a sausage sandwich, a mug of tea and a rest, we were back on the road, not looking forward to the swing around into the south-westerly wind. A brief respite at Edith Weston as we turned SE lasted 3 miles before we once again turned SW and had a 12 mile slog to the second cafe control at East Carlton.

By now Carlos was struggling and sent me on my way alone as I would find it quite tight time-wise to complete the ECE within the 13.5 hour time limit otherwise. I stopped only long enough to get my card stamped and set off again leaving Carlos to enjoy a relaxed coffee and cake. By now we had been in the saddle for 8 hours and the next two hours were very tough into a strengthening wind. I let out a hollow laugh as I set off a village’s speed sign that thanked me for doing 10mph…

Now back at the Leicester event HQ, I had a mug of tea and a quantity of cake before reclaiming my saddlebag, reattaching my light and setting off again. I had a about 3.5 hours left to complete the ride, so even with aching legs but a favourable wind, I felt confident of making the time limit. The first 5 miles of my ride back to Oundle re-traced the last part of the route so I expected to see Carlos on his way in, I didn’t! In fact he had packed at East Carlton and got a lift home, it was a good effort though, 80 hilly miles in a strong wind when you have just recovered from a cold is good going. In similar circumstances last year I hadn’t even started.

The final leg was actually not too much trouble, achy legs and an increasing noisy BB apart, and I rolled into Oundle at 18:21, with 23 minutes to spare after 136 miles. As a bonus, after sending in my GPS track for validation it appears that the overall ride, with 3,280m of climbing was sufficiently hilly for Audax Altitude Award (AAA) points, and as a double bonus, for hilly events ridden on fixed, you get bonus FWC points equal to the number of AAA points awarded 🙂 All in all, a good days work.