Introduction

I rode the inaugural version of this event as a qualifier for the 2015 PBP. Stephane, the organiser, has turned this into a much larger 3 event week end including a 600 and 4 day gravel extravaganza. I was sticking with the 400, which although like 11 years ago it would visit all 5 landing beaches, this year’s route was very different, as Stephane planned to send us past every WW2 monument in the area!

Preparation

We were sent a 60 page booklet with all the information regarding the 3 events, along with a placard, I was number 332. My first task was to translate the relevant sections from French into English which nowadays is remarkably easy using an AI engine, photograph each page with my phone, upload and Robert’s your Mother’s brother! It did take a little while putting all translated text into one nice document but doing that and proof reading it did mean I had a good understanding of the route. The associated gpx file was uploaded to both my eTrex 35 and Garmin 530 and I was ready to go. I was car camping so I did not pack lightly, taking a nice big tent and everything else I could possibly need. Except my camping beer fridge as I wasn’t expecting a power supply to run it.

 

The start

I had arrived on the Thursday and set up my tent on a nice bit of flat grass between the stadium stand and the out-building (club room) which served as event HQ. I had popped into a supermarche on the way to pick up water, biere and some food items I hadn’t bought with me. When Stephane saw my supplies he offered me room in the HQ fridge should I want to put anything in there which was handy, although to be honest it never got warm enough for a lack of fridge to have been a problem for the 3 days I was there.

After a short ride on the Thursday I had planned to do another ride on the Friday but there was a deluge overnight which continued all morning. The riders doing to the 600 started at 6am and had a very tough start to their ride. They have 40h to complete their ride, the first one back was after 12h, he had had enough and cut it short! I was able to practice my very limited French language skills and was able to work out that he was blaming it on the cold, a bad back and painful legs…

The weather improved during the day and with a good day’s forecast we set off at 5am the next morning. I had bought a choice of 3 different rain jackets so which should I pack in my saddle bag? I went for a lightweight very waterproof version on the basis that I’d only bother with it if the rain came down hard, nothing was forecast but if it came it would be a lot. As I had been watching the forecast for Saturday all week it kept changing from being a very wet day to slight drizzle, the latest, and likely most accurate, forecast was good so I was feeling confident!

The first hour was in the dark so I do what I usually do in these circumstances and hung a little off the back of a group and used their rear lights as easy route navigation. It was narrow winding country lanes, as was the majority of the route, but unlike in the UK there were no potholes. The first “land marks” we passed were the German batteries of Morsalines, Crisbecq and Azeville.

Crisbecq battery (photo taken on my Thursday warm up ride) , the most powerful in the Seine Bay, 4x210mm guns with a 33km range and 300 men. Finally taken on June 12.

Then we reach Utah Beach, the westernmost beach of D-Day, the US troops landing here had the objective of capturing Cherbourg.

Utah Beach at sunrise

The Daylight hours

After hitting the beach we kept deviating inland to pass by a monument here and a monument there. This one at Sainte-Marie-du-Mont (the first liberated commune) remembers local resistance fighters.

Then through the marshland and across the Carrentan canal and one of the 3 remaining  Bailey bridges still in situ.

Then we left Manche for the four beaches of Calvados. After about 10km of “greenway” passing by Pointe du Hoc we reach the golden sands of Omaha beach, featured of course in The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan.

As it was VE day weekend there were quite a few things going on, I was held up for at least 10 minutes as a convoy pulled onto the road from where they had camped.

So was this fella!

A bit later on a Sherman tank was in the middle of the road where it seemed to have broken down, I didn’t stop to take a photo and embarrass them. 😁

Then as we continued along the remaining 3 beaches (Gold, Juno and Sword) it was in and out, so although this was a not a hilly ride based on pure ascent numbers there were a lot of short sharp hills.

After the beaches we set off in the footsteps of the British paratroopers. Pegasus Bridge was a key objective, then over the bridge over the Orne at 215km, which was taken during the same mission – Operation Tonga. Then on through Ranville (which also claims to be the first liberated commune) and via a farm track to the Merville Battery, “a magnificient feat of arms, and a display of absolute determination to overcome all handicaps” the post battle report says after being taken out by the British airborne troops via gliders, with only about a third of the planned numbers getting to the objective in time for the assault. And how was the success reported at the time? … “The success signal was fired at 0445, and a carrier pigeon dispatched to ENGLAND in confirmation.”

 Up to this point it had been a mild headwind but I was still ahead of my planned average speed, 15mph as opposed to 14mph. So now as the route turned back westward I was confident I would finish close to midnight, how wrong I would prove to be…

Into Caen and according to the route information booklet I thought we were to pass by the Castle but the gpx track didn’t seem to make sense. After avoiding riding down into an underground car park, I turned around and tried again, this time up a path that looked like a footpath up to the castle, so after a bit I came back down again and had another think. Then another rider arrived, and after a bit he went up the footpath I had decided against so I followed him until it turned into a wooden bridge over a moat. He wasn’t sure, I wasn’t sure, but he decided to carry on and I decided to go back down and look again. After another 10 minutes of trying a number of options and not seeing the other rider come back down again I thought 3rd time lucky and tried the pathway/wooden bridge. This time I persevered and pedaled through the castle, maybe I should have walked but nobody told me off. The map below shows my dithering…

Heading back westward it seemed that not only had the wind got a little stronger (as forecast), it had changed direction and was now a cross head wind! However this section was very pleasant (apart from the wind) taking us to Bayeux at 300km. Before Bayeux, in Fontenay-le-Pesnel (278km) I passed a CocciMarket. Up until this point I hadn’t stopped (except for photos, convoy holdups and navigation issues in Caen) preferring to eat as I ride. My goto option being dryish biscuits as they encourage me to drink and it’s easy to fail to drink enough if you are riding all day. But by now I had had enough of biscuits so it was time to get some protein on board in the shape of ham and cheese, and replace water with Coke Cola for a constant stream of calories over the last hours. After a 25 minute sit down on a bench outside the shop it was time to get going again.

After Bayeux, apart from a little diversion when I accidently rode through Cerisy Abbey, it was a few hours of easy navigation.

Night Falls

Nightfall was approaching, sunset was 9:30 but it was still clear skies so we had another half hour of reasonable light. However, not long after 10 it started to cloud over, then the flashes started. I had no idea at first thinking it was just a flood light I had passed by but it soon became apparent a thunderstorm was coming! It had just started raining, more a mizzle than actual rain so I didn’t bother to stop to put my rain jacket on because as I had picked the waterproof one I’d have got just as wet from the sweat as it was still reasonably warm. The lightning flashes were getting more regular but I couldn’t hear any thunder yet but with 3 hours riding still to do I was expecting the worse. Riding at night, particularly on unknown roads does slow you down somewhat but it is fun.

A number of times I passed Route Barre signs but we had been advised that there were no route changes via an email sent out earlier in the week I passed them with confidence. However, up to now they had been short stretches of road repairs in villages but now the whole top surface of the road had been taken up and it was for a good few kms! Just as I had come to the end of this section I heard a clunk like something had fallen off my bike. So I came to a rapid halt, unclipped my left foot, and because I was on gravely bit by the side of the road, overbalanced and fell to my right. After picking myself up I did a quick check by feel, lights still attached (2 front and 3 rear), saddle bag still secure so nothing obvious. Still let’s be sure so I detached one of the front lights for a better look and it soon became obvious what was missing…

The screen of my garmin edge 530!

 I guess the recent vibration had shook it free after many months of damage due to the rough stuff of our Northamptonshire lanes.

Still although it was my primary bike computer for saving and uploading rides (and a back up for navigation) I still would be recording the ride on my main navigation device a garmin etrex 35.

Onward we go, about 2 hours of riding left and it was now proper rain, but still not enough to put on my waterproof yet.

Into Sainte-Mere-Eglise, famous for the paratrooper still hanging from the spire! Image below is from my Thursday warm up ride as it was too dark ,wet and miserable to get a shot as I passed.

Only 25km to go now but the rain was getting heavier so time to put on the waterproof, more to make sure I didn’t get cold rather than keeping dry.

The problem with the etrex 35 is that it is a touch screen and although I’d not experienced it, apparently it doesn’t cope well in rain. Well up to now it had been fine but the amount of rain now falling reduced it’s usefulness to zero. So with both my bike computers O/S it was go by fell and what I guessed was in the right direction at the next junction, then another rider came by, first one I’d seen for quite a few hours, so I could follow their light for a bit, but not for long as after a bend there was a junction with 3 options and not a red light in sight.

So I had to resort to getting my phone out and checking google map, I was fairly close now, just take the left past the giant airship hanger, left at the T-junction and right at the next cross roads and I’d be on a road to Montebourg. I could remember that and no twisty winding roads. Past Hangar à Dirigeables d’Ecausseville, through the village and… another route barrée, but this one was fully closed, so back track to the village where I’d seen a diversion sign and follow that direction, it was now 2am what could possibly go wrong?

As it happened it was fairly straightforward, I did have to do one last check on my phone to work out where I had come into the town and where the stadium (and finish) was in relation.

So I logged in at 2:38am, went to my tent to dry off and returned to the event HQ for coffee, food and beer! Riders were coming in in dribs and drabs, I retired to my tent just gone 3 and was up again at 6 for a warm shower. Riders were still coming in but they had until 8am to beat the time limit, maybe they had been sensible and sought shelter from the heaviest of the rain? As it happened although the lightning had continued right up until I had finished the actual thunderstorm must have been a bit further away as I only heard the thunder right at the end of my ride.

I really enjoyed this event, although had the rain been at the start rather than the end it might have been more type 2 fun. J

It was also a good test of the new tracker app I had recently created, so my wife could follow my progress without having to cope with the vagaries of goggle location sharing or the inconsistent garmin live tracker.