Chair completes British Heart Foundation London to Paris Cycle Ride

Following the successful completion of the British Heart Foundation charity cycle from London to Paris our chair wanted to share his experience with the branch: 

I completed the ride from London to Paris on Monday (5 September). It was an excellent event, with over 180 riders taking part. It was really well organised and riders from a wide range of organisations took part.

Day 1 of event started at Chartwell House and finished at Folkestone Race Course. The ride was just over 72 miles on a very pleasant and warm day. I almost fell off at the start which didn't bode well for the rest of the ride. I completed the ride in just over 4 hours and really enjoyed seeing the Kent countryside and chatting to the other cyclists. My support driver was seen chatting with a group of support drivers at the mid point with a large piece of carrot cake in one hand and a coffee in the other.

Day 2 was a ride from Calais to Amiens a ride of 85 miles through I imagined gently rolling hills and pretty French villages. The hills were more of a challenge than I imagined but the villages are picture postcard pretty. I passed my support driver at 19 miles. She was sat in the sunshine waving encouragement to us drinking coffee. The highlight of the day was riding with a French cycle club, sat in the middle of the peloton trying to converse in very poor French to the other cyclists. I stopped midway for lunch consisting of a fromage baguette plus cherry pie much to the amusement of my fellow cyclists who were existing of gel food supplements and energy drinks. By this time my support driver had made friends with the other drivers and had had several coffee stops to make sure all was well. I arrived in Amiens in just under 5 hours.

Day 3's ride to Versailles was 93 miles into a head wind. I stopped twice, the second time about 30 miles outside Paris at a brassiere for coffee (with my support driver!) and more liquids. The ride took us through lots of lovely villages. The only thing was they were all on top of hills. The final 10 miles were on a busy dual carriage way. The road was under repair and the cars only had a single lane so it was quite safe. This part of the ride took me 6 hours and I felt quite tired! In total I completed the 250 miles in around 15 hours.

We had an end of event drink and meal which was fun. I spoke to a lot of the other participants. Most of them were undertaking the event to raise money in memory of loved ones who they had lost to heart disease or because they wanted to raise money for a good cause. There were a lot of really nice people who took part, not everyone was a keen cyclist and most did the ride on a standard mountain bike. The BHF team were fantastic and the event promoted a great team spirit. The support drivers all did a fantastic job making sure everyone was safe and giving much encouragement - the great thing was they seemed to enjoy the event as much as the riders did.

If you have would like to donate to Peter's fund raising efforts please contact him by email by clicking this link :  Email the Chair