A big thankyou to all for your support. In addion to the amount contributed on this site, other contributions from friends and colleagues have put the total up to £1,250.00 for this charity. Of course, we would still be happy to receive any further donations. Mike and Chris Moore

 

And they’re off!

Hi, Mike & Chris have now handed over their web pages to me for the duration of their adventure and asked for their progress to be reported so here goes:

Scroll down below the editorial to find the day by day reports

 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Mike and Chris Moore are cycling from Woodcote in Oxfordshire to Coulaine, a suburb of Le Mans, .

On Monday 3^rd August, Mike and Chris will leave Woodcote and cycle to . They will catch the 8:00 ferry to Cherbourg on 4^th August and then cycle to Coulaine and are due to arrive on Friday 7^th August to be met by Mike's wife Sandie, Chris's partner and son Steph and Alex, and Steph’s parents who live in Coulaine. Estimated road miles 220+. The ride will be without physical support - no vans or cars, all requirements being carried on the bikes, including a tent for overnight stops.

Sponsorship would be most welcome and all sponsor moneys will go to charity. All equipment and travel costs are being met by Mike and Chris.

Why Arthritis Research Campaign? Both Mike and his wife have osteoarthritis in the knees and their son-in-law has rheumatoid arthritis.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

 

Day by Day Progress reports

Monday the 3^rd of August 2009

Our intrepid travellers (Mike & Chris) left home in Woodcote Oxfordshire at 07:30 this morning. This was an hour later than planned and may have had something to do with the fact that they were seen leaving the local watering hole at 23:55 the previous evening.

Today’s plan was to ride from Woodcote to Portsmouth, set up camp and then rise early on Tuesday morning to catch the ferry to France.

At 12:40 a report came in that they had ridden some 41 miles and were sitting outside of another watering hole in the of located just outside of .

At 6:30 a final report arrived saying that they had arrived at Eastney which is a stones throw from the ferry terminal and they were off to freshen up and eat.

 

Total Distance covered for day 1 = 66.5 miles. Not a bad start at all.

 

Todays photo shows the Luxurious Campsite in Portsmouth.

 

Tuesday the 4th of August:

Today’s plan is to catch the 08:00 ferry from to arriving in at 12:00 local time and setting off south on the bicycles again.

The ferry crossing was fine and all went to plan, then after a gruelling climb up the long hill from Cherbourg, the boys managed 28.5 miles before finding a campsite at Pont L’Avee (excuse the spelling as I can’t find it on the map) where they pitched the tent for the night.

To get an evening meal the boys took a walk up to the local village. Upon arrival they found the whole place closed down for the night which resulted in them taking a taxi to the nearest town to eat.

 

Wednesday the 5th of August

Today the guys route took them in a south easterly direction heading in the general direction of  St-Lo and then beyond.

The early part of the journey was pretty flat hence the going was good but nothing lasts forever and sure enough the hilly bits came along at the end. To quote Mike “Wasn’t good”.

After 44 miles of riding they have stopped at a place called Pont-Farcy and set up camp for the night. They are talking about an early night and an early start tomorrow if Mike can get Chris out of his sleeping bag and back in the saddle.

I assume that they must be feeling quite saddle sore by now but they appear quite happy in the second photo taken on the Pont-Farcy camp site.

Thursday the 6th of August

As at 14:00 on Friday the 7^th of August, I have not yet received any reports from the lads for Thursday. Maybe they found a little vineyard en-route and for some strange reason were unable to send text messages, who knows?

The plan for today was to cycle to Villaines-la-Juhel which translates to a 64 mile ride. They may well have done this and they are still in their sleeping bags getting over it?

If they have made it as far as Villaines-la-Juhel, they are left with a 40 mile ride on Friday to complete the trip.

 

Friday the 7th of August

Well, that’s it.

The lads have arrived in Coullaine LeMans and both are still alive and probably a lot fitter than when they left Woodcote.

They got there at 15:30 having rode 33.7 miles today.

The grand mileage total is 255 for the whole trip.

Just for good measure, I think that they should ride back now but I expect that they have other ideas.

That’s my reporting bit done now so I will hand the web page back to Mike.

Congratulations Lads – you said that you would do it and you did!

Thank you Robin for your reporting.

To fill in a couple of gaps, we made our target on Thursday but could not find a camp site so headed due east for another 12 miles to a pretty little village called St Leonard des Bois. This made Thursday's total 76.64 miles and a slight diversion from our planned route. This was a hard day and we arrived at the camp site just before it shut at 8:00 in the evening.

Fortunately, no accidents or breakdowns. No significant saddle sores and no sprains.

We were met on Friday in Beaumant by Steph's father and reached Coullaine to be greeted by the family as planned. The rest of the weekend was a holiday for us with plenty of rest.

This site will remain open for a while and any future contributions will be greatly welcome.