Thanks so much to everyone who sponsored us to complete this challenge!  Just to refresh your memories, the challenge was to cycle from St John’s Church , Broadbridge Heath to the Eiffel tower in Paris …that may sound nutty enough, but we decided to complete it in 3 days instead of the usual 4/5!  

Day 1 we cycled from the church to Dover .  Total distance covered was 110miles.  We had major problems with the tandem early on, but thanks to a bit of a ‘Blue Peter’ job the tandem was reconstructed with lots of new shiny chains etc and was ready for action.  There was some sharp hills around which tested us but it was a good days cycling although it was rather long.  We started at 6am and didn’t finish until gone 10pm!

Day 2 was a real challenge, due to having to get a ferry and the time difference between the UK and France; we were not cycling until 10am.  It was very very windy which made cycling up the hill really hard work.  Our aim was to make it to St Quentin, but we had to stop about 25miles short as it was getting late and the wind had really taken its toll on us.  Injuries were starting to show so we used the support vehicle to ferry us and our bikes to the hotel.  Mark and Nicky covered 88miles (on the tandem) before being ferried, Jeremy, Keith and Steve managed 96miles.

Day 3

Our lovely support lady drove us back to our respective stopping points.  Mark and Nicky went first as they had another 8miles to do that the guys managed the previous night.  It was quite tough being driven back to our finishing points as we knew we had to cycle back this route just to get to where we had hoped we would already be!

The weather was much kinder today and the roads were far flatter than the previous day.  Mark and Nicky made a good start.  The tandem (and its crew) are far happier on flat roads!  The other guys did well as well and we all met up at lunch to regroup.

It was a very long day, and we did have rain in the early evening.  We finally got our first glimpses of the Eiffel Tower at 11pm.  It took about another 2hours to reach it, but finally at 1:10am – WE MADE IT!

During day 3 Jeremy, Keith and Steve cycled 126miles, Nicky and Mark cycled 134.

Total miles covered during the trip: 332!!

This was a tough trip, but really worth it!  I’m sure not many can say they have cycled through the centre of Paris at midnight!

Thanks again for your support!