Pain. But not as much pain as I’d envisaged. It turned out that I was more adept at cycling than I believed I was. Of course I was always going to be a little bit tired after cycling for almost 100 miles yesterday, but this morning I found myself more than capable of both waking and standing up. I perhaps hadn’t got as much sleep as I’d have probably liked, given we didn’t get to the hotel until pretty late last night. And we had to be out of the hotel and away early today due to their being a time-trial cycling event taking place in the area later in the morning.
One of many tiny villages I cycled through on Day Two
So I set off from the Ibis hotel in Calais to the starting point at the other hotel the group had been staying at. At least, that’s what I thought I’d been doing. I set out and followed a set of arrows away from the hotel and out into the countryside. It was after two and a half miles that I thought something was wrong, and after having not seen an arrow for quite some time, I set off back to the hotel. It was a good job as it turned out that I’d been following the wrong set. So after a five mile trip I finally made it to the start. Not the best way to begin a 75 mile cycle.
I’d been reliably informed that northern France was quite flat. I can assure you, dear reader, that northern France is not flat at all. The route from Calais seemed to keep rising for at least 20 miles, and it wasn’t until we reached the first water stop of the day that it began to flatten out. But even then it wasn’t the landscape I had been expecting. Relative flatness with the odd extreme hill thrown in for good measure. A very tiring morning all-in-all, made more tiring by the long cycle from yesterday and my sprint from earlier on to try and make sure I got to the start before everyone set off.
It was around this time that I decided to change tactics. I had made an attempt throughout yesterday and today to stick with a group of people. I figured this was best in case I got into trouble with the bike. Unfortunately, due to our varying speeds (their’s being much faster than my own) I was lagging behind and constantly tiring myself out whilst trying to catch up. If I continued at that pace I would never make the rest of the day, let alone try and get to Paris over the next two. So I slowed it down from around an average of 13mph to 11mph.
And what a difference it made! I soon started to enjoy the ride, rather than seeing it as something to struggle against. My decision to meet up with people at water stops rather than trying to keep up with them all day worked an absolute treat. I even managed to stop off in a cafe with them when I recognised their bikes lined up outside.
The cafe we stopped at on Day Two
Lunch was in a forest, just over the halfway point for the day. There is nothing finer than someone stood with an array of free food after you’ve been struggling up hills all morning. The sky was threatening rain, but it never really reared its ugly head. Instead the sun came out for the afternoon as I continued on my way to Abbeville. The roads became much smaller at this point, turning from wide A-style roads to more rural tracks, though all perfectly well maintained.
Which is something else I had been reliably informed about France; that the roads are perfect. This is also something of a misnomer. Whilst they are perfectly well maintained for cars (probably due to the lack of traffic you’ll see on most French rural routes to wear them down), the vast majority that I cycled on had a concrete top layer and not Tarmac. This makes them extremely bumpy and quite painful on the arms and bottom. It gets so bad in places that you have to worry about the condition your bike is going to be in at the end of it.
Lunch on Day Two
The afternoon was bathed in an extreme of heat. Not great for me as I’d forgotten to put any sun cream on. I could feel my arms and legs start to grow pinker and pinker, through to a rather dashing shade of purple which was agony to touch.
Eventually the day was over once more and I found myself located in another Ibis hotel; this time in the town of Abbeville. I hadn’t quite made it in one piece though. Around 100 metres from the finish the footstrap on my right-hand peddle came off. One of the screws had seemingly fallen off, with the other one left hanging. It meant that I couldn’t cycle with it up to the hotel, so had to work the very short distance up the hill. I was also starting to have problems with the brakes. The back ones were beginning to make a scraping sound as though the pads had worn down too much. Definitely something for the mechanic to take a look at.
The evening brought with it one of the worst meals I’ve ever eaten. The buffet starter was a selection of five very poor salad foods, followed by a main of extremely bland chicken and chips. They obviously fell for the old stereotype that the English only eat bland foods and lumbered us with what they could scrape out of the bottom of the freezer.
I was still far too knackered to think about heading out to the hotel bar for a drink, so headed back to my room after the meal for a sleep and to await the third day of cycling, from Abbeville to Beauvais.
You’ll find the first part of this little adventure here. Day Three can be found here!
Route Map
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The ride details from Day Two:
- Started: 23 Jun 2011 05:34:04
- Ride Time: 7:27:30
- Stopped Time: 2:26:29
- Distance: 81.91 miles
- Average Speed: 10.98 miles/h
- Fastest Speed: 33.14 miles/h
- Ascent: 2360 feet
- Descent: 2240 feet
