RCC Paris Raid 2015…

After over 7000 cumulative miles and 275000 cumulative feet of ascent (the gratuitous majority of which felt like it came in the suburbs of Paris) the 20 riders and 2 support crew knew that they had been involved in something extra special. Ideas for an event next year are already being mooted. Form an orderly queue here if the random highs and lows listed below tick any boxes for you:

 

Highs – Attacking the Arc de Triomphe, the Avenue de Grand Armee, Porte Maillot and the La Defense tunnels with 135 miles on the clock. Heads up display visor with laser guided facial recognition.

 

Lows – Stonegate. More chain-offs than I cared to count on Saturday.

 

Highs - knowing the Tarmac can handle cyclo cross (in the dry), night ride from Newhaven after initially calling it a day.

 

Lows - pint glass availability at Saturday night restaurant and wishing the French tri club had taken a right with us after Stone, Calvin and myself offered them some interval training.

 

Highs - leading the group around the Arc de Triomphe as they played La Marseillaise - quite surreal - and riding down the middle of Avenue de Grande Armee. Night riding - just seem to float through the countryside. Enjoying climbing again - bring on the Raid Alpine!

 

Lows - my face running into a wasp at 25mph. It didn't sting me but my goodness it didn't half hurt!

 

Highs - riding in the middle of the huge peloton of French Sunday club riders/triathletes - the nearest I will get to riding in the TdF. Those bacon and egg rolls as well as Sharon's lemon cake - a sight for sore legs.

 

Lows - the cyclocross section

 

Highs - riding back to Dieppe and passing all the familiar landmarks we’d seen on the way, and being able to contribute towards efforts at the front (even though I need to learn how to get the pace right!)

 

Lows - playing war with the brambles and nettles in the woods, and trying not to fall off!

 

Highs - A personal memory of mine was when there was real low after our forest adventures and a broken chain. Two strong riders in our group had indicated that a direct ride to the hotel was a possibility or if necessary seek out public transport back to the Hotel after reaching Paris. Neither became a reality and that was the strength of the trip. In short: friendship, team work and ego's left at home ensured all fulfilled their personal aims and objectives. I did not hear one put down which was a real pleasure to witness.

 

Lows – Airport expansions

 

Highs – smooth, quiet roads and friendly drivers; the banter; cycling in to Dieppe and feeling the cooling sea air; getting off the bike and giving my bum a rest

 

Lows – Getting back on the bike and trying to find a comfy spot (which became more difficult each time); Getting lost in the woods and off-roading with a sore bum! and lastly (very much self inflicted this one) leaving my rucksack on the Newhaven train in Brighton (with my keys, lights and glasses in it). To compound my situation my phone was dead (French BT had locked it!) and I had no cash only Euros in my wallet; Despite this plus being dressed in full cycling lycra at Midnight outside MacDonalds I managed to negotiate a cab home for me and my bike but I had to raid the kids piggy banks to pay the driver. The following day I spent 3 hrs looking for the spare car key - put in a safe place so no intruder (or me) can easily find it! collecting the car from the drome and then finally getting a train back to Brighton to reclaim my rucksack! Happy days. #aka-lucky-boy

 

Random - And I thought losing my wallet was annoying but at least it turned up hiding between the seats in the car! Glad you're reunited with everything now though. Mind you as one of the smoothest riders in the club I'd never have guessed you were suffering so badly with bum sores!

 

Random - You see riding home is always the best option!

 

Highs - Great bunch of riders, everyone prepared to do their 'bit', fantastic French roads, beautiful weather, night ride from Newhaven, the feed stops, camaraderie, could go on........

 

Lows - Ride from Paris to hotel - in particular the motorway section, sore bottom from mid day Sunday - both pretty insignificant compared to the highs.

 

Look forward to next years jaunt.

 

Highs - Everything, including nettle-version of death-star-trench and surviving the sore arse.

 

Lows - Minimal sleep on the ferry.

 

Random - The funniest part must be when Howard asked Clive if he was riding in line or two abreast!! Think Clive was tired - just saying.

Highs - bits of Paris, the night ride back.

Lows - Paris, sleep deprivation, the thought of the night ride back.

What's next???

Random - There was also a pearl of wisdom from John H (I think) when we were all just leaving the final stop before Dieppe. Group 1 were waiting for James to join them. I can’t recall exactly what was said to James but it was something along the lines of “if you don’t go…. you won’t be with them” whatever it was it was a real ‘Trigger’ moment that made me laugh. Again probably due to the heat and tiredness no doubt. #you-probably-had-to-be-there

 

Another high was, of course, riding with Darth Vader in our peloton......not many people can say that!

 

Highs - Being caught up in a massive peloton on their Sunday run.
Mark Vincent's deck show on the return ferry, or did I imagine that? #that-was-no-salt-tablet
Arriving home with the Garmin alarm telling me that I had arrived home after riding from Paris that morning. #smug.

 

Lows - Needing an emergency toilet break on the first food stop on the return journey. Then seeing that everyone had left except for Calvin, Andy and Chris smiling and telling me that they would pace me back to the group. #slack-bladder #sweat-stain

 

Random - Didn't see the peloton but could you imagine a group that size rolling through Surrey on a Sunday morning!

 

Highs
• Plenty of sun to work on Rule #7
• A great destination to break Rule #95
• John Mac breaking Rule #35 with gay abandon!
• Great team effort on Rule #67
• A lot of friendly banter about how to stop Calvin continually breaking Rule #88
• A good job by everyone on the most important rule of all: #5

 

Lows
• Insufficient adherence to Rule #93
• Insufficient bad weather for us to excel on Rule #9
• Us Brits still have too much of a tendency to break Rule #24

 

For the few who haven’t a clue what on earth these refer to: http://www.velominati.com/the-rules/

Awesome weekend! Thanks everyone.

Highs - the Amazing French country side and towns that we rolled through. Cycling around the Arc De Triomphe in a group, with traffic opening up for us and a brass band playing the Marseilliaise.

Lows - sore feet and backside and going down a huge hill 30 miles before Paris realising we had to climb back up it the next day.

Random - Not convinced that the night ride was the best bit - seems to me that they might be telling big porkies!

Highs
1) Making a cup of tea on a Primus burner under the Eiffel Tower with two wooden chairs while waiting... and not a single Parisienne paying the slightest bit of notice
2) Watching you all roll along the road in Dieppe with smiles on your faces
3) Nick and Fiona, James and Rachel. Testament to the power of cycling for a relationship!
4) Achieving the Bacon and Eggs against the odds
5) Beautiful countryside and weather all the way (apart from Paris)

 

Lows
1) Your arrivals in Paris. You were all so tired, hot and grimy... and having to use lots of massage and small fibs to keep things rolling
2) Running out of Coca Cola at the last stop when you probably all needed it most
3) The Paris tunnels!

 

Highs
• seeing 20 good quality club riders working hard, enjoying the experience and staying positive
• Adrian and I succeeding in our support role despite making it up as we went along
• the French countryside and towns
• attacking French drivers with a large van around the Arc de Triomphe

 

Lows
• we should have planned more and pre-prepared more meals (rather than dashing between food stops and supermarkets)
• better prep would have allowed us to provide more splash and dash water stops (especially as it was so hot)

 

Random – John, Winner of the 2015 best dressed support team member award (to put this in perspective the support van carried a few tea bags and most of his summer wardrobe).

 

Highs - All one long high for me.

 

Lows - Only one small personal low was dropping my wallet in the WC on the ferry while changing! - no need to publish that. #course-we-must

 

I will have a nice new £20 note for Mark soon.

 

Highs – The company, the weather, the traffic free roads, the best, happiest support crew we could of asked for and the whole weekend was one big buzz from start to finish.

 

Lows – My under carriage, Peter shouting “10 Seconds” then “Change” every 2 mins for 50+ miles……but it worked and got us to Dieppe! French manholes which always seem to come in pairs

Looking forward to the next one.

 

Highs - One big high from start to finish.

 

Lows - lack of sleep on the ferry.

 

Highs - Cycling around the Arc. 50 mile blast with Calvin and Andy. No accidents. Not bleeding to death.

 

Lows - Not being able to hurdle any more.

 

Highs - smashing through the 200km mark and still feeling good at the end, as well as Sunday's blast back to dieppe... great team work!
 
Lows - no sleep Friday night and the complete agony I was in reaching dieppe from my Achilles. A sports massage session has since sorted that out :-)
 

If you have got this far I have to tell you that getting these comments together took considerably longer than even London > Paris > Sutton (total respect to Ray) but I hope, like me, you think it was worth the effort. Everyone who took part could not thank Mark & Ade & John enough for making it happen and executing it so well. Le Mans 72 next year?

Event / Article Type
RCC Paris Raid
Hot & Sweaty