a misguided cycle to Paris: misguided training

We set off from London on Wednesday morning. We are due to arrive in Paris on Saturday afternoon. That's a bit of ground to cover in a few days.

And it is meant to be 37 degrees by the time we hit Paris. And I am Ginger, so I'll most likely be red by the time we get to Paris.

So in preparation for this little trip a few of us (not the whole group) have had 3 'training' sessions.

Misguided training session 1: Camberwell to Brighton, well actually...

- Camberwell to Decathlon in Surrey Quays

- via Broadway Market

- up to Highgate
(where some men shouted out of their car window at me "big bum" - this was just at the point where the hill gets really steep and I needed all my physical and mental energy to keep going. So I stopped. Right there in the middle of the road in front of them. big bum and all)

- then to Hampstead Heath

- back down to Regent's Park

- ice cream on Vauxhall Bridge

- then to the Pub in Peckham

Not quite London to Brighton then.

Never mind, better luck next time...

Misguided training session 2: Richmond to Fensham Great Pond.

We were due to leave Richmond at 9.30. But Peter wanted a tea, and I wanted a coffee. In an attempt to get everyone to leave a bit quicker I threw half of the coffee in the bin, but I shouldn't have bothered because Alex (not coming to Paris, but just for today's ride) and Stuart were at the other entrance to the train station. So we left at 10.30 and headed west along the Thames Path...

But the Thames path near to Richmond isn't that suitable for road bikes so we hung a left, and took the roads towards Woking. Which would have been fine apart from we'd only brought with us an OS map from Woking to Fensham. This meant navigating A roads from Hampton Court to Woking, which was a bit grim.

But once we got past the city slickers in their 4x4s, and the suburban mums in their estates we were on a beautiful canal path, windy hilly roads and fields. We stopped in a bizzare village hall on the way and bought a glass of squash. Stuart tried to woo the old ladies by regaling them with tales of our intrepid journey all the way from the big city - but they couldn't care less and continued to darn the little pieces of material they held in front of them. Alex and I did some cartwheels.

By this point it was 3pm. We were meant to be meeting Dan and Ollie at Fensham Great pond by now.After a few arguments about directions, a treck through a field of sweet peas, a dash across a dual carridge way and a right past a house that wouldn't have been out of place in Sweden we arrived at Fensham Great Pond.

Dan and Ollie had left, but we had a nice dip - Peter in particular enjoyed playing with a pink bucket that he stole from a small child, and Stuart got bitten by a shark.

Misguided training session 3: The Cambridge loop

On the hottest day of the year Stuart, Peter and I set out to cycle a 70 mile loop around Cambridge. The theme of the day was punctures - Peter got 2:

The first conveniently near to a pub showing the England / Germany Match. The second not so far from the train station in Cambridge.