Hemel Hempstead Cycling Club

Young Hemel Cycling Club member James Ford recently completed a 4-day, 208 mile sponsored London to Paris cycle ride. Here’s his story.

Over three and a half days, I’ve cycled from London to Paris. I started from Baden Powell House, Kensington on 15^th August. We stopped at Caterham and looked at the cars, then had a bite to eat. Dad broke his tooth and I thought ‘Great, Dad will be moaning for the rest of the trip!’ A few Nurofen and luckily he stopped complaining.

A few hours later, we stopped for lunch in the village of Ditchling, East Sussex, and having checked the map, I didn’t have to go up the hill (Ditchling Beacon – ed) after all!

It was 68 miles down to the port of Newhaven where we stopped at a Premier Inn for the night. We also had the worst pizza of my life, but I was so hungry I didn’t care.

We got up at 06.30 on Monday morning to go on the Seven Sisters ferry crossing to Dieppe. There were lots of other cyclists, but I was the only one going to Paris. The crossing was 4 hours, so we got to Dieppe at 1.00pm and I had time for two breakfasts. We still had to cycle 44 miles to the Chambre d’hote (B&B) in Forges les Eaux.

To get there we went along a cycle path called l’Avenue Verte which was a disused railway line that used to be the main route from London to Paris. This was a great traffic free wide track and we spotted a red squirrel that ran along in front of us which was great!

The B&B we stayed in also had gypsy caravans in the garden to stay in which looked like great fun.

To get dinner, we had to cycle into town - which I didn’t need, having been on the bike for so long.

Tuesday morning  saw it lightly raining so we decided to put on our waterproofs and five minutes later, it started to chuck it down which slowed our progress. We then had a quick lunch break in McDonalds – very French! – but it was dry and we warmed up in the end and carried on.

When we got to Cergy, a suburb of Paris, we spent a lot of time on tired cycling legs looking for our hotel, (this was the longest day: 71 miles), and once we’d found it we had a good buffet meal in the hotel next door.

The final day, Wednesday – we had a short lay in, then it was off to the centre of Paris. We had breakfast in a bar on the outskirts and went in speaking our best pigeon French, got nowhere, then realised why; it was a Portuguese cafe!!

Now it was the final push to the city centre. We went over the River Seine twice, past the Arc de Triomphe and finally down the Champs Elysees where support (mum and Godfather’s wife Ali) were.

They were on the wrong side of the road, so we had to turn around on one of the busiest roads in the world, which wasn’t too bad as there are traffic lights and crossings. When the lights were red, we turned around and went along one of the crossings to meet our support.

After the 208 miles from London to Paris we spent a few days in Paris, including an open topped bus ride. After that Mum, Dad and I went on to Alpe d’Huez where I did some mountain biking and used my road bike again to cycle up the 21 hairpins that lead to the summit of Alpe d’Huez (1850 metres high) in 1hr 38 minutes, just like the Tour de France, but a bit slower!!

A great ride to be remembered forever.

Thanks to everyone who helped and sponsored me.