Simon, Shane and Caroline are back in the office after their charity Cycle Challenge. Caroline kept a daily diary and has copied some extracts below.

Set of at 7.30 and had a long slow climb out of the village…not good first thing in the morning but we all managed it and Rob (our wonderful support driver) was impressed! Today is a bank holiday in France. ??.Pentecost or maybe some Saints Day, but shops and most bars were closed and it was eerily quiet everywhere! The odd thing was that there were no people round either…we cycled through about 20 villages and saw very few cars or people…what do French people do on a public holiday?…maybe stay in bed!

Almost lost Simon in Evreux (will try harder tomorrow!), stopped for lunch in Dreux and then had the most fab afternoon cycle…the sun came out, the roads were good and flat and part of the route was a cycle path. 

The first leg of our journey this morning was challenging…not in terms of elevation but most definitely safety!! The road we had to cycle on was comparable to the A1…however due to the huge respect French lorry drivers seem to have for cyclists, we all survived intact! The fear factor and absence of hills meant we arrived at our planned morning coffee stop at Janville in well under 2 hours averaging 14 miles per hour.

The other challenges for today were Emmas two punctures! The punctures were straight forward enough to fix, Emmas tantrum …not so easy. The second time her naughty bike misbehaved, she threw it in a ditch, kicked it and burst into tears. I was momentarily taken back to the Fawlty Towers episode where Basil Fawlty beats his car with a tree branch!

This morning, the second 10 miles were harsh and there was a climb of about 3 miles….as we approached every bend in the road I prayed for a respite but the mother truckers just went on and on…I happened to be cycling with Shane at this point and during training he was usually abusive to me and would say such things as “use your f***ing gears woman” but today he was my saviour (Jo, you would be proud of him) I can’t remember his exact words as I was in a bad place at the time but he got me up that hill! Whilst on the subject of Shane, he has carried the bike sat nav throughput the trip which in my opinion is a thankless task and he has managed to lift everyone’s spirits at low moments with his jokes…

I feel it is very sad to be interested in French road surfaces or tarmac for that matter but when you have spent between 5 and 8 hours a day cycling on it and looking at it, you get to know it very well so I thought it deserves a mention in my ramblings! The best type is the smooth black slick stuff over which the bike glide, friction and noise free….this is the favourite and it was a joy to cycle on if only occasionally. Then there is the still quite smooth dark grey tarmac which gives off some noise and is not quite as quick but we don’t mind this type. Then there is the most common, the gravelly, noisy stuff which was probably what we cycled over for half the trip….and finally there is the tarmac that we hate…..you can feel every granule of this insult to road users right through the tyres, the handle bars and into your teeth and we hate this stuff. I wonder if I will ever think about these things when I get back into my car!!!!  

What an incredible experience I have had with my 5 team mates….today is Wednesday and I am finishing my diaries (I have been celebrating and resting for 2 days and finally feel able to write again) I have contemplated our achievement. 6 bikes, 650 miles covered on each bike…..3,900 cycling miles, only 5 punctures (thank you Banjos Cycles for all the spares), over £5,000 raised for 5 different charities, Emma’s nickname is Mullet Head, Soo is Queen of the Mountains”, Soo will always wonder who stole her butt cream, we will all use the saying “ooh er missus” thanks to Shane’s sense of humour, Paul’s butt may never be the same again, we will all remember Lego Man, mine & Simon’s knees may never be the same again but we have all share the same wonderful sense of achievement. Last night whilst we drank champagne on the terrace we had our awards ceremony organised by Soo……we will wear our medals with pride (Simon was disappointed that his medal was not made of chocolate!!)!