LONDON TO PARIS BIKE RIDE
Do you feel you could cycle to Paris and raise more than £250 for MS Research charity?
To take part in an event like this, visit MS Research events there are loads of open events that you could enter.
Thomas Miller will cycle to Paris in August 2010!
In June 2009, Neel Shah took part in a London to Paris Bike Ride with a group of friends. Visit his Justgiving page!
Etta did the ride in 2008:
Thank you everyone for your very generous sponsorship and support. I survived the trip and am back to tell the tale!
Ever tried going round the Arc de Triumph on a bicycle? It‘s a bit special!!…I’m still not sure that I understand the French traffic system – if there is one! But we made it to the Eiffel Tower to be welcomed by our loyal and loving supporters with many congratulations. The trip, however, was not without it’s mishaps………
Our little group of 4, amongst the 130 riders in group 1, consisted of myself, a great friend going back to school days, my sister and her friend. All cyclists were to gather at 6.30 on the morning of 11th June with the aim of getting an early start for our longest day of cycling – 85 odd miles to Dover!
Our last minute pumping of tyres ended in disaster as I managed to rip my whole valve off my inner tube with a gut wrenching pop followed by a hissing noise as all the air expelled itself. Our wonderful mechanic Dougie, saw the distress on my face and quickly took the bike away and said “I’ll deal with this – you just concentrate on the briefing”. So one discarded ‘slime’ filled inner tube later we were off!
We had a hard morning cycle out of London, into the Kent countryside to lunch. That afternoon we had the only real disaster of the trip. One rider came off her bike going through a ford and had to be taken to A & E. She spent the next day in the truck trying to recover enough to get back on her bike, but really the injury was too bad and she only managed a short ride in Paris on the last day. We all felt so sorry for her as she felt totally frustrated – after all that training!
The second day it just rained all day. Everyone had punctures, soaking feet and froze whenever they stopped. My puncture meant discarding my other ‘slime’ filled inner. We put in a new tube and prayed I’d checked my outer tube thoroughly for foreign bodies. We must have done a good job, as the tyre still feels as hard now as it did 4 days ago!
Day 3 was probably everyone’s favourite as far as cycling went. We had beautiful skies, lovely French country villages and country lanes to cycle two abreast, so we could chat and laugh and get to know some of our fellow cyclists. And then suddenly it was our last day! It was single file cycling on busier wider roads, and by lunch we were in the outskirts of Paris.
It was all very exciting, and the Discover Adventure team, having handed us all our blue ‘London to Paris 2008 T-shirts’, tried their best to keep us all together in one large group, looking like a blue river winding its way through the Parisian traffic!
I had spent 23 hrs 45mins cycling 280 miles at an average speed of 11.8 mph, for anyone who is interested in statistics! My fundraising target for the MS research unit is £2,000.00, which I think I have nearly reached, and money is still coming in! So thank you all very much for your support, and I will let you know what my next cycling project is – Bristol to Outer Hebrides or coastal cycle of Wales or coastal cycle of Wessex or even Land’s End to John O’Groats……………
NOTE Etta well exceeded her funding target! Well done Etta and all the cyclists!
From left to right on the picture: Gill, Catherine, myself and Clare!
Inspired by this event?
- Ask for our Events pack or click here to download.
- Let us know of your idea: copy and send a completed Event Notification Form.
- Set up a donations page on Just Giving
- Download this Sponsorship Form to collect cash and cheques.
- Visit and support MS Research‘s current fundraising events or visit MS Research‘s archived and achieved events!
Last updated : Jun 13, 2010
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