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Now Ive officially started my 40th year (birthday in Nov), I need to set some goals. I wanted to do London-Paris last year but our corporate partner (at work) shelter wanted me to underwrite 1500 quids worth of sponsorship which I decided was too high risk financially.
So, perhaps I'll just do it on my own or with a couple of mates over a long weekend. Does anyone have a decent and proven route in a format I can upload to either connect.garmin.com or ridewithgps.com?
Ps. fogot to say, road ride rather than MTB...well to begin with anyway.
was thinking of doing it sometime myself
on a cyclocross bike, thought this route would be good, got the book, had a read through it seems good
http://www.sustrans.org.uk/ncn/map/route/avenue-verte
I've done this a couple of times now with a group of 10 -15 of us. We downloaded the gPS from all Londres-Paris.com.
We done it in 4 days but if you're fit, it's 3 days of hard riding. Choose your hotels well before and book in advance.
We had a support driver and used them on both trips. Personally, I wouldn't do it without one.
Chris
I have stupidly signed up to do it in June this year. Why stupid? Because I'm fat and unfit. Training has started in earnest now though.
We are doing it for a small charity and have only had to underwrite half that amount personally which is achievable. To take part we have to still raise £1300 though. If you need details do a search on the U Foundation. It's going to be a real challenge for me as have never ridden those sorts of distances.
Luffy105 - I'm not fit in any way. I brought a carbon road bike a week before (never ridden a road bike before) and just went for it. Sold it 10 days after we finished. Take lots of gels / choc as most of the route in France is in the arse end of nowhere. The first day (uk) is the worst by far and it gets much better, smoother in France! Awesome bar to the left of the Eiffel Tower to greet you at the end too.
Variflex,
My email is in my profile I can send you the GPX route for the 4 day route I did London > Calais > Arras > Compiegne > Paris
Also in Surrey so happy to hook up and pass on any experience if you want
ND
I did it last year:
[url= http://app.strava.com/activities/80033039 ]strava link day 1[/url]
[url= http://app.strava.com/activities/80303240 ]strava link day 2[/url]
[url= http://app.strava.com/activities/80492716 ]strava link day 3[/url]
[url= http://app.strava.com/activities/80761023 ]strava link day 4[/url]
I did it as part of a large charity ride of 100+people. 6 of us from work took part and I have to say it was great.
I did it on my 29er with a few mods (tyres, rigid forks etc). Im certainly not the fittest person and it was a challenge but well worth it. The first day was the hardest as we had a deadline to make the ferry so really had to push hard in the afternoon, especially after getting lost in the morning.
There are probably more direct and faster routes but the one arranged by the organiser didnt take any major roads and took in some great views and little villages. The final day was more about yhe run into paris than anything else.
I did this route http://www.donaldhirsch.com/dieppeparis.html last year. Used the standard London to Brighton route to get down to Newhaven, which was the hardest bit I found.
Thanks Everyone so far, most appreciated! I'll go through all the links.
ND - I'll be in touch next week if thats ok 🙂
Donald Hirsch route is excellent.