Trempe' Velo a Paris.Part 1.

Ciao a tutti,I hope you are well and enjoying the summer with plenty Kms in your legs,and the virtual cabinet loading up with badges.

Last Friday we departed from London to Paris again with our second group. This time was challenging. Hence the fact that today guest blog riders/writers are Craig Skinner & Chris W. two  of the "Magnificent 7". 

Craig celebrating his arrival at the Eiffel Tower

Why did you do it?

My primary reason for doing the London to Paris ride was to raise money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, but also to push myself as a cyclist.

I began raising money for Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research through cycling challenges following a diagnosis my sister, Kirsty, received of Leukaemia in 2012. She's shown an incredible amount of bravery in the face of everything that's been thrown at her and I'm so unbelievably proud of her. She went through so much chemotherapy and in 2013 she had a peripheral blood stem cell transplant, with a donation from me. This was successful and she's now doing really well.

Research into new treatments is so important and donating money to charities such as Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research can really help save lives. At the time of writing I’ve raised £751.74 from the London to Paris ride and would like to thank everyone who generously donated.

The weather radar before departing

What did you do to prepare for it?

Lots and lots of cycling. Often joined by lots of wonderful fellow Saddledrunk members. That, and I baked a big batch of flapjacks.

How did you find it?

The weather was the biggest challenge on the ride, leaving me shivering and with my teeth chattering for quite some time. Sadly the extreme weather conditions meant that we couldn’t complete the entire UK side of the journey as it was too dangerous but we pressed on regardless, hitting more bad weather when we arrived in Dieppe. Around the 100km mark in France the sun came out and slowly but surely we began to dry off and warm up.

Everything was very well organised by Papa Stef and he took care of us incredibly well, even handing out extra clothes from his heavy rucksack to those of us, like me, that hadn’t prepared for quite such bad weather. He also had pre-planned stops where we could load up on croissants and espresso. The countryside was also very pretty and the roads are nothing like those in the UK. No potholes!

In Newhaven at the Ferry Terminal.

Would you do it again?

Absolutely. Especially as we sadly had to cut it a little short. In fact I think my last words to Stef before riding home were, ‘I want to do the whole journey again’. The ride also left me with a burning desire to cycle abroad more - this was my first time - and my head is full of possible ideas for future rides.

What was going through your mind during the ride?

I can’t say it was always good things as the gusts battered us, the rain beat down and grit flew up in my face flying down the Avenue Verte but cycling with a really nice group quickly banished any negativity from my mind and for the most part I was just so happy to be part of the ride. And to know that my doing it had led to so many generous donations.

Arriving in Paris was a thrilling and wonderful experience too and one that was made even more special by the surprise appearance of my mum, who had got a passport and travelled to Paris from Cornwall to meet me at the finish. I had absolutely no idea that she was going to be there - her and my girlfriend, Katy, had managed to keep it a secret for some time - and was incredibly surprised and moved.

Andrew raising Money for Tommy's Charity

Next on line is Chris W.

London to Paris had appealed to me for quite sometime after witnessing friends and work colleagues complete the pilgrimage to the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. So when the opportunity came about to do it with the SaddleDrunk guys I couldn't miss out, especially arriving in the city on the final weekend of the Tour de France.

I had been keeping a close eye on the weather in the build up to our own grand depart and the forecast was not in our favour, the great British summer decided to drop a months worth of rain in one day. The conditions were so bad a decision was made to get the train to Brighton for safety reasons. 

Having only managed a small amount of riding on the first day in some terrible conditions, the real riding started when we arrived in Dieppe. Fuelled by coffee and croissants following our first pit stop, the sun finally made an appearance and we could really appreciate the beautiful countryside and pot hole free French roads. We really put in the effort and the kilometres were passing by in no time. It was a welcomed change to see how respectful the French motorists were of cyclists, giving us plenty of room when overtaking. 

We had a lot of laughs and jokes along the way and there was a great sense of achievement when we reached the capital. We felt as though we were the stars of the TdF with tourists asking to take our photos underneath the Eiffel Tower! We capped off a great couple of days with well deserved beers and wine over dinner. 

Stretching at Gare Du Nord.

I have to give a huge thanks to Stefano for organising the whole trip (and assisting with that puncture at 5am!!), I have taken some great memories with me and I look forward to doing more Saddledrunk organised trips in the future! 

ook out for Part 2 of the ride.

Thank you to Craig & Chris.

A very well done to the riders.

SD Team

Chris,Stef,Craig,Ale,Val,Derek,Andy.

Tour De Pelso 2015, Hungary

Few months ago I received an email from a courteous gentleman that lives in a town along the “Lake Balathon” in reference to promoting cycling in the area.

After copious amount of emails,I finally travelled two days ago to Hungary to take part at the Tour De Pelso 2015(Balathon Marathon 200KM).

Flew out from London on an early Friday rainy morning to a sunny & scorching Budapest. Picked up the car I drove nearly 2 hours in a South East direction to reach the little touristic town of Balatonboglar.

In the front enjoy the sceneries at 45kmh.

On my arrival at this stunning house less than 100 yard from the lake,I was welcomed by an amazing couple, “The Gentleman” above mentioned and his wife.Laszlo & Sheila. An Hungarian Gentleman with an huge british history, and Sheila ,exquisite Yorkshire Lady.

They let me into their premises and I was embraced by 2 gorgeous Labrador Puppies,  2 young sisters one black and one white that escorted me to my 2 bed apartment.

The bike was reassembled really quick due to my rush to get out and explore the area while 33 degrees Celsius was stomping in our heads.

Lotsi a local rider with an amazing Olmo bike.

A gentle ride was the aim of the day, to regenerate fresh oxygen into my body and an injection of pollution free air into my lungs. It was a short day due to the early start the following day.

A 4am wake up call was needed to have a good breakfast(coffee and bread ) before embracing a long race at fast pace. An high temperature of 34 C plus was forecasted then plenty of fluid inside my body was needed.

The start of the Tour de Pelso 2015 was in Siofok, about 20 miles from my accommodation then a 30 minute journey helped to have an extra bit of rest.

Got to the start line after setting up the bike, and because I was invited and be part of one of the local team I was at the front with the “Big Boys”.

Inflate Tyres Costs as the same as a local glass of wine.

While waiting for the start gun to be fired up,I was wondering why some of the big boys had 5 big waterbottles with them. 2 in the normal standard location plus seat waterbottle holders like for triathlon and a final one inside their Jerseys like hunch backs. I did find out later during the race.

BANG…we started and a neutral zone of 20km was due to the road works. Police escort all the way about 35 motorbikes, leading cars ahead clearing up the road for us at the front. A good pace of  nearly 45km/h was held for the first 90Km with peaks of over 50 KPH.  Temperature was raising and my water was dropping quickly,I needed urgently water. We were at mark 112km and I was expecting a water station but I misjudged the mark on my computer.I was pumping hard and after 3hour 30 minute at the 140km mark I had to find water, I was licking my own sweat to get some salt into me as the computer was showing 34.7 Celsius. Initially I did find pleasure in leaking my sweat but it was just temporary ,my body was in urgent need for H2O. I knew if I stopped I would never be able to rejoin the main peloton I was riding in the top 50 and feeling confident. My aim was finish ,therefore decision was make to stop. Few others along the route dropped out but no one wanted to push any harder. So average dropped down to 34km/h including the lovely head wind to cool us down.

Pasta Party with the sunset by the lake and a great concert.

I was pleased to finish the 203 Km race around the Lake Perimeter in 5 hours and 53 minutes. Finishing in GC in 98th.Still good result out of few thousands.

There was a lovely pasta party with an amazing  concert by the finish line along the lake admiring the sunset.I was even lucky to cool down by jumping into the water for a swim.

Some interesting numbers;

20 kg of cheese 
840 liters of Coca-Cola 
1,008 kg of Bananas
2800 Powerade bottles
6190 pcs Horalky wafer 
6519 liters of H2O 

Crossing the line after 5 hours 53 minutes.203km.

My personal considerations about this stunning Hungarian region are absolutely speechless.

The Cycling is catered for the fast & furious but also for the more relaxed cyclists.

The lake offer all the way around a flat cycling lane on the edge of the water.

This sceneries are completed with delicious restaurants , bars, vineyards and warm and friendly people willing to share part of their lives with you.

Recovering with a swim in the Lake.

I would like to say thank you to Las & Sheila, Mate’ Group to be part of their team & Tour de Pelso to let me experience this adventure.

If you need advise about in the cycling around the Lake Balaton please do not hesitate to get in touch with us or with info@balatontourism.com .

SDx.

Art IceCream in Budapest..Not mine.

Final stage report Yunnan Gran Fondo

Final Battle-stage at Jade Mountain

The best stage was saved for the last with a splendid course laid out for all of the Gran Fondo participants, it was not the longest stage of the week but it was one with parcours that was packed with action, beginning in the quaint ancient village of Lijiang in front of a large crowd. The weather was fantastic with the skies impossibly blue and the centre-piece: The majestic snow-capped Jade Mountain rising into the sky, with its jagged peaks reaching upwards. It was a splendid climax to what was a brilliant week of racing in five different areas of Yunnan Province. Dali and Lijiang were by far the favorites with the Gran Fondo peloton. It is hoped that the 2015 edition will see more stages centered around the Dali and Lijiang areas, perhaps even as high up as the Shangrila region with its distinct Tibetan influence. 

Back to the racing. The GC battle was down to just two riders: John Cattrall (England) and Wei Kui (Specialized). Cattrall had the lead by a slim 45 seconds and would need to perform at the top of his game to beat a superior climber and ex-professional rider from the Specialized team. Further, Wei Kui had three team-mates at his disposal while Cattrall had zero. The battle at Jade Mountain unfolded with Wei Kui emerging victorious, but this was not decisive till the last five kilometers where he was able to dance away with ease from Cattrall to finish 7th for the stage, but more importantly finishing up to the base of Jade Mountain with 2minutes 15 seconds over the Englishman. This gave him the overall win at the inaugural Colorful Yunnan Gran Fondo by a convincing 1min30 seconds. 

Another big eye-opener was the incredible performance by 16-year old kid Lv Xianjing who simply powered away up the final slopes in a big gear to blow away the opposition. No one had an answer for this young teenager's, hailing from the high mountain villages of Yunnan,  turn of speed and in short time Xianjing who has never heard of the Tour de France, opened up a massive gap that would continue to increase all the way to the finish-line.  This young rider, who also won the mountain ITT, is definitely an emerging talent worthy of world-class and could be the next Chinese super-star. Stay tuned to Saddle Drunk to learn more about this special prodigy. 

Carruthers Perspective - How it unfolded

This was the last stage in what has been a big month of racing for me! My super-crazy-hectic month of racing began on October 13 when I did three stages of Poyang Lake, then over to do the Tour of Matabungkay and back to do the last three stages of Poyang Lake. I then raced two more Chinese races before jetting down to New Zealand to do the week-long 1000km Tour of Southland. I arrived at the Colorful Yunnan Gran Fondo already fatigued from my cycling adventures and this brought my total race days to 24 in just over a month! As you will have read from my previous reports about the Yunnan Gran Fondo, I had been plagued by bad luck that ultimately lead to the destruction of my high GC placing (the unfortunate but beautiful stage of Dali), I was determined to be rid of the bad luck and sign off my 2014 season with a good stage.

The parcours of this stage did not really suit me, featuring two laps containing a 6% 2.7km Temple Climb before racing up the 12km Jade Mountain climb.  However, I was still very active in the race in support of two riders. While lining up on the front row of the race, I was next to John Cattrall who was shivering quite violently, perhaps from a combination of the cool temperatures and nervousness? Cattrall knew that Wei Kui from Specialized could climb better than him and he would need to pull something extra special out of the bag to stay with the lighter rider. Cattrall asked me for help during the stage so I agreed to help to the best of my ability; this would mean sacrificing my own aspirations for the stage and focus on keeping Cattrall close to Wei Kui and sheltered from the wind as much as possible, at least for the first half of the race.

When the gun went, the Mongolians went on the attack immediately, like they always do but it was back together after they made an error at the round-about. The usual counter-attacks flew up the road one after the other, but nothing was allowed to go. I was riding on the wheel of Wei Kui for the majority of the time with John right behind me. A few times he would lose my wheel as the attacks would string out the field and I would find him and pull him back to the front. Sometimes it was not always necessary to be behind Wei Kui.

About 5kms before the Temple climb, there was a dangerous breakaway of about 8 riders and I took it on myself to bridge the gap with John in tow, it took several minutes but I made the catch and coming into the climb I was on the wheel of Wei Kui. When the road pitched upwards, Wei Kui rose out of the saddle and accelerated hard. I followed immediately and John was still right with me as we motored up the climb - however, within the first 1km my legs had exploded, perhaps due to the altitude; I was no longer able to sustain power and it was up to John to look after himself from here on. In a blown state, I managed to get over the climb about 30 seconds in arrears and managed to get with some other riders to rotate hard to catch the front group 10 minutes later. But not without some drama from some of the Chinese riders who refused to contribute evenly to the collective effort of the chase group. I recovered somewhat in the front group and was able to survive longer with the front group up the climb before getting dropped yet again just after the half-way point. I caught up with Shannon Bufton who was 5th on GC and was clearly not having a good day. He was struggling on the climb that I gave him a quick push and then helped pull him back to the main group right as the 12km climb begun. I had worked extremely hard to make the catch yet again after the Temple climb that I was already well into the red-zone as we climbed towards the 3,000m mark. With about 7km to go, the front group surged forward, most likely the attack from the young wonder-boy Lv Xianjing, which broke up the front group into pieces. I was already out the back when this happened. I was climbing solo for quite some time, before a group of three Chinese riders caught me with 3km to go. It was weird, I was riding steady tempo and they would have been riding faster in order to catch me. When they made the catch, they slowed down. I don't know why but thats what they did and the pace was slower than the pace I was riding at on my own. When I pulled to the front, they all slotted behind me. Clearly they wanted a draft and easy ride to the top. I swung wide and forced them to do the pace-setting; they responded and the pace went up. But soon they slowed down again, obviously watching for the foreigner (me) who was barely clinging on at the back. I had enough of this cat and mouse games with 1km to go, so I attacked. As I went by, I yelled some Chinese words that obviously riled them up. One of them yelled at me as he charged ahead with vigor. I wonder how come he was not expending this energy earlier? My surge forward was short-lasting, at this altitude I notice that my attacks are shorter and it takes longer for me to recover. So I rode the last kilometer up Jade Mountain with heavy lead legs with absolutely no acceleration left at all.  At least I gave my all and made the Chinese riders fight hard. It was truly an epic end to an epic week of racing in Yunnan. 

With the finish up at over 3000m, the wind was icy cold and it was important to get down the mountain before we got too cold. It was a splendid downhill run all the way back to the city of Lijiang. I did not want to leave this region, it was so beautifully majestic with the jagged peaks of Jade Mountain as the center-piece and the numerous rolling hills unfurling out across the horizon. This region is what many cyclists would die for to have the opportunity to ride in; we had only barely scratched the surface with the 82km raced from Lijiang to Jade Mountain, there are plenty of other roads and other vistas waiting to be explored. It is the collective hope of the peloton that the Yunnan Gran Fondo 2015 edition will see more stages held in the Lijiang region.   It is also the bicycle tourist dream region, do consider adding Yunnan to your cycling destination bucket list whether its for the 2015 Colorful Gran Fondo or if you are embarking on your own organized adventure!

Visit the official website: www.granfondochina.com and also "like" the page www.facebook.com/asiacyclingnews .

Thank You very much for your help during the week Daniel,we wish you merry Xmas to you and your family.

SaddleDrunk Team