Monday 8th July 2024.
After eight or nine months of route planning, selecting and booking hotels, ferry tickets, bike bags and deciding what kit we needed to carry, the day had finally arrived. Meeting in Kingston upon Thames market place at 06:00, four of us commenced our journey south towards Dover, where we would meet two other members of the team who had elected to get the train from London and meet us at the ferry port.
Less than three miles cycled and still in New Malden, not even enough time to get used to our fully laden bikes, there was a familiar cry of 'mechanical'! Our first puncture thanks to a tiny sliver of glass. Was this an omen, a sign of things to come? We had deliberately chosen to leave Kingston so early to give us enough time to cycle the 95 miles to Dover, without any panic of stopping for food or mechanicals along our journey. We had to be at Dover Ferry Terminal at 17:00 to catch our 18:00 ferry. Stephen skillfully and quickly changed the inner tube and we were off once again. Meandering through the streets of Greater London, which even at this time were starting to get busy, we made our way through Morden, Carshalton and Wallington towards Purley and our first real test of the ride, Downs Court Road with its half mile 6% climb. Steady paced we crested the top of the climb and felt the effect of our fully loaded bikes, we knew there was further climbing to do before we passed beyond the M25. We continued upwards and onwards towards Warlingham and the top of Nore Hill, where once again the cry of 'mecahnical' signalled another puncture after only 18 miles. Another front wheel puncture for Stephen, so far the cycling gods were not looking after us. We remained calm and Stephen once again changed the inner tube with minimal fuss and we headed off, still very much with time on our side.
We had 'frankensteined' the route from three or four other routes and as we tested our brakes descending Titsey Hill and passing under the M25, we knew that Greater London was behind us and we were finally heading out into country roads and the flattest part of our ride for Day 1. Limpsfield, Four Elms and Chiddingstone Causeway passed without any issues on our way to our food stop at Tonbridge, Kent, where we stopped at The Finch House Café after 36 miles. Fuelled by coffee, coke, bacon and sausages we left Tonbridge to continue south east. The weather on Monday was fairly cloudy and mild, but most importantly it was dry, perfect cycling weather. We continued through the Garden of England and cycled through villages and small towns on the route, passing multiple oast houses, which are dotted all over Kent and even cycling through a vineyard and an apple orchard until reaching The Knox Bridge Café at 54 miles, where it was coffee or coke time and a chance to refill our water bottles.
We were now getting to the end of the flattest part of the ride, and after driving this route a few weeks previously, we knew that some tough hills were ahead of us before we reached our destination for the day. Dover itself sits in a small valley, and there is no way to approach the town without climbing some hills, unless of course you drive along the M2 and A2. Given we were cycling this was not an option and even the A2, with many HGV lorries and high volume of traffic was not somewhere we wanted to be on our bikes. We reached the small village of Sellindge at 78 miles and stopped to grab some snacks at the little shop. Fuel for the body to get us up Blindhouse Lane & Hempton Hill, a 1.2 mile climb topping out at 9%. Reaching the top of this climb at Farthing Common, we got our first glimpse of the sea as we continued to Etchinghill, where we faced our final real hill of the day, a short 0.5 mile, 10% climb to take us to Hawkinge. We now knew it was downhill all the way into Dover and down to the ferry port. We arrived at the seafront in Dover at 15:20 with plenty of time to spare and quickly contacted our two other team members, who by this time were also in Dover and had a quick rendezvous for for some photographs before heading to a hotel bar for some much needed refreshments. In the end the cycling gods had been kind to us and we caught our ferry from Dover to Calais with ease. Food on the ferry was surprisingly good, it had been many years since I had been on a cross Channel ferry and catering had vastly improved.
We arrived in Calais at approximately 20:30 local time, after the 90 minute crossing and adding the hour time difference on. As we disembarked the ferry it appeared that we were the only cyclists on that crossing, as we received an escort from a van off the ferry and through the port to the main road into the centre of Calais to find our hotel. We knew that our accommodation for each stop on this trip was budget accommodation and was going to be very basic, it had helped to keep the costs down. We found our hotel which was not far from the port and it was indeed pretty basic, but we were able to sort our kit out and have a hot shower, before grabbing some sleep in preparation for the next day, and our first day in France.
Little did we know that there was nothing we could do to prepare us for what lay ahead of us on day 2....
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