James and Stephs Paris to Barcelona Bike Ride





This blog is the Journal of James and Stephanie's Bike Ride taking place between the 17th and 30th July 2010, an unsupported ride taking in 800 miles of road between Paris and Barcelona, with the addition of the stage 14 tour de france ascents of port de pailheres and/or Ax 3 Domaine... both category 1 climbs!

We are supporting the Starlight Foundation a very worthy charity that grants wishes for terminally ill children

We Raised £10,000 for the starlight foundation
I have been asked a few times if I still have any of the routes / planning docs etc. by people looking to do a similar route - yes I do and happy to share, get in touch at james.cole@indigo-leaf.com


Saturday, 9 January 2010

How?

The conceptual idea seemed simple enough. Catch Eurostar over to Paris, and cycle south to Barcelona stopping at hotels on the way down, essentially performing the task completely unsupported beyond the hotels I would be staying at, and purchasing essentials through France and Spain. Then flying home from Spain whilst freighting the bike back.

The task would ideally need to take 14 days, to fit in with work, although it became clear to me from very early on that this challenge was going to take a significant level of support from work, Keysource, if it was going to get off the ground, else the kids were likely to miss out on any sort of holiday or ‘daddy’ time during 2010.

So with 14 days as the ideal, I set to work on the internet to assure myself that this was possible, and my first discovery was how much of a friend Google Maps was going to be in this pursuit. Instant figures around the number of miles, type of terrain, local amenities, likely hotels, all there jumping off the screen in glorious Google style. I also searched to see if anyone else had ever attempted this less than obvious cycle challenge .

The good news was that the challenge was likely to be in the region of 750 miles, giving me a target of just over 50 miles per day, however my limited geography had not warned me until looking at the map of the small obstacle towards the latter part of the ride, more commonly known as the Pyrenees.

Great! Was my reaction, I will have to incorporate one of the famous Col’s ridden in the Tour De France. How apt considering the 2010 Tour De France will be celebrating its 100 year anniversary of ascending the Pyrenees. This led me to look at planning the timing of my tour to be within or close the period of the tour and its time in the Pyrenees.

So there I was, less than 2 hours into the idea, and I already had a concept with a plausible timescale, that had already gained depth, in the excitement surrounding the Tour de France and the opportunity to combine the distance with the challenge of one of the most gruelling cycling ascents , at a time of year which will have the worlds eyes on cycling and specifically the Pyrenees.

My search for others who may have completed the same journey resulted in finding only one person who had successfully completed the journey in the summer of 2009, however they had completed it in 21 days and not 14. The fact it was not a recognised cycle challenge only spurred me on even more, one of the reasons the Lands End to John ‘O’ Groats ride never really appealed to me, was the established and recognised position it holds in cycle challenges, not to take anything away from those who complete it, an awesome undertaking. For those who are aware of my car choices will not be surprised by my need to seek the unique before the sensible.
Having discovered someone who had completed the task, at least I had someone to ‘pick the brains’ of, and without further delay I sent an e-mail to Richard Cross introducing myself and opening up a dialogue so that I may seek advice as I go through the planning of the challenge.

No comments:

Post a Comment