Our London to Paris Ride, July ’17

I don’t remember learning how to ride a bike. So clearly I was born able to ride. Born to ride?! …My earliest memories of cycling are riding down the stairs from my first floor home in Barbados on a tricycle. I think that’s what hanging around with boys does to a 5 year old girl.

From there, my next real memories are of getting a bike for my birthday at some point in secondary school (…now living in Essex, UK). It was purple, I loved it and I treated it the same way an Essex boy treated his Ford Fiesta (…aka a boy racer).

Those two wheels were my independence… I hung out with friends and we rode so much that I knew my entire area road for road, turn for turn.

Then at some point, I became too cool for school and ended up giving (…maybe selling?!) my bike to my Uncle who I would often see “pootling” down the road on it in his own little world oblivious to cycling past me in the street.

Fast forward one more time, this time to being just under 30yo and living in zone 2 of London (in comparison to now being back in zone 6) and I decide to purchase a bike to commute to work.

By this point in my life, I’m really living the “fit” lifestyle added to the fact that cycling in London is more reliable and sometimes even quicker than public transport.

Then I enter a duathlon. Have a go on the Olympic Track. Enter a Sportive and ta-dah… it’s 2017. And I decide to ride from London to Paris. Because, why not?!

So on 14th July 2017, myself, Mollie (of PT Mollie) and Sophie (of Fitology) will be setting off from the Olympic Park in Stratford to catch a ferry that evening from Newhaven to Dieppe, France.

We’ll then have an overnight stay before we continue our journey over the following two days, arriving in Paris on Sunday 16th July.

Because I’m me, I’m not cycling all that way to just jump on a Eurostar straight back home so we’ll be spending the night (and all day Monday) in Paris no doubt eating our way through all the food we can get our hands on.

I’m especially looking forward to fresh croissants, pain au chocolat and champagne…

Our ride to Paris will be unsupported so we’ll be carrying everything we need with us in panniers / bike packs. I therefore have a couple of months to brush up my skills on changing inner tubes and other little bits to ensure I can look after my bike.

As for training, the goal is to get out on the weekend for long rides in addition to once or twice during the week …so any invites for rides or indoor cycling classes will be greatly accepted!

I’ll be sharing everything I learn over the next 8 weeks here on the blog… a bit like that time I learnt to swim to take part in a triathlon, yeah?! …cos maybe, just maybe you might be considering taking on the ride from London to Paris one day…

Read About Our Trip:

• Our London to Paris Ride – Part 1
• Our London to Paris Ride – Part 2

We’ll also be documenting our training and the trip itself on our social media channels using the hashtag #3PTsToParis – all my social links are at the end of this post! Huge shout out to James M (Mollies husband) for the top two photos; James will also be joining us for the ride as (in Mollies words) official #InstagramHusband …and he’s done good so far!

Have you ever ridden from London to Paris?!

Elle