We're at Dover!

Posted by Neil

From Ashford we made our way down to Hythe and then along to coast to Folkstone which was pretty straightforward, but finding the Dover coast road out of Folkstone was less easy (all the signs point you back to the major roads) but a local on his bike soon had us pointing in the right direction. Thanks to you my anonymous friend. But what a direction!  Mostly, it was pointing straight up, and with temperatures now in the mid-20s, the climb was a struggle for all of us except Stuart.  Some walking was done, albeit only a couple hundred metres or so.

Re-grouped at the top, we enjoyed the last few miles along the South coast but the weather changed dramatically with temperatures dropping and the mist descending.

Made it into a misty Dover!  Managed to get an earlier ferry too. Hope there's loads of food on board!

Progress

Posted by Stuart

Time to post just to keep the momentum going as we had towards our Grand Depart, which, gentlemen, is only 6 weeks away later this week.  We've all got things to sort.  In no particular order: Me - must get our routes sorted and written up.  To be fair, they are all figured out apart from the last day into Paris Centre, I just need to write them up for myself and my compadres.  Neil - keep the riding going in the face and pressure of a new job, and a couple of weeks holiday in August.  Dylan - get the bar tape sorted.  I think you've bought the new mitts.  Keep riding when you can.  Andy - trouble the scorers as far as sponsorship money is concerned, finalise carriage arrangements during the ride.

My conservative, pessimistic head is raising itself again - I'm a little concerned we haven't built enough contingency into the first day.  It's quite a challenging ride from London to Dover, what with busy roads, navigating out of London itself, the sheer distance and the fact that we'll all be riding laden for the first time.  It would only take a mechanical and/or a couple of punctures to put us under some real time pressure.  Think there may be an argument for bringing forward our departure to 7.30 am.  Views gents, if you're reading this?

I think it's probably going to be worth all of us speaking at least once before we go too, just to check progress.  We're all in different places geographically and organisationally, so we don't have any day-to-day opportunity to speak.  Watch your diaries for invitation(s).

Route planning

A very quick blog to kick things off.  We're still over 3 months away from departing these shores, but it's never too soon to start, and indeed finish, the planning.

We got together as a foursome, as it were, last week, and I think all is going to be well.  We each have our challenges to overcome if it's going to be a totally harmonious experience, but with a bit of luck those are undulations rather than high peaks on the road ahead.  Mine?  So many....remember this is for pleasure rather than being a military exercise, get the navigation sorted properly, remember not to preface every sentence with "when I did Land's End to John O'Groats" (I'm boring myself with that), for starters.

As far as navigation is concerned, the route from central London to Dover has been bothering me.  My first thoughts were to go out through south-east London, and then hug the north Kent coast through Dartford, Chatham, Gillingham through to Faversham, then hit the back roads to get to Dover.  I didn't fancy the navigation over the last 25 miles though, and elements of the route to Faversham looked a bit dull, to be frank.  I think we've got a better one now though, heading south after Dartford to pick up the A20, then staying on that through parts of the North Downs to Maidstone, Ashford, and nearly all the way to Dover.  Andy has been kind enough to stick it through bikeroutetoaster (I need to get a lesson off him - I've failed dismally to make it work for me so far), and it looks ok.

Three months feels like a long time between now and departure, but before then we've got plenty else to occupy us.  Inter alia, there'll be a trip to France to watch the Tour de France for Neil and me, a new job for Neil, summer holidays, and bike buying for Dylan.  So the time will go quickly, and the more we can get sorted quickly, the better.  It looks like we'll be having a practice outing on Monday 27th June, organisation courtesy Andy, so there's an interim target.