Below please find the official departure video.
Day 2 - Beauvais - Dieppe: Rain, Cold and a Festival of Punctures
Up early on Day 2, I checked the weather outside: covered skies but dry. It didn't look too bad. Once out of the room, two thoughts came immediately:
- It was cold: 12 or 13 degrees in June is a bit low
- The wind had abated, and it had turned: amazingly, we'd be getting a tailwind in a region where it usually goes the opposite way. Would we be lucky again?
As always, our team left after all the others had gone, and we had plans to cycle fast and furious, catch up with and overtake every other team and add a loop to the expected 110kms once we arrived in Dieppe. Right off the start, cycling was much easier than yesterday and we all felt strong with the help of the tailwind. From Beauvais we moved up north towards the sea until the first rest-stop 40 kms away where we made only a brief pause to fill our bottles, get a cup of English tea and get back on the road. Much better teamwork than yesterday helped us keep a steady and fast pace, though slower than yesterday's dishevelled, furious, individualistic race-like mode.
Unfortunately, things started to go wrong a little after the first stop: the sky was getting darker and darker and a cold, steady rain started to pour. We took out windbreakers and rainproof jackets and for the first 20 or 30 minutes things were grim but OK. But when the roads got filled with water we were constantly riding in the spray from the bike in front and true misery started.
It didn't take long before the first puncture occured. The rain brings all the tiny, sharp stones and silexes out onto the road and they quickly get into our tyres. We saw several other groups lined up along the side of the road, with someone working on repairing a punctured tyre here and there.
We were riding on an ex-railway converted into a cycling road: very safe except at intersections where it crosses the main road, and very quick with the wind in our back. We were making good speed despite the rain and the dirt covering us gradually from the spray of the bike in front, but this kind of road with no car traffic also means that all the small stones remain exposed. After the first puncture, we suffered another one, then another, and another...and another! Our guide had three consecutive ones and we had to stop every 2 or 3 kms. A nightmare. Each time we stopped and wait in the cold rain for the tube to be changed or repaired and we re-started hoping to quickly get warmer - or less cold-, only to stop 2 kms later.
After the fifth puncture, we had enough and thought that the main road would be better than the cycling path. Wrong. Another puncture and then my own back-tube blew up too. I ride tubulars, which can't be repaired, so I took it out, changed for a new one and off we went. Within 20 meters (yes) another rider added to the score of this festival of punctures with our 7th of the day, all in the space of only about 35 kms! Were we jinxed? We were cold, drenched with water, covered in mud and grit and we couldn't manage to get back into anything resembling a bike ride... Those 7 punctures matched the "record" established last year by another team on Day 1 when they got caught in a storm...
We might still break it.
We finally arrived in Dieppe but there wasn't much time for an extra-loop and most of us really didn't feel like riding more. We stopped at a cafe for a quick beer and some warmth before going to the ferry terminal, then through customs and on board at last. Without cycling glasses most of us looked like raccoons or pandas: all covered in grime except for the white circles around the eyes where the dirt hadn't sprayed.
As I brought the bike on the ferry, I noticed that my back tyre looked ominously soft. I would find upon arrival... For now, we looked forward to the warmth of the ferry's lounges and to a warm dinner.
We arrived in Newhaven at around 10 pm and picked up our bikes where we had left them in the ship's car garage. My fear was immediately confirmed: my back tyre was flat again... Record beaten: 8 punctures on the day in our group! I didn't have another spare tubular with me but fortunately it was a slow puncture so I hoped I'd be able to pump enough air in the tube to take me to the nearby hotel where we would spend the night before Day 3.
However the nightmare wasn't over: as the nearly 200 cyclists doing the 3 days event left the boat on foot with their bikes and waited outside among the cars to go through a very slow immigration process, we got caught in a very heavy shower and were completely drenched again in a matter of minutes. We had just about managed to get dry during the 4 hours crossing, for nothing...
Finally, we arrived at the hotel where we were allowed to keep our bikes in the rooms. I changed my back tube for the second time today before jumping in the shower and finally recovering human form. We went to bed well after midnight, exhausted.
What a day!
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Paris to London Bike Ride
Stay tuned for more reports from this great event.