London to Rome

A comfy bed, zonked out sleep and a classic French breakfast, it’s feeling more like a ‘holiday’ today! The morning’s challenge was to get out of Lille, another city where red lights magically turn red as cyclists appear. A group ride through a busy city is not my favourite activity, but I tucked in behind James the guide and stayed out of trouble. Lille morphed into Roubaix and the first stop was at the velodrome, famous for the shower room with open, three sided, low walled concrete stalls, each with a brass plaque to commemorate a winner. Sadly it is being renovated but Bob could still pose for a photo. Today’s riding was Paris-Roubaix territory with the ‘opportunity’ to ride on the infamous cobbled sections. Paris-Roubaix is a one day event also known as the ‘The Hell of the North’ describing the route of the race after World War I. Organisers and journalists named it this in 1919 after seeing its condition after four years of shelling and trench warfare. Fortunately for poor old B...

An early start today with a 6am breakfast so we could get to Dover for a 10am ferry. The ride to Dover would have been very pretty if it wasn’t grey and soggy. We arrived at Dover after 25 rainy miles, soaking wet with mucky bottoms. It was rather exciting riding onto the ferry but I was shivering and desperate for a wee by the time we got on (bib shorts were an error!) Time for a gallon of tea and another breakfast followed by a cheeky nap. Fortunately it had stopped raining when we arrived in Dunkerque and the wind was sort of behind us for most of the remaining miles. The miles across the Channel are not recorded below, although a few people asked me before the trip if I was going to go by pedalo! The route was mostly flat through an agricultural area which meant surprise sudden encounters with tractors and yet more mud. Throughout this area there are obviously reminders of war and this church in Zegerscappel has been visibly rebuilt. The afternoon coffee stop was at the top of the ...

My very obliging hubby drove me down to Paddington yesterday so I didn’t have to lug a suitcase and bike bag on the train which made life much easier for me, if not for him in bank holiday traffic. I rode Bob the bike down to London last weekend so walked over to pick it up and cycled back to Paddington via Oxford Street which was a novel experience. It wasn’t exactly a speedy ride! Instead of going for the group dinner, I had a yummy burger and catch up with Katie in Notting Hill. She then came to the hotel this morning to ride to Kent with me. It looks like the Italians are going to drop the 5 day isolation rule in time for her to be able to ride the last week of the tour, so we will meet again in Venice! The ride was supposed to go to Canterbury but at the last minute the hotel was commandeered by the UK Government for Afghan refugees,  so we headed to Ashford instead.  The ride started with a bit of London tourism via Buckingham Palace, The Mall and Westminster, fortunatel...