Well done and thank you

The London-Paris is recognised as one of the world’s most exciting cycling events open to the public and is the closest the amateur rider can get to the Tour de France experience.

The 2012 edition celebrated 25 years since Stephen Roche won the Tour de France in 1987 - one of the greatest feats ever - winning the Giro, The Tour de France and the World Championships in that year.

This year the team from Brewin Dolphin supporting Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research included:

Geoff Thomas
Aidy Boothroyd
Giovani Gonzalez
Findlay MacPherson
John Salako
Harvey Bennett
Harry Boxall
Marc Young
Jack Woodhouse
Richard Dillon
Catherine Robins
Neil Welch
Todd Harper
Gordie Houston
David Hood
Mark Cloves
Mike Simon
Paddy Johns
Robert Harper
Rosie Richardson-Aitken
Stephen Jones
Stuart Sangan
William Thompson
Andrew Lewis
Sonia O'Sullivan
Michael Sergeant
Tom Valentine
Phil White
Chris Cleave

The event is distinguished by having motorbike outriders, rolling road closures in France and professional logistical back up along the 520km route, from Hampton Court to The Eiffel Tower.  In Paris, The London-Paris is one of only two cycling events granted road closures in the centre of the French capital - the other is the Tour de France.  The peloton, with its 50 motorbike outriders, rolled along the famous Parisian streets to an emotional finish. Donate >

Gordie and Rosie

http://www.londres-paris.com/

Paddy and Sonia

Flickr album

You can view the full set of photos on our flickr album.

The Mighty Dolphins are the Champions!

Update from our guys!

Just a quick note today that despite a very wet and windy morning, the Dolphins are going strong and digging in. The sun has come out this afternoon to dry out some soggy jerseys! They're all doing well, Sonia has a huge smile on, Paddy's flying, Robert Harper and David Hood are loving it, Stuart Sangan is racing at the front, Catherine Robins looked soaked but delighted when she arrived, Rosie is tired but doing amazingly well, Stephen Jones is wrapping up warm for the afternoon (obviously not pushing hard enough!) and that scoundrel Geoff is looking really good as usual. - James Wright, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research

On the road to Paris...

Team Brewin Dolphin will NOT be attempting this trick!

Day one summary from Hot Chillee

Follow the Hot Chillee L2P updates at www.londres-paris.com

Stage One of The London-Paris saw a damp, but exciting start to the event. 450 riders, including cycling legends Stephen Roche, Maurizio Fondriest and cycling professionals Colin Lynch, Karl Platt and Magnus Backstedt, gathered at Imber Court from 05:30 this morning. This year there were a total of seven speed groups setting off at timed intervals. Other sporting stars in this year’s peloton include Nigel Mansell, Joel Stransky and John Salako to name a few. The riders cycled a total of 169kms, taking them through the Surrey Hills, East Sussex, past Ashford and along to Dover.

The Yellow, Green and Red flagged time sections saw riders competing for the General Classification, the Sprinter and the Climber jerseys. Greg Mansell finishes Stage One with the Yellow Jersey. The Red Jersey went to professional ex-German National mountain-biker Karl Platt, who took King of the climbs by a very comfortable margin. The Green Jersey went to the fastest sprinter of the day, Shaun Pearson and this year, Annette Loubser took the Pink Jersey as the lead woman, piping Tanya Slater – the fastest woman for the last few years – to the post. Tomorrow will be an interesting day for the ladies as there were seconds between them.

The handcyclists got off to a great start, despite the difficult weather conditions and the very early start for their group. Nigel Mansell got to the HotChillee start-line following his epic journey cycling from John O’Groats in the previous days. The rain managed to ease off by the time the peloton was into the swing of Stage One and held off until just before the riders boarded the boat. Tomorrow the riders will start from Calais, heading south to Amiens.

Our guys at Dover last night

On the way...

A very happy Geoff!

Gordie Houston, Stephen Jones, Paddy Johns, Geoff Thomas, Bill Thomson

On your marks!

LTR: Sonia O'Sullivan, Paddy Johns, Rosie Richardson-Aitken

Good luck Team Brewin Dolphin and guests

On Wednesday I travelled up to London to the Brewin Dolphin Head Office with a number of clients to support the 'London 2 Paris 2012' Charity ride in aid of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. A very well organised event with plenty of quality raffle prizes and auction items to help raise money for a great cause.
I am really going to miss riding with Team Brewin Dolphin, Geoff and all the other guys - what an event. For all you first-timers you are going to love it.
I look forward to catching up with all the stories on the blog and seeing some photos of the event - it will bring back very happy memories.
I wrote a little more on my own blog (titled 'Supporting L2P 2012 - needing some lycra), link attached:
http://journeytoironmanaustria.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/supporting-l2p-2012-needing-some-lycra.html

But the big question is

9 days to go. Last solo training ride completed on Sunday at a respectable clip and just collected bike from a major service . Why do I not feel 100% prepared then? Last year was a complete step into the unknown for me so I trained hard, or it felt hard. This year, due the weather I have been unable to ride into work as often as i would have wanted. This is only a 25 mile round trip but the miles soon add up when you can complete this 4 times a week and it appears to me that's what it is all about. However I appear to be riding faster than last year and by a significant amount. I have partaken in one big ride when Mark Cloves and I completed a ride from Hagley to Aberdovey a few weeks ago which was 110 miles again at a very pleasing average speed. This might have been partially due to me hiding behind Mark's considerable bulk for 100 miles and then sprinting away in glorious style for the last 10 miles. Very social. But this ride apart all my training runs have been shortish around 85km. Time will tell if this has been enough. With the weather looking dire for the next 5 days it is unlikely I will be on the bike again before we roll off next Thursday at the ungodly hour of stupid o'clock. The next few days will be spent ensuring I have all my food, carb drinks, recovery drinks, electrolyte tablets, painkillers, chamois butter, suncream, imodium, deep heat, anti inflamatories (nod to the wise;ensure you apply suncream, chamois butter and deep heat in the correct order)arm warmers, sunglasses and so on. So my big question is regarding compression tights; are they worn "Superman" style or can you wear jeans on top? See you next Wednesday Gordie Last unpaid tip. Wear a coat or jumper to the pasta dinner so you can remove it and get a second helping because the helpings are miserly

Stuart's putting me to shame!

This time last year I felt very much on top of my game and looking forward to the trip to Paris.  However a number of events including the appalling weather have conspired against me to wreck my best laid training plans.

I referred to my Garmin stat's a few days ago and noted with some concern that I managed to get out on my bike only 3 times in May, 2 in April and 2 in March.  This is not the training schedule of a supreme athlete and I suspect that I will be drawing on my experience of L2P2011 and deep reserves of strength to get me through.

This month I have already managed to get out 3 times and am covering the ground at a reasonable speed which has come as something of a surprise to me.  On the basis of my recent runs, over albeit a much shorter distance, I feel that I should be able to manage G4 pace.  Whether I can maintain that over 3 days remains to be seen.  If I can't then I can always put my feet up in the broom wagon!

I clearly haven't got enough miles under my belt to consider 'tapering' so next weekend I am thinking of cycling from home in Solihull to Aberdovy where the family are gathering for a big party. The full trip would be 133miles and I have no intention of doing that but if I set off a few hours before my wife I would hope to have done 60-70 miles before she catches me up in the car.  As Sasha knows I am a fair weather cyclist so if there is any chance of rain I will opt for the comfort of the car for the entire journey.

The only other observation I would make is that my average speeds this year have improved quite a bit which is strange given my lack of training.  I don't imagine that my technique has improved so I can only put that down to my new Tarmac which is very comfortable, much lighter and quite a bit faster than my old Trek.  I have also only recently found out that I wasn't putting enough pressure in my tyres and when you weigh in at around 100kgs that makes a big difference!

Perhaps if I had properly pumped up the tyres on my Trek I wouldn't have felt that I needed a new bike.  This cycling is an expensive pastime!

I am looking forward to seeing the rest of the team next week.

Jersey Sportive!

Unfortunately our weekend in France was cancelled due to the strong winds and the ferry crossing to St Malo. Not being a good sailor I was very grateful. I am flying to the UK for the L2P just in case. Rather than miss out completely the majority that had planned to ride one or both of the French sportives decided to make our regular Saturday ride a long one - 'The Jersey Sportive'. Not quite the same but most of us us managed the 150km at a good pace. Average speed 29.5kph which is better than expected due to the number of bends and stops. Attempting that distance in Jersey felt a little like a scene from 'Groundhog Day'. Although it was still windy the rain only arrived when we finished at the Radisson for a well earned pint. Had to resort to the turbo today as it rained virtually non stop. Weather should be better tomorrow so extra miles as punishment for being a fair weather cyclist. Another thing to remember for L2P is to bring along a pair of flip flops. They are easy to carry in your musette to put on at the end of each day and a lot kinder to your tired feet than shoes. What about your stories???

London Revolution

Finally found the time to post my blog following the London Revolution Cycle Ride of a couple of weeks ago. There were just over 1200 cyclists of mixed abilities for the two day event. The day started on industrial waste ground just outside London City Airport which was useful for me as i was due to fly back to Jersey Sunday evening. We were warned not to ride our bikes until we were on the grass matting at the start due to the possibility of glass etc however there still seemed to be plenty of punctures within the first couple of miles! I set off about 30 mins from the start on my own, but hoping to hook up with a group of similar speed. As mentioned earlier there was a range of abilities from those that had never cycled more than 50 miles in a day to the more serious club cyclists. I eventually found a small group of three after the first feed stop but unfortunately due to a loose bottle cage I was back on my own. My fault I should have checked before i set out (something to remember before we all set off in 2 weeks). The route was very clearly marked but without company it seemed a long way. Eventually found some club cyclists who were a little stronger than me. I could have hung on given the opportunity, however they seemed keen to drop me. Their wish was soon granted as they raced through a red light! Arrived at Epsom race course having completed the course in 5hr 43min which better than i had anticipated. Facilities at Epsom were very good but not being a good sleeper i decided to pass on the tent and mattress option. The shower facilities, food and entertainment for the evening were all very good but an early night was called for. As i had no rush to be at the start too early I arrived back at Epsom to find a sea of cyclists all trying to pass through the timing gate. Another coffee seemed to make sense as being at the back of the field would allow me more opportunity to meet another group as i rode through. You will be told at the L2P to introduce yourself to the rider/s next to you and from past experience making conversation helps the miles pass by much quicker. Finally met up up with three fund managers from London at the first feed station and remained with them for the rest of the ride. I was very grateful for their knowledge of riding through traffic in London and will never complain about traffic in Jersey again! Boxhill was not as bad as expected but this could be down to the new smooth surface! The climb later in the day was much steeper. Sunday scenery was was much more enjoyable and we even had the chance to ride around the outside velodrome (not the olympic one). A good weekend, dry and cold but more important 180 miles in the bank. Last weekend came down with a chest infection so missed the best weekend by far. Decided to put in the miles over the 4 day break and managed to clock an average of 80km per day. Plenty of hills and a fast pace as i was with my cycling club friends. Next weekend I have another double 155km on Saturday in Lamballe and 165km in Nantes. Hoping to improve on my Lamballe time from last year but the weather is not looking great. After that it will be a final blast the weekend before L2P then rest rest rest! If you can arrange for a sports massage on the Monday before we all set off, well recommended to loosen the muscles. Tip of the day. Although all our day and overnight bags will be placed in your chosen group they are all the the same colour with identical labels. I will be bringing a brightly coloured label to make location much easier after a long day!