PocketGPSWorld.com enter the London to Paris bike ride

MikeB

Action Medical Research have organised a 300 mile charity bike ride from London to Paris from July 25th to 29th.

In a fit of madness I have organised a PocketGPSWorld team of 4 reviewers and users to tackle this long distance ride and race down the Champs Elysees a day before the Tour De France takes the same route. We will also have the services of a support car provided by Via Michelin. Onboard will be a Via Michelin X970T SatNav system (of course) to ensure that we dont stray from our designated route, and also a Michelin support team in the form of Stuart Derricott (London ViaMichelin) and I expect that our old friend Bibendum will pop up now and again as we pedal our way through the Garden of Kent and the French countryside.

With nearly 500 cyclists taking part we start in 3 different locations to cross the Kent countryside heading to the channel ports for our first overnight stop. The first day will be the toughest as we have to complete 90 miles over both the North and South Downs... Hilly is not quite the right word here!!! With just over a week to go we have been in training for the ride. I have just returned from holiday in Florida where I was cycling 15-25 miles a day in heat exceeding 34C...

Of course this is an excellent opportunity to test out some of the new GPS dataloggers that are hitting the market, and we will be attempting to provide you with a daily blog of our progress and also some Google Earth links so you can track our progress. For some strange reason I doubt that we will need the Speed Camera Database for this trip...

The four of us will be sporting either PocketGPSWorld.com cycle jerseys, or Michelin cycle gear. If you see us please cheer us on our way.
_________________
Mike Barrett

Border_Collie · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 11:41 pm Post subject:

That's brilliant. Have a nice safe ride and to do my bit LOOK HERE

The Rudd · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 5:39 am Post subject:

What a good idea, just a thought is there anyway we can make a donation ? Jerry

Waldorf · Occasional Visitor Joined: Sep 27, 2006 Posts: 1

Good luck with the charity ride. I hope that the weather is kind and I will check back to see progress.

MikeB · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 10:54 am Post subject:

We were not intending to solicit any donations from our users, as we have already managed to raise the required sponsorship from anonymous business donations, for which we thank the companies involved.

If you do wish to make a donation then you can do so through PayPal. Click here to donate via PayPal.
_________________
Mike Barrett

DennisN · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:06 pm Post subject:

My brother was in training for the 1999 running of this when he suffered the head injury accident which stopped him from doing it. For "training" see "Qualification Criteria" under PBP 2007 Fact Sheet on that webpage (as comparison with your miles in Florida!) Laughing

Mind you, he was only 52 at the time and doing Triathlons for fun.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

GJF · Frequent Visitor Joined: Feb 08, 2007 Posts: 894

Best of luck to Mike and all the other cyclists involved.

I will look out for you as you come through Kent, will you be wearing pocketGPSworld on your shirts, or will you be identified, by struggling along weighted down with all that GPS equipment?
_________________
TomTom Go 60
Garmin Nüvi 660, Firmware v4.90
Drive-Smart GPS with Loader v1.4.16
HTC Advantage X7500 MS 6.1 Tchart Speed Sentry
Satmap Active 10, Software v1.16
Fuzion 32 HUD Bluetooth GPS receiver

MikeB · Posted: Thu Jul 19, 2007 12:57 pm Post subject:

scoobyfizz · Occasional Visitor Joined: Mar 13, 2006 Posts: 8

Friend of mine is doing this too but a slightly different route I think (dover Calais???) He's going to keep an eye out for you though..

best of luck..

MikeB · Posted: Tue Jul 24, 2007 6:15 pm Post subject:

I have just started the blog for the event. Click here to track our progress daily.
_________________
Mike Barrett

Daggers · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:24 pm Post subject:

Go easy on the performance-enhancing drugs! I've heard they are quite common in French cycling at the moment!! Wink

philpugh · Posted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:34 pm Post subject:

All the best to all entrants. Not Worthy

Having done the C2C (Whitehaven to Sunderland) by bike I can sympathise with the hilly bits!
_________________
Phil

MikeB · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 9:45 pm Post subject:

Well we all finished the 315 miles London to Paris, with me (as predicted) looking after the stragglers at the rear of the field. There is a full report in our Event Blog with a number of pictures of the trip.

We have raised nearly £6000 for the event. A wonderful achievement. Thank you to everyone who has contributed.

I must be crazy, but I have just been out with the Thursday night cycle gang and for the first time ever I actually kept up with them all the way round our 33 mile circuit. I did it in a record time (for me) of 1 hour 51 minutes. The 315 miles must have strengthened the right muscles...
_________________
Mike Barrett

DennisN · Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 10:28 pm Post subject:

JockTamsonsBairn · Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2007 12:04 am Post subject:

	PocketGPS
	Web