Last Friday I left Crystal Palace with 24 other cyclists on a sponsored ride across France to Reims in Champagne.
The journey was about 400Km and I mapped it with my Garmin though in places - ie where the straight lines are I forgot to hit start - oops.
Reims
Find more Bike Rides in Crystal Palace,
The ride was undertaken by a real mixture of people - including one Woman who did it on a steel mountain bike with knobbly tires - Hardcore to say the least.
Day 1 was pretty much all in England - we took the London to Brighton route to Newhaven and then the ferry to Dieppe. I started the ride saying that i wasn going to drink until the final night when there was no more riding to be done - this went by the board on the ferry where i had a few pints.
The next day was a lovely short 55 miles from Dieppe to Gourney en Bray over some undulating countryside. At one point I stayed with the front runners and averaged 20 mph across one or 2 stages but this is no way to holiday - you dont see the country that you are cycling through so i hung back at a slower pace enjoying the company.
I found out something about myself on this trip - im capable of cycling some fairly serious miles with a skinful - this is not something that i would recommend as it hurts like hell but like i said this was a holiday!!!!!
This was a great oppertunity to meet some really great people and get some miles down on the tarmac - that is one thing that is truly fantastic about France - the roads are so so so so smooth - somthing that is more apparent when i came back to the UK last night and had to cycle 5 bumpy miles home :S
It is something that i would love to do again although next time i would love to do a mountain ride much like Chris.
Right that is enough from me for now - im off out on a bike ride 
