This coming Saturday, 20th October, 3 Cokeurs and one biker will leave the O2 Dome in London to ride unsupported to the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
The riders are,
Steve Colligan - Coker
Mark Wiggins - Coker
Paul Royle - Coker
Steve Robertson - Bike
Our route takes us down National Cycle Route 21 from Greenwich to Newhaven, then on an overnight ferry to Dieppe and two and half days of quiet roads and cycle paths from Dieppe to Paris, arriving around lunchtime on Tuesday.
The daily mileages will be approximately 80, 50, 50 and 20.
This will be the furthest I’ve ever ridden in 4 days, and disappointingly it’s still less than Sam managed in 1 day - Sam, you’re a machine!
This will be an RTL qualifying ride for myself and Steve C, so we’ll be posting photos and a write up after the event, and maybe an odd update en route.
Sounds fantastic fun! If I’d known earlier, I would have been in London to see you off (or ride some of the way with you), but sadly I have to be elsewhere that day.
Best of luck, and I look forward to seeing the photos and reading the ride report.
Unfortunately, earlier this year Mark’s mother-in-law died from lung cancer, so we will be using this ride to raise money for the British Lung Foundation. Counting the offline donations so far, we are well on the way to meeting the target of £1000 - with your help I’m sure we can get there and even better it. Thank you in advance for your support.
As a note, Steve Robertson does ride unicycles, but has opted to ride a ‘two wheeled’ thingy for this ride. He obviously feels guilty about being on two wheels, as he’s decided to ride back from Paris as well. The rest of us will be flying back to the UK by-the-way
Have a great ride. Sad I couldn’t make it. I guess my qualifying ride will be Penzance to Padstow along the coast to granny’s house and back in a weekend. At least I will “qualify” for some home cooking as well. Got to find a GPS I can borrow.
It will not be easy to find co-riders during the day (Wobbling Bear, aka MOU forwarded the news on the French forum), even less Cokeurs and I shall make no promise regarding the “coussin très moelleux”.
Anyway, you are arriving on Tuesday, and there is a unicycling meeting in Paris every Tuesday, so I strongly suggest that you should apply there.
The meeting starts just in the middle of Paris at the Forum des Halles, Place Pierre-Emmanuel, between the fountain and the horse-gear (at street level). That’s just at the center of this Google map, approximately at the crossing of Rue Pierre-Lescot and Rue Berger. Please be there no later than 20.00, as people customary leave at that time for a trip in the streets.
I’ll do my best to be there in order to increase the wheels count and with my camera. You can check the Paris weather here.
Remember you should theoritically ride on the sidewalk and not the road, which is quite impractical with a Coker (especially among pedestrians), but chances to get shouted at by the police is quite low
I can be there because, I’m not working at the moment. I hope some other french unicyclist can come with me. I will look like a dwarf unicycle with my 20"…
I’m not a good living map of paris but I’ll do my best to help you. If you have more information (hours of arrival,…) contact me by private message I can give you my mail box and a phone number.
Thanks for the info and invite to meet up Tuesday evening in Paris. Unfortunately we’ve got flights back to the UK Tuesday afternoon/early evening. We’ll only have a few hours in Paris itself before having to leave for home. The pressures of a working life eh
