London to Paris: 24 hour ride

madeinleeds

I'm thinking of entering the SCOPE 24 hour London to Paris ride next July (280 miles). Does anyone on here have any experience of it ? I'd potentially look to do the whole thing but concerned that...

(a) I'd be attempting it solo so no one to work with in the tougher parts of it
(b) It may be a step too far from current riding - 100 to 150 miles a week, split 100 commuting and 30-50 miles at the weekend. Longest ride I've ever done is only 70 miles, though more through other commitments getting in the way than anything else.

I'm reasonably fit, and not carrying excess weight, so any extra training would hopefully push me in the right direction.

Any feedback on the event from anyone who has attempted it would be great.

cheers

GarethB

No help to you but I signed up for this last week.

On Sunday I did a 16 mile ride round London
Tomorrow I'm getting in to work at ridiculous o'clock to use the exercise bike for an hour or two.

A long way to go yet.....and I probably need to buy a new bike.

madeinleeds

Best of luck with the training.

Are you planning on attempting solo or relay ? may see you on the ride..

Dunkeldog

Signed up myself. Had a buddy I was going to relay with but... well you know the story. After being initially worried by the whole 280 solo I'm quite happy now. Used to five hour centuries so I hope I'm building from a pretty good base. Still, after my first tonne it's a sobering thought knowing there's another 180 miles to come...

Peasebrook

Hi

I did the London to Paris last year, but did it in two days. that was hard enough. I'm considering the L2P in 24hours. I'm planning on getting a few of us from work to do it. I cycle 100 miles a week commuting, but will be spending a long time in my garage on my trainer!

good luck everyone. see you in Paris

goonz

I am about to take part in a London2 Paris 24hr ride organised by my company and with a few other colleagues this coming Friday.

I will definitely let you know how it goes.

I say go for it, the most I have ever cycled is 100 miles in a week for commuting followed by a practice run to brighton on the weekend.

VeloPeo

Might as well make this my first BR post

Did the first ever L2P24 in 2010 and it still remains one of the best sporting events I've taken part in. The organisation is top notch and the route (especially flying through France in the dead of night) excellent.

I did it with a mate as a relay - and went from never having ridden a road bike as an adult in the January to managing 5 of the 9 stages on the day (175mi @ 16.7mph average) which I was pretty proud of.

Would recommend it to anyone - although I had 8 months to train for it and there's only 2 left before this years. Mind you I guess anyone reading BR will already have a reasonable level of bike fitness that I didn't have back then.

There's a very supportive and helpful Facebook group for anyone interested - good for finding fellow riders to do training rides and sportives with. Still good cycling mates with a bunch of the guys I did it with - even doing the Ride24 at Goodwood with 3 of them in June

madeinleeds

Goonz, how you get on? Any tips?

sammorrison

I did a route from London to Paris (not the official one) as the first day of a ride from London to Zurich last year. It was the first stage but by far the furthest I had ever ridden in one go! Although we went via Dieppe so the distance was only 160miles which is no where near as hard as yours.

In terms of training I was commuting to work, though it was only 50miles a week and then cycling 50miles at the weekend as I didn’t have time to do anymore. As it was my introduction to long distance cycling I found that constant eating and drinking was the key factor, even when I wasn’t particularly hungry.

I'd just get used to the time in the saddle more than anything- once your back, neck and arms start to ache it becomes harder to stay motivated

goonz

madeinleeds extremeley sorry for the late reply, totally forgot to check back! Apologies if you have already done it!

It went great, the weather held up for the most part and we managed it in just under the 24hrs including missing our ferry due to a security check and getting lost on the way into Paris! Not the easiest to navigate!

Tips would be take plenty of fluids and eat good food, stay off gels unless you are totally spent. I had more success with bananas and flapjacks than with the gels, and I was actually feeling stronger by the end! Calais to Amiens was a tough drag, mid-day, no sleep and not much food was taking it out of me, but a rest in Amiens and a lot of carbs and the final stretch was the fastest of the lot. It helps to have a great group with you and luckily we had no punctures the whole way. Be ready for the hills and take the pain killers for the inevitable knee aches!

madeinleeds

Cheers Goonz. Yeah, I did the ride in July. Managed the full distance though took about an hour longer than the 24. Had picked up some knee problems a few weeks before the ride which flared up. Amazing what a few pain killers can do though. Agree with you on the gels, I just used one caffeine gel with about 50 miles to go to give myself a bit of a pick up. It was a great event, recommend it to anyone, might have a crack it next year to try break the 24 hours.

goonz

Good one, my knee had started playing up by the end too, needed a few weeks rest to sort it out fully. Why is it always the right knee!?!

I may be trying the Dunwich Dynamo next year but nothing compares to cycling through France. The roads so well kept, scenery is breathtaking and the people so much more accommodating to us cyclists!