six mad men - A Charity 1000 mile bike ride

I hope you all have a great time, i'm sure you will!

What an excellent cause too...
bj
 

Keep pedalling towards that sun it must be out there somewhere.
Good luck to you all.
See you in Albi.
Pauline
 

Hi Jim, hope the start of your ride going well & you have better weather than we do.Think you all have right idea heading to sunny
Spain!
Good luck 2u & your m8's & take care of the knees!
Jessie looking forward to funny pics of uncle Jimmy!
Lotsa love, Jac, Derek, Jess & Josh xxx
 

Pete have ordered a new bedroom carpet. Hope that's ok.
Love P xxxx
 

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Arrived at Abbeville in the sunshine after a day of mixed weather but some fantastic French countryside.

The wind has been a punishing drain on our stamina so the flapjack reserves have been seriously depleted. Pauline,can we put in a requisition for some further supplies.

40 miles the first day, 60 yesterday and we hope to do 75 miles today to Chaumont-en-Vixen still raining.
 

Already in the oven.
Get over today and the weather is set to improve, honestly, I've been in contact with John Kettley!!!
Message Pete from Kerry O'Neil who thought she had the monopoly on doing mad things in France.Wishes you good luck.
Off to plant those leeks now.
Speak later.
Happy pedalling.
Love P
 

Hi Jim and guys,hope that by now you are finding some better weather! we'd like to know who is the maddest out of the six...probably you Jim! Hope the knees aren't playing up! Keep pedalling and smiling! We are tracking your progress and admire you all,I don't think I could even get as far as the village post office without a ten minute break...and that's only quarter of a mile! Love Mum and Steve xx
 

Day 3

Abbeville to Charmont-en-Vixen 75 miles.

Howling gale, 5 punctures and lost for 1 hour and we still made the hotel by 7 o'clock, completely bushed.

Lunch was interesting we met John Thierry on loan from from Chelsea in his new capacity as pilgrim on his way to Lourdes. He blessed each of us personally and gifted us each a rosery and promised to leave our names at Lourdes for good luck. Pete's was shortlived as within an hour he had his first puncture.

Better weather is promised today for our ride to Chartres, we can only hope.

Kingsley is attempting to find out how we can attach images to the blog, if we can there will be some good ones to follow.

SMM
 

Looks like a good start made by all (except for the punctures)- keep it up. Sure you wont be surprised to hear that Uk has been hit by flooding again - worcester racecourse and cricket ground once again 6 feet underwater.
 

Hey Dad,

Bit confused by your message at 5.50am this morning - thanks for that!! I'm sure you didn't intend to wake me up at that ungodly hour on a Monday and that it was just delayed!!!

Its stopped raining here today (cue torrential downpour) so hopefully its done the same for you and no punctures today. Am impressed by the website by the way, been showing all my mates in work the picture of my grinning father!!!

Looking forward to seeing more pictures.
Love Anya
XX
 

Day 4

Chartres Cathedral at last! After decades of just missing it Pete has realised his ambition to visit this iconic building, only to find it almost entirely covered by scaffolding...
Great ride through the forest of Ramboulliet where we managed to get diverted from our route once again only lost for half an hour today but we have succumbed and have now resorted to buying a "Tom Tom". Dinner in the shadow of the cathedral scaffolding, arrived at hotel in the dark!
 

So you did need a navigator after all!
Heavy rain here yet again and prospects for the rest of the week are pretty grim.
Any more pictures?
Sorry Pete but there's been a further delay with the leek planting.
Tomorrow night in Crozant you are booked in for dinner.
All the best
Pauline
 

Pete
Gather from Pauline that the weather hasn't been great. Hope it improves for you (as it appears to have done here - for one day!)
Now we haven't all disappeared into a black hole caused by the LHC at Cern, you should be able to reach Barcelona.
More table tennis sponsor money expected tomorrow.
All the best.
Gerry and Margaret
 

Hi Jim, great to see some photos, you all look in pretty good shape....not sure about those boxer shorts...did you buy them to match Consuela's colour? Nice red arms and legs though! You've obviously found the sun out there somewhere! Happy pedalling! Love Mum and Steve xx