France 2018 Prep

Hello again B Road fans.

Well Bobby and Al have planned another wee cycle tour for 2018.
This year we will be cycling about 200 miles around the north coast of Brittany France.... Yup you got it we are going all foreign.

Bobby has a friend, Anton, who lives in Brittany and suggested we try France this year. 

Anton and his family are directly affected by Diabetes with their daughter, Ana-Luise, suffering from the condition.

So this year we have chosen to try and raise funds for Diabetes UK

Someone is diagnosed with diabetes every two minutes. Your donation can change lives.

There are many defined cycle routes around Brittany and we chose one that would allow us to drop in to see Antony and also enjoy the coast.

We are going to cycle part of the EuroVelo 4 route round the north coast of Brittany 

We have planned the route. (On right of web page 👉👉👉👉👉👉👉👉👉👉👉)

The official EuroVelo 4 route can be found here

Anton has informed us that most towns in Brittany have campsites so we have identified some likely campsites on our route but if we feel we have done enough for a day we are happy to stop at the next campsite and not push on to far. This is a different way of planning our days, compared to previous years,  and is much more relaxed. We have found pushing to far on previous tours can spoil the next day.

Our biggest headache is going to be getting to France.
It looks like we will have to

1. Cycle from Bobby's parents house to Rishton train station (near Blackburn Lancs)
2. Train to Preston
3. Train from Preston down to London Euston
4. Cycle across london to Waterloo Station
5. Train from Waterloo to Portsmouth
6. Overnight ferry to St-Malo in Brittany

That is one very long day.

We will be building in extra time between trains as we have the bikes and all the panniers.

We have had to book the bikes on to the train from Preston to London as that is a requirement of the operator. Thankfully the times we were after were available 😊

The park bench in Downham

Both Bobby and I have been in training for the last few months and we are both gradually increasing the amount of weight we carry. From experience we will be looking to carry approximately 30Kg of kit on each bike.
In May we had a cycle together around the Ribble Valley area. It is a beautiful area of the country on a sunny day.

This is the village where they filmed Born and Breed

We had to cycle back up this at the end of the day !!!

This was a peloton that we had to stop to let go past on a hairpin bend. HOW FAST!!

Well thanks for looking in on us again.

We will update the blog as we travel so check back after the 8th June 2018 and see how we are doing

AL and Bobby