The challenge! Day 2 (02/09/10): Calais to Arras

I was feeling quietly confident having had a good first day, despite the mega hills in the afternoon and didn't have any aches or pains (apart from tingly hands), so was feeling positive when we set off from Calais.


We headed out of the town, and I was up with the lead group for the first part of the morning which was really cool! It was quite chilly and a bit misty, but lovely to be in France. We had to get used to cycling on the right and remembering to stop at the stop signs, but it was really lovely once we got into the countryside.

HOWEVER......as rumoured, Northern France is NOT FLAT! I'll repeat that just for the record: NORTHERN FRANCE IS NOT FLAT!!! I was just getting into a rhythm and cycling with different people and then the hills up to the forest appeared....hmmmm. I was really feeling it on the hills which was a little disappointing, but did the best I could (some walking) and made the first waterstop feeling like I really deserved a break!

I had a snack and a couple of anti-inflammatories (preventative at this stage in the game), and then headed off through the woods before my muscles got too cold.

I got away in front of the people I had been riding with (Ruth, Fiona, Alex, Jade), because I had realised that they were quicker than me on the hills, so I wanted to get a bit of a head start. I managed to stay in front of them right up to lunch time which was very cool!

We all set off together after lunch, but not long after lunch, there was yet another hill, so the others got in front of me. However, they stopped for bathroom breaks, so I took my chance to get some ground and carried on. I had realised that I was quicker on the downhills and flat than most of the people I was cycling with, so we ended up keeping a similar pace overall which was good. 


I was pretty pleased overall with my efforts, mostly cycling up the hills (slowly), but the odd walk, which I'm not ashamed to admit! It was tough going!!


We had an interesting point in the afternoon when we realised we were lost. Apparently a lovely local child had turned one of our orange arrows, so we all ended up at a t-junction with no arrows! It wasn't a problem though, one of us called the mobile number on our tags and we identified where we were and how to get back on track. The DA support vehicle even came back to check that we were OK and back on the right route. We were pretty sure we had the right route when we saw this:

Our afternoon water stop sadly didn't have any "facilities", so Fiona, Ruth and me headed to a local cafe for a cold drink, coffee and a real loo (as opposed to a bush!). We set off for the run into Arras and I really found my stride, so just decided to go for it! There was a very interesting road crossing (4 lanes of very fast traffic!) and then into the town itself, which was also a bit hairy as there was quite a lot of traffic and the orange arrows were pretty hard to see. I tagged along with one of our group and we stuck together and made it to the hotel safe and sound.


We found our hotel and I was chuffed to have made it to the hotel at a very reasonable hour. I should say at this point that I had completely expected to end up in the support vehicle at some point, unable to make it to the end of the day, so each hotel arrival was very rewarding!


We had a nice meal and it was good to have the whole group under one roof, though it did make dinner service quite slow and some people headed off to bed before pud arrived!


Verdict at the end of day 2: legs are a bit tired (but not too bad considering!), a bit saddle sore (Sudocrem is my new best friend!) and hands are tingly, but otherwise feeling in pretty good shape. Nice to be at the half way point.


Miles done: 79.95
Cumulative miles: 162.86