London Paris day 1

Well we finally set off today and what a great experiance. In my eagerness not to be late I was the first cyclist at Greenwich this morning, at least there was no que at regestration. It was a bit chilly and the waiting around was doing nothing for my muscles, but with all the photo and media stuff done we set off shortly after 8am. The morning London rush hour was not great with lots of stop start action but once into Kent we were racing along, one long decent saw me doing 43 mile per hour and what a thrill that was in a large group nose to tail. The first stop saw Ian Wright throwing his bike on the floor and cursing the hills. The second stint was the long one of the day and I hooked onto a group with a good average speed and got pulled along for what was many a mile. We had left the busy roads and found some quiet country lanes, in full sun this was what I had dreamed of. Lunch stop was around 62 miles with only 13 left to the coach stop, this turned out to be the hardest part of the day. The legs felt dead after the stop and the wind had picked up and was in our faces, on top of this the timed hill climb loomed, I was not in a good place at this point. Well what a hill, I did make it with out stopping but I dont know how and I sure did not break any records. Two miles later I was hit with cramp and struggled to the finish, It was a brilliant day and I have met many people, I finished ahead of Wrighty and Geoff Thomas so was very satisfied. Many more challenges lay ahead in the next three days but as I say "Roll on Paris".