Thursday 8 April 2010 saw us arrive in Santander in
northern Spain. The party consisted of two ex South
Downs students - Gary, was 53 years old (ex A level
French PT) and the other Matt, at 26 years (ex A levels and
HND Business FT) was almost a youngster. I was the
other 53 year old! Yes, we were going to do it all again!
We had set ourselves the tough target of cycling the
1050km back to St Malo in Brittany in 8.5 days. This would
then allow me to catch the ferry back home to Portsmouth
on Saturday 17 April, giving me 24 hrs rest before College
reopened on the Monday!
Thus the three of us set off with the plan of covering an
average of 125km a day - riding for six and a half hours a
day; consuming around 7500 – 8000 calories a day;
drinking three litres of special electrolyte drinks; and
eating every 45 minutes even as we were riding! We had
planned to link up the following towns on the journey:
Bilbao, Biarritz, Royan, La Rochelle La Roche sur Yon and
finally Nantes – it all had sounded so easy when we
planned it in cold, dark February.
Despite the distance we didn’t expect two things – there
was almost 50,000ft of climbing and for 90% of the ride
we were battling into a constant 40 - 50km headwind
from the north. We knew Spain was hilly but tackling a
130km day in the saddle with almost 10,000ft of climbs
(and carrying all our luggage) was almost too much for us
oldies – oh to be thirty years younger. The Basque region
was beautiful though and even better, the temperature
had reached 23c! Shorts!
Nevertheless, we left Spain, entered France and then
turned north. A windy but flat Aquitaine and then the
Vendee were dispatched, leaving us with a bumpy crossing
of just Brittany. As the final kilometres were ridden the
strain began to tell and as energy banks depleted, even
100km a day was becoming hard work. And the wind had
got stronger!
Despite the wind and the hills, we were right on schedule.
We arrived in St Malo on the Saturday morning exhausted.
As we sat on the ferry in the English Channel, surrounded
by hundreds of stranded refugees, all escaping the
volcanic ash clouds of Iceland, I wondered, will we being
doing this again in another three years? What would we
do?
For the record, my kind sponsorship by fellow colleagues
and students at the College raised £675. The money will
be sent to our preferred charity, Cancer Research UK. If
I add the online donations, this amount (with Gift Aid) will
total some £1500.
I marvel every time at the wonderful support shown by
the people that make up South Downs College. Your
generosity is boundless and did inspire me on the days
when the going got very tough. Once again, thank you.
Rob Gillard