Day 0 - Eurotunnel to France

Photo 2: Queuing for the EuroTunnel

Photo 3: Bike rack in the Amicus van

Photo 4: Dave, Paul and Marc on the EuroTunnel

As Dave, Marc and Paul pulled up outside the Cisco offices memories of the previous years ride came flooding back. It was the same blue Amicus van and three of the same riders as in last years team. However although some things were the same having a better idea of what was to come we were a lot more organised! The backdoor of the van was opened so I could put my bike in and the first sign of the experience gained was apparent. Last year our bikes had all been strapped together leaning against the wall of the van. This time Dave and Marc had built out a rack inside with 4 slots so all the bikes were securely held in place and we wouldn't have to keep shuffling them all to get the one at the bottom out!.

The trip down to Folkestone was very quiet with hardly any traffic on the road. The previous year we'd been greeted by long queues trying to get across to France as one tunnel was still closed due to a fire. This time there were no queues and we sailed through customs and we were let onto a train an hour ahead of our booking.

Once in France we were back on the road again and started the 2 hour drive down to Laon. We'd seen a few bikes on the Euro-tunnel and recognised a couple of faces from last year. However we'd been warned not to blindly follow other cars carrying bikes as the Extra Mile Cycle Challenge were heading through at the same time but then heading to the Loire Valley.

Looking through all the paperwork again at what was to come over the next few days we were all getting more excited. The list of cycle teams included a lot of familiar names such as the Cheeky Boys, Rear View, Chrome Domes and others. The route descriptions also sounded familiar "steep climb", "prepare for climbs", "hard climb for several miles" .... this was going be fun!