UK Cloud Magnets “The Grand Tour 2023”
Once again Mick and Paul will be donning their cycling kit and hitting the road in a bid to raise funds for The British Heart Foundation.
Last year these two run of the mill guys rode from John O’Groats to Lands End over 9 days and raised over £6000 for charity.
Earlier this year they decided they had to go bigger and better to try and raise more money for such a worthwhile cause.
Training however has been extremely hard for both of us this year due to the long working hours involved within our workplaces and the thought of how far we intend on cycling is very scary.
We learned a lot last year and nearly having to throw the towel in by day 7 due to extreme knee pain will not be an option during our upcoming Euro Ride.
The grand total of cycling 1,034 miles / 1,664 km is looming ever closer and riding through five foreign countries will be a challenge on it’s own. Neither of us have riden on the other side of the road before so overcoming this first hurdle and letting it become and feel natural as soon as possible will gain us valuable time during this epic adventure.
Full Route
Stages
1. Our Grand Tour 2023 will start on the 2nd September at the foot of Big Ben in London where we will cycle 88 miles / 133 km to Newhaven and catch a ferry to Dieppe.
2. Dieppe to Paris will be on grueling country roads for 129 miles / 207 km which is no doubt when we will start feeling the aches and pains starting to remind us that we are no longer teenagers anymore which is why day 3 will be a day of rest in Paris.
Sadly as you will see looking through the pictures of this epic journey, Paul was rushed into hospital at the halfway point of stage 2 with heat exhaustion and was told by the Doctors not to cycle anymore in the extreme temperatures of the unexpected September heat wave, instead of heading for home he hired a car in Paris and became my support vehicle for the remainder of the trip. With the following days temperatures reaching 38C forced Mick to set off early each morning to try and get a cool head start before sunrise.
3. Feeling fully refreshed after our rest day will see us cycling to Reims, again using mostly country roads over a slightly lesser distance of 119 miles / 191 km.
4. Our journey to Luxembourg will test our strength and determination to succeed in this crazy challenge when we cycle 131 miles / 210 km which overall has a total accent of 1,667 mtrs.
5. After another rest day in Luxembourg we will set off to reach Liege which in distance is only a duplicate of stage three, 119 miles / 191km although the terrain is not going to be all that kind to us when we face a total accent of 2,000 mtrs.
6. By now we will be feeling our ages and be so looking forward to comfy armchairs and slippers which will seem weeks away after yet another day of hills and climbs to take us to Dusseldorf, a mere 93 miles / 149 km away where we will have our very last rest day.
7. This is our longest distance although with an accent of only 913 mtrs we should be able to make some good time and cover the 144 miles / 231 km before the sun goes down or the hotel bar closes in Arnhem.
8. Our intention was to overnight in Amsterdam after cycling 109 miles / 175 km and be all refreshed for catching the ferry back to Harwich the following day. Due to ferry timetable changes we will now cycle directly to the docks and await the 10pm ferry which after checking into our cabins and having dinner will only leave us a few hours sleep till we arrive back in England.
9. Our ferry docks in Harwich at 6.30am which after possibly only 3 hours sleep will still seem like the middle of the night. The driving force to get us through this final day of 101 miles / 162 km to arrive back at Big Ben will be the knowledge that we will be back in our own homes that night having completed UK Cloud Magnets “The Grand Tour 2023” and having raised lots of money for The British Heart Foundation.
You can follow our daily progress by using our Live Tracker which will be active during the whole journey and you can even see us moving in real time. If the yellow dot is moving fast we are probably speeding downhill although the flip side is, if it is moving very slowly we are no doubt in a lot of pain climbing some steep hills.
The Just Giving link will take you directly to their website where you can donate as much or as little as you can afford and by all means either share this web page or the Just Giving page to spread the word of two 54 year old men cycling round Europe for a charity close to many people’s hearts.
Thank You All in advance.
Mick and Paul