On day 7 even God rested

Many apologies to the followers of the Basel-boys (we will be releasing an album shortly) but things got so busy we didn't find time to upload the final blog entry. So, just so that everyone knows, we all made it home in one piece and, perhaps even more miraculously, so did our bikes.

Day 7 was logistically the toughest day we had with a number of set deadlines to reach specific destinations. In other words, we really couldn't afford any cock-ups or else we would look like a right bunch of wallies (and i guess reflect badly on Product Safety too). So we got up at the unholy time of 6 am and hit the road (breakfast-less) at 7 am much to the derision of some of the group (the cuddler needs his sleep). We arrived near Tonya FitzPatrick Wheals ahead of schedule (a Cycle2Basel first) so we stopped for a spot of bike jousting (we'll upload the photo in due course but just imagine Simon Baker and Mark Greener with 2 brooms cycling at each other - as you can tell, a high brow trip). Tonya and Ian were good enough to make us all a cup of tea (and Derek a cup of sugar with a hint of coffee - apparently "Challenger legs" had kicked in).

By now, of course, time was pushing on so we headed into Basel at a furious speed arriving at the border in plenty of time. But hang on, where is everyone? You guessed it, on the final day Bob and Alan take a wrong turn and head to the airport. "It's the cycle to Basel so we just automatically headed for the plane home" was the response when we finally regrouped. We were also a tad late. Following Juerg into Rosenthal we got a hero's reception from our Swiss colleagues. John Atkin came to see us and wished us all well, before we greated friends and colleagues and then tucked into some food. See images on http://ts1.pro.intra/sites/chintranetco/Build%20Africa%20Tour/Forms/AllItems.aspx (sorry, only Syngenta).

At 12 sharp, we divided ourselves into 3 groups and cycled with our new friends to Münchwilen. This, as it transpired, turned out to be the most eventful leg of the entire trip with fallers in the pack, disintegrating pelotons, lost Cycle2Basel members (yup, 2 of our group somehow got dropped by their Swiss colleagues and then got lost) and 1 amused professional cyclist. Due to Simon Hill and Alan getting lost, we arrived in Münchwilen late but to another rapturous reception; we were all slightly taken aback. All in all we were made to feel incredibly welcome and we would like to take this moment to thank everyone who made this event possible (Marguerite Mamane Gisin, Rainer Kühlmeyer, Hans Oskar Doggweiler,Bettina Gsell and Alison Godwin). After some coffee and cake we then took a tour of the pilot plant and then headed to Stein (but not before Derek became an honorary member of the Münchwilen fire fighters - many thanks to all of those guys but especially Mario Antennuci).

A quick cycle to Stein and another fantastic reception from our colleagues. After a lovely introduction and a very off-the-cuff speach by Derek, we split into two groups and had a look around the glasshouse facility. Following this we sat down for an amazing dinner and a few glasses of wine. But we were far from finished as we now had to pack 11 bikes into our van, plus all of our kit, and we were all very tired. We just about managed it and the arranged coach took us and friends back to Basel. A quick shower in the prison (au violon) and out for a few beers and then the coup de grace; a dirty chicken kebab (not shish). Much to our amusement we found out that Ollie really can't handle his chilli and his eyes welled and streamed (maybe he was overcome by the occassion?).

Anyway, just a quick thanks to everyone who has helped with this trip including Marguerite, Garry Nisbett, Carol White, Andy Johnson, Eugenio Garcia and, last but certainly not least, John Doe. Now, anyone fancy Goa next year?

And they are back !

To all those avid readers of the Blog (and the rest of you !), we would like to apologise for a temporary lack of service.

Day 7 news including an immense welcome from our Swiss colleagues will be posted in due course.

Nine riders arrived by plane at LHR this evening and the van is just about to arrive at Jealotts Hill for unloading, with remaining two riders at the helm.

... pictures

What goes up ...

The last big day in the saddle and the mountain looms. We leave Epinal in particularly foul mood and cycle forebodingly towards the mountains. In particular, “the Cuddler” (Clive Boxwell’s new nickname due to his assurance that he could have us with Judo which, let’s be honest, is basically is cuddling). A few people are carrying injuries and the chances of everybody making it over the Cols are looking particularly small. The Col de Fountain sees the Toxicologist Ollie over the top first followed by Pete Knowles and Simon Baker. We cycle down the other side to Le Tholy and meet Juerg for a very much appreciated sandwich. On we press down the valley and we have a lunch of wild boar sausage and sauerkraut. Hampered by a knee injury Mark Greener declines to stop and heads straight for the imposing Col d’Oderen, worried that his knee was going to fail him in the eleventh hour. Just as the rest of the group pull out to hit the slope Mark returned triumphant to declare that “it wasn’t too bad, only about 31 mins of solid lung bursting climbing”. Hooray for us. We head out in dribs and drabs and each of us faces their personal demons on the slopes; Tonya and family plus Chantal and Bernard meet us at the top as the boys argue about mountain points – Simon, Pete, Clive, Mark, Derek and Ollie seem to believe that they are Kings of the Mountain.
After a much earned beer and sausage sandwich we head off for the last 15 miles to Thann. We suddenly realise that the great thing about cycling up a whacking great hill is cycling down the other side. The top speed seemed to be Stuart at 43 mph, but that was following Tonya’s 4 x 4 in the slipstream. Boys will be boys. We storm into Thann with little incident other than Juerg getting pulled over by the Police (boy they must have gotten a shock when the opened the back of the van, it smells so bad that they probably thought he was transporting a corpse). An early arrival in Thann and what else can the boys do but have a well earned beer.

Is that a camera zip-locked to your handle bars or are you just pleased to see us?

After breakfast we head out of Joinville into the first section of hills, our prelude to tomorrow’s mountains. It feels great to be out of the industrial regions and into “Heidi countryside”, picturesque valleys with old stone farm buildings and cows. Our first rendezvous and we find that Germay once hosted a stage of the Tour de France, this makes us all feel like Championship cyclists (yesterday a group of French cyclists passed us by to which Bob P-D made the comment that they were the first proper cyclists we had seen – what are we then Bob? A Freudian slip i believe). The amusement for the rest of the morning came in the shape of Oliie’s strap-on?!? He gaffer-tapped a camera to his handlebars and cycled after us taking photos – amazingly some of them were in focus with the target in frame. Another problem we have been encountering is the French detour. Not to be deterred we figured we could just carry our bikes over the little trench the workers had made and cycled to the barrier. Derek commented that it was unlikely that there was a bomb crater in the road – well, that’s just tempting fate isn’t it. The bridge was gone and we had to carry our bike down one side of an embankment and up the other side. We figured it was lucky that it was Saturday or else the French workmen wouldn’t have been too impressed.
After lunch, Derek and Ollie went off on a little adventure (neither is noted to have a particularly astute internal compass) and ended up missing the rendezvous and travelling straight to Epinal. Following the D166 their route took them to the motorway (Ollie’s favourite) but luckily a marshall from a cycling timetrail showed them the cycle path that took them unmolested (figuratively) to Epinal. Many thanks to that man (we have found the French particularly accommodating). The other guys followed the country lanes to Epinal through more beautiful scenery, even if some of the roads would have been better travelled by mountain bikes (the MTB guys are getting twitchy as we see the mountains in the background – “roads are boring” seems to be the consensus in the Challenger 3 (Derek, Stu and Mark)).
Accommodation is Spartan but we are joined by a group of the timetrialists so the Premier Class hotel feels a little bit like an Olympic village (ok, a tiny bit). A dinner of grilled meat and off to bed we go. The mountain awaits.

Caption contest – part 2

The Skinny Scotsman

Half way to Basel – and another early start. It takes a good hour of faffing around, and off we set (a faff has now been renamed “Doing a Basel”). The first part of the cycle tour was along the industrial D2, a pretty busy road. We found out that cycling as an eleven is far too dangerous, and we split into two groups. Needless to say we have had some near misses, but this went one step further when a car clipped Stuart Watson. He was pretty shaken, but a plate of tongue for lunch, and he was good to go.
The afternoon was a civilised affair with a group trip to the Lac du Der. We only went because it´s a nudist beach, but, alas, no-one was there. Undeterred, Derek dropped his trolleys, and went for a swim starkers. The French fisherman was mused because his bait was bigger!
Arrival in Joinville involved a superb 2-mile decent ... but we have to cycle up the other side of the valley tomorrow. It “don´t get much better than this” a colleague was heard to say as we looked at day 5´s elevation. Polka dot Jersey time!

Guess the Offal

Derek tucked into 7 slices of Langue de Bœuf without knowing what it is. From the photo can you work it out? Yummy!

The Centurions

Day 3 on paper, a simple 88 mile cycle through France´s Champagne region. The only problem was that the route was planned by the toxicologists (Ollie)! We set off at 9 AM back into that cursed headwind and slogged our way out of La Somme. A SAT NAV problem or two (our bikes are not designed for cycle cross and we covered the ground pretty well. Then we ran into our first problem: after cycling down a 2-mile hill we realised we missed our turn. Following French directions we find ourselves on a motorway sliproad. Undeterred, Ollie fires onwards, cycling straight onto the motorway despite the trucks travelling at 110 kph. Clearly, he is no risk assessor! After a 10 mile detour we finally meet Jürg who negotiated the most fantastic pasta lunch.
Re-invigorated we set off again, and we had a puncture (Alan). Peter helped change it, and off we go again into the Champagne hills. It is harvest time, and we cycle past camps of farm labourers. One group of women called us over to sit with them – modern day Sirens on Homer´s Odyssey!
By now the hills were starting to tell, and a few struggled on. Another puncture for Alan, and then on to meet Jürg – who had parked in a village at the top of another big hill! It was worth though as he served us ham baguette. On the way to Epernay (and in the now pitch black) Alan had his 3rd puncture (he now clearly leads the puncture league) causing an outburst; his new nickname is Alan “Tourette´s” Raybould. We pulled into the hotel at 8:30 PM, 12 hours in the saddle, and 100 miles covered – a distinct honour in the cycling world. Time for re-hydration.

Guess the Caption Contest …

Most amusing (OK, abusive) entry wins a prize.

Wake-Up

We probably averaged around 3 hours sleep yesterday at it was telling. We met breakfast at 7:30 AM but didn´t leave the hotel until 9:30 AM (it´s like herding cats).The weather was admittedly at least dry but we didn´t see the sun all day (playing havoc with Mark´s navigational skills). During the morning we experimented with different leadership styles (what do you mean you can´t cycle at 20MPH? See you later!). But by the afternoon we built on this to form an efficient peloton (necessity is the mother of invention).
One of our problem has been the cold and our members have Adopted numerous ways of coping including “Nora Batty´s” tights or merely a simple Everton top (could someone text Derek the Everton score, please?).
In the afternoon, we had our first accident of the trip. Alan managed to get his bike on a patch of gravel and fell off. Luckily his bike is OK (and he is OK too!).
Dinner was fantastic (a reward well earned) but it was funny seeing 11 men struggle up the stairs (John Wayne eat your heart out). We cycled 86 miles (170 in total now) and we are starting to realise what we got ourselves into! The Ex-Challenger people claim this is much tougher physically, mentally, and logistically.
Only 4 more days to go ...

Une grande catastrophe

Today there was an accident in the peleton – guess who it was?

9 Miles a Puncture

The finely honed athletic cyclists (and Simon Baker) departed from base this morning with a fine send off from our colleagues in Product Safety. We thought we were suddenly popular, but in reality, free bacon clinched their attendance.
John Doe gave us the horn as an official start to our journey to Switzerland. Within 16 miles we had the first of nine punctures of the day.
Simon Hill clearly leads the pack with three and a replacement tire. Alan and Bob are vying second place with two each. Bob was notable for ripping a valve off with vigorous pumping. Derek and Stuart came third with one puncture. The weather was disappointingly wet (it was truly horrible) from Winkfield until the sun set at Lewes it wasn´t long until Olly lost his bottle, but he quickly recovered it from the road.
Our colleagues at Guilford gave us a great reception and let Stuart´s tires Down before we left (actually it was another puncture).
Despite the horrendous weather team morale was kept high by the usual Product Safety banter, unrepeatable jokes and it was always nice to see Juerg´ smiling face when we met up at intervals during the day. We were well fed and watered in Newhaven prior to our overnight crossing to Dieppe.
The crossing was quite smooth despite the bad weather and we managed a few hours sleep. In Dieppe the ferry terminal staff gave us a lift to the hotel free of charge (European hospitality) as no taxis operate at 4 am.

If I was Becks, I'd curl it just over Bobs head

The boys assembed for a few photo's prior to a local blast. Any excuse to wear the new team colours

Final Training Ride

Before we retire for a week of eating pasta, waxing legs and wondering about which spare parts to take on the trip, we went out for a brisk ride on Saturday wearing our new cycling tops. They certainly got us noticed, with one cyclist we met on the route offering to sponsor us.

On Tuesday 15th September 2009 a group of ordinary cyclists, with a penchant for tight fitting lycra, will make an extraordinary journey.
We will be starting at Jealott’s Hill near Bracknell and visit Syngenta sites at Guildford and Basel before we finish at Stein, Switzerland.
•We will cover over 520 miles in 7 days.
•We will climb 5692 m (equivalent to cycling up Kilimanjaro)!
•On average, we will be burning 5000 calories a day.
•It’s more than likely that we’ll be a little saddle sore by the time we get to Switzerland!

We are seeking your support by donating to the Build Africa, Build a Farm Project. Our fundraising page is posted at http://www.justgiving.com/cycle2basel4africa/ We chose this charity as the project funded will make a real difference to the lives of subsistence farmers in Uganda, by helping them to improve their farming practice. A very big Thankyou to the very generous Syngenta work colleagues, friends and family who have already donated.

After an arduous day in the saddle we intend to keep you updated daily with route news, our latest antics and how many bananas Bob has eaten