The Debora Matthews Fellowship

A bit shorter ride today, about 80km to the very attractive town of Peronne. As this is located on the Somme, very few people will need telling that the history of the area is far from attractive. Most of us know a little about the battles and the war graves, but it wasn’t until cycling through today that I realised just how many cemeteries there are. We stopped at one – the sunken road cemetery which had 400 beautifully kept graves of soldiers from all over Britain, Ireland and Canada. They all seemed to have died in September and October 1918, less than TWO months before the end of the war. We were all deeply affected by the experience and were glad there was a register of burial so we could learn more about the people resting there, and a visitor’s book so we could leave a note of our thoughts.
Hotter again today, we recorded 32c and the wind is still not helping. Tomorrow is a much longer day, and we need to make an early start. Weather is forecast to change with rain and cooler. Don’t need the first glad about the second.
Camping in a very attractive pretty site by the river. Hope the others have finished the washing up while I’ve been writing this. Better go and help.

Well our first day in France wasn’t so bad. It was hot though, much more than we’re used to. Some of the route followed canals in the Pas de Calais which were lovely to cycle along and very picturesque. The roads weren’t bad either for the most part. Some magnificent gardens on the way too. Navigating through open country was much better than in England, but getting through the towns was sometimes a bit of a trial. Our maps don’t show the one-way systems!
Muscles were a bit more tired today, but knees are fine. I guess that’s the way round you’d want it.
Couldn’t work out why it took us until 4pm to get here. Then remembered that we started in England and had a ferry to catch. We rode on and off just like the cars do – so why is the fare more? Thank you to the nice lady in the lounge who was very interested in what we were doing and donated £10.
At least we don’t have to get up at 5.45 tomorrow. A lie-in after the last 2 days. Similar length route to today. Wednesday is a long day though. Need my beauty sleep.

Well we made it to Dover! Turned out to be a beautiful day for cycling. Got lost two or three times, but not badly. A big thank you to the Milestone Marble Cafe on the A226 near Dartford for their hospitality to cyclists needing facilities. We tried to buy drinks, but they wouldn’t let us pay. Thank you also to the lorry driver en route who donated £5 to us on the spot.
Score one trashed tyre and two inner tubes. Interesting potholes on some of the route.
Writing this in the bar of the Premier Inn. Support crew very disappointed that Lenny isn’t here . Suspect the staff get fed up of being asked. Need to get to bed soon as 7.30 ferry in the morning. Night all.

Well unbelievably it’s now only 9 hours away. Twelve of us are leaving from Clapham Common at 7am tomorrow morning:

Joe, Frankie, Paddy, Cat, Mike, Mel, Lisa, Peter, Simon, Richard, Emily and Gareth are all cycling to Dover. Min and Sarah are driving in support. On Monday morining Joe, Frankie, and Paddy are taking the ferry to Calais with Min and Sarah continuing in support. This is the team for the first two weeks.

Carol, Jo and Connie are ferrying back those who aren’t carrying on from Dover.

Debora’s brother and sister-in-law Rob and Val are setting off on July 29th to catch the cyclists up at the Italian border. Paddy, Min and Sarah are returning to England from there. Lisa and Cat are flying out to Turin arriving on Sunday. Lisa will take over from Rob and Val in support and Cat will join us riding the third week across Italy and up to the Dolomites.

Neil and Francesca are then taking over support, when Lisa and Cat fly back from Verona on August 7th.

Jo and Mike are flying in to Verona on the 8th – Jo to take over support, and Mike to ride the last week with Joe and Frankie. The final person to join is Mel who is flying out to Verona on August 10th and cycling to Venice with us. Frankie and Joe are then driving back, and the others taking the plane.

As you can see a lot of effort by many people.  Now to try to sleep, and stop thinking about the Galibier. I will try to update as we go along.

A huge thankyou to everyone who has sponsored us. I promise you the money will all be put to good use, and will be a very worthwhile investment. Many individuals who I’m afraid I don’t have time to list individually, but thank you all.

We have had very generous support from several companies.  We are exteremly grateful to all the directors and staff of,

Ophir Energy

Field Development Services

Nexen Inc

Waitrose

Dove’s butchers on Northcote Road in Battersea

I’ve bought myself one so I can blog en route without taking a laptop. This is a test to see if it all works

I may not know much about facebook but I (Joe) twitter a lot. You can find me as @commonjoe. A few supporters do likewise and we use the hashtag #ridingfordebora on any tweets about the ride.

I’m no expert on facebook, so my daughter Catherine (who also designed the shirts) has created a group “riding for Debora” on facebook. We will use that to keep you posted on what we are planning. Amongst these is a send off on Sunday 18th July. More on that to come.

and they look great. I sold 3 to the first people that saw them in the space of 30mins. Please geet your order in. I will try to get some pictures of them on the site very soon.

For those of you that don’t know me that well, I am over 50, overweight and overly fond of eating. This means that a) the ride is going to be a considerable challenge and definitely not a holiday; and b) that I am having to do a lot of training if I am to make it to Venice in any sort of shape at all.

The weather this winter has meant that I have had to do most of it inside on the turbo trainer. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

At last it seems the weather has turned for the better, which meant that I was able to get outside and do a 60km ride. This basically followed the Thames to Shepperton weir and back.

On the way there Teddington weir looked fantastic in the sun with lots of water going over it.