The long road to Paris In June 2007, I cycled from Hampton Court Golf Club, London, all the way to the Palace of Versailles near Paris, apart from the wet bit between Portsmouth and St Malo. With a nominal distance of 200km per day over the three days of the trip, training was of the essence (over 3000km), but the ride raised over £1000 for children’s charities. Having enjoyed the ride so much, I decided to do the very same thing in June of this year, but not alone - Jez Hastings of Islay Birding has decided to join me in cycling a different (and slightly longer) route, this time to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. While it will probably mean little to most of you, the first part of the route in France will take us over a stretch of cobbles used in Paris-Roubaix (a classic cycle race in spring), something we are both eagerly looking forward to - it’s a cyclist thing.

So despite the somewhat inclement weather of which we’ve been on the receiving end, Jez and I have been pedalling serious kilometres in order that we don’t embarrass ourselves too much in the L2P peloton. Why am I telling you this? Because we’d like to raise as much sponsorship as humanly possible, something that Islay folk are particularly adept at doing. If you’d like to send some sponsorship money in our direction, please call in at the Ileach office, or e-mail me on brian@thewashingmachinepost.net. All sponsorship monies will go to the charities - Jez and I have paid our own way to take part. Major brownie points mustgo to Eddy Merckx, who will be supplying us with some very nice carbon bikes for the ride. brian palmer - thewashingmachinepost.net

Tag: cycling charity