London Paris Cycle Tour 2008

I was invited some time ago to do a charity race - London 2 Paris - 'Professional race for amateurs'.

The London-Paris Cycle Tour is a unique 3 day “Tour de France” style endurance event for amateur and cyclosportive riders. It is a professional event for amateurs and is the closest an amateur will feel like a "pro" having full support, rolling road closures and covering nearly 600km in three days followed by a rest day in Paris.

The race starts in London (Hampton Court) and finishes in Paris. The stages look like this:

Day 1 takes a new 200km route away from the Hampton Court through Kent, ‘the Garden of England’, arriving at Dover for the end of day ferry crossing to Calais. There will be no bed of roses in this garden however as riders tackle the short sharp ascents of Capel le Surn and Goudhurst Hill, the latter being familiar to race fans as a King of the Mountains climb in the 2007 Tour de France.

Day 2 provides a massive 230km route that will test the mettle of every rider as the event swings north east toward the famous cobbles of Paris-Roubaix, cycling’s ‘Hell of the North’. Wheel and tyre choice will be crucial on sections like Mont Casel, a 2.5km cobbled uphill and the challenging, rolling roads of the Collines l’Artois before arrival at Amiens.

Day 3 leaves Amiens and winds south to Paris covering 170km in the true spirit of the Tour de France, rolling into the capital, past the Arc de Triomphe and ending at the Eiffel Tower, a fitting spot at which to end the challenge of the 2008 London-Paris Cycle Tour.

The team doing this event include:

Me (Rob Enslin)
Andrew Gill (Gilly)
Ducan MacAlister
Niall Digby
Steve Calland

The team's objective:

Win the yellow jersey!

The team is kindly sponsored by:

Glasshouse and LaFuga
(please visit the team sponsors!)