Ian Gregory shares this report from his journey to take part in the first stage of the Tour de France that he is taking part in with other Prostate Cancer UK team members. Ed
What a 24hrs! I made it to Roubaix last night (Thursday) around 7pm UK time after a very blustery ride over.
Had to leave the Island on the 11pm ferry Wednesday night due to the changes to their timetable this week and it was just as well I did.
Strong headwind
The wind cycling through was awful. As always, not matter where I seem to cycle, it was a headwind all the way, but as I was cycling through the night at least I did not have traffic to contend with!
Ferry crossing from Dover was running late and while I had upgraded my ticket to give me access to the premium lounge so I could get some sleep, I was not able to do so as a ship wide information tannoy kept going off every 15 mins to get you to go a buy products from the duty free shops!
Another horrible headwind
Temperatures once we landed at Dunkirk were nice at 19 degrees, but thankfully not the 32 predicted.
However once again there was that horrible headwind making you pedal twice as hard to travel the same distance!
Hotel difficulties
So eventually I arrived at my hotel/shack booked for the night in Roubaix. As they had been taken over and rebranded recently they tried to charge me again for the room, but this time some 25 euros more than what I had paid already from the UK.
I had visions of me traipsing around looking for another hotel, but eventually they backed down and accepted my pre-paid invoice on my email confirmation.
Missing parcel
Now this might not sound too much of a real issue but this was on top of the fact that a parcel I had sent up the Prostate Cancer UK in London had gone missing.
Before leaving the Island I had sent my race numbers, very expensive bib shorts, my yellow Jersey from my win in 2016, clothes for the evening and raffle tickets for our prize draw up to London so that the guys at Prostate Cancer UK could bring this out for me instead of me having to carry it all in a back pack.
I had selected Parcelforce to deliver the box on a ‘next day before 12 deal’ as I wanted the best in the business to get this right. It cost me over £27, but thought I would have the piece of mind that it would be delivered correctly. This was sent Monday to arrive Tuesday am but it’s not been seen since.
Jacky my wife, has been on the phone for three past few days searching for the parcel and each time she is told that it would definitely be delivered, nope, it’s still lost and I have no idea what I’m going to race in! So it’s been a worrying 24/36hrs to say the least!
Top of the leaderboard
It looks like we might have won the team prize after all, but this will be confirmed tonight with the presentation and awards evening meal.
So this morning I set off for Brussels, a nice slow ride over and I hope the winds have eased here in Flanders!
