Director's cuts...anecdotes from the road!

Here's what the crew didn't report from the road (one crew member missing from the photo and strangely no photo's of him in France either, he was there, his name is David, we'll hunt down a photo!!)

''So, ok the bits we didn't report live from the road but felt compelled to share with you....''

.....riding Stage 1 (of the 2014 Tour due to start in Yorkshire) gave rise to a total of 7 punctures in one day, in fact in less than four hours, the final puncture just before Leyburn meant the rider walking for nearly two miles before being rescued by John Hook of CycleScene,York, an unintended but welcome member to the Ride 21 crew (forever in your debt John, thank you again!) #theroadsinyorkshirearenotgreat

...throughout all the Stages in France and over 1900 miles of riding, two bikes, not one single puncture!!!!! thank you France #theroadsinfranceareamazing

.....on arrival at the hotel at Nice airport rider and crew enquired about the transfer by courier of the two bike boxes to the pre-booked hotel in Paris, the receptionist that evening, and the following morning gave an abrupt, somewhat unhelpful and very definite 'Non' that this type of courier service wasn't available in France. Feeling somewhat desperate as time drew close to hitting the road on Friday morning, one crew member mentioned that the rider was riding all 21 Stages of the Tour, to which the receptionist gave an immediate 'Oui' that this service was not a problem at all - life is full of surprises, and proof that cycling counts for more things than suffering alone! #frenchpeoplecanbesohelpfulwhentheywanttobe!

....possibly suffering the immediate effects of lack of sleep one crew member called out several times in their sleep that ''the crew had to make the beds every night'' (unsure why, we can confirm that we failed on this every single night, and continue to do so back in the UK!)

.....still the early stages of the challenge ahead and less than half way through, one crew member (possibly the one mentioned in 'Night 1' above!?!) awoke again during the night and, sitting bolt upright, pronounced with some force, and not much grace (sorry Mnsr J Bobet) that 'we' needed to take the D908, ''WE NEED TO TAKE THE D908'' the crew member shouted waking room 27. In the moment and through further follow up the following morning we decided that we had no idea where the D908 was and put the whole thing down to fatigue!!!) #lackofsleepandresponsibilitycanhavestrangeffectsonteenageyears

.....throughout the entire challenge of riding 21 Stages, the rider wore the same pair of lucky socks (no washing machines available, other than the stone trough half way up the Peyresourde but this doesn't count!)

....by the third day in France the rider resorted to wearing two pairs of bib shorts, one pair cut down to a mankini style worn inside the other, the comfort of two layers of bib shorts is something that can only be experienced, not explained!    

....heading towards Montpellier, the mistake of trying to ride all the way into the centre of the city and onto the hotel proved a big mistake, on and on and on the rider and support car went, at least 30km beyond a spurious '12km to Montpellier sign' with the rider finding himself riding along a motorway for around 5km, not pleasant, not pleasant at all! from then on we avoided those last few km's into city centres... 

  

.....Stage 8, after a long soul breaking ascent of the Col de Pailheres the final 250 metres of road were blocked by wild horses that roam the mountain, along with a few other riders and determined not to get off the bike we found ourselves momentarily forced to do track stands, not to be outdone by we carefully rolled our way through the maze for a sprint along the final 50 metres, job done!    

....Stage 9, after wild horses at the summit of the Pailheres we found our way blocked again the next day at the summit of the Cat 1 La Hourquette d'Ancizan, this time by a large herd of free roaming cows, made more free roaming than usual by the sudden change in weather, from super hot clear blue skies to dark skies, thunder and lightning, torrential rain and a road turned into a river, there was no way round the naturally imposed blockade, after a long day in the saddle, tough climbs and a tough ascent in torrential storms there was no choice other than to follow slow moving 'peloton'!   

....on Stage 14, on the ascent of the Cat 3 Cote de Thizy-les-Bourges a Dutch motor managed to side swipe the rider, the thinnest of contacts which, combined with some sudden and strong arm movements, gave rise to a loud and continuous squeak as the contact between arm flesh and white plastic rolled out a somewhat strange and unexpected melody! Unaware of the near miss the motor home carried on into the distance...this turned out to be the only 'road situation' on Ride 21, lucky!  

....the only 'very real' mistake between rider and crew, for a number of reasons to do with a crew member losing a phone, rider and crew mis-reading road signs,  it meant that the crew took one road to the summit of Ventoux and the rider the other, nearly 20km of climbing without water! A few frank exchanges between rider and crew helped the simple point of taking different roads to be missed, one of those 'in the moment' sitiuations but for all the wrong reasons. Errors aside, Ventoux & Stage 15 were conquered and looking back something to smile about! 

And so, from the Ride 21 crew & rider ''we did this to raise awareness and funding for Action Medical Research, a quite small, but genuinely great & hard working team of people and an incredibly worthy cause www.action.org.uk ''

Twitter @chrisarmishaw

''Imperfection allows interesting things to happen'' 

''You know not what's round the corner, for the road will decide, it's not the destination but the glory of your ride'' (we made this up sitting in a cafe at the summit of the Col de Pailheres)