Welcome to day one of bike tour! Well, I suppose it’s the prologue, really. First day of our annual cycling trip to France and just on my way to meet Graeme in a few minutes at Stover Country Park, we’re going over to Brittany on the overnight ferry, planning to do quite a big route from Roscoff down via Morlaix and to a little place called Scrignac, which is down to the southeast of Morlaix. Then swing round and cross over at Huelgoat, then through Brasparts and La Foue and back to the coast. First night we spend in Brest, so that’s the proper first day tomorrow, 140 odd kilometres, should be a fantastic day. I’m well burdened with all the stuff that I need.

The bike feels okay, I put a new chain on the other day and it seems to be slipping a little bit, but not too bad. I’m quite encumbered by some beers that I bought for the journey, to be honest with you.
So perhaps once we’ve got through those, it might start to feel a little better. It was a nice ride over to Stover, greyish skies, not the glorious sunshine we were hoping for this weekend and it’s probably going to be the same when we get to Brittany. But it’s pretty good cycling weather. It’s cool enough.
There’s been very little wind today. And, you know, if it stays like this, we’ll do all right. I’m hoping to post a few updates as we go along.

So from here, as I say, I’m going to meet Graeme in a few minutes, get my bike into his car, and then we take the drive down to Plymouth a couple of hours waiting around down there for the ferry. And then it’s overnight to Roscoff. We don’t have a cabin. We’ve got the reclining seats, which were absolutely freezing cold last year, but at least you know you’re alive when you wake up. And then we should be into Roscoff, I think 8am French time. And then see what’s there and hit the road. So I’m excited, looking forward to it, slightly nervous as I always am at this stage, whether my fitness will hold up, whether the bike will hold up. But, you know, this is what we go out and train and get fit for, this is the bit we really enjoy. And usually when we’re cycling, we’ve got to be back for the family or we’ve got things on and you’ve got limited time. Even a normal bike ride can start to feel a bit rushed. And the really nice thing about doing these weekends is one, I’m doing it with my best mate. And two, there isn’t that time pressure, you know, it doesn’t matter if we don’t get to where we’re going until nine o’clock at night. It doesn’t matter if we take it easy and enjoy the views and stop for a pint here and there. It’s all about the time on the bike and spending time with a good friend and good company. So I’ll try and do some recordings as we go along, I will post and load them to my Substack. And I hope you enjoy following our journey. Cheers!