How did we get here?
By Catherine Dixon (Cat) and Rachael Marsden (Raz)
I can’t believe it’s been over a week since we set off on our attempt to become the fastest women to circumnavigate the globe on a tandem.
The penny is finally beginning to drop that we are attempting to cycle around the world and that we will be away from our families, friends and homes for almost 10 months.
We made the final decision to go for it in January - and since then we’ve been planning and organising for what we know will be an epic trip. The few weeks before we set off were maniacally busy – sorting logistics and also working with our amazing charities to raise awareness about our trip and to fundraise.
This gave us little time to reflect about what we were taking on – especially as Raz had to complete a 11,000 word portfolio for work. This general busyness led to a few mishaps – arriving in Northampton to meet our sponsor Stolen Goat, only to realise that they are in Hampshire and not Northampton – it doesn’t bode well for navigating around the world!
As the day of our departure rapidly approached we were both feeling a mixture of anticipation, excitement and pure terror. We were also slightly apprehensive about our departure- would anyone turn up to see us head off?
On the day we were just completely blown away by the support. Over 100 people turned up to see us off and wish us well. It was magical. There was a party atmosphere. It would have been nice to stay and chat and drink coffee but come 10am – with a countdown - we were off followed by the Cowley Road Condor Cycling Club and friends from Stolen Goat, our cycling gear sponsor. Although it was sad to say goodbye to our families, we left on a high.
The first day’s ride took us from Oxford to south London. We set off through the lovely and familiar Oxfordshire countryside and onto the Chiltern Hill’s. We were flying in spite of all the kit on Alice (the tandem).
London was hot. The previous week had seen a heat wave in France with temperatures over 40 degrees – London was catching the tail end. As we were weaving through the traffic in Uxbridge we had our first puncture. Everything off the bike to fix the back wheel and we are off again!
We stopped at every single traffic light – they were all red. It did mean we could chat as we waited at lights including with a police officer who we couldn’t persuade to give us a blue light through London but who did donate to our charities. London is often thought of as an unfriendly city, but we received spontaneous support as we rode along and for the most part the horn blowing was positive! It was also inspiring to cycle past London icons, including Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament. We finally arrived in south London around 8pm. It was lovely to stay with friends, eat and wash the sweat off our kit!
We needed an early start the next day to get us to Dover. Whilst packing we noticed a car outside with two men – not a security guard, but Tom and Carl the camera crew who were going to be spending the next two days with us.
It was lovely to cycle out of London early with few cars. The hills in Kent were hard (Kent is definitely not flat), and the cycle ways to the ferry had barriers which we could not get the tandem through without lifting it so the going was hard and slow. In spite of this, we got to the ferry on time but realised we had left Tom and Carl in the long vehicle queue. We waited and were just tucking into a croque monsieur and a cup of tea when we were called to board. With a croque monsieur under a bungee and trying to balance the tea whilst riding, we bordered the boat looking at the white cliffs and thinking we won’t see them again for a while. It was amazing to arrive in Calais realising we were no longer on a Sunday ride in the UK – we were in France.
We set off for our day’s ride in France stopping at the side of the road to do a live interview with Radio Oxford. We soon found ourselves on the backroads of France including some hairy sections on gravel. Carl sent up a drone to film us – which hopefully didn’t disrupt local air traffic! We met Arne and Anouk from our cycling club who had been tracking us since 5:30 am – which was a real boost as we carried on through beautiful fields – golden brown and ready for harvest with a smattering of poppies. “Mountain biking” on a fully laden tandem was hard and we longed for easier roads. We didn’t find them- but did find ourselves riding up an incredibly steep hill and onto a road being newly tarmacked. We were assisted by French workers who helped us lift the bike over the sticky fresh tarmac. We said goodbye to Carl and Tom and we were on our own.
The following morning we did a hilly hot ride to Dijon for a half day rest and woke to a thunder storm so set off in the pouring rain heading for Bourg-en- Bresse. We had arranged a hot shower (people who will house and feed cyclists) and we were looking forward to a night in a bed! We spent the day in a washing cycle, rain, wind and sun finally arriving at the lovely Claire’s house where she lived with her son. We said hi to a number of friends sitting around chatting in French whilst we yearned for food. We were served pasta and cauliflower and asked whether we wanted to go salsa dancing. Not wanting to seem impolite, we agreed and headed off for a dance class at 10pm. Fortunately it was not running so instead we went to watch the town’s light show which was lovely although incomprehensible. We finally got to bed.
A couple of days cycling later we had planned for a massive ride over the hills into Cannes where we had accommodation courtesy of Louisa. We needed a day off and were looking forward to treating the heat rash and the sore bums and being off the bike for a whole day. The morning was lovely as we traveled through Provence past the posh wineries and local fruit stalls. We then hit the traffic and found ourselves on a really busy road with no hard shoulder. Balancing a tandem is hard especially fully loaded and cycling in traffic is tiring. We knew that we also had a big climb at the end of the day but we didn’t realise just how long. The first part was really steep with sections of about 20 degrees as we climbed our way up to our first two mountain cols before the descent into Cannes. Seeing the sea for the first time and knowing that we had traveled the whole length of France was inspiring. France was done, but we were only just getting started.