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London to Paris 2019 cycle videos

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kev at paris 2019In June I rode to Paris with a 10 mums and dads of kids with Type 1, plus 16 year old Jack (who has Type 1 himself).

Finally the videos are done.

It was ridiculously hot, riding in temperatures up to 43 Celsius, that made it quite hard work at times. We managed to minimise some of the heat by leaving our hotels really early but it still wasn’t enough, especially on the hottest day, day 3.
It was a self-supported ride, where we carried our own luggage, tools and spares, and were responsible for fixing any mechanicals. Out of the four Paris rides I’ve done we experienced the most issues this year: from Svenia’s tubeless tyre puncture woes; to Steve’s broken spoke; to Andrew’s cracked wheel rim 30km from the nearest shop!
The heat and issues were all overcome and we had a lot of fun, it really was a great group. Caveat: every trip has been great fun, brilliant team work and camaraderie, lots of beer and wine too.
The end result was we raised £12,000 for JDRF.

Here’s the videos from this year. Sit back, enjoy, and if you think you might like to do this let me know. If you want to do your own trip then full planning information is available at london-to-paris.winchcombe.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW3_zP4nHmA

London/Paris Fundraising – Win a Dexcom G6 Starter Park

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The raffle is now closed, the winner was Claire Reidy

Here’s a video of the draw being done…

eiffel and us before finish

Introduction

Us Diabetes Dads had a great ride to Paris, we’ve been back a few weeks now – yes, yes, I’ll do some videos soon. Hopefully some of you managed to follow the fun on our Facebook page – London To Paris Diabetes Dads.

Fundraising went so much better than we expected, topping £13000 so far – thank you, thank you, thank you – but we’ve got something left before we close the fundraising down…

Dexcom has generously donated a starter kit for the brand spanking new and shiny Dexcom G6, which 900 of us UK people saw this week on Dexcom’s release webcast.

If you’ve already donated to our ride already you can still enter this raffle.

What’s the prize and how much is an entry?

Up for grabs is one Dexcom G6 starter kit worth £159 (exc VAT), which consists of one G6 transmitter and three sensors. It’s enough for you to trial G6 for 30 days if you use it continuously, or 3 lots of 10 days if you don’t. The transmitter will last longer if you decide to buy more sensors afterwards.
The G6 is a vast improvement on any previous Dexcom product, and let’s face it they were pretty damn good. It doesn’t need calibrating, it lasts officially for 10 days, it’s slimmer and its inserter doesn’t scare the daylights out of you.
Entry is £5 for one chance. If you wish to have more chances you can – just like you would when buying multiple raffle tickets – you just need to donate multiples of £5 when you enter.
DexcomG6
(Note: it’s only the transmitter, the sensors and the inserter you get, no phones, no watches)

 

How do you enter?

NOTE: This is open to UK residents only.
Read all this stuff below then head over to our ride’s JustGiving page to enter, see link at bottom of this section.
On our Just Giving page donate £5, or multiples of £5 to get more chances.
Make sure your name is correctly set up, so that we can announce the winner in July.
DO NOT SELECT GIFT-AID.
You will need to go back to the JustGiving site on 20th July to check whether you’ve won.
IMPORTANT:Please let me know you’ve entered via Twitter or message me via Faceboook.
Okay, now click this link: A Dozen Diabetes Dads Do London to Paris

When is the draw and how will it be done?

After the World Cup finishes we will collate a spreadsheet of people who have donated a multiple of £5 between 16th June 2018 and 15th July 2018.
If you’ve donated £5 you’ll get one line in the spreadsheet, if you’ve donated £500 🙂 you’ll get 100 lines in the spreadsheet.
The winning entry will be chosen by placing each entry into a bowl and chosen at random.
The winner’s name will appear on the Just Giving site and here once the draw is over, details should be published by 20th July.
PLEASE COME BACK TO CHECK WHETHER YOU’VE WON AS YOU WILL NEED TO CONTACT US TO GIVE US YOUR FULL CONTACT DETAILS.
We will pass the details of the winner to Dexcom and they will contact the winner to arrange delivery of the shiny new G6 starter kit.

Here’s some raffley legally stuff

This online ‘raffle’ is legal because JDRF now hold a Small Society Lottery registration with their local council, Islington, it’s reference LN/18477-100518 if you’re interested.
To be honest it’s taken us ages to get this licence, and we’d wanted to do this ‘raffle’ before we rode to Paris but getting it right (and legal) was important so we just had to wait until now. But as a bonus the offer is now for a G6. Woohoo.

Here’s an incredibly important disclaimery type thing

Dexcom has provided us with this chance to increase our fundraising.
They want nothing in return and never actually expected us to be in a position to raffle it online, but now of course they’ll get a little marketing in return, but that’s not something they expect.
Kudos to Dexcom for helping us with our fundraising and special thanks go to Gerald and John for helping us.
Dexcom has also giving us this opportunity knowing full well that half of the Dads on the trip as Nightscouters. It’s refreshing we’re still friends and can talk openly.
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London to Paris with the Diabetes Dads – A Suitable Momento

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Fields of goldI’m always fond of having a souvenir of somewhere I’ve been, something I’ve done and I prefer it when that thing is practical.

Clothing is often a favourite and I was made up in 2015 when I managed to find a London to Paris cycle jersey but I’ve put on far too much weight to even think about wearing it again and arguably it never fitted anyway.

With 12 Diabetes Dads doing this trip I wonder if it was possible to get something made, something personal whilst practical at the same time.

Cycling jerseys and shorts were out, the quantities you’d need to order to make it worthwhile were too high and we’re all different sizes – although it appears we’re mostly in the XL and XXL categories…and that’s before they wine, cheese and baguettes we’ll be consuming.

Taking one look at my now aging water bottles the idea came to me, could we get some bottles custom made, with our own design?

Well yes, we could, so we did. Et voila.
water bottle3

Suppliers, Quotes and Costs

I searched the internet, got a few quotes and decided to go with Bottles & Bags, a small family run business specialising in this sort of thing. They’ve lots of different bottle types, sizes, colours and after a few chats with Caroline from Bottles & Bags I got a fixed price for the Gripsport 750ml bottles with one print colour and delivery for a shade under £210.
If we wanted a second colour it would be another £30 on top, for three it would another £30 on top of this. So in the interests of keeping costs low I opted for a single colour, the JDRF blue, printed on translucent bottles.
It’s possible to select different colour tops and you can mix and match within your order. One of them closely matched the JDRF blue too which was perfect.

Designing a template

I still like the header design of my London to Paris Cycle Ride web site, especially the blue skyline silhouette so I wanted to feature this. I wanted London to Paris 2018 in there and the JDRF logo to take center stage.
Bottles & Bags supplied the template with the instructions that it has to be 300DPI and its print size should be 140mm wide by 110 high maximum.
To do this I used the free graphics software GiMP.
This was the final design, although in the end I chose to get the printers to match my logo colour to the pantone colour of the blue lids they had, I think it works out well.
Bottle - blank background

Still too many bottles

Even 50 bottles was too many so after a chat with JDRF I offered some for sale to members of the Cycling @ JDRF UK Facebook group, at a slightly inflated cost of £5 a bottle – any excess will of course be put into the Diabetes Dads London to Paris fundraising pot. At least this means that all the Dads don’t need to have four each…although I’m so excited by these I’m having four.

Can you spare a pound or two?

If you can spare a few quid you can help us raise money for JDRF UK using this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/diabetes-dads.
Or donate by texting DDTP50 £1 to 70070. You can change the ‘£1’ for any amount, e.g. ‘£1000’ 🙂

London to Paris with the Diabetes Dads – 5 weeks to go

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Bottle - blank background
The logo I’ve designed for the event water bottles

A few years ago I helped get a large team of Diabetes Dads – Dads with kids who have Type 1 – together to ride the London Nightrider. Around 30 of us rode, raising £20k for JDRF. It was a great night.

This year twelve of us are riding from London to Paris, starting on the 24th May from JDRF’s offices in London, through to the Trocadero in Paris which we’ll (hopefully!) reach 4 days later. Many hardcore cyclists would do this in less days but this will be a social ride, discussing diabetes, our kids and tech. Plus there *may* be stops at the odd auberge.
The ride will be unsupported much like the ones I’ve done in 2015 and 2016. If you’re thinking of doing something like this yourself check out my blog at london-to-paris.winchcombe.org.

It’s 200 miles, 65 miles for days 1 and 2, 35-40 miles for days 3 and 4.

How fit do you need to be

This isn’t something only the uber fit can do, you just need to train. Like most of the team I’ve started from nothing, no regular training for months before starting training for this. Starting at 10 mile rides and now happily at 40 mile rides, a few more training weeks should see me able to complete the event.

Getting fit is hard

Many of my friends think that I cycle all the time so this ride will be easy, but prior to starting training I’ve not cycled since last year’s Nightrider in June 2017. I’d forgotten how quickly you lose fitness and just how hard it is to get it back again.

Fundraising is hard

I’ve not done any fundraising for a couple of years but times are tight for many and I’m finding fundraising really hard at the moment. I think I’m suffering from this challenge being no harder than the last one and that people think this will be easy for me, it won’t, I’m no weekend-warrior-cyclist, those hills and that mileage really take its toll on my still-in-their-forties-just legs.

Training not walking

It seems like I’ve been waiting for the warm days – like today – to appear and I never realised how much of a fair weather cyclist I must be. It’s time to stop talking about the ride and get out and do some longer, decent training rides over the South Downs.

If you can spare a few quid you can sponsor us using this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/diabetes-dads
Or donate by texting DDTP50 £1 to 70070. You can change the ‘£1’ for any amount, e.g. ‘£1000’ 🙂

Us Type 1 Cyclists* Need Your Support

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Imagine…
Your day started as early as 4am as you made your way to Olympic Park for the start of the Prudential Ride London 100.
Your nerves and adrenalin were sky high as you set off from Olympic Park amongst 25000 riders.
You’ve been riding for hours, mostly without a break.
You’ve conquered the biggest hills in Surrey – Leith particularly is a killer
You’ve already ridden 85 miles.
Your legs feel like they’re made of something-marginally-lighter-than-Lead.
You really need a boost to get you through the last 15 miles to the finish line on The Mall.

RL100JDRFAnd then it happens.

You turn the corner and there they are, the supporters from Diabetes UK and JDRF, they’re there just for you**
Twice I’ve done RideLondon and both times I’ve received such a boost from the supporters. And isn’t it nice that Diabetes UK and JDRF all stand together, united in cheering their riders on, united in finding a cure.

Of course Kingston isn’t the only place. I really got a great boost from being cheered on by one of JDRF’s Directors whilst nearing the top of Newlands Corner. Kingston though has one great advantage as you can see the riders on the way out to Surrey in the morning and on the way back.
In 2015 JDRF’s Beki encouraged me to carry on cycling.

And here’s the time I tried to high-five Phillipa in 2015 – that probably wasn’t my best move, I was lucky not to hit the railings.

So, I wonder if I could ask a favour: if you’re near London on the 30th July could you go and support all those cyclists doing the Prudential Ride London 100 for either JDRF, Diabetes UK or DRWF (Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation).
The supporter point is here (near TK Maxx) and riders will be going through from 7:00 through 16:00 I guess – I got there by 10am.

I’m sure if you do go you’ll have a great day out too.

Here’s my video from my 2015 ride…if you’re really bored.

*I’m not a cyclist who has Type 1 themself, but I ride to get sponsorship to be put towards helping people with Type 1 Diabetes. And I’m not actually riding RideLondon this year either 😀
** Okay, maybe they’re there for others too but at that time it feels like they’re only here for you.

Nightrider 2016, the Diabetes Dads and the Videos

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JDRFDadsLogoShortly after last year’s Nightrider there was a little conversation on our UK Diabetes Dads group. I suggested we should try and get a large Dads team together and immediately got two Yes’s from Nightrider stalwarts Dave and Andrew. Little by little more Dads joined ending up with 23 Diabetes Dads and some friends. In total there were 30 of us riding with 27 of those fundraising for JDRF.

A little motivation & from nothing to everything

Many of the Dads have personally thanked me for organising and motivating them to do Nightrider but the truth is I did very little, they wanted to do this and everyone motivated everyone else, with tales of training rides, pictures of bikes, etc..
A fair few of the Dads didn’t even have a bike and stories such as Vincent’s weren’t uncommon: Vincent last rode a bike on his paper round 25 years ago. Alistair’s story was similar. Others such as John signed up for the 60km ride but soon got persuaded that the 100km ride was achievable.

Lighting up the roads of London

After doing Nightrider in 2014 I knew our large team would get split up so I search for lights for our bikes and found these which I’ve gotta to say looked by far the best lights at Nightrider. It gave us the chance to display multiple images throughout the whole ride, include JDRFs logo, the JDRF/Dad logo I created (see top right) and others such as the Nightscout logo. In my opinion these were the best lights of any bike doing Nightrider.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRTMcmgu87s&feature=youtu.be

Team motivation

makereadyyourbikeStrava and Facebook are great motivators, people put up their rides, you see it and feel guilty you haven’t ridden for x days, so you go out for a ride and post it on Strava/Facebook afterwards. And so on.
And on.
With so many of us in the team the rides got longer, the bravado better, the team closer and the jokes worse. Far worse [thanks Vincent 🙂 ]. But it was turning into a great team and forgetting Nightrider we all just wanted to meet up and chat and joke.

Nutter on a bike

My RideLondon 2015 cycling buddy from last year Paul Smart made a heroic decision that to prise hard earned cash away from his friends Nightrider would not be enough. No, 100km is far too easy (!) so Paul planned to ride to London from west of Birmingham, leaving on the Friday and cycling 100 miles to Aylesbury before finishing the other 50 miles on Saturday morning and then taking on the Nightrider that night.
Nutter.
But he did it, in fact he smashed it.
Legend.

25 Lamb Bhunas

ddadscurry
It seemed like a good idea at the time with Lahore Kebab House being a firm favourite of mine and Andrew’s: let’s all meet and have a curry before the ride.
Right now I can realise that a curry before cycling 100km isn’t such a good idea but in truth it went done a storm, especially Lahore’s legendary lamb chops which we ordered 6 plates of.

Nightrider dawns…or rather dusks

Nightrider2016Team groupshotThe curry, or rather the tube to/from had made us late for registration, it was bedlam, no-one knew where to queue up to get their ride numbers and hi-viz vests. Luckily Daniel’s wife Julie went into event organiser mode and sorted us out, thank goodness as we’d never have set off for ages otherwise.
As it was our supposed start time of 11:00pm had turned into 11:24pm.

And the ride?

Well, in short it was brilliant but I’ll let you watch these two videos to find out.
First it’s mine, turn your speakers on….
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzPRRGI56mA

And second it’s the one shot by David Reid, featuring selfie-idiot me:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1wxM-L16us

A lovely fundraising amount

Finally, the whole point of the ride was to raise money for JDRF and I think we did this pretty well.
My personal thanks goes out to Stuart, Matthew and Daniel for the sheer volume of sponsorship they got it. Amazing effort lads, well done.
DadsNightriderTotal

Nightrider London awaits

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NightRider2Three days from now, at dawn on Sunday, I should have just finished cycling 100km around London, raising money for JDRF. I truly can’t wait to do it particularly as I’m doing it as part of a team mainly consisting of my work colleagues.
We start off from Crystal Palace at 10:35pm anti-clockwise through Tower Bridge, Canary Wharf, Olympic Park, Alexandra Palace, Waterloo, Whitehall and The Mall before ending up back at Crystal Palace.

A team grows
Last year I read about Nightrider shortly after cycling next to Gav in his GBR30/30 challenge and it captured my imagination, so I decided to do it in 2014, probably by myself.
Discussing it at work and Jon decided he’d do it as well, perhaps we could ask a couple of others he suggested. A few chats later and the team grew to 5 from work and Steve who lives close by. A month later and we’re up 8 cycling for JDRF and 3 cycling for CancerResearchUK. In total there’s 21 JDRF riders starting from Crystal Palace including my team plus Nick, Mark H, Andrew whom I know from either Twitter or the Cycling at JDRF Facebook group. There’s also a lot of JDRF riders starting from Alexandra Palace about an hour later.

A few of us enjoying a rest after a cycling sportive: Mark P, Kev, Jon, Mark H
jdrf cyclists at bbq

Raising funds
We’re riding for JDRF and they’ve set a target for each person of £175 per person, on top of the £39 registration we’ve each paid. For this £175 JDRF have bought a charity place from Nightrider for £60 and on top give each cyclist a JDRF cycling jersey, which in itself must be worth £35. So in theory JDRF don’t get much money in from this event, just £80 per person if they reach their target.
A few days ago I was concerned we wouldn’t reach out target, it sat £400 short of our combined target of £1400. In the last few days though sponsorship has come flooding in and we’re close to £2000 already.
Sponsorship page is here if you want to see how we’re doing…or donate.. bit.ly/nightridertf.

Training, training, training
For some cycling 100km is easy but there’s only one of our team – Steve – who could boast this, with Shaun coming a close second, for the rest us it was going to take a fair bit of training. So off we set on our first training ride back in January, a mere 30km but a distance which seemed daunting at first.

From our first training ride
Juli, Kev, Jon, Tim, Sue, Mark, Steve, ShaunNightriderTF-1

Training rides got longer week by week, some hills got thrown in and the weather started improving. A few other friends/colleagues started joining in the rides and a few of us managed to get out each weekend.

A hilly ride around the South Downs
NightriderTF-2

We set a target for 60km on April 21st when many of us entered a local Sportive. Five of my team did it along with two other Nightriders, Nick (coming down from Derby) and Mark (coming from London), plus a friend Gemma. That turned out to be a great ride through lovely country roads and finishing with a nice BBQ afterwards.

Gemma, Kev, Juli, Jon, Mark P, Nick, Mark H, Sue
NightriderTF-3
Our first night ride last Friday
Tim, Jon, Kev, Sue
Nightrider-TF-5