On Thursday 20th June, 2014, I set off on a sponsored cycle from London to Paris along with 26 UKTV colleagues taking in over 270 miles over three days. Why would we want to do that? To raise money for Pancreatic Cancer UK, an excellent charity that does a lot of terrific work for a less than fashionable disease.
Our journey started very early on a fairly dull summer morning in Greenwich. A buzz of activity outside a coffee shop next to the now dry-docked Golden Hind, nervous excitement was on everyone’s faces – the majority of whom had only ever completed a fraction of the total distance. Meanwhile, I was getting distracted by a fibreglass whale…
Just about to set off on a 270 mile bike ride and a whale drives past... #UKTVLondon2Paris http://t.co/JwChns9Mla
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Sam Pearson (@smprsn) June 20, 2013The weather was less than glorious (I’m pretty sure it was meant to be summer!) and France threw a meteorological nightmare and sleepless nights our way. It’ll take more than a bit of wind and rain to stop us though, France!
Lunch time & half way for the #UKTVLondon2Paris team. Beautiful weather in France. Heavy drizzle & full cloud-cover, perfect.
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Sam Pearson (@smprsn) June 21, 2013Handy guide to the waterfowl of La Somme in the hotel. Cheers Amiens. #UKTVLondon2Paris http://t.co/okxrrU7PFr
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Sam Pearson (@smprsn) June 21, 2013I should be sleeping right now. The French are LOUD. #UKTVLondon2Paris vine.co/v/huXljrUEVg1
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Sam Pearson (@smprsn) June 21, 2013What could have gone wrong, did go wrong. We wrote off four bikes, multiple cyclists got lost, 29 punctures and we didn’t have very much downtime, but it still remained a tremendous success.
Hardest part about training & then cycling from London to Paris? Readjusting back to normal meal portions. #UKTVLondon2Paris
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Sam Pearson (@smprsn) June 24, 2013We took some camera kit along for the ride, so naturally we had to make a film of the event. Here’s what Aidan Hackett and I put together, hopefully it does the feat some justice:
In the end, we not only raised a significant sum of money, over £40,000, for Pancreatic Cancer UK we also helped to spread awareness of this terrifying disease. I for one had no idea of how deadly and under funded it was.
Now to set myself another challenge so that I don’t fall off the cycling bandwagon. London to Paris in 24 hours anyone? Maybe not.
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