Dear All
All were on time at the Ashford rendezvous and the clouds cleared as the "le peloton" for the 6th Annual Benevolent Cycle Ride to Champagne, organised by Mentzendorff, rolled out of Calais for the initial "gentle" leg of 40km down to St Omer on Sunday afternoon. It all seemed to be going too well............. and it was, as only 5km further on the steady pace initially set by Andrew Hawes was suddenly broken by a suprise attack from Ian "Bomber" Harris, who having donned the Yellow Jersey in the van, disappeared over the horizon, being chased in vain by Eddie Hart. All attempts to re-organise the peloton were in vain, we scattered across the French countryside with Andrew Reed, Neil Bruce and Alan Montague-Dennis all left trailing in the wake of Harris who quickly built up a commanding lead and ignored all requests from Bill Page - Directeur Sportive, in the van to slow down. Having finally recaptured the "Bomber", we then found that we were lost, Hawes searched in vain for familar landmarks as we threaded our way through Farmyards, over hills and down valleys - before arrving on what appeared to be the Autoroute. Riding on a dual-carriageway was a first for this the 6th Mentzendorff ride, but all survived and eventually we arrived at our hotel for the first night... finding it, strangely, to be 60km from Calais rather than 40km! Today is the long run down to Peronne........ stay tuned.