The Gravesend sundays 200 formed an excellent opportunity for me to get used to the UK-style of randonneuring, and to riding on the other side of the road. Originally I planed to go to Gravesend alone, meeting a Belgian group on the road. But two friends of mine, who never cycled a BRM liked to join me, so I invited them along. One of them, Jacco is fairly inexperienced, both in camping and long-distance riding, the other, Carlo, is an experienced tourer, having toured especially in Latin-America (including the Amazona-forest and the Andes-mountains).
My work prevented us from taking the afternoon ferry from Oostende, so we had to take the evening ferry. As Murphy's law predicts, this ferry left more than one hour later than planned. So we arrived in Ramsgate wel after 10 pm. The south-eastern railways don't seem to be that fast either so arriving in Gravesend took us till 1 am. Than the hunt for a camping-place started. We good some tips, but while asking another time for the just direction at a fish-and-chips caravan on a car-park the owner suggested camping on the car-park. Since it didn't rain we didn't put the tents up, to much work anyway. It was no problem for Carlo and me, but Jacco hardly slept at all.
In the morning Carlo and I were refreshed, but Jacco not. Finding the start was quite easy and I was happy to greet some old Belgian friends who also came along, just as Irish trikie John Dalton (living in Belgium). The bikes were quite dissimilar to the continental ones so I felt completely at easy riding my heavy Koga-Miyata tourer.
The amount of riders surprised me. I estimate about 100. The start was the usual mad dash, especially on the first hill. Carlo and I had to do some waiting for Jacco, so we ended up quite at the end of the pack. Well, it gave us some time to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Kent. Already the scenery was worth hopping over! After 50kms Jacco couldn't even keep up with a fairly large group riding about 20km/h on the flats. This was reason enought for us to suggest him abandoning. He would never make the 200k in the allotted time when he was already in such an early stage riding badly. He didn't train enough for it and badly misjudged the hills. So I gave him my road-map and he went back, pausing now and then in some beautiful cities. He made the ride into a touristic tour. After this, Carlo and I pushed it a bit to make up some time, together with two local riders who had been missing some indications.
At the next control we met some big groups so we decided to join them on the road. It was really very nice riding, very social especially. The small back-roads reminded us a lot of our own region, the twisty and steep hills are also common for us. So we could concentrate on socialising and enjoying. Halfway the ride we met some Belgian riders and continued for a while with them, untill I got a flat slamming into a pothole which was huge enough to break a frail wheel. The remainder of the ride we rode solo. Towards the end we had to negotiate the ritual ford in the parcours.
When we came in after more than 11 hours there were still some riders to be expected. Jacco was already there. He had still enjoyed the ride back through a short-cut. Anyway we thanked Hugh Roach for his excellent ride and allready were thinking (and talking) about coming back next year. (At least if the ride is again during a continental long weekend.)
The same evening we rode to Chatham, where we slept in the luxurious Youth Hostel. Cycling from the YH to the railway station we really remarked that British car-drivers are very friendly, at least compared to the continental ones. I felt a bid embarrased when I scared some of them, using the 'Italian city-cycling style'. The same feeling we had during the ride. Hardly any negative remarks were heard from passing car-drivers. Something different from what we are used to. overhere.
The remainder of train-rides and ferry back home was simply uneventful. Anyway we all enjoyed the ride.
Differences between continental and UK randonneuring
Riding two BRMs in two conscecutive weekends in Britain and Belgium gives some food for a comparison.
For me the most striking thing while riding in Gravesend was that hardly anybody was riding a race-bike. Most people had fast tourers, which you can only get here through a frame-builder, while a fairly large group rode travel-bikes. Yvonne and I are the only ones around here who show up with such bikes overhere. In Belgium about half of the riders are using adapted race-bikes or custom-built fast tourers. In France you see more of them, and some French companies have them in their general collection. Also the riding style was different. Most riders overhere aim for fast times. When you ride a 200k in 10 hours, you're way back and mainly ride solo. The ride reports by Yvonne show it clearly. In Gravesend we arrived well after 11 hours, but were still among lots of riders. The touring style is certainly more preferred in Britain.
Some weird bikes were also ridden in Gravesend. Two trikes participated (one of them mostly rides in Belgium, since John lives there, but he is Irish), while at least two people rode a fixed gear. 'Till then I hadn't even seen somebody riding it. They are very uncommon over here.
Also the clothes were very different in Gravesend. In Belgium nearly everybody rides the club jersey, whil in the Netherlands it is usance to use the national PBP-jersey (at least if you've ridden PBP). In Gravesend lots of riders were wearing touring-clothes, or just normal clothes. A lot of riders rode with old-fashioned toe-clips, if you do it overhere everybody will be astonished!
In general the British style seems to be a lot more touristic than the continental style.
Ivo Miesen