Monday 7/9 & Tuesday 8/9:
Kenilworth – Tours
4 x Cycle sections (total 28 km),
4 Trains and a Ferry
The plan goes: bike, train, train, bike, train, bike, ferry, bike, train! I will be extremely grateful for any assistance, whether financial or practical, that the various transport companies have given me as I remember some of the struggles I had in 2022 with the heavily laden bicycle!
The initial 2km of the Prologue, from home to the station in Kenilworth, is basically up for the first half then back down for the second, with 3% being the maximum in either direction. If I can’t manage that when I first set off, I might as well give up and go home!
From Kenilworth station, I travel one stop to Leamington Spa, where I change onto the train to London Marylebone.
Part 2 of the Prologue is the ride across London from Marylebone to Waterloo. Much of this is off-road, through Hyde Park, and then a quick opportunity for Royal appoval as I pass Buckingham Palace, and then on to Westminster Bridge and round to Waterloo Station. The next train should deposit me at Portsmouth Harbour station, from where it is about 3km flat ride to the Ferry port, before catching the overnight ferry to Caen (Ouistreham).
Once disembarked from the boat, a gentle 15km morning ride on a great cycle path down the canal awaits me on the Tuesday morning, probably giving me opportunity to spend a while at the Pegasus Bridge WW2 memorial, about 5km from Ouistreham. On the night of June 5–6, 1944, British airborne forces executed a daring glider assault to capture Pegasus Bridge and a nearby bridge in Normandy, securing a vital eastern flank for the D-Day landings. Led by Major John Howard, 181 men from the 6th Airborne Division landed in six Horsa gliders just after midnight, achieving complete surprise and seizing the bridges intact within 10 minutes.
If train times are as expected, I will arrive at Caen station with plenty of time for elevensies before an early afternoon train to my official starting point in Tours.
