Day two: Northern France is a biker's paradise (From Harrow Times)

Day two: Northern France is a biker's paradise

10:51pm Sunday 24th May 2009 in Kisima News By Tristan Kirk

Now I'm not one to boast, but it seems the Rhinos are quite simply the better team.

To qualify this, today was an incredibly tough day, where the road seemed to undulate at will, like it was riding the open waves.

Having completed 80 plus miles today, I feel a little like someone pushed me into a river and then drove a speed boat over my lifeless body.

That said, there are certain pleasures you have to take out of cycling through Northern France.

The scenery is spectacular, vastly underrated if you ask me.

And when you have done 50 miles, no mean feat I tell you, you can stop at a top restaurant in a town called Hesden and sample some of the fine cuisine on offer.

That is why the Rhinos may be slower but have far more class.

I took some stick yesterday for glossing over some of my mishaps, because frankly I was hoping they would not be repeated today.

How wrong I was.

Aside from the occasional fall off my bike and a rather unfortunate chain coming off incident, there was the fall at speed coming off a hill.

I must have gone over a stone and punctured my tire, at which point things took a turn for the worse.

As Rebecca ignored my cries for help and sped off into the distance, I tried to steady my rapidly sinking ship (bike), only to career off the road and into the undergrowth.

Still, it's not really worth doing a bike ride from London to Paris if you are not going to pick up a badly grazed knee and severe bruising.

I'm not sure whether sun burn counts as an injury, but all the Rhinos have sure got it.

Rebecca has a lovely line in two-tone arms, I have burnt my nose, and Andrew has burnt his face which some are cruelly saying makes him luminous.

Tomorrow is a 60 miler, which some are saying is flat and will be quite easy. I'll believe it when I see it.

• I have asked to point out another mishap which befell me yesterday.

Riding off the ferry, I fell over the handle bars of my bike which had become trapped between two parts of the ramp.

In no way was this incident related to the wine drinking on the ferry, but I can confirm people found it quite funny.