nbjtours

It’s time to get back on our bikes ( nearly)

Five years ago in those blissful pre- pandemic and belligerent times of 2019 NBJ Tours cycling team set off from Tonbridge to cycle to its twin town of Le Puy en Velay to celebrate the 50 years of twinning and to link up with a dozen runners from the town’s parkrun who would take part in Le Puy’s popular trail races loosely based on the pilgrimage route from Le Puy to Santiago de Compostella.

With life now returning to a more aggressive normality a new but even more challenging adventure set seed. So this year the cycling team will aim to complete a reverse pilgrimage from Santiago to Le Puy arriving as before on the Friday before the trail races.

The trail races have grown in popularity so that there are now four distances of 18, 51,79 & 130 km and form part of the qualification for the UTMB international trail race series.

Our running team of twelve will have entrants in all four of these distances and as before there is the one super athlete Dom who will be cycling the 1000+ miles before the races, this year tackling the 79 km trail!

There have been a few injuries along the way but everyone is keen to tackle their chosen distance so I will hope to report on our successes in the trail races after 15 & 16 June.

Whereas Tonbridge to Le Puy took us 8 days and crossed the largely flat centre of France. The Camino across Spain is anything but flat with the Pyrenees and then the Massif Central to climb once we approach Le Puy.

It will certainly be the most challenging cycling trip we’ve undertaken and as such I’ve reduced our daily mileage a bit so we will take 13 days to cover the just over 1000 miles. Certainly we will have no qualms about cheating and getting into the camper if the weather or terrain are just too horrible.

Supporting the cyclists will, as ever, be the enthusiastic Nigel and Monica, piloting Broomey that Fiat 500 Green camper extraordinaire.

The cycling team of Chris, Nick, Dom and Neil will be forever looking out for that green once the next adventure begins.

The camper and bikes leave for that top corner of Spain on 30 May with three of the cyclists flying down to Santiago on 1 June before the cycling begins at Finisterra on 2 June.

Fitness and planning are almost complete, the tension and excitement are building for what we hope will be another great voyage of discovery- do join us for our next adventure from the end of the month.