White Oak

Tri Squad

Dieppe, Normandy, France

19th - 21st April,2002

The crew before the Saturday ride

Hotel: Les Arcades De La Bourse, 1-3 Arcades de la Bourse, 76200
Dieppe, Tel: +33 (0)2 35 84 14 12

Seventeen of us caught the 8.30am Seacat from Newhaven to Dieppe which cost us just over £27 each. We arrived in Dieppe at about 11am continental time. From the port it was a quick roll on the bikes to the centre of town where we deposited our luggage in the hotel and got into our Lycra.

Our first ride was a "warm-up" of 40 miles or so out along the very undulating D75 coastal road west of DIeppe to Quiberville-Plage. Straightaway tension at the front was rearing its ugly head with Steve "Pantani" Taylor and Matthew "Lance Dance" Swift trying to psyche each other out by pretending not to breath on the initial climbs. Meanwhile at the back gravity and slightly-too-fresh legs were finding it all a bit of a shock. Never mind, the French quiet anti-gravity roads soon inspired and everyone found themselves in a symbiotic relationship with their bikes - half-human half-bike (I'm in full flow now). On reaching Quiberville-Plage we took a left and headed south on the rather less challenging but very pretty D127 to Bacqueville-en-Caux where we turned left again to Longueville-St-Scie and Torcy-le-Grand. Finally, we turned up the power in the finely tuned Mighty-White Oak engine and blasted along the D149/D154 to Rouxmesnil Bouteilles. Various attempts were made by people to jump clear of the engine but they were really just little-bunnies caught in the headlights of some vast juggernaught and there was no escape. Back in sunny Dieppe we decided we had had a very good time and proceeded to eat and drink some.

Kevin leading the peloton

Next day was the "day of truth". 50 miles for the non-Iron folk wishing to enjoy their break and 100 miles for the remainder who were either training for an Ironman or were just plain stupid. Off we set on the D154/D149 to Torcy-le-Grand and eventually to Bellencombre and onto the D99 dubbed by the World's press as the "true hell of the north". Lance danced away up the switch back demoralizing all opposition who were left scattered in his wake. Good thing they didn't respond too quick because he had to stop round the corner for a quick breather and almost a bit of decorative pavement art (!). Meanwhile, Pantani, Colette "Nicole-over-Cooke-it" and Gary "Mario Cippolata" were duking it out further down the climb - none of them really being able to put significant space betweem each other. It soon became apparent that we had a number of dark horses in the form of Paul "Hinault" Fisher, Paul "Ullrich" Atkinson, Helyn "Beryl Burton" Hiscock and Diane "Queen of Bikes" Maltby. At Pommerval the sensible ones split off and road back to Dieppe whilst the remaining fools carried on. A fast descent down to Bully and into Neufchatel-en-Bray for lunch. Next we went to the picturesque TdF town of Forge-les-Eaux and east onto the D919/D9 to Aumale. Pantani launched an attack around here and disappeared into the horizon. Meanwhile a counter-attack was started with Hinault, Ullrich, Cippolata, Guy "Indurain" Little, and Alex "Jalabert". They quickly caught Steve and proceeded to open up a gap of about 800m. Meanwhile, Lance and Nicole-Over-Cooke-It were winding the pace up to an Omelette-et-bierre curdling 23mph gobbling up a flailing Indurain and Hinault in the process. Back onto the D920 and all the way to Dieppe via the unusually named town of "Wanchy", with people now starting to suffer after their early over-exuberance. Lance bonked at Invermeu and Hinault started to suffer about now as well as did many others. Suddenly the dark horses began to emerge in the form of Ullrich and Kevin "Museew" refusing to tire. On the outskirts of Dieppe we all got split up with various people opting to do an extra col unnecessarily and others getting lost in a glycogen-starved daze. All good hearty fun though.

The last day was a quick 30 mile jaunt out on the D1 to Osmoy-St-Valery where we took a right up through beautiful rapeseed fields on the D77 - one of the those great picture postcard Tour moments. Down to Les Grandes des Ventes and right onto the D915 and the D149 back to Dieppe. Numerous attacks took place here with Lance's proving decisive: Cippolata, Nicole-over-Cooke-it, Indurain, and other big-hitters were too slow to realise what had happened and no matter how much Nicole-over-Cooke-it tried to organize a counter-attack it was curtains.

All in all a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. Total cost including food and drink was about £70 per person and we're all looking forward going again next year.

Written by Matthew "Lance Dance" Swift.