News and Events

My name's Tom Penn, 31 years old and an inhabitant of Devon for nearly all my
life. At age 21 i began to discover the joys of travelling, beginning with the
obligatory 9 month stint in South East Asia. After that i lived in Kolkata,
India for a few years working as a volunteer in a hospice in between flitting
around the world here and there to places like Myanmar, Ethiopia, Taiwan and the
U.S. But in 2010 i decided that backpacking wasn't cutting it anymore - the
whole process of train/bus/look for guesthouse/see the sights/meet people/say
goodbye to people/train/bus/look for guesthouse ........... -  simply wasnt
challenging enough anymore and i never really felt totally independent in my
explorations. So, after a year of slaving it out at a job i detested i bought a
bike, loaded it with 4 panniers and a tent and set off on a 5 month European
cycle tour, starting with Lands End to John O'Groats and back and then onto
France, Spain and Italy. 7500 miles in about 4 out of 5 of those months. The
sense of empowerment, adventure and freedom were overwhelming at times and after
a short stint back in the UK i felt the need to go again.

This time however, due to financial constraints, i am severely limited
in my time and can only manage about 4-6 weeks. Seeing as how time is short i
decided that this time i would focus on increasing my daily mileage and building
upon my last endeavour - a 'sprint' of sorts. To average 100 miles a day will be
the goal, whilst still living out of the tent and eating cold foods from the
supermarkets as i wont be carrying a stove. The route will take me from Roscoff
to Montrevel-en-Bresse ( just North of Lyon, France ) where i will stay a week
with a dear friend, then across the Alps and onto Lake Como, North Italy where i
will stay a few days with more friends, then a long stretch home - Switzerland
South to North, back into Northern France, Luxembourg South to North, Belgium
East to West, hop on the channel tunnel and then make my way home to Totnes from
Folkestone. The estimated mileage is 2000 but in reality it will probably end up
a little further. 100 miles a day would be a fantastic aim but im realistic
enough to know that heavy rain days, occassional lack of food and strong
headwinds will make that goal unreasonable at times, so an average of 100 miles
a day over the course of the whole trip will be more realistic but will still
push my body to its current limits.

My first cycle trip taught me alot about the kind of equiptment and
clothing needed to stay on the road in all conditions and sleep well at night. I
realised that actually, with the exception of cycling shorts and mechanical
gear, nearly all camping and clothing supplies could be sourced from camping
rather than cycle stores. I often found cutting edge clothing designed for
walking and mountaineering better suited for multi-season cycling with a tent.
Cycle-specific clothing is often quite limiting when off the bike - something
anatomically designed for the bike often doesnt really suit life in and around a
tent or wandering around a town on a rest day. Outdoor gear is far more
multi-purpose yet still comfortable and hard-working when cycling 10 hours a day
as long as you do the research and make a well-informed choice on the product.
Light, small pack-size and cutting edge material is what you look for. More
expensive sure, but if you're too cold, too hot, getting wet because you're
waterproof doesnt work, getting wet with sweat because you're waterproof is too
heavy, not sleeping well or you cant even change gear on the bike as your hand
has been re-shaped into a frozen, numb claw will all add up to a stressful and
needlessly difficult journey.

Mark and Nigel at Trail Outdoor of Ivybridge, Devon were immensely
helpful and supportive when it came to gathering together a few specific items
for this and my previous trip: the Force Ten Helium 100 Superlite tent ( that
weighs in at under a kilo ), the Thermarest Neo-Air mattress ( about 460g, tiny
pack size and blows up to 6.3cm thick ), Mountain Equiptment windproof jacket,
Montane lightweight trousers, Seal Skinz waterproof socks, Hagloffs sleeping bag
liner and Ortlieb cycle panniers to name just a few; brands with proven track
records in durability and innovative, hard-working materials.

Why do a trip like this? To put it bluntly, to get away temporarily from
the frustrating, exhausting and irksome obligations of the modern working
persons life; to test myself in ways that everyday life cant; to taste freedom;
to give an outlet to the many personal qualities and skills that lie dormant and
unused on a normal day to day basis; the desire and thirst for adventure; and
also for the pure simplicity of it - nothing to do today but to eat, cycle,
think and creep closer to the destination. Not to mention the tens of other
reasons and motivations that are simply too difficult to put into words and that
remain a purely personal experience. Life is simply too short and too uncertain
not to do it.

My name is Flurina Felix, I'm 19 and from Switzerland. From summer 2010 until summer 2011, I worked as an Au Pair in Ivybridge, running with the Erme Valley Harriers, exploring Devon, Cornwall and parts of Scotland and Wales as well as following a GCSE English in Plymouth. I'm enthusiastic about the outdoors and exploring, thinking a lot about meaning, necessity and  sustainability of being on the road.

One day in February, I decided to cycle home rather than taking a faster mean of transport, and the idea quickly grew into a major project for me. I was very lucky to get help from Trail Outdoor on making the right kit decisions! And thanks to Tom, I ended up with a  suitable bike that became a very reliable companion.

 

Day 1 Roscoff-Douarnenez

Saturday morning, 6pm. After a couple of uncomfortable hours of sleep on the rocking ferry floor, we've arrived in Roscoff! I couldn't have wished for a better start into my journey – upon leaving the ferry, I met Etienne, a somewhat wild-looking round-the-world French cyclist, who kindly invited me for coffee in the harbour. We left town together, exchanging last thoughts on travelling 'à bicyclette', before separating and each heading on in different directions. I cycled past pretty houses on flat, empty country roads, greeting everyone with a cheerful 'Bonjour!', until I got to the first hills after Morlaix. 'Nothing compared to Cornish hills', I convinced myself, and managed to keep up my spirits this way. The day got hotter and hotter, the landscape more hilly, the roads more busy by the hour, and in the afternoon after 80 miles I still wasn't nowhere near the town I'd been invited to stay with my friend. It was late evening when I finally arrived in Douarnenez after having pushed 100 miles on my heavily loaded bike!! I was exhausted and decided to make the next day a rest day, enjoying for the last time a comfortable bed...

 

Day 3 Douarnenez – Lorient

I was fully recovered and eager to get moving again, and couldn't even be bothered by the rain. A few hours later, I learned my first lesson about road choices when I accidentally ended up taking a very busy, fast national road. To escape all the cars and noisily overtaking heavy lorries, I took the first exit I could find, and tried asking a local lady if there wasn't an alternative? Yes, she said, through her mean neighbour's garden (which was clearly marked as 'proprieté privée') and past his growling German shepherd I would arrive at a smaller road... It didn't look great, but better than the gruelling road I'd just left – therefore I sneaked through his garden, trying to appease the barking dog, telling him please not to bite my legs because my mum was expecting me home... It seemed to work, and I cycled on with very wobbly knees... At lunchtime, I met Jean, who invited to stay the night in his flat in Lorient! Things seemed to go really well.

 

Day 4 Lorient – Le Guerno

My last day in Brittany – I hadn't really been talking to anyone the whole day long, but was very pleased to pitch my tent for the first time in a charming village.

 

Day 5 Le Guerno – Le Migron

Another lonely day on the bike, and the roads weren't      very cycle friendly most of the time. I crossed the Loire   on a ferry, met a family who couldn't quite believe I was   cycling on my own 'as a girl' and with such a distance         still ahead of me... Searching for a campsite forced me to keep going until 7pm (on another crap road and not at all in the direction I wanted).  Finally I arrived at an almost empty, slightly dubious looking 'camping municipal' with cold showers, where all I wanted was to disappear into my tent and go to sleep.

 

Day 6 Le Migron – St-Hilaire-de-Riez

Very hot riding through flat marshland, on bumpy roads with lorries overtaking too close and very fast... I was heading for the coast and arrived in the middle of the most touristic place possible. Searching for a campsite turned into a nightmare, until one of the managers took pity on the tired cyclist, who was 'cycling all alone, as a girl? And to Switzerland?' and let me stay for half the price. I'd had enough. Why the heck was I doing this? And why would I head south when actually, Switzerland was east? Why was I doing this alone, hardly ever talking more than a few sentences per day? Did I really enjoy getting up early, cycling, eating, drinking, cycling, sweating, more cycling, breathing in dust and exhaust fumes, eating, sweating, searching expensive camp sites, eating in silence, sleeping in a hot, tiny tent and starting all over again the next morning?! No, I didn't. All I wanted was – what, exactly? I didn't know anything any more, except that I couldn't face any more cycling the next day. So it another rest day, trying to pull myself together.

           

Day 8 St-Hilaire-de-Riez – Esnandes

I somehow managed to get going again. Giving up wasn't an option, so I left the campsite before sunrise and cycled on. Towards midday, I met a lovely French couple, and was surprised to hear my own voice again while chatting to them! They said they would have invited me to stay with them,           but unfortunately it was too early to stop. Their          kindness really helped me to start thinking that,    maybe, this trip did make some sense after all.           For some reason I also found an amazing campsite at the edge of a natural reservation near La Rochelle, as well as meeting a gay Belgian couple, and we ended up spending the evening together playing cards and drinking wine on the beach. It couldn't be so bad after all!

 

Day 9 Esnandes - Vaux-sur-Mer

The Belgians had lent me their stove to make coffee

in the morning, and I left the campsite very awake to cycle along a beautiful road on the sea shore, with oyster farms every now and then. My knees started complaining about the loaded bike, so I stopped a few times to experiment with the saddle height... The quiet road soon turned into busy main roads, and in sweltering temperatures I kept on cycling until I reached another ugly, expensive touristy campsite, where everyone was amazed that the tiny green thing I pitched was actually a tent, and did I really fit in there?

 

 

Day 10 Vaux-sur-Mer – Pin Sec

I left early to take the ferry from Royan crossing the estuary, and arrived on the famous cycle paths in the pine forest seaming the Atlantic coast all the way to Bayonne. I had the impression that the temperatures got even hotter, and the air was so dry that breathing and swallowing became painful! For some reason I only managed about 50 miles that day, having to retrace in order to find another crowded, expensive campsite full of Germans.

 

Day 11 Pin Sec – Bordeaux

During the night, we had finally got our first thunderstorm with some much needed rain making for cool riding until midday. To escape the busy, touristy and expensive coast, I then decided to head inland on an endless, straight cycle path. When I finally arrived in Bordeaux, there was no campsite to be found and I ended up having to sleep in a youth hostel. Another epic thunderstorm flooded the town as well as the cellar my bike, tent and most of my panniers were locked in, and everything had to be dried out in my room...

 

Day 12 Bordeaux – Cadillac

After some sightseeing with another Swiss I met, I reluctantly left Bordeaux and headed east into the hilly vineyard landscape. I felt somehow tired and lethargic, creeping over the hills at snail speed before stopping for the night in Cadillac sur Garonne. Since I had no idea which direction I was actually cycling (south towards the Pyrenees or east towards Switzerland?), I didn't feel at all like heading on and made the next day another rest day. A local invited me for dinner, talking about his hometown and telling me all about the 'Mascaret', a huge wave in the estuary caused by tidal differences so strong it was inversing the flow direction of the Garonne twice a day!

 

Day 14 Cadillac – Arcachon

The same local had invited me to stay at his second home at the Bassin d'Arcachon – so, unoriented as I was, I headed towards the coast once more. I began to be fed up with the endless, regular, man made forest of the 'Landes' region, the straight roads... Having accepted the invitation probably wasn't the best decision ever, and I was stuck once again. I didn't enjoy the busy touristy region at all and felt utterly displaced, miles away from what I had imagined my cycle to be. I missed the freedom of cycling the whole day long, sleeping in my tent that was becoming my shelter, simply sitting on the floor instead of chairs... I realised I had to take things into my own hands again, and decided to head south towards the Pyrenees after all, like I had planned in England.

 

Day 16 Arcachon - St-Girons-Plage

Which is what I did very early the next morning, and I felt as if I'd been liberated by leaving the Bassin d'Arcachon. The cycle was mine again. I was approaching the Atlantic Pyrenees now and arenas became more frequent. I once stopped upon hearing the excited cheers of the spectators, just in time to see a freshly killed bull being dragged out of the back door, and more toreros on the back of their horses waiting for their turn in the corrida... I quickly cycled away again.

Following the coast still meant expensive campsites, but I managed to get a space for half the price. My neighbours were a very warm hearted Italian family, and we quickly made friends. In the evening, they invited me for pasta and their son insisted he would get up in the morning to prepare coffee for me!

 

Day 17 St-Girons-Plage – Arthez-de-Béarn

I left the campsite excitedly, knowing that today, I would be able to spot the Pyrenees in the distance! I cheered upon finally leaving the endless forest... The landscape turned more agricultural (albeit more hilly, too). I had been nursing a stomach ache which turned more painful by the hour, and I struggled the last few, steep miles up the hill to Arthez-de-Béarn. But there they were – I could finally see the mountain range in the distance! Despite my joy, I felt rather ill now, and the prospect of having to eat wasn't very tempting. I went to bed at 9pm, hoping a good sleep would sort me out and allowing me to head towards the Pyrenees for a climb...

 

Day 18 Arthez-de-Béarn – Morlaàs

I woke up feeling cold, tired and with a sore stomach, and had to force myself to eat some porridge. It didn't look like I would manage mountain pass I had planned to climb, so I continued east in the foothills. My legs felt shaky as I dragged myself up yet another hill... The bike felt heavier than usual. After only 25 miles I stopped and pitched my tent at midday in the first campsite I could find. Wandering around in the supermarket, I tried to find something to eat, but nothing really tempted me. Instead I got antibiotics and a newspaper, and spent the afternoon trying to forget my nausea.

 

Day 19 Morlaàs – Boulogne-sur-Gesse

My stomach felt much better today, the hilly landscape was beautiful, and I managed 64 miles. The campsite I found was one of the most peaceful ones ever.

 

Day 20 Boulogne-sur-Gesse – Rieux-Volvestre

Maybe I should have taken it more slow the day before – I felt powered out again and didn't enjoy the hot riding very much. I'd run out of proper food and cycled nearly 40 miles before stopping at a boulangerie... After another 10 miles I stopped again, fed up with the busy, dusty road, and pitched my tent at a campsite... I was in a grumpy mood, and when a middle aged Frenchman tried to initiate a conversation about how unusual it was to see such a 'jolie fille' travelling on her own, I told him to get lost and leave me alone. I'd heard it too many times already and missed someone to have a proper conversation with.

 

Day 21 Rieux-Volvestre – Graulhet

I'd decided to content myself with only having        seen the Pyrenees from the distance and headed north towards Toulouse in search of an internet café. Having lunch in the city centre, I met a London family, and gladly made use of my English        again! Outside of Toulouse, I stopped at the town             hall asking for water, and was kindly invited inside            for a lemonade by two women working there ('and           you're really doing this alone, as a girl?'). The      campsite I stopped at this evening was full, but     they let me stay in a corner of the playfield!

 

           

Day 22 Graulhet – Les Vidals

A flat start into the day on a fantastically smooth road – perfect for meeting fellow cyclists! On their lightweight racing bikes, two of them accompanied me for a few miles expressing their disbelief ('and you're doing this on your own, as a girl?'). I politely replied the usual things, wondering how many times I'd still be asked the same question in the weeks to come...!! The landscape was beautiful but when the road followed a gorge, the climbing began. I still wasn't very well adapted to it so found it very hard to be climbing for more or less 40 miles at a stretch – I had arrived in the Monts de Lacaune! I stopped at pretty campsite, met some great Dutch people my age and decided to stay another day before heading towards the Camarque.

 

Day 24 Les Vidals – Mas-de-Londres

The climbing of the past day was rewarded by a long, sweeping descent into a coarse valley. It was much hotter than in the mountains, and the vegetation became mediterranean. I started climbing yet another gorge to visit the historic town Saint-Guilhelm-le-Désert, and continued climbing until late in order to find a campsite.

 

 

Day 25 Mas-de-Londres – Avignon

I headed towards the Camarque to see the horses – it was very hot and nearly without any shade! Every now and then I would stop at a fig tree to gather some delicious figs... That evening, I was forced to take an endless, heavily trafficky road          into Avignon where I camped on the Île da la Barthelasse.

 

Day 26 Avignon – Sault

The JCC 2012 has teamed up with Trail Outdoor and OMM (Original Mountain Marathon) to offer participants some great deals on kit. Trail Outdoor will be manning a shop at the event selling items from the high quality range of OMM kit

Event Information
Event Jurassic Coast Challenge
Date 23rd - 25th March 2012
Type Ultra endurance running challenge
Cost £155 3 day challenge. £60 single day rate
Closing Date 12-03-2012
Distances 78.6 Miles, A approximatately 26.2 mile marathon each day
Location Chesil Beach Hoilday Park, Portland Road, Weymouth, Dorset, DT4 9AG. » Map

Schedule
Day one, Charmouth - Portland Ferry Road (hq)
 Day two, Portland Ferry Road - Lulworth cove
 Day three, Lulworth cove - Shell Bay
 More detailed timings will be published under the 'Download info pack' link on this page 2 weeks before the event. It is your responsibility to check these details. The 2011 info pack has been loaded up for information purposes only.

Terrain
The route has been changed from last year’s event. The start point is now just outside Charmouth and the course will now run from West to East which is different to that previously advertised on the event website. This is due to live firing on the Kimmeridge Ranges on the Friday. The Challenge will finish on Day 3 at the National Trust Shell Bay Car Park, Studland. Many challengers will be pleased to note the route still includes the whole circumnavigation of Portland. You will be able to see the check point locations in the below check point system instructions. 
Facilities
The votwo team are providing the support package that will include the following –
HQ Area: Collection of marquees providing sheltered area to facilitate the event from. Daily event registration and briefings held in this area. Constant supply of free tea, coffee and cakes available here! This area will act as a meeting point, food hall, massage area and accommodation reception. The HQ area is located on the ferry road to Portland. A large dining marquee will be erected next to the HQ marquee.
Check points: Approximately every 6-8 miles supplying food and drink (filled rolls,hot drinks etc. Homemade soup at the finish point), to ensure that you are on route and as a point of reference for time keeping. For those needing it they offer the perfect opportunity to have a good sit down.
 Transportation: Each day you will be instructed to meet at the event base and then be transported to the start. Once you join votwo on the event you can leave your car in one place and take advantage of the votwo mini buses. On completion of the days run you will be transported back to the event HQ.
 Medical assistance: The whole route is covered by our medical support and evacuation plan. Every morning at race registration the medics will be available to sort out any blisters, tape feet up and re-attached severed limbs etc. The votwo physiotherapists will also be available at the end of each day to advise on dealing with strains and injuries.
 Route maps: A course booklet containing all the relevant route information and books
 Further event details and instructions will be linked from the right hand side of this page approx two weeks before the event. You must make sure you read and understand the further instructions.
 Individual times: at each check point your number and time will be recorded. At the end of each day, time sheets will be available.
 Meat wagon: any participant who can no longer continue at any checkpoint can jump on the mini bus and be taken to the finish point (hanging your head in shame is optional).
 On Friday night, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon votwo will be providing a massage service located at the event base (Sunday afternoon from the finish line). It will cost £12 for 15 mins. If you think that you may be interested in this service (and it may help you to get out of bed the next day) pre book when you enter online.
 Free access to the votwo 12 week challenge training programme. Designed to get you to the finish of the Jurassic Coast Challenge!

 

Please have a look at our running & cycling section for clothing and footwear for this event.