IoC Chair Carl Lomas swept to final mile by express sector support

Shirt and tie, no Lycra for cycle run by IoC chair in Transaid cycle run from TfL HQ to final mile in Paris via courier company pit-stops with a hundred thousand tweets of energy and support of the family of express sector, Sunday celebration when Carl removed his  Carmen tie from a job well done for Transaid transport charity.

IoC Chair Carl Lomas vowed to complete the Princess Royal's Transaid charity cycle run from London to Paris at the May Microlise conference. Having never been on a cycle for twenty five years, it was a big ask for the IoC Chair, who has completed 500 miles training in the last six weeks, matching the 500 year celebration of the Carmen Livery with support from Carmen master Marsha-Rae Ratcliff.

Carl left Palestra House TfL HQ at 13h30 on Thursday 21^st Sept wearing a business shirt and Carmen wheels of transport tie. Making use of the CS7 TfL cycle superhighway he headed onto an A3 route aiming for the next pit-stop with CitySprint Guildford office on Friday morning.

update 10h00 Friday 22^nd Sep - The screens are busy today as IoC chair Carl Lomas gets a pit-stop at CitySprint Guildford. Ops Manager Steve Knibb and team (Joanna, controller Rachel and Matt) give the green light for POB in the GU postcode.

update 12h00 Friday 22^nd Sep - Following the ups and downs of the Surrey cycle highway to Horsham for fudge lunch courtesy of BACA Workwear outside Rymans - DHL drop zone on Middle St. Horsham. Thanks to Marc Calder at BACA for sorting the Hi-Viz and their best promo fudge !

update 17h30 Friday 22^nd Sep - onboard and on time - heading for Dieppe thanks to UPS depot manager for Brighton and Eastbourne Nick Cooper and team signposting the way to ferry lane 8, saving 2 miles of cycling through the heart of BN postcode.

update 08h45 Saturday 23^rd Sep - Dieppe - a balmy seaside resort. A morning alarm from the seaguills ready to make the almighty push up the hill to Saint Aubin, Rouen and Évreux.

update 13h15 Saturday 23^rd Sep - Rouen - In front of the cathedral cy'clic cycle hire - Évreux next !

update 07h00 Sunday 24^th Sep - Évreux - Breakfast with #TransaidParis17 cycle leader Harry Wells. The "Who's-who" of UK transport cycling in the last leg to Paris in a start reminiscent of Le Mans. "Gentlemen and Ladies, please start your wheels...and we're off"...for another 80 miles !

update 16h30 Sunday 24^th Sep - Paris - Eiffel Tower ! #TransaidParis17 is over, but the work of Transaid continues. Congratulations to all who took part or helped along the way.

Carl comments

I did 500 miles of 25 mile training runs in six weeks and the express sector finished the job with mega motivation to Paris.  A big thank-you to the Condor cycle team in Grays Inn Road who re-built the bike, a 25 year old TVT courier cycle, enormous thank-you to the Transaid cyclists bringing me in to those last miles, could not have done it without them, express sector is a family like no other.

See Carl's progress in the slideshow above and in the  photo gallery