The London to Paris cycle ride is certainly going to be a challenge but one I’m looking forward to; perhaps not to the hills! It provides a great opportunity to raise money for both the Haven and Action Medical Research, so I hope you will support us all.
Hi, I am Lynne Tennant. I started cycling a few years ago, having persuaded my son to loan me his old bike rather than sell it on eBay. The aim was to get fit and lose some weight. Well I am not sure I have lost any weight but I am certainly hooked on cycling.
The London to Paris cycle ride is certainly going to be a challenge but one I’m looking forward to; perhaps not to the hills! It provides a great opportunity to raise money for both the Haven and Action Medical Research, so I hope you will support us all.Hi, I am Lynne Tennant. I started cycling a few years ago, having persuaded my son to loan me his old bike rather than sell it on eBay. The aim was to get fit and lose some weight. Well I am not sure I have lost any weight but I am certainly hooked on cycling.
The London to Paris cycle ride is certainly going to be a challenge but one I’m looking forward to; perhaps not to the hills! It provides a great opportunity to raise money for both the Haven and Action Medical Research, so I hope you will support u55-year old Lynne Tennant, mum to professional cyclist and European Champion Andy Tennant, was looking for a challenge and signed up for the epic Action London to Paris ride in 2012. Two years previously she’d not owned a bike since she was a child, so she started pretty much from scratch when she first got back behind the handlebars.
Like a lot of women, she had spent a great deal of time concentrating on her kids and working full-time running her own business. “I did the odd bit of swimming, but I was relatively unfit,” she says.
“I started cycling after I persuaded my son Andy to loan me his old bike rather than sell it on eBay. The aim was to get fit and lose some weight. Well I am not sure I have lost any weight but I am certainly now hooked on cycling.”
Hi, I am Lynne Tennant. I started cycling a few years ago, having persuaded my son to loan me his old bike rather than sell it on eBay. The aim was to get fit and lose some weight. Well I am not sure I have lost any weight but I am certainly hooked on cycling.
She discovered that her local authority in the West Midlands offered a one-to-one road cycling course, so she signed up. “I had a number of sessions and it really increased my confidence, getting me used to cycling on the roads.”
She then progressed to the track of her local cycling club. Bitten by the bug, and realising the bike she had on loan from her son was too big, Lynne invested in her own bike, a Pinarello.
Having read about the very well organised and established Action Medical Research programme of bike rides, Lynne then started to think about getting some organised rides under her belt.
“My sister’s son was also born prematurely at 24 weeks. He weighed just 491 grams and was given only a five per cent chance of survival. He was in hospital for 16 weeks. Thankfully he is now a healthy, teenager of nearly six foot.”
“I knew that Action, as well as being a superb sportive organiser, is also a children’s charity that funds research into conditions like prematurity. So I decided, at first in 2011, to do the Action London to Paris and raise money for them and also a local domestic violence and homeless charity, The Haven.”
Hi, I am Lynne Tennant. I started cycling a few years ago, having persuaded my son to loan me his old bike rather than sell it on eBay. The aim was to get fit and lose some weight. Well I am not sure I have lost any weight but I am certainly hooked on cycling.
The London to Paris cycle ride is certainly going to be a challenge but one I’m looking forward to; perhaps not to the hills! It provides a great opportunity to raise money for both the Haven and Action Medical Research, so I hope you will support us allDue to unforeseen circumstances, Lynne had to pull out of the ride in 2011. Then, nearly a year out of the saddle later, London to Paris in 2012 became a real goal and motivation for her to push on and get fit for the long-distance ride.
The British Cycling Coach from her local club put together a training plan for her although, says Lynne, the plan provided by Action is very good. Her training started in earnest in January 2012.
She built up initially from rides of about two hours, twice a week. As she improved in strength and stamina, this grew to four days of long rides back to back for three weeks, interspersed with one recovery week of shorter rides.
The training was hard going at times, she admits. “It’s hard to find the time and I didn’t see as much of the family as usual. But I ended up really enjoying it, seeing the countryside with others from the club and on my own, and enjoying the weather as the months went on into Spring and Summer.”
Lynne and her female team mates, calling themselves “Rapha Woman” as Andy Tennant was riding for Rapha at the time, chose Route One of the Action L2P. The route runs from London-Calais-Abbeville-Beauvais-Paris and is designed for those new to long distance cycling.
“The hardest day was definitely the first, cycling from London to Dover. Not least because my friend and I took a wrong turn and added nine miles to the planned route! There is a big hill at the start, then hills as you approach the port in Dover.”
What Lynne loved most about the Action L2P was the sociable side. She went with a group of five friends, but often rode with others on the ride who were of similar level and pace. “I met people I would never normally have met and made some new friends,” she says.
Riding through France was amazing for Lynne, particularly as she’d never before visited the country. “It was an amazing experience. The quiet country lanes were so lovely and picturesque, particularly the poppy fields. The scenery, the stops and the food were all excellent and I loved riding as a group in a supportive and non-competitive capacity.”
The highpoint for Lynne, and the majority of other riders, was the thrill of achievement on the final day of the ride. “It was absolutely brilliant riding down the Champs-Élysées, then reaching the Arc de Triomphe with everyone clapping and the traffic slowed by the mass of hundreds of cyclists. That’s when the rush of achievement rolled over me. Spine tingling – still makes me get goose pimples.”
“The backup, the medical support, everything – the organisation, was faultless. I’d recommend it to anyone, particularly any women out there. It’s all in the preparation, which I can’t emphasise enough, but gender and age should not be a barrier.”
Top tips from Lynne for the Action L2P are:
- give it a go!
- train in all weathers
- train with someone else who can push you further than you would on your own
- learn how to change a puncture
- don’t take too much stuff with you
- try and get a friend, or group of friends, to do it with you so you can share the pain and the joy.
“Cycling is now my passion and keeps me sane. I plan to do the Action Warwickshire 100 in 2014 and really want to also do the RIDE London. The Action L2P is an experience I will never, ever forget and sealed the deal for me in terms of my love of cycling. I’d urge you to try it and meet like-minded women who want to enjoy riding rather than racing from A to B (or in this case L 2 P!)”
