I had three, two, one.
Yeah.
I'm good to go.
Want to wear my apron?
Oh, yeah.
Barcelona and Berlin, but never London, never Paris.
I just want to ride around in the streets.
See what it's like. See how different it is to New York.
I was the leader of the 725 CR track bikes.
I thought everyone was riding load bikes,
but even given the option, I would have ridden this bike anyway
because it's like I designed it and I'm going to ride it.
It's just raw aluminum.
It's kind of, it's hidden from the sand blasted in,
so a bunch of beads of sand kind of hit it and make it rough.
My gear ratio for this trip is 52-18.
We're going to be doing a long distance ride.
It's a Madone road bike.
I've never ridden a road bike before.
I've always ridden track bikes,
so it was one of those things to,
it's a new experience, you know.
Why did you skip it back?
So the bikes in New York are hunting for it.
Ted, where are we going?
That way.
Alright.
Just following you.
Oxford Street, Regent Street,
Buckingham Palace, London Eye, South Bank,
Millennium Bridge, St Paul's and East.
This is crazy street, man.
That first day when we all got on the bike,
we walked out of the hotel,
we took a left on Oxford Street,
and we just jumped right into the fire.
Following Ted, Super Ted, the mayor of London,
he's just like, follow me,
and we all just straight out of the gate,
just blasted through all the buses,
all the traffic around the roundabouts.
I've never ridden a bike around a roundabout in my life,
especially on cobblestone with double-decker buses and all this.
And we all capped up with him,
and I think that's kind of when,
that's when we all clicked.
Okay, everyone, everyone can ride.
We can handle this.
What's that, man?
Oh boy.
Okay.
You got any tricks?
What?
You got any tricks?
That's your boy.
We're in front of the Tate modern,
and in front of this badly designed bridge
that wobbles a lot.
We met for the first time in a hotel lobby,
and came together, got our gear together,
got the bikes built up, got the food together,
and met up.
Day one of the ride.
We got out of running a little later than I wanted to.
We were probably running about two hours behind.
Once we started going,
we were making really good time.
We stopped a couple times,
but nothing serious,
and then we were about halfway.
We checked the time.
We were doing pretty good.
We thought we were going to get into,
figured we'd get into New Haven
around maybe eight,
and the ferry didn't leave until 10.30,
so we thought we had plenty of time.
And stopped for lunch,
stopped for some chips.
It was amazing.
Four Guinness at the stop.
No, I didn't think of all of myself.
No, three.
Three of them.
And you had four of those.
First dude up the hill.
First guy down the hill.
Skated face.
It was on Sunday morning
before the trip.
I came off the bike,
and got a big split in my eyebrow.
I got nine stitches in it,
and messed my hand up pretty good.
So I was a little bit worried about doing the ride.
It doesn't seem right.
I wasn't sure if my hand was broken or not.
I was just swallowing up,
and I couldn't really grip the bars properly.
Come on, you can do it.
Oh, my God.
It's like, look at that.
A pint went down.
Fuck it.
That's a true road soda.
Road soda, for sure.
Might have stopped a little longer than we should have.
So we took off from lunch,
and that's when we started getting some flat tires.
Took a wrong turn or two.
We figured it out,
and then we got a call from our support vehicle,
and we had 30 minutes,
and I think we had about 10 miles to go,
so something like that.
At the first, I sprinted really fast,
but there's no new haven.
You can't see the ocean, you know?
Nothing, just like mountains.
So then we get another call,
and we have like 15 minutes to make it five miles.
I thought we're not going to make it.
I thought there's no way we're going to do it in half an hour.
But somehow, we made it.
I don't know how we did it.
I was riding at the front,
pretty much as hard as I could.
Still thinking we weren't actually going to get there,
but just thought, why not try?
And I don't know how he does it.
He's the most unhealthy, unprepared guy I've ever met in my life,
and he's got to be the strongest cyclist I've ever met in my life.
I don't know how he does it.
He doesn't need anything,
and then pulled all of us to the ferry.
He got there first after so many, so many rolling hills.
I think we showed up probably 30 seconds late.
Mad dash.
We made enough wrong turns that we probably added a good 20 miles to our ride.
Ended up probably being about 85 to 90 miles.
We're just running in frantic like, let us in the next country.
Make it in time?
Maybe.
If we get the passports, find them and come inside.
We got everybody on. I don't know how they did it.
We all ride track bikes.
I know a lot of the guys that ride, or know of them,
so I phoned a bunch of guys up and see if they wanted to go for a ride.
Do you have someone to stay at the yet?
No, no.
We got straight through there.
We worked on some shoes, we worked on some soccer shoes with Nike
and made them better for fixed gear riding.
Are you all riding fixed now?
Most of us.
Super on road bikes.
What size fit?
Gear ratio?
I got 49.18.
That's a sensible fit.
Pretty medium.
I can get up them and get down them.
Neither one is fun, but the flat's pretty good.
People just kind of crashed out on the floor.
All so tired.
So we get into DF and we know we have a hotel booked.
It's now four in the morning.
Off the ferry, you regroup and try to find the hotel,
which is another hour and a half process.
It was a very strange day, so it was tough,
but everyone got through it.
It was cool.
We had logistical problems of where we're going to stay,
or not where we're going to stay, but, you know,
there was supposed to be a camp scenario,
so we were trying to get gear for that.
Transportation settled.
We kept trying to get a car, but couldn't do it.
Couldn't not get a car until the next day.
So outside of riding, it was what we wanted to do,
but everything surrounding the actual riding
was kind of like a hard thing to configure,
so through that we just weren't able to ride.
Team morale was pretty low at that point.
I almost, it was almost ready to call off the whole thing.
Like, sorry guys, Ted walked in and I said,
Ted, I don't know if we're going to be able to do this, man.
We might have to take the train some of the way.
I couldn't believe it.
I thought there's no way that's going to happen.
One way or another, we've got to do it.
We've got to ride it.
People are comfortable all over the world to do it,
and meet up.
It had to be done.
The car says we're going to do 120 miles tomorrow.
I never even ride like 120 miles before a day.
It might be a fast time to try it.
117 miles to ride from Dieppe to Paris,
and one day when the original plan was to do 60 to 70 miles a day.
You know, no one had done that before on a track bike,
so a little apprehensive,
but at the same time, we came from so far to come here to do this
that I think that everyone had to put, you know,
got to put double the extra effort in to make it happen.
We all looked at each other, like, can we do this?
Yeah, I think so. Can you?
I had no choice. Let's do it. Let's do it.
And Ted's morale just boosted everybody.
We're like, we're doing it.
As long as we get out before eight, everything's good.
What can possibly go wrong?
All right, you guys ready? Everybody ready?
Mount up. Got Dieppe to Paris.
117 miles. We can do it.
Gasped by positive energy, guys.
Getting out of Dieppe was real easy.
We rode on this 20-mile bike path through the woods.
We all stayed pretty close. Good pace line.
And then, just on some long country roads,
ran into a lot of cool little towns.
Stopped at lunch.
To there, we just rode, like, three hours about that.
And it is just, like, one-third trip per day
with nice and smooth streets and just keeping the pace.
So I thought it's kind of, like, easy.
As long as we eat, we'll be charging.
But to there, there was no hill.
It was just flat.
It was so easy for me to get there.
But the trail is the end up there, so...
Towards Gournet, which is that, right there.
Gournet, bro.
I try and set a good pace.
And then, eventually, Hal or Ted will go past me
and set a tough pace.
About, like, 25 miles of power, just keeping the pace.
Just riding with my friends through cornfields.
That's crazy. You know, we don't do that.
We ride up First Avenue, you know what I mean?
Or we ride down Market Street in San Francisco, whatever it is.
I mean, so just being in, like, in Hayfields,
it's not an everyday thing. I mean, in France.
I'm just riding. I'm just riding.
I'm not racing. I'm just gonna ride it.
Stopping in these little towns is definitely pretty rad.
I mean, I...
No one in any of these stores can have a conversation with me.
It's kind of weird.
Marje suis du pays, of course.
60 miles down.
Trying to do two days in one day.
I'm not sure where the hardest part of the trip to Paris was.
There's definitely moments where a lot of people are cramping up.
I definitely feel the cramps coming into my legs.
I hit a lot of hills, a lot of long, rolling hills.
Nothing too steep, but some real long, gradual ones.
I got dropped from the pack, and then I was just kind of out there in the middle of the woods.
When you go uphill, you know, the people are going to spread out,
so go a little bit slow.
Don't go too fast, but 10 and then you go too fast.
I couldn't keep up with these guys.
Because everyone was like, they were pushing each other so hard.
I was like, I need my own pace on that.
And I was like, I'm pretty much fine with that.
I couldn't really ride on my own.
I was going 60 miles on my own, I guess.
Keeping everyone together is really difficult.
I mean, we're flying along.
Most people in the line, but as soon as you get dropped,
you can't catch up.
There's winds in your face, and you know, the worst thing about that is,
when someone else has been resting, waiting for you,
and then you get there and they're like, all right, let's go.
I was really feeling sick.
I threw up all the way.
I basically did it on an empty stomach.
It's a lot different riding in these country roads,
because you're just going and going and going and going.
There's no stopping.
Just keep it moving, keep it moving.
Everybody keeps pushing it, so I will push harder and harder.
We're pushing each other right now.
It's like the last stretch.
Everyone has to do the same thing.
We have one goal, and that's just to get there.
You know, it's mind over matter, actually.
The mental pulls through all the way to the Eiffel Tower.
And every time we come around, it comes like, dude,
that must be the last climb ever.
The last move was probably like, it was a climb,
but it was gradually a descent into hell, to be honest.
Because it was like, it would never end.
It was seemingly never ending.
We could start to see the city, like sort of in the horizon,
and the road dipped under.
Right before the Paris, there was a tunnel.
It was so fast.
And everybody going like this, very fast.
And get tired.
We already ride more than 100 miles at the time.
Come out the other side, and then we see Paris.
Cobblestone streets, like the same streets that they're racing
on the tour the next afternoon.
We get, keep going, keep going.
We get to the Eiffel Tower.
And then the moment we come around the corner,
I saw the Eiffel Tower start crying.
It was the best thing ever.
What's that like?
Yeah.
Highlight for me on the trip, though, I would say,
is actually getting to the Eiffel Tower.
And being comfortable enough with, you know,
the people that we just rode with,
to like, we fell asleep under the Eiffel Tower for a second
while we were waiting for some,
you know, other friends to come.
So, I won't forget that.
That's when Jupiter says, like, that's our trophy.
And it just starts blinking.
It starts flashing.
And that put a smile on everybody's face.
It was just such a, like, accomplishment and feat.
And, like, we all did it.
And it's like, you can look at everyone in the face
and say, you know, we did it, you know,
and, like, that brotherhood thing.
You know? And it was, like,
we conquered the world.
Maybe you had him by, like,
that was insane.
Ferrari is so long.
They're trying to pull for so long.
That's a team?
Yeah, they were in front. They were trying to pull.
They were pulling for days.
And all of a sudden, fucking,
what do you call it, Columbia, just went out.
Dude, they're lead out, man.
I forget the name that leads out.
Cabinage.
He's just as fast as, like, whatever.
He's just as fast.
He pulls them, and he just gets out,
and, like, fuck me.
Dude, Amherst.
I was so excited.
You know, this is the first time
I've been on a trip to Europe,
and it's the first time I've ever seen
a tour of France.
And they're so fast.
The streets are loud.
They're awesome.
My name is Thomas Bichard,
and I'm an artist-penter.
I have the same first day of France.
It's the 19th of September,
61,
in France,
and I met Lance
four times,
and I present my art,
and the first time it was very interesting,
and it's a very strange, you know.
It's a Lance in a tour of France,
and he said to us,
I want to see your press book
for painting.
And this is his portrait,
and all the people see my portrait,
and say, oh, it's ugly, it's ugly.
No, you don't show to Lance.
It's very nice to meet you, Kyle.
Congratulations.
Can you tell I'm not from here?
What gives it away?
It was great to be the tour of France,
because we just did a hell of a tour ourselves,
and,
you know, now we have a better understanding
of exactly how they might feel,
except they did it for multiple days in a row,
so I'm just used to be here,
and, man,
making new friends in Paris,
and enjoying life through cycling,
through the end to a wonderful trip.
Everyone loves him,
and he's not finished yet.
Oh,
see what I've done.
That bridge is on fire.
Yeah.
That's the way I do it.
Like that?
I'm froze by desire.
No need to think.
Like it.
If this is what you're going under.
That's the way it's got.
That's it.
I'm froze by desire.
That's the way I do it.
Yeah.
We got invited to live strong again at an art gallery.
There was all these amazing bikes, all these amazing artists, all these different bikes.
Tom Sacks made a tequila bike.
You could like line up your own shots and the bike was actually, it was powered by some sort of pump
in the core tequila and Tom saw us taking a shot and he came over and wanted to explain how it worked to us
and that's when Lance walked in.
You can do this way. Departments of boys have some shoes.
DJ, close to your ass.
You got the first choice.
First choice.
You representing the VF crew.
You choose.
I got the last one.
Yep, yep, yep.
It's strong.
You got the last one.
You got the last one.
You got the last one.
You got the last one.
It's all to do with the comparison, strength, weight ratio, strength to weight ratio.
Strong you are, like you are.
It's all to do with the strength to weight ratio.
Nothing else.
That's it.
Strength to weight.
I made a lot of new friends.
Really cool.
Lots of new places to go and visit.
To ride with all these different people was a super good experience.
Because everybody has their own style.
My son is great to meet him.
He's a really cool guy.
I saw him on the MASH video.
I thought I just knew he'd be a really good guy to ride with.
I was like a machine.
Never complained once.
Ted to me is a super human being.
He's like the thing from the Fantastic Four that can't be stopped.
I've never seen anybody can do what he can do.
He's like two of the friends ready like that.
He's like even a road bike.
He will laugh at all these guys with a beer in his pocket.
Honestly.
He is like not that fast but he's keeping pace.
He said he can't do it anymore.
But finally we did it.
I respect him what he did.
It was sad that he was really ill because he really kept it to himself all the time.
But he's also a super strong rider.
We're definitely into this game.
Thanks a lot.
