Cycling from France ➡ London to deliver a bike

🚲 Contains paid promotion for Van Rysel 🚲
Liam takes on a 300km ride to deliver Van Rysel’s new endurance bike to their concept store in London.
He tackles various challenges along the way, testing the bike, his endurance, and his terrible French.

Time codes:
00:39 Win Paris Roubaix
03:06 The Van Rysel EDR
04:31 Take the Kemmelberg KOM
07:18 Have the most French lunch possible
08:57 Get to Calais
11:14 Get to London
14:25 Wash the bike
15:43 Special delivery

I’ve always wanted to do a really long ride from point to point and today I’m going to do just that. Van Reel have sent me the challenge of delivering this their latest Jazzy EDR endurance bike from here in Le. That’s in France to London or or London. I’m not sure which way it is, but it’s 300 km away. If I’m honest, my fitness isn’t great and I think I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. Oh, and I’ve just been told that the producers have sent me a series of challenges. Apparently, these are French themed. They might involve cake or cobbles or potentially crappy weather. We’ll see. Oh, that sounds like a challenge. Yes. Challenge one. Win Harry Rubé. You will go and ride some of the cobble sectors of Par and finish in the Veladrome. Right. And that should shake out the cobwebs. First little bits out of Le. Very nice. Oh yeah. So instantly front end of this bike with these um flat bits that they put on. I mean they’re mostly for that, but if you tuck your forearms down onto them, that’s super comfy. Okay, we’re out of Le now into the lovely French countryside. Ah yes, Chris room did a lot of roll over it, I think. God, these cobles are bad. Might do some tire pressure adjustments after this. This is where we enter into car for Delara swing right. Oh, you know what? I dropped some pressure out just after that last sector and it’s made the world of difference. Holy Oh. Oh, that’s a bottle gone. That was like bouncing around inside my frame for ages. This is why the riders put copious amounts of tape and grip tape and have adjustable bottle cages just for that. don’t get any easier. So, this is the uh comparatively very smooth final sector of the race and then we are going to swing right into the oblique. Wow, says that I’m sure I can just go on and do a couple of laps. I’m going to go and win Paru Bay. Like just a couple of quick laps. Well, that’s Rube one. So, add that to the Palmy. Bike was quite nice. So, Rachel, key to an endurance bike is comfort. What have you done with this bike to ensure that I’m comfortable on my long rides? So for the comfort, it was very important for us to work on the geometry to really have a relaxed geometry. We shorter the reach and increase a bit the stack compared to race bag. For example, we worked also on the endlebar to propose a multi-position handlebar, something very ergonomic with a round shape in the middle to add your accessories and also a flat shape and a little flare on the on the side. And the tire clearance very important. Today we have a 32 mm tires on the bike and you can put until 38 mm tires. Perfect. Rachel, there’s a lot of kit on this bike. I’m seeing Altegra Di2 Swiss side carbon wheels. Dare I ask how much this is going to cost me? The price for these bikes is €4,900. And for this price, you are very light frame, 830 g. Carbon wheels, carbon frame for sure. All the handlebar and the seat tube also in carbon also to bring comfort when you ride. You have the power meter also included with the Ultegra which is a key point on this price point. You have mudguard mounts on the back side here and on the front side here. You also have insert under the D tube. For example, if you want to add a toolbox under the D tube, it could be useful. Perfect. Oh, that is another text which I think means another challen Yeah, another challenge has arrived. Now that you’ve won Parubet, go and win gentlam. Ooh, Dave says right that if I take the Strava on the Kemlberg, he’ll give me a million pound bonus. And I think he means that his money’s safe. Oh, hang on. That means going to Belgium. Oh, don’t worry. is literally over there 10 km inadvertently. Right, I’ve found myself onto gravel which is very fitting for Gent Bubblegum cuz you know they’ve introduced some of the plug streets or plug or whatever it is. I’ve just rolled over a bridge and I seem to have found myself in Belgium. Well, Belgium’s welcomed me very nicely because my front wheel just hit a potato and it nearly crashed. You can’t You can’t crash on a potato. Things have all of a sudden got quite hilly. Seeing as the hills are here, must mean that I’m getting near to Keml. And challenge number two. I’ve made it to the Kemlberg. Um, I’ve never ridden this, so I’m going to take as much run up as I can and see if I can win myself a£1 million bonus. I don’t have high hopes, but we shall try. Okay. Oh my not right, that’s slippery. I think the com might be safe. Bloody hell, that’s steep. So, I know that this road was only built to service the artillery battery that was at the top of here during the First World War. That is 400 and something of my best WS. And now Wan has attacked over the top. I can’t follow him. That was hard. Cobble climbs are really, really hard. I was quite glad for the lightweight kind of like frame set on this bike. 830 grams, I think they said. And yeah, you need it up there. I don’t think Oh, actually, no. Now, I’m going to I’m going to be confident. I think I’ve taken the Strava and I think I should be paid a million pounds. Okay, Liam, you’re now 80 km in and that means that you’re very prone to bonking. Apparently, I’ve done this before. You will find love this. You will find an authentic French beastro, a mon de Jane. So that is go and have lunch in the most authentic way possible. As soon as I cross back over into France, which was after about 10 minutes, we’ve we’ve done the crappy weather now. Uh, so I’m very glad I’ve got me rain jacket. Bit more climbing before lunch apparently. Going up the Micats. I don’t know anything about the Micats. Oh, it’s steep, isn’t it? We’re a bit late. We’re in France and it’s gone past 2:30. So, we’re a bit late for a proper de Jane. So, we’re just going to have to go to a blue laundry and get a baguette. But I still think that’s quite French and you can get an orange and that’s very French. So, I think half a point. Well, the size of these baguettes are enorm. Um, and also like I was tempted by slump, but I’m well cuz you see the size of the baguettes. I’m going to be eating this all the way to Calala. Well, that’s my baguette eaten. And my final challenge as I was eating my baguette was given to me and it is get to the coast, dip a wheel in the water. So I’ve got 82 km to go and I need to get my skates on because it goes dark in about 3 hours and that’s how long it will probably take me to do 80k. Who’s Marie? We’ve stopped at a little town hall um because I needed to stretch out my legs. We’ve only got 32 km to go. So, I reckon that’s just over an hour. I’ve had a stretch. I’m good to go. Let’s get to the beach. While we’re on a nice quiet road and the sun is shining, I thought I’d just have a little reflection on today. This is the first time in a long time that I’ve ridden over 100 km. I’ll I’ll be honest. And it’s been absolutely brilliant. I truly see why endurance bikes exist. It’s been calm, a very comfortable friend, and I’m actually looking forward to riding it tomorrow. So, let’s get this final challenge done and dip one of the wheels in the sea. That’s the sea. What a nice ride. My knees have left the chat, but look at this. Do you do a skid to stop? Yes, of course you do. So, that would be the C, which means that I have made it. I’ve made it for day one, but I’ve had a lovely, lovely day on this bike. It’s a very comfy thing. We’ve thrown everything at it that we could. Cobbled, cobbled climbed, cobbled descents, rain, just everything, and it’s just eaten it up. Let’s go for day two. Oh. Um Dave, can you um I can’t swim, so can you can you take me over the channel in your car? That’ll be yes. It’s day two and we’re here in the marginally sunny Folkston. Um, I’ve got a text through which must mean it’s a new challenge. It is indeed. Okay, now that you’ve finished assing around in France and on the beach, you will scale the white cliffs of Dover and cut to scaling the white cliffs of Dover. Well, thankfully the roads of Southeast England are well quite beautifully rolling, fast, relatively well surfaced, and I think I’m making good progress. Maybe in London for lunch. Pretty sure that was the first rider I’ve actually ridden behind on this whole trip. Where were you all? I needed some help. I needed a draft. Just had a little cafe stop uh to refresh the legs, which is something I didn’t really do yesterday. Uh we waited quite a long time until having a lunch stop. Cafe stops are great. And I was just pondering what is the best cafe stop option. I have to say what I had. Millionaire shortbread. And I will give my reasons. packed with calories, but also nice and compact so it doesn’t sit too heavy on the stomach. Simply excellent. If you would like to leave your suggestions for the best cafe snack in the comments below, we can all have a big old debate. Well, now we seem to be in London nearly. And the joyous thing is that for the last 15 20k, my legs have woken up. It only took 260 km for them to actually wake up. But they’re here. They’ve arrived. And I’m I’m very glad to see them. It’s amazing with an endurance bike like this that you think, “Oh, that’s actually going to be quite slow. It’s going to be quite sedate.” But actually, for a lot of people, one, this just puts you in a more comfortable position, so you’re going to be faster through the day. But also, this borrows tech from the RCR range, like their race bike stuff. So, it’s got some aero stuff built into the frame. Okay, so we got a frame bag on, which isn’t going to help. But I’m still shifting along these A- roads at a really, really good rate. And soon we should see London, so we best get there. As you can see, I’ve reached London. Text came in. So, oh, it’s another challenge. Congratulations, you have reached London. The bikes in the Van Reel concept store are in showroom condition. Yours is not. You shall find a garage and clean it up to be showroom ready. Right, let’s go and find a garage. Nothing that the EDR can’t handle. I’m just taking the wrong turn. I think we’re going into uh I think this is Greenwich Park. Yeah, is Greenwich Park. We’re in luck. That is a jet wash. Sorry for uh what you’re about to see if you hate jet washing bikes, but got to do what we got to do. That looks pretty good to me. Well, thank you very much to Van Resil for sponsoring this video. But as much as I like it, let’s go and give their bike back. So, come on into the store. A Lovely. Right, I bought you a bike. Oh, thank you very much. George looks trustworthy. So, um, I’ll leave this with you. Um, I’m going to go and get the train, I think. Enjoy your journey back. So, train station. I was a little bit worried you died. Sorry. I was a little bit worried you died.