Cycling to Paris – Less than 100 days to the start

Everyone here at Codemate is more or less a technology enthusiast. Otherwise, we are quite a heterogeneous bunch of people, which we see as richness. Some people are into computer games, others are into music or maybe sports. You name it, we probably got it.

We heard that one of our software architects, Tuomas Nissi, is going to do some cycling next summer – 1200 km to Paris, France – and decided to find out if he’s in his right mind.

So what is this thing all about? Cycling just for fun?

Well, for fun yes, but not just. I applied and was accepted to the Team Rynkeby – God Morgon Oulu cycling team for the season 2019. Team Rynkeby is a Nordic charity cycling team, that cycles to Paris every summer to raise money for seriously ill children. This year the tour to Paris is an event of 2100 cyclist and 55 teams from 7 countries. Teams make sponsorship deals with companies, of which Codemate is one of, and also raise money by other means for charity. Each country has its’ own charities, but the common nominator in all countries is seriously ill children. In Finland, the money goes to Aamu foundation for children cancer research and to Sylva association for supporting children with cancer and their families.

Why are you doing this? Wouldn’t it be easier to just buy a flight to Paris?

People have various reasons for participating. For me, it’s the combination of everything: the team, training, charity and the tour. I mean, is there some other way to get to know 50 people you otherwise might not meet at all, train and work together for a greater good and eventually take a week just for cycling with them? I also wanted to try out road cycling in a team. I have done a fair share of mountain biking over the years, but road cycling is a completely new thing for me.

And yes, it would be easier and cheaper to fly to Paris. The tour will take a week and we are paying all our expenses ourselves. Every cent of the sponsor money goes to charity causes.

How do you prepare for the tour?

Lots of long-lasting basic (i.e. moderate heart rate) training. Currently, we have 3 common training sessions a week: two indoor cycling and one nordic walking. Plus the training everyone does him/herself. Weekly training time should be around 6-8 hours at this time of year and later on, it should increase to 10-12 hours a week. Everyone has also committed to cycle 2500 km before the actual 1200 km tour! So it’s going to be a busy couple of months here in Oulu once the ice on the roads are gone.

Photo by Marko Kerola

When and where is the start? Which route you’ll take?

We’ll have a farewell event first in Oulu on Monday 24th of June. Some of us start their journey already then by cycling to Helsinki first. The rest of us will stay in Oulu for a few days and prepare a service truck and vans. On Friday 28th there’s another farewell event in Helsinki to which all teams from Finland will participate. Then we’ll board a ferry to Travemünde, Germany, where the actual cycling journey will start on Sunday. The route follows small roads past Hamburg, Dortmund and Düsseldorf in Germany. Then through the Netherlands and Belgium to France. The arrival to Paris is finally on Saturday 6th of July. We will not cycle in one long queue of 2100 cyclists but each team will have their own route to follow for most of the journey. The daily journeys are between 170 and 220 km, some shorter distances also closer to Paris.

What about practicalities? You already mentioned a truck and vans. I guess you’ll also need to eat and sleep on the journey.

Yes, there’s the truck and vans. We’ll sleep in hotels on the way and the truck takes our luggage from one hotel to another. The truck is also loaded with food here in Finland and we’ll try to eat everything before Paris. A typical day on the road starts by waking up, getting breakfast and hitting the road. The first snack break is after a couple of hours. Then some more cycling and lunch break. Then some more cycling, snack break, more cycling and arrival to the next hotel. The first thing after the arrival is to make sure that the bike is ready for the next day – cleaning it, lubing the chain and other necessary maintenance required. Then dinner and relax, maybe go and see the town we’re in. But I suspect that after 8-10 hours cycling the bed is also calling quite soon.

What if you get a flat tyre or your butt can’t take it anymore?

That’s what the vans are for. One of them is the service van with spare parts. The flat tyre is handled by changing the whole wheel so that the tour can continue as quickly as possible – we do have a schedule. The tyre is then fixed later on at the hotel. And in case you get sick you lift the bike on the roof of the van and jump into it yourself. All kinds of things are bound to happen on a tour this long, so we’ll just need to go with the flow.

Thank you, Tuomas! On behalf of all Codemates, I wish you all the best on your epic journey. How can we follow your progress?

If you want to follow our preparation and the tour, follow Team Rynkeby – God Morgon Oulu in Facebook or Team Rynkeby – God Morgon Oulu in Instagram. And in case you’d like to donate check out my Oma Sylva fundraising.