1 - France and Italy

We left Calais at 8.00am on 11 May 2002. The strategy for this leg was to ride it in one hit.

Other than a half an hour kip at a petrol station on a bench, we rode 1,671 miles without sleeping.

Fighting to keep going during the early hours was a real will of mind over matter.

The first leg took 27.5 hours.