St Malo to Nice - Reflections on the ride
Having done LEJOG back in 2019, the chance to do the French equivalent not only seemed too good to pass up, but also presented pretty much a like for like comparison of doing end to end in the 2 countries.
Having had time to reflect on my experiences, I thought I'd share come of the comparative differences with the experiences.
Before I go on though, irrespective of your conclusion of this particular reflection, I would say that both rides are definitely worth doing. They both offer a unique perspective on the country your riding in and are one hell of an experience.
I rode LEJOG with the Deloitte Ride Across Britain event which is effectively owned and managed by Threshold Sports.
I rode St Malo to Nice with Bike Alive.
You cannot get 2 more contrasting experiences in that regards. LEJOG was 800-1000 people. A small army if you like. ST Malo to Nice was 6 riders supported by 1 man and a Van with a trailer.
As you'd expect with the scale oif a ride like LEJOG it's like shifting a small army from basecamp to basecamp. The organisaion has to be tight and regimented and that's exactly what it felt like. You enter the bubble, get swept along within it for 9 days, and then get spat out at the end. It's all encompassing and single-minded in its endeavour.
The route on LEJOG was signposted all the way and the stops were set at roughtly 40-50k intervals. each day, with lunch being the mid-point stop.
St Malo to Nice was alltogether more relaxed. Derek put us at the centerpoint of decision making and gave us the autonomy to decide when to set off and when to stop. He'd set us off, then overtake us and wait up ahead. If we wanted to stop we could or otherwise we'd carry on. He carried all the necessary sustenance (water, bananas, bars, gels, electolytes etc). For lunch he offered to do a picnic from the van, although some of us elected to sort our own lunch from a local boulanger on route. But again, the choice was ours.
As you;d expect, the route wasn't signposted but we instead had maps, but also crucially, followed GPX routes on our Garmins which were perfect 99.9% of the time and for even the .1% of confusion it was pretty obvious which way we were going.
I think both events organise themselves optimally for the scale of the operation and both work perfectly well.
On LEJOG we stayed in tents, ready-erected for us, (although a hotel option was there if you wanted it, whereas on StMalotoNice we stayed in 3* hotels.
On LEJOG you got used to the tents and actually came to love them by the end, although the air conditioned rooms of a hotel were wonderful.
On LEJOG you would have to queue for a shower (unless you were one of the faster riders) which always created a bottleneck (understandable when you have that many people) whereas we had ensuite shower (and sometimes a bath) with the French trip.
Sleepwise I'd say I got roughly the same amount of sleep in both tours. This is more down to over-exertion and twitch, sore legs, than anything else.
Both routes compare in terms of stats.
Roughly 1600 kms and roughly 60,000ft of climing - they are broadly equivalent. LEJOG is done over 9 days whereas St Malo to Nice is done over 10, so what you lose in terms of daily mileage on St Malo to Nice, you make up for with slighly more climbing.
Both routes I would suggest show you some of the best scenes of the country. Unfortunately for LEJOG it also means you get some of the worst. Certainly I felt LEJOG was effectively days 1 and 2 and then days 6 to 9, with the other days being fairly transitional with the odd exception on the other days.
St Malo to Nice was just stunning the majority of the time. In hindsight, days 1-3 were probably the weakest (although I did enjoy riding along the sea on day 1), but that's probably because we got spolt on days 4 onwards. So they weren't bad, they just got blown away by the later stages.
In terms of climbs, France wins it hands-down. You simply don't get the same scale, challenge and end result of the climbs in France on LEJOG.
And for every climb there's a descent and again, France wins this hands down. This is probably contributed by the road surface, but the descents are phenomenal in every way. Long, manageable and fun with terrific views and sweeping landscapes. they were superb.
In terms of road surface, no aurprise here, but France wins it hands down as well. The only time we really had a poor road surface was when we came across roadworks re-laying the road surface. The UK could learn so much in this regard.
In terms of driver etiquetts, again the French win hands-down. I think I had 2, what I would class, close passes in France where I get about 5 on a short loop here in the UK. The French just seem more patient, considerate and supportive of cyclists (we got a number of hoots and waves on route) which you simply do not get in the UK. In the UK it's the exception, in France it's the norm.
As I said in my opening paragraph, both rides are awesome experiences. I really like the idea of riding from one end of a country to the other, and both these rides offer that an do an excellent job at supporting you to achieve your goal.
In hindsight I'm glad I did LEJOG before St malo to Nice because I can't help feeling that LEJOG might have felt underwhelming if I did it the other way around.
Both rides to have transition phases, and any ride like this is going to have those, but France offered up many more breathtaking and uterly awe-inspiring moments than LEJOG. Ultimately though, you are challenging yourself to ride from one end to another, so it is what it is. You have to take the good, the bad with the ugly and that's part of the beauty of a trip like this.
I still love the fact that I've done LEJOG, but I'm equally delighted to have done St Malo to Nice. The real question is, what comes next....
