Hello everyone.

First apologies for not updating earlier. Two reasons. No wee fee as the French say and too tired to write anything either!

Day two dawned bright and pleasant and we set off with two objectives in view. The first was the Col de L’Aubisque. At about 2000m this was no small hill but first we had to ride quite a few km’s to get to the base of it. It really is a lovely valley and climbing up the lower slopes was very interesting and pretty. Distance from bottom to top is roughly 20 km and so, if I could climb at about 10km/hr that would be about 2 hours of climbing. However….the road kicks up at about 14km and I was quickly down to about 7.5km/hr. it took me a long time to get to the top. I also found I was the last to reach it. The Lantern Rouge – in cycling parlance. After a brief rest and top up of water bottles it was off down the most wonderful, fast descent. Speeds can get out of hand very quickly so you need to keep your eye on the road ahead. You don’t want to hit a hairpin bend and 60km/hr. that number will also tell you that descending is very quick -a matter of minutes, not hours.

Now the tricky bit. The next big climb was the Tourmalet. An even bigger and steeper climb than the Aubisque. At over 2200m it was also very long. But, the bad news was that the normal road to take was closed by ice and snow so we had to detour via Lourdes. Just to add to the fun the temperature was by now very hot. I don’t have a thermometer but the bike computer said 37* which very warm indeed. So we formed a small group to transit from the bottom of the Aubisque round to the Tourmalet. The long route added about another 35km’s to and already long journey.

The climb to the top of the Tourmalet is very long and, frankly, for someone weighing 14stones very hard work. It just keeps going on and on. The pedals seem to be jammed and the tyres stuck to the road with glue. I drank about 6litres of water climbing that hill. The top was covered in snow and very cold. Icy waterfalls from the melting snow ran off everywhere. To descend we put on a wind proof gilet and arm earners and set off on a 20km downhill. I had been joined by Ully, a German and Peter and man older than myself. We arrived at 8.30pm 12 hours after we left that morning. Legs bursting but a good meal to look forward to.

I will try to post some pictures of that day in a moment if I can get the technology to work.

God bless.

Btw. Sorry no photos of the Tourmalet. The phone ran out of power and left me high and dry!
Fr David

Day 2: Lurbe St Christau to Aste (140km with 3530km ascent)

This second day of riding is a big day that travels over the most feared cols in the Pyrenees, but it is also some of the most spectacular riding.

Firstly we have a nice gentle warm up to Laruns, base camp to the stunningly beautiful Col D’Aubisque (1709m). The cafe on the top provides a perfect place for a deserved rest before dropping down and back up the Col de Soulor (1464m), which you will honestly hardly notice! The swoopy descent to Argeles-Gazost is great and the pretty town provides a good opportunity to stop for some lunch. Unfortunately from here we meet out first busy road which takes us up the gorge to Luz-St Sauveur. Next up is the Col De Tourmalet (2115m), a mountain climb which needs no introduction. After a bit of souvenir shopping at the top (where there is also a great café with some interesting Tour de France artefacts), we descend to St Marie de Campan, and from here to our hotel in Aste.

Except, we don’t today as the route described above up to the Tourmalet is closed due to snow. The road on the other side is open though which means that we have to drop down to Lourdes the come round the other way. Think of it like the M25 – the Tourmalet is where the M23 leaves it. The Col d’aubisque is where the M4 joins it and we are going round clockwise via the Datford bridge instead of directly. This adds another 35km to the route making today a big one in distance and in climbing.

Together with the Tourmalet and the Galibier, the Aubisque is one of the great legendary climbs of the Tour de France. Yet, the climb is easier than e.g. the Col de la Pierre Saint-Martin. On the west-side, the Aubisque starts in Laruns. The first kilometers, till spa resort Eaux-bonnes, are fairly easy. It is only when you reach the Cascade de Valentin that things get really hard with a piece of 13%. From there till the top, it’s 8 km at 8% average.

The Col de l’Aubisque is situated in Midi-Pyrenees and belongs to the Pyrenees . Starting from dal Soulor, the Col de l’Aubisque ascent is 30.1 km long. Over this distance, you climb 1247 heightmeters. The average percentage thus is 4.1 %.

The Col de Tourmalet is the highest road in the Pyrenees and also the steepest. It is one of the longest to boot. As I sit here typing this I’m thinking of about 2pm which is when we will be starting it.

Have a nice day

Fr David

Hello everyone. Just arrived at hotel at end of cracking first ride. Only one col today. A good warm up for tomorrow’s monsters though!

We dipped our feet in the Atlantic at Hendaye before setting off at 9am. The 100 hours have begun. We spun gently out of the town before organising ourselves into “chain gangs” – groups of 6 or 7 riders all taking turns at the front whilst the rest shelter behind. We began to really shift and kept up a good pace all the way to the first coffee stop at Espellette. The Raid organisers are constantly on hand with cake. Cake really does make the cycling world go round!
From there we got organised again and set a cracking pace to the lunch stop. You will no doubt be proud to know that the Cranleigh Four were constantly at the front – well 3 of them eventually. I came off the pace a bit and came in a minute or so behind the others. St Jean Pied de Port was the stop for lunch and a great lunch it was too. Reasonably priced and with chips aplenty.

From the lunch stop it was off for the big climb of the day up the Col D’Osquich. 500m of climbing at a gradient from 8% down to about 5.5% it was a taste of things to come but cake and water and M&M’s at the top prepared us for a fantastic descent at speeds up to 79km an hour. Great! And did I forget to mention the roads? They are like velvet even if there are a few dodgy bits. It makes cycling such a lovely experience rather than an everyday version of the death slide and the helter skelter! From the Col next stop was Tardets for coke and…. er…. cake!
Leaving Tardets we had about 29km to go with a couple of cheeky climbs before a nice run in to the hotel at Lurbe St Christau. The Hotel de Bon Coin has hot showers and smells strongly of damp which may be due to the incredible amount of rain they have been “enjoying” here. Apparently we have to look out for mud slides tomorrow and the road up to the Col de Tourmalet could be closed. We have to the wrong way round, up the back side of the mountain and then back down the same way. We have to do it because we have to have our Carnet’s stamped in the cafe at the top! Joy!

That’s enough from me. I hope you are all well and enjoying the Surrey sunshine. God bless. I am going to try to upload some pictures I took for you now.

Good morning all. I’m writing this in the Premier Inn at Stanstead after a good breakfast and a comfortable night’s sleep. Lenny Henry was not around unfortunately. The next step is to park the car and heft our bike boxes through departures and get them through baggage. All the time hoping that the online form filling already done equates to what we needed and no glitches. Then hopefully a smooth flight to Biarritz, a pick up from the team and off to tonight’s hotel, build the bikes, sort the kit, make the energy drinks, have a briefing and then try to get another good night’s sleep before the big day tomorrow.

More later…..here are the bike boxes for Bryan and me.

That man sleeping is nothing to do with us!

The readings of today’s mass offer striking images and boldly assert that there are some people whose relationship is so close to God that they can perform miracles.

The first figure we hear about today is Elijah – perhaps the greatest Old Testament prophet of all.  Elijah’s relationship with God was so intense and so close that, when his time came, he went up to heaven in a chariot of fire.  He was indeed a man of fire using striking images to rouse people from idolatry and back to true worship.

Elijah departing in the Chariot of Fire

Paul, the second of today’s great figures could also be described as a man of fire.  Fiery, perhaps!  From being the chief orchestrator of persecution of Christians Paul was converted to become it’s chief evangelist – and realised immediately that this Good News was catholic – that is to say universal – for everyone.  He then made it his life’s work to spread the good news wherever he found himself and when ever he could.

Paul preaching in characteristic pose

The third person we meet today – and of course at every mass – is Jesus.  The gospel wants us to think of Elijah and draw comparisons because the Gospel is a Jewish text and this would be understood.  But the gospel also wants to draw us beyond similarities to the uniqueness of Jesus.  At the Transfiguration the disciples see Jesus conversing with Moses the Teacher and Elijah the Prophet.  But we also hear the Father saying, “this is my Son listen to him”.  So Jesus, whilst standing in the great line of prophets and teachers is more than those things – he is the Son of God.

J.J. Tissot, detail of “Jesus Raising the son of the widow at Nain” (1890), original watercolor.

Today, in the Church, there is as great a need as ever for people to be prophetic.  The Church, as a whole, should be prophetic – but each one of us should live our lives prophetically – which is to say in a way that draws people to; alerts people to God’s loving presence in the world.  We should be teachers too.  We have much to teach.  The world has forgotten, within one or two generations, the truths of the Christian Gospel.  Our prophecy should alert people to the damaging issues of our society and teach them about the Gospel of life.  Each of us is called to perform, and be witnesses to, miracles – all through the Holy Spirit whose gift we have received.  As Bruce Nolan came to say at the end of the film Bruce Almighty – “Be the Miracle!”

With my love

Fr David

Happy Easter to you all – the Lord is Risen!

It’s a wonderful thing to be able to say that and to feel the power of Easter, and it’s joy, begin to take hold of life.

The thing is, of course, that Jesus has risen from the dead and is always with us, as he promised he would be.  In a sense we don’t need Holy Week and Easter to make that truth reality.

From the moment of his resurrection, the forty days with his disciples teaching and instructing them, through the days of the Ascension and the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, Jesus Christ has been alive and empowering those who believe in him.

But what our celebration does for us is to allow us to enter into the event – or events – in a powerful way.  Our celebration of Holy Week and Easter makes those events, which have freed us from sin and death, become real within our experience.  So we have stood with the Israelites at the Red Sea and seen the mighty works of God, we have been in the Upper Room and shared in the supper of the Lord, we have heard the words of the Lord to do this in memory of him and noticed the betrayer slip out.  We have slept alongside the disciples, or watched with Jesus in the Garden and felt the horror or his arrest.  We have walked the way of the cross and visited the tomb of death.  And then we have waited throughout Holy Saturday as the women had to because of the Sabbath.  Finally we have come together in the dark and experienced the fire of the irrepressible Spirit as it lit up the night leading us into our home – the church  - to celebrate the fact that the Lord has risen.  He is risen indeed.  Alleluia!

The question that arises from all this drama is – so what?  So, what does it all mean for us?  So, what does it do for me?  So what difference does it all make?

Quite simply it makes all the difference, or none at all!  We can allow our lives to be filled with the hope and joy of this event, or we can simply let it all slip through our fingers and come to nothing or little.  We can choose to live with the truth of the resurrection and the hope that this offers to every facet of human life, or we can ignore it, as most of the world does.  But the truth is that through the death and resurrection of Jesus God’s love for us, and indeed the whole world,  is revealed.  It is a love that will, quite literally, lay itself down for us to enable us to have the fullness of life.  Our response can be either gratitude or indifference?  Which will yours be?

I will be taking a few days off after Easter and so I will use this opportunity to say, first of all, thank you for all you do for me as your priest – your love and kindness in a myriad of small ways make such a difference.  The hard work and dedication of so many people behind the scenes especially and up front in other ways helps to make our parish a truly wonderful place to be.  Thank you and may God bless you this Eastertide.

With my love  Fr David

It’s been a while since I tapped in a few words on the blog.  Life has been so hectic with one thing or another.  I always say that I will use Lent as a time to wind down and only do the things that are truly important – but I always end up busier than ever.

This Sunday sees the beginning of Holy Week.  It coincides, roughly, with the beginning of a new Pontificate too.  Pope Francis has celebrated his inaugural Mass at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome watched by capacity crowds in the piazza and also in Buenos Aries by a huge joyful crowd outside the main cathedral.  Apparently, Pope Francis telephoned the people and asked them to pray for him.  Its amazing to think that he found time to do that, or even thought of it! 

But it does show us that we have a new beginning in the Vatican.  I am cautiously optimistic that Pope Francis will steer the Catholic Church in a fresh way along her pilgrim way of the Gospel.  I am encouraged by the news which each day reveals a man ready to do the Church’s business in a fresh way – a less stuffy way – a more humble way – a way that I hope will resonate with the poor and marginalised in our own society and around the world.

Holy Week, with it’s ancient liturgies, is a marvellous way of reconnecting with our faith.  With the very core of it.  The absolute centre.  In this week of drama we participate in a dramatic fashion in our story – or rather in God’s and our story.  For, in reality, they are entwined.  From the dramatic representation of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, with its ecstatic crowds and jubilant cries and the, later, overturning of the tables in the Temple to the quiet of the Upper Room – the visit of the woman who anointed Jesus feet with expensive perfume and her hair, the seder meal with His friends, the betrayal by one of those friends, the arrest, torture, and crucifixion of Good Friday.

All high drama and a must go call for everyone.

I have always been struck by the visuals of Holy Week and non more so than during he Maunday Thursday celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  Every year I wash twelve people’s feet and I am strongly reminded of the humanity of each of those people.  Their feet say so much – from the beautiful smooth skin of the young to the bunions and callouses of the older.  All are God’s children and he loves each one of them, and of us, with a love beyond our comprehension.  Likewise the giving of communion into the hand tells the stories of so many people – again the smooth un-wrinkled young hands with their future story still to be engraved on their skin; the wrinkles, blemishes and (sometimes) dirt of the others telling a story of lives filled with work.  All are God’s children and His dying and rising is for each one of them.

But His story is far more than just for us.  God so loved the world that he gave us His Son.  He loved the world – all creation; everything in it; all peoples of every nation; all times and all places are loved, forgiven, healed, and given the promise of new life in Christ.

Our joy as Christians is really to be recognisers of this story and to make a decision to be a part of the story.  To bring life out of any death; to bring healing out of hurt and suffering; to bring hope out of despair and love out of hatred.  God loves all He has made – always has and always will.  He loves people whether they are Christians, Muslims, HIndus, Jedi Knights, or whatever and in Christ, has made all alive.  Praise him !

Please join us for the Easter Triduum – details on the website and in the newsletter.

With my love for you, in Christ our Lord, and my thanks for your prayers and love for me too.

Fr David

Bishop Kieran reflects on the election of Pope Francis I: “Even the media people in St Peter’s Square seemed to be infected by the joy that greeted the appearance of Pope Francis, and there is a mood of hope and encouragement across the church and the world.

It is proposed that next Tuesday, the day of his inauguration and the Feast of St Joseph, we make it a ‘Day of Joy’. We have ‘awareness weeks’ for all sorts of things, so why not just one day of joy? Bake a cake for someone, ring your mother, give the children a treat, send a card to your priest, bring flowers home – do something to bring joy to someone and express the joy of the church. And pray for Pope Francis. There is a hope that he can re-build the Church as his namesake did, to put it back on track and restore our pride in being Catholic.

The media have been fascinated by how modestly this man has lived, this son of a railway worker who travelled by public transport and cooked his own meals. Those days are gone for him, but let us hope that our modern world can hear that call to live more simply and modestly. This has been a very timely papal election.”

Listen to Bishop Kieran on BBC Sussex/Surrey on Sunday 17 at 8.10am.

ps I copied this from the Diocesan website.  Take a look at the rest of it yourself.

Fr David