C2A: Dover

The train gets into King’s Cross with 10 minutes for us to hustle across the street to St Pancras. We debark and head out into a crowds in front of the station, powerwalking our bikes across the street and directly across the prow of a humming electric Black Cab.

Inside St Pancras we part a tour group of elderly French folks and then board an escalator marked “no bicycles” with both of our bicycles. We make it on board the longest train I’ve ever seen with 3 minutes to spare.

HS1 to Ashford takes no time at all. Then the local to Dover, where we get a kebab and then head up the road to the hotel.

But it turns out that the hotel is 5 km and 150m of climbing away. So by the time we get to the hotel we’re both sweaty and out of breath and ready for a lie down.