london to Calais - 97 miles!

So here I am in a motel just outside Calais with day 1 complete!
After a restless night with very little sleep we were up at 5am this morning to shovel down a big bowl of porridge before heading to Crystal Palace for 6am registration.
Nerves kicked in when we arrived to see over 100 keen cyclists gathering, but once we'd registered and dropped our luggage to the support vehicle we were keen to get started as we were very cold.
While waiting for the briefing we spotted a couple of cyclists communicating in sign language, so we introduced ourselves and they seemed very happy to have two more signers to chat to!
After a short briefing we set off just before 7, and though the first few miles through London were slow the roads were were  were fairly flat.  10 miles in we hit our first huge hill, but we sailed up it no problem.  After that we cycled well to the first water stop at about 30 miles, and after a short stop we had a great ride to the lunch stop at 58 miles with just a few demanding hills.  We were amazed to be among the first cyclists to arrive!
A long lunch of bread cold meat salad and chatting and starting off again was tough. The last 30 miles to Dover had some horrific hills, but it felt fantastic arriving in Dover with nearly 2 hours to spare before the ferry.
The last few miles through Calais were done in a leisurely convoy; and after 97 miles we can say we have successfully cycled to France.  Today, 75 miles to Abbeville.........