Last, but not least

The ride is over, the legs have recovered and the riders have returned to their daily lives across Europe. Lives that have been changed by the experience of cycling from Brussels to Monaco.

In this posting I wanted to reflect on the experiences of the 8 riders and summarise what they have learnt from the experience.

Talking to the riders, two themes emerged.

Seemingly impossible challenges can be overcome
Before the start of the ride, all of the riders were apprehensive about the daunting challenge ahead of them. Whilst they were all fit and experienced riders, none of them had ridden so far in such a short space of time. But by being focussed on the end goal and by breaking it into individual segments it was possible to achieve the impossible.

Teams achieve more than individuals
The team of 8 riders (plucked from Johnson Controls 130,000 employees) hadn’t met each other in person before the ride so there were essentially strangers. Albeit strangers with a common goal and a strong desire to achieve. Despite language and cultural barriers the riders soon formed and bonded as a team, both on and off the bikes. On the road the team worked hard to master the Belgian circle and were so effective that any one road with a 50 km speed limit they nearly set off a speed camera!


So the lesson being, you can achieve much more as team than you can ever do as an individual. Which brings us nicely back to the whole reason for doing the cycle ride in the first place (Don’t worry I’m not going to get on my soapbox and start preaching) but is does make a good analogy with climate change. If we are committed and we act together, only then we can begin to truly address global warming.

So until next time ...

The postings on this blog do not represent the positions, strategies or opinions of Johnson Controls

Monaco or bust!

The last day and the finish is in sight. Just 85kms along the French Riveria is our final destination - Monaco.

The saying goes 'a picture tells a thousand words', so here's chapter and verse on the final day ... and yes we did make it!

Once the legs have stopped aching, we'll come back and give you our final thoughts and discuss what we have learnt along the road to energy efficiency.

The postings on this blog do not represent the positions, strategies or opinions of Johnson Controls

Only 80 kms to go!

The penultimate day and Monaco is getting every closer. Whilst better than yesterday, the weather was overcast as we headed out of Aix-en-Provence en route to Frejus on the Côte d'Azur. This was compounded by the fact that we ended up going the wrong way, adding an extra 30 kms to the days ride.

Once again there were some steep climbs to conquer and downhills to savour, as we rolled through a picturesque landscape of vineyards and olive groves.

The team is starting to feel the long days in the saddle, legs are starting to take longer to warm up and some of the steeper hills are met with increasingly colourful language.

Despite all this, team spirits are just as high as when we left Brussels.

The team remain committed to crunching through the kilometres and getting to Monaco on time.

Simon (aka le petits filous) is still pushing the team to ever higher speeds and his tutelage has helped the team operate smoothly and safely on the roads.

We also spent some time at an American WWII cemetery which led to some introspective thought.

Nearing Frejus, Christophe had arranged to meet his wife and four children, allowing him some much needed time – albeit short - with his family and poignantly reminded everyone of how long they had been away from their families. So please keep your support coming for the team.

We arrived in the coastal town of Frejus late afternoon and we are now just 80kms away from our destination - Monaco!

We are saving our celebrations until tomorrow and are looking forward to crossing the finish line at the Plage du Larvotto. For those of you who wanted a photo of John, here he is practising his finish line technique!

The postings on this blog do not represent the positions, strategies or opinions of Johnson Controls

For Queen & country (& Johnson Controls)

With today being St Georges Day (patron saint of England) we celebrated by adorning each of the bikes with English flags and the team began the stage with the sound of 'God save the Queen' ringing in their ears.

Unfortunately we had typical English weather - wet and overcast - which made the long hard climbs even less bearable.

The team pressed on though and made good progress through the dramatic scenery of Southern France. Steeps hills and narrow roads interwining with flatter stretchs along the river Arc.


Big hills mean fast downhills and there were a few today, giving the tired legs and lungs some respite.

We arrived in Aix-en-Provence in the late afternoon to join colleagues from the Marseille branch. Our arrival was delayed slightly by 2 punctures within a few hundred metres of each other - the first of the tour.

The team were greeted to sirens and cheers as they rolled into the fitting surroundings of a sports complex in Val de l'Arc, a stone's throw away from our overnight stop in Aix en Provence.

We greatly enjoyed meeting and talking to the Marseillais and really appreciated them taking the time and effort to commerate our arrival in Aix-en-Provence so thanks to you all.

Tomorrow will be another tough day as we head East along the coast stopping at Frejus before our final day in the saddle and the finale of our ride in Monaco.

Keep the comments coming and if there is anything you would like to ask the riders, please drop us a note.

The postings on this blog do not represent the positions, strategies or opinions of Johnson Controls

Song, camels and Olympic gold

With Lyon’s football team losing to Bayern Munich yesterday, we started the day with a rendition of the German national anthem Das Deutschlandlied (with Luc composing) for Carsten, followed by a quick exit out of the city.


On the way we picked up a copy of the local newspaper Le Progress and were pleased to see our ride being mentioned – see here.


Grenoble situated at the foot of the French Alps was our target today, a mere 105 kms away. Between Lyon and Grenoble lay a few big hills and some long stretches of flat valley floor, albeit spread between numerous villages.


The first big climb of the day was rewarded with a long twisting downhill with the riders clocking up 65 km/hr. As the landscape flattened out we caught our breath and our first glimpse of the Alps. Once again the sun was shining with high temperatures and a few of the riders have caught a bit of sunburn (Frank is positively glowing).


Before lunch we passed camels and lions (courtesy of a local circus and not reflective of the local wildlife) before we stopped in a field for jambon and fromage, set against the stunning background of the Alps with only the sound of frogs and cows (or French and English traditional foods as Simon wryly observed) for company.



With lunch quickly despatched it was time to hit the road and crunch through the kilometres towards the Capital of Alps. Small villages and less then considerate motorists came and went, as the team put in a strong performance in order to meet our colleagues from Johnson Controls Neige; who were exhibiting at the Salon de l'Aménagement en Montagne at the Alpexpo in Grenoble.


Thanks to Regis-Antoine Decolasse and Max Rougeaux, we were able to further promote the team’s efforts to visitors of the Johnson Controls stand. We were also fortunate enough to meet Jean Luc Cretier, who won a gold medal for France in the downhill skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano.


Simon made a less than graceful entrance to the stand (high performance road bikes and highly polished exhibition flooring do not mix well) and we had a great time on the stand before heading for a well earned rest at our hotel.



The postings on this blog do not represent the positions, strategies or opinions of Johnson Controls