Together with my regular 2-up partner Gerry, I rode the famous Duo Normand time trial every year from 2003 to 2019, bar one. In 2020, it was absent from the calendar owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. It didn't reappear in the following years, and most of us thought it had gone for good. But in mid-2025, it was announced that it would return on 21st September 2025, on a revised course of 40km. With the announcement coming quite late in the year, fewer teams than in the past were able to enter, with very few from the UK. But despite advancing years and dubious fitness, Team Grumpy decided to cross the Channel for another ride in the this splendid event. We were not disappointed.
Day 0 Tuesday
Packing
For past excursions to the Duo Normand, I’ve always been on a family holiday, or on a specific journey with Gerry, in which I’ve been able to take along a reasonably complete tool kit. So, when taking a bike with slightly out of the ordinary components, such as hydraulic rim brakes, I’ve not really needed to worry unduly about mechanical issues. This time, I was planning to make my way to Portsmouth on the rail system, so taking a complete toolkit was clearly out of the question. I’d been pondering what might go wrong in transit, and I reckoned the most likely might be an unexpected oil leak for the brakes (Magura RT6). So I put together a repair kit that would allow me to bleed the brakes and even replace the hoses if necessary. I’d rely on Gerry for the remaining tools!
The remaining worry was whether I’d be able to manhandle my bike bag on the trains and through the stations. But that’s a bridge I thought I'd need to cross later.
Day 1 Wednesday
In which Team Grumpy regroups for the first Duo Normand in five years
Casting my mind back over the many Duo Normand trips we've made, irritating problems seem to occur with regularity. From cancelled ferries to broken handlebars in the past, I suppose that we ought to have expected to suffer some hassle on this trip.
I was facing an unpredictable and uncertain journey on the UK rail system, from Flitwick to Portsmouth & Southsea, with a 4 minute connection at Three Bridges, a rail station near Gatwick Airport - the ticket I’d bought allowed enough time to miss that connection and still meet up with Gerry in time to check in at the ferry port for the overnight ferry to Caen. I thought that should be OK. To add to the uncertainty, I’d packed the Cervelo P3C along with various other items required for a long weekend of riding and racing in Normandy in a rather sizeable bike bag, and I wasn’t confident this would be easy to manage on and off the trains. It’s not bad as far as these things go, but a lack of stiffness in the sides makes the bag very unwieldy.
On the morning of my departure, I checked how the trains were running. Somewhat worryingly, there was a points failure just past my destination. At first I thought this would be OK. But by lunchtime it was clear that all the trains to Portsmouth from Three Bridges were being cancelled. Carol very quickly offered to drive me over to meet up with Gerry somewhere on his route to Portsmouth.
Team Grumpy had a quick Facetime chat and decided to meet at Chieveley services.
Carol and I arrived at Chieveley services a bit after 4pm. I sat in Costa's and nursed a decaff cappuccino and waited for Gerry, while Carol set off on the return journey, hoping to dodge as much rush hour traffic as possible and get home in daylight.
Gerry showed up and managed to walk past me twice without seeing me. We found each other via the online magic that is WhatsApp. We had a coffee then bought some supplies for later on before pushing on to Portsmouth. We got there pretty early, and just waited till we boarded the ferry.
Day 2 Thursday
Arrival - and checking out the new course
After a typically short and restless sleep on the ferry, we drove off the ferry, queued to have our passports looked at and then rolled on towards Cerisy-la-Salle. We stopped for some bread and pastries at the boulangerie, and I got some € at the bank machine. Then it was off to the house to drop off the contents of the car, and the spend some time taxing our intellect in getting the electricity on (easy), the water on (bit of a headscratcher) and the internet connection on (another headscratcher). We drove over to the supermarket for some supplies. Beer. Crisps. And some more healthy stuff.
We returned to the house and had a coffee while I contemplated reassembling my P3C time trial bike. This actually proved quite a bit easier than I had expected. My fears of a major issue with my hydraulic rim brakes were completely unfounded. Everything went together pretty easily, the biggest fiddle was getting the handlebars attached, and having a team mate to help hold the bike definitely helped.
The bike jigsaw puzzle
Contemplating the reassembly
Nearly done, wheels in
Finished! The Team Grumpy bikes, ready for action.
The drizzly weather we'd arrived in gradually became sunny and warm, ideal for riding the new 40km course. Before heading over to Marigny, I had a really short spin up and down the lane to make sure the gears were working and that the brakes would actually stop me. Everything was OK - or so it seemed. Despite my best efforts I had connected up the wiring to the SRAM blips on the base bar the wrong way round. Easily sorted.
Then we loaded the bikes in the car and drove over to Marigny. It’s been about 6 years since we last visited, but other than some street remodelling the town looked really familiar. We parked the car in the car park that the Duo used to used to sort the supporting cars in the old course. Then off we went.
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The 2025 Duo Normand course
From 2003 through 2017, the Duo used a course of a bit over 50km that did an anti-clockwise loop out from Marigny, through the Norman countryside, back through Marigny then out for a hairpin section and finishing in a hair raisingly fast section back into Marigny.
In 2018 and 2019, the course was changed as a result of a serious accident on the hairpin section. This course was also just over 50km, and used many of the same roads as the prior course, but ridden clockwise. There was a peculiar section that may have been added to keep the distance up.
Prior to announcing the return of the event in 2025, there had been a survey of possible changes to the course. Perhaps the new course was seen as unpopular. The course arrived at was 40km, and features many of the roads from the 2003 course, ridden clockwise, and without the dangerous hairpin section.
Note the elevation profile - click the image to download the GPX file
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The course had been marked out with small yellow arrows painted on the tarmac, and it seemed as though the GPS course I’d uploaded to my Garmin was correct. As we’d expected, the first third of the course was pretty hilly and tough, while the middle section from Feugeres through the marshes to Tribehou was rather quick. The final section has a long draggy climb that’s going to be quite tough on race day but nothing like as steep as the hills on the starting section. And of course the final mile or so is a blisteringly fast descent to the line.
What was a bit alarming during the first half of the ride was a horrible screeching sort of noise that my bike started making after abut 5km - it seemed to be associated with the left hand pedal stroke, was worse during hard efforts, and became loud enough that Gerry could hear me coming. It was sort of difficult to describe, a slightly rubbery rubbing noise that was getting worse as the ride progressed. But really only when pressing hard on the left pedal.
The noise...the noise...
We made several stops to try and diagnose this problem. Was it the tyre rubbing the frame? The crank bearing? The pedal spindle? Eventually I sussed that it was a loose rear brake block. I’d been tinkering with the brake blocks before packing the bike away, and I’d presumably not tightened this one up properly. No more odd noises after that was sorted. It was fortunate that Gerry had an appropriate Torx tool for this, as the brake blocks are Campagnolo Record from a few years ago.
We completed the course in relative (machine) silence from then on. Riding these roads again after such a long time was delightful, and even though our prospects for a good performance were frankly limited (age and lack of training) we felt great to be here to ride the Duo Normand again.
Enjoying the Normandy lanes of the Duo Normand course
Back at the car, we had a quick discussion about the course and returned to the house. We decided to leave the bikes in the car overnight because our plan had changed to repeat the course ride on Friday.
We sat outside for a bit with a glass of Team Grumpy energy drink (Leffe). The weather, which had promised to be so nice, finally came good. Then we had dinner, a bit more energy drink, watched some DVDs on the enormovision TV. We both found ourselves nodding off while watching Jeeves and Wooster, so we hit the sack quite early.
Day 3 Friday
Another ride round the course
The main item in today’s plan was to go back over to Marigny to ride the course once again and try practicing 2-up riding and (in my case) using the aero bars a bit more.
I slept for a long time, but really quite badly. I had many interruptions and didn’t feel great when I got up and showered. I don’t normally pay much attention to Garmin’s Body Battery, but the cumulative stress of the night on the ferry and last night’s poor sleep is pretty dramatic. More to the point I didn’t really feel very energetic.
We popped up to the boulangerie in Cerisy for some breakfast stuff, then back to the house to consume it. We’d left the bikes in the car overnight, so we just trundled over to Marigny for our second ride round the course. I was focussing on gear selection for the opening 8 miles or so. I reckon a moderate gear selection would be of benefit on those climbs. The middle section should be quite fast, turning a big gear. The the final 8 miles will be a long drag up to the 2km to go point, when we’d shift into a big gear to roar into town and finish. Well, that’s the plan.
After our second course recce, we stopped at the Bar Sportif for a coffee, before returning to the car, and agonising a little about the knocking noise from Gerry’s bike.
With the bikes in the car, we drove over to visit the German military cemetery just outside Marigny (Gerry is a military historian). Very quiet and peacful in the sunshine.
Back at the house, we figured out (by dint of wheel swapping) that the knocking was coming from Gerry’s rear Hed H3 Deep, most probably from the fairing. The H3 Deep is a regular H3 but with a fairing bonded on at the rim to increase the rim depth. There’s a fair bit of movement where this fairing meets the spokes, though. We didn’t think this would be a dealbreaker for Sunday.
A bit more energy drink and some more videos before hitting the sack.
Day 4 Saturday
Signing on for the Duo Normand. Or not!
In the past, signing on and collectiong the numbers and car plate took place on the Saturday before the race. Gerry had received a weirdly written email that seemed to say that signing on would, in contrast to every previous Duo, actually be on race day, from 10am. I guess that was possible owing to the reduced entry of 120 teams.
We did motor over to Marigny in case we were mistaken. We weren’t, but we could see things being set up. Anyway, today’s riding was just a quick ride round our Cerisy training loop, a hilly 24km or so. Beforehand we tried to take some video with a Hover X1 video camera, but a combination of a stiff and blustery breeze and the fact that we were wearing the same skinsuit and helmets seemed to confuse it and it tended to zoom off and have to be retrieved from a field!
We had a quiet evening, with no energy drink.
Day 5 Sunday
Race Day and the overnight ferry home…
Team Grumpy had no pretension that we might pull out a strong result this year. Not only did we have a combined age of 130 against us, but we had a distinct asymmetry in fitness. It was clear that Robert would be doing longer pulls on the front. But adaptability has always been one of Team Grumpy’s strengths.
We popped up to Cerisy La Salle for some breakfast pastries, the drove over to Marigny to collect our numbers etc. We received a bag containing the numbers, T-shirts, timing chips. There were even safety pins, which raised a smile - in the early Duos, you had to remember to bring your own pins! Having collected this, there wasn’t really much point in hanging around in Marigny, so we went back to the house to fasten the timing chips to our bikes, get the numbers into the skinsuit pockets and have a bite to eat.
New at this year's Duo - timing chips
By this time, we were getting hopeful that the weather forecast of showers was in error - the skies were largely blue and it was warm in the sunshine.
The car loaded with bikes and kit. Note the sunny skies!
Unfortunately, as we returned to Marigny, everything clouded over and it was looking distinctly threatening as we warmed up. By the time we mounted the start ramp, it was spotting slightly with rain. How bad could that get?
Teams were starting at one minute intervals, with longer gaps between categories. Eventually, the time came for us to climb on the start ramp. And as per usual, the nerves started. I'm always a bit worried I might collide with Gerry at the start. The guy holding me up was doing OK at first, the I felt myself leaning to the right - "A gauche" I called out and he quickly righted me. But then by the time we started I was feeling a distinct lean to the right!
At 1.50pm, we rolled off the start ramp. As usual, Gerry looked behind a couple of times to make sure I was there. Probably he expected me to have toppled of the start ramp, as that’s a perennial worry of mine. Almost straight away, we were into the first of several rather steep climbs that characterise the first third of the course. We took these pretty easy so as not to blow the team apart. In fact two teams from Jersey came blasting past us at about 3km in - just as the rain started.
The rain got heavy pretty quickly, and it started mucking up my Garmin’s touch screen display, such that I couldn’t see what speed we were doing. Maybe that was a good thing. I could see my cadence and power, at least some of the time. But with the heavy rain, visibility also decreased.
As we crested the last of the climbs, we passed the team ahead of us, and started the middle third of the course, a rapid descent through Feugeres and on to the flatter section. This was a bit alarming with the poor visibility, and it must have been even more so for Gerry riding behind me for long spells at this time. It was here that we started making progress, with faster speeds (though given my Garmin issues, I was going by feel), and with Gerry coming through for some spells at the front. It was at this point that disaster almost struck.
With the heavy rain causing poor visibility, I was having difficulty in making sure Gerry was on his wheel. I looked behind to my right, then to my left. This manouevre seemed to destabilise me, and I rode off into the gravel in the verge. Quickly rectified, this was a rather scary incident! Gerry tells me it looked a lot worse from his point of view than it does in the video.
We pressed on though Tribehou and began the long drag back towards Marigny. I was leading the way, trying to judge my effort so as to avoid a gap between us opening up - I was knocking out decent power, but at a far more sensible gear and cadence than I normally do. The gradient increased gradually - with about 3km to go, I shouted words of encouragement and said we were nearly at the crest. This is quite unusal for Team Grumpy as generally speaking is avoided since you can’t make out much speech with an aero hat at speed, mostly it sounds like ‘argle-bargle’. But I felt some words of encouragement were justified. Just as we crested the drag and embarked on the fast descent to the line, Gerry came past for a full-throttle spell at the front - though ultimately I led Team Grumpy across the line and into the dramatic braking that’s always needed.
We stopped to hand back the timing chips and had a chat with Adele, the organiser, before heading back to the car. I was sopping wet and once we stopped racing, my body temperature plummeted and I was pretty glad to get changed into warm clothes.
Thanking Adele for bringing back the Duo Normand
Reflecting on our race, it went pretty much as expected. With one rider fitter than the other, Team Grumpy's ethos of adaptability came to the fore and enabled us to stay together as a team for the great majority of the event. Our time of 1:08:48 was actually a bit quicker than I'd expected.
Back to the house, and after a bite to eat, I broke the bike back down and packed it in the bike bag. This wasn’t too problematic, with one exception - I couldn’t remove the seat post. So we travelled back to the UK with the saddle poking out of the bag.
After a cleanup, we turned off the boiler, electricity and water before locking the house and returning the keys to the key safe. We drove over to Ouistreham in rapidly worsening weather, and spent several hours in consecutive queues in lashing rain and howling wind. We were dry and warm in the car (if a bit bored), but we felt sorry for the Brittany Ferry staff having to stand out in the rain organising the motor vehicles.
Owing to our late ferry booking, we’d only managed to book into ‘Couchette Plus’ sleeping accommodation for the return crossing. I’d not come across this before and maybe it’s only seen on the newer vessels (and this was a very new vessel). Essentially, these are four bunk cabins with a curtain instead of a door, located along a corridor - and the only toliet facilities are few and far away. This didn’t appeal to us, so we enquired about a cabin upgrade. Just as the ship departed, we were called back to the Information desk and offered an upgrade to an inside cabin for €48, which we snapped up. That cabin had two bunks but most importantly a door and an en suite toilet. And so to bed.
Day 5 Monday
Return
I slept pretty well (but not really long enough - the unstoppable harp music came early), as this new ship was really quiet. It took a fairly long time for all the vehicles to get past immigration (thanks, Brexit) then it was off to Chieveley Services at the A34/M4 junction for breakfast. Carol was driving over to meet me there. When she arrived, we had coffee and almond croissants before driving back home, the 2025 Duo Normand completed.
Will this be Team Grumpy's last hurrah at the Duo Normand? Before we set out I'd have said that it was, owing to advancing years and associated issues. But after completing the Duo, we felt re-enthused for the event and time trialling in general. So who knows. Probably it'll depend on how cycling in 2026 plays out, but it is possible we'll be there for the 18th time.