Cycling in the Channel Tunnel
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Pedal cycles in the Channel Tunnel are normally allowed to cross the
Channel Tunnel The Channel Tunnel (french: Tunnel sous la Manche), also known as the Chunnel, is a railway tunnel that connects Folkestone (Kent, England, UK) with Coquelles ( Hauts-de-France, France) beneath the English Channel at the Strait of Dover. ...
fixed link between the United Kingdom and France only by using the Eurotunnel cycle service, on board a Le Shuttle train. That consists of a minibus and bicycle trailer for six bicycles. On a number of special occasions since 1993, crossings have been made directly using the bidirectional Channel Tunnel service tunnel, positioned between the two rail tunnel bores. The central service tunnel has airlocks at both ends and a concrete screed road surface.


Construction

During construction, over 200 bicycles were used by construction workers. These consisted of 80 bicycles from Peugeot bicycles on the French side; plus 125 bicycles from
Saracen Cycles Saracen Cycles, known simply as "Saracen" is a bicycle brand sold in the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia. Originally based in Warwick, England, the company is best known for its range of mountain bikes. Started in 1983, Saracen was a market le ...
on the British side. The Saracen mountain bikes had been ordered by plant manager Kevin Otto—an initial order of twenty-five had been ordered with the rest of the fleet following on later. On the UK side, over 850 workers had been trained and issued with passes for their use inside the service tunnel. During one Sunday in October 1993, Wally Michalski and Mike Turner, working as contractors on the British side, used a pair of the Saracen bicycles to cycle the round-trip from Folkestone to Coquelles and back again. The pair took around five hours to complete the journey, while wearing full overalls and needing to carry respirators. In November 1993, journalists Nick Dutton-Taylor and Damon Brown used the same Saracen bicycles as other construction workers to cycle into the tunnel for an article in ''
Mountain Biking UK ''Mountain Biking UK'' (often shortened to ''MBUK'') is a British mountain biking magazine. It is published by Our Media, an Immediate Media group company, and is currently the UK's best-selling mountain bike magazine, with a circulation o ...
''. They were trained and accompanied by the cycling trainer Clive, but not allowed to go the full way through.


After opening

On the night of 2/3 December 1994, a group of professional and semi-professional cyclists went
road bicycle racing Road bicycle racing is the cycle sport discipline of road cycling, held primarily on Road surface, paved roads. Road racing is the most popular professional sport, professional form of bicycle racing, in terms of numbers of competitors, events and ...
from London to Paris in aid of ' broadcast live on French national television. This 1994 peloton was led by
Henri Sannier Henri Sannier (born 7 September 1947) is a French sports journalist and television presenter. Life and career Henri Sannier was born in Puteaux in the department of Hauts-de-Seine. He graduated at the École supérieure de journalisme de Paris ...
and accompanied by Jean-Michel Guidez,
Patrick Chêne Patrick Chêne (born 26 April 1956 in Lyon) is a French journalist who worked mainly on France Télévisions, France TV, where he commented on the Tour de France between 1989 and 2000. Biography Youth Educated at the Lyons High School ...
, Jean Mamère, Marc Toesca, Thierry Marie, Paul Belmondo, Bernard Darniche, Jean-François Guiborel and others. The group used the service tunnel to cross the channel between Folkestone and Coquelles, accompanied by a STTS vehicle. On 1 June 2014, Chris Froome rode eastbound from England to France in a video promoting Team Sky and publicised during the
2014 Tour de France The 2014 Tour de France was the 101st edition of the race, one of cycling's Grand Tours. The race included 21 stages, starting in Leeds, Yorkshire, United Kingdom, on 5 July and finishing on the Champs-Élysées in Paris on 27 July. The race al ...
season, taking 55 minutes to cross."Chris Froome, first man to Cycle through the Eurotunnel crossing the English Channel"
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References


External links


Eurotunnel Le Shuttle cycle service

Téléthon 94 video montage
{{Channel tunnel Channel Tunnel