Cannonball: Day by day

Wednesday Aug 24 8pm: Chad reports in by text. He arrived in Geneva in seventh place – 1hr 20min behind the leader.

Wednesday Aug 24 3pm: Chad calls in from an unscheduled petrol stop somewhere close to Dijon. “The bike’s drinking like George Best in happy hour,” he says. He reckons he’d be leading… if it weren’t for the fact that he’s having to make fuel stops every 75 miles – and he’s gone wrong at least once.

“We all started off out of Calais relatively sensibly – a few wheelies, maybe… When we hit the main road out of Calais everyone was ‘head-down’. The speeds were a bit silly.

“We’re now on single lane roads heading for Geneva, the weather is very windy but sunny and warm.”

He’s due in Geneva tonight – then the run heads south for the French Riviera on Thursday. We guess someone has to do it…

Wednesday Aug 24 11am: Chad joins the 40 other competitors for a Le Mans-style start at Calais. Unable to go quietly, he performs a rolling burnout which lasts most of his way out of town – and leaves the TV crews choking in rubber fumes…

Wednesday Aug 24 9am: Chad should be leaving from Dover on the ferry with the rest of the competitors this morning. An email to motorcyclenews.com this morning reveals: “Chad’s forgotten his GB sticker – what a wally!”. Let’s hope the rest of the trip goes more smoothly…

Tuesday Aug 23 PM: He’s heading down to the Ace Café for the official start celebrations from 6pm tonight (Tuesday, August 23), before the run proper gets underway on Wednesday morning.

Chad’s Vivaldi racing British Superbike-spec ZX-10R arrived at our offices on Friday (Aug 19) and has just had the final fettling to make sure it lasts the 1200-mile trip on secret routes that will be revealed each day.

You’ll be able to keep track of Chad’s progress day by day on motorcyclenews.com until he arrives at the massive end party in an amazing location on Saturday.

MCN road tester Adam ‘Chad’ Child rode in the Europe-wide Cannonball Bike Run. Read reports of his journey as it happened, below – and download video and audio clips here. His full report will appear in the September 7 issue of MCN.

Sunday Aug 28: Chad reports in with news that he finished the event in eighth place (in Paris). But his time is yet to be recalculated to take into account the time lost filming (see below). Nail biting time? The Ashes has nothing on this…

Friday Aug 26 6pm: “I’m just about to jump in the pool here with another cannonballer,” Chad is delighted to tell us, as the rain starts to fall in Peterborough… He has arrived first today. He’ll know his position overall a little later when times are added together and adjusted for his DVD filming time-out (see below).

The pool is on the roof of their top notch hotel at altitude in Chamonoix – and he’s about to take the plunge with snow all around him… Tomorrow – Paris!

Friday Aug 26 11.20am: Chad calls us from somewhere ‘150 miles north of Cannes. “We’re virtually dog last…” he moans. But there is an explanation. He’s been held up performing for the DVD of the race which will come out soon. He reckons that cost him two hours and that the organisers have promised to update his overall time to reflect this.

They are heading for Chamonoix and will stay at a hotel near the Mont Blanc tunnel tonight.

Chad reports that a BMW RT has been dropped twice – but is still going, and an R1200GS has been dropped onto a car at traffic lights. One rider has got a ban and there’s been a 1000 Euro fine dished out for speeding, too. He’s witnessed riders going the wrong way up a motorway after missing their turn and bikes racing at speeds too ludicrous to mention. Oh – and there are two riders from Newcastle taking part of Harleys…

Friday Aug 26, 7.30am: Chad is woken by the sound of engines firing up. The race is back on – and he’s still in bed.

A night of fine food and five-star luxury at Cannes’ famous Carlton hotel – followed by a nightclub where the champagne flowed, has taken its toll.

“We were out until about 2am. As the official start was happening at 7.30am a few of the stragglers from the club the night before were still coming in.”

Chad finally hits the road at 9am.

Thursday, August 25, 7.30pm: Our man arrives in Cannes. Twisting mountain roads have made progress intense – but slow. First gear hairpin after first gear hairpin mean 50 miles in three hours. The ZX-10R’s rear-tyre is shot.

Filming committments have delayed Chad – leaving him unhealthily close to last place. Time for a well-earned drink… or two.

Thursday, August 25, 1pm: Chad arrives at the lunch checkpoint in fifth place. And there’s a reward for the first 10 arrivals – a bungee jump. “You couldn’t see the bottom. Did I do it? Did I f***!”

For previous updates, see page 2.

Download the video and audio below to see Chad tell you about his British Superstock spec Vivaldi ZX-10R as the final preparations are made to the bike. Hear the bike fire up and see Chad set off for London

Some users may find it best to ‘right click’ on the links below and ‘save target as’ to save the downloads to their desktop before playing back.

There are other audio and video downloads available by following the link, right.