How to support your local friendly Mod .....Charity Content

[Hilts]

Hi All,

As some of you may know I have decided along with a few others (about 5,000 in fact) to take part in the ‘British Cyclo Sportive’ event on July 1st. This involves cycling 120 miles :shock: from Greenwich to Canterbury on what is bound to be the hottest day of the year, taking the same route the professionals of the ‘tour de france’ will take the following weekend. The pressure is on as my training time is being severely hampered by inconsiderate people getting married, this thing called ‘work’ which seems to be a big time drain, and a severe case of saddle soreness.

Anyway, to the point of my post. One of the chaps I am riding with was present when a friend of his had a horrific cycling accident which left him paralysed from the chest down. His life was saved by the Air Ambulance that was called to the scene and got him to hospital in the nick of time. This service relies entirely on charitable donations and has saved the lives of many walkers, riders and cyclists who have had serious accidents. Therefore we have set up a sponsorship page at the link below so that anyone who would like to encourage us to complete the course can make a donation to the RUSS appeal.

http://www.justgiving.com/rideforRUSS

Never done this type of thing on a ROAD bike before so please put your pre-conceived notions of the dark side of biking to one side and help raise some cash for a really worthy cause, lets hope none of us never need to use it but you never know in this life ...

Thanks everyone

James

PS - any tips or training advice gratefully received...

 

[JustKev]

Re: How to support your local friendly Mod .....Charity Cont

PS - any tips or training advice gratefully received...

drink more beer and eat more - your body will need fat reserves as a fuel source during that long slow ride!

Kev

PS - serious side, i work with the Air Ambulance guys sometimes and it's a really worthwhile cause that any of us MTB's may need one day. I'll be donating for sure!

 

[Hilts]

Top man, cheers Kev..

 

[heathy]

This is my friend 2 years ago, being loaded into our local police/air ambulance.

He punctured a lung and broke his coller bone when he flew over the bars
on a nasty downhill :shock:
They were top guys,
So i will be donating too mate.

 

[Stick Legs]

Try and make your rides progressivly longer so the 120' won't be a shock!

Train on a emmelle classic 15 speed with 3" Nokian DH tyres...
...The road ride on slicks will feel like a walk in the park!

A truly worthy cause!

 

[B3]

Consider yourself sponsered

All you need is a mate with a tow rope, @60mph, you'll be done in 2 hours

 

[kingroon]

Sponsored.. Good luck mate

Message on the Donations page for you..

 

[Hilts]

Cheers for the support fellas, did my first training ride yesterday, just a quick 40 miles in a couple of hours but felt good and put in two big hills which got me sweating nicely..

Matt, hoping that I won't see the red mist and attempt any silly overtaking manouvres this tiime, but you never know ..

 

[Hilts]

Well, the day is almost upon me and the weather is looking dodgy to say the least...

The training has gone well although my dodgy knee is worrying me slightly and if the headwind is like the forecast says it could be a long day in the saddle.

Anyway, this was just a quick one to say thanks to everyone that sponsored me and i'll write up a proper event summary next week once I am able to walk again..

Cheers
Soon to be a very tired and wet Hilts

 

[Hilts]

Well, the Lycra cat suit has been put away, the bike has been locked in the shed and it’s back to reality after a day pretending to be part of the Tour De France elite. It was a great day and despite awakening to a horrendous storm on Sunday morning at 4:30am the British weather was actually quite good to us.


We left Greenwich just after 6:30am having had to stop and repair a puncture on the way to the start line, not a promising sign! We headed out towards Dartford and you’ve guessed it, another Puncture!! This was a long stop as we struggled to find an inner tube with a long enough valve to reach out through my ridiculously wide rims, anyway after 40 mins of struggling and changing the tyre about 4 times we were on our way again. The route snaked it’s way out to Rochester and the sun came out, which was nice.


We headed south through a brief but quite heavy rain storm, past Maidstone and out through Tonbridge, stopping to fill water bottles and check that the bikes and our bodies were all in one piece. Through the scenic countryside of my local area and a quick hello to the WaGs that had come to meet us, another heavy rainstorm and then on to Ashford. We eventually swung East and made the most of the strong wind on our backs to rocket into Canterbury, averaging nearly 30 miles and hour for the last 10 miles to the finish.


We reached our goal at just before 3pm having spend just under 7 hours actually cycling. We were tired and a bit stiff but very happy we’d done it and everyone agreed it was something they would do again, so can’t have been too bad!!


In all we raised £3000 for the RUSS fund and I’d like to thank all of you that dug deep to help a very worthy cause.


The cycling exploits are likely to curtail now as Mrs F has pointed out that parental duties have been somewhat lacking since I began training for this. So until the next time I dust off the saddle and ponder the benefits of shaving ones legs I bid you farewell…