The Big Ride

I don’t quite know where to start with this ride!

We set off at 5.45am from Frontline Church in Wavetree, Liverpool and at 11.45pm we rolled up to Bridge Street Church, Leeds having cycled 135 miles (not 132 as I had originally planned!) 18 gruelling hours in the saddle across the two great counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire. Through Liverpool, Bootle, Wigan, Chorley, Blackburn, Accrington, Burnley, Skipton, Keighley, Bingley, Shipley, Bradford and Leeds.

The important parts, (the people) made it home safe and sound but I am not sure our bikes will ever be the same again with 3 dropped chains (Me twice, Grace once) 4 Punctures (Chris Dyson twice, Chris Clarke once, me once) one fall leading to a buckled wheel (Owen) and one sheared rear derailleur (Chris Dyson).

We are feeling every turn of the pedals today (Monday), every single one in our legs, arms, hands and backsides! There is so much to tell from this one that I cannot do it justice so I am getting everyone to write a report from their own point of view over the next few days and weeks.

We must thank God that we made it, there is no way we could have done it without him. We baked in Wigan, we got ruined going up through Wigan and Blackburn past countless locks and over what felt like 50 stupid anti bike gates (it was probably more like 15), we got lost in Burnley, we nearly didn’t make it out of Gargrave full stop! I could barely get back on my bike at Skipton and again in Bradford. But out of somewhere we found our way back on the path and had enough strength to roll home after one of the hardest physical and mental challenges any of us have ever had.

Meanwhile with the support drivers, this was going on.

I don’t want to ramble on very much, I’ll leave the story telling to the others but I’d like to say a few thank yous first.

Firstly to the Clarke family, for hosting us on Friday night, feeding us and raising well over £400 for Kidz Klub Leeds, you are wonderful people and we all thank you so much for the effort and time spent looking after us!

To the support drivers. Keith, who came with us overnight on Friday armed with 5 bikes and acted as our bush mechanic for the day. To Jo and Andy, who set off at 3.30am to come cook bacon sandwiches on the side of the road for us outside of Frontline and shepherding us all the way back along the road to Leeds. Finally to Ed, who I roped into this despite not being involved directly with Kidz Klub and brought the vital supplies we needed during the day.

I’d like to express my true gratitude to and absolute respect for the other riders Chris Clarke, Chris Dyson, Dave Shaw, Grace Perryman and Owen McCarthy for their grit and effort in this event, their commitment and putting up with me for the last 4 months. I hope you don’t hate me too much and once the bodies recover will look back with fondness and great pride at what we have achieved.

Speaking of what we have achieved, the total now sits at £2929 without giftaid. This is an incredible amount of money that is constantly rising even though we have completed the event. On behalf of everyone I thank you all for donating your hard earned money to Kidz Klub Leeds despite the current economic times and whatever your current situation may be. It is truly uplifting and inspiring to see that total rise so quickly from so many generous people.

Finally and we thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support in whatever way you have given it, we have all been on a spiritual, physical and emotional roller coaster with this event and we know that when it has been hard, when things have hurt we have had God pushing us on and you cheering us on from afar, from as far away as Canada, the USA, Brazil, Korea and Hong Kong.

I am humbled and astonished at the reaction to this bike ride and cannot put into words a lot of what I feel at the moment. There will be more from us over the next few days and weeks as it all settles in, until then if you haven’t sponsored us yet the justgiving page is still active and will remain so for some time to come so please, sponsor us with as much as you feel you can. I’ll be putting some photos up in a gallery here very shortly so keep an eye out for that.

Until then, take care and God bless.

Pete

Tracking us LIVE!

Here are the promised details to track us live, for our own little security conscious minds we are re-directing you to one of Chris C’s webspaces so that he can keep both his and my locations reasonably secure and pull it when we get back home tomorrow.

so here is your link:
http://www.whatididonmyholidays.co.uk/

This will be active through tonight and we will test it out on my journey to Liverpool by train tonight. Chris is the top two boxes and I am the bottom two boxes. We are due to leave our overnight base camp at 4.45am with our departure from Frontline Church scheduled for 5.30am BST. Our expected arrival back in Leeds is for about 8pm however as the day goes on you will probably have a better idea of that than us!

Speak to you all when we get back!

Pete

2 Days To Go…

That’s right guys and girls, just the rest of today (Thursday) and then Friday separate us from the daunting task of cycling 132 miles in one day.

Everything, and I hope that’s right! is in place now for the ride with time to spare.

So how are we all feeling about it? I am nervously excited at the moment, I will feel a lot better (whether that is the word, I doubt it, probably more like less of the nerves more of the dread of what is ahead of us) when we get to Frontline Church on Saturday morning. The totaliser over on www.justgiving.com/kidzklubcycleride reads a mighty £2145 raised for Kidz Klub Leeds without the added benefit of gift aid, this is a wonderful total raised but we hope we aren’t done yet!

It was always going to be ambitious to hit £4000 even with 9 of us campaigning in our own workplaces and churches but for various reasons we are now 6 which makes the task even more difficult! Of course God moves in mysterious ways and we are always hopeful of reaching that lofty target, even if it takes a while after the event itself. But I suppose with that amount of money raised or pledged so far we had better get a pedal on!

The weather is looking good(ish) for the ride with sunny spells and only a 20% chance of drizzle or light rain. It’s going to be cool as well with between 15 and 20 degrees the expected temperature. Sounds pretty much ideal for a long distance ride, but as we know the Pennines tend to do what they want when it comes to rain and wind so we will see!

We are all on (or at least should be on) a rest period for the next couple of days, I won’t be getting back on the bike until I cycle the 3 miles to the rendez-vous point tomorrow (Friday) evening to get all the gear over to Merseyside. This means we will have a lot of energy built up and hopefully any niggling aches or twinges will have worked themselves out of our systems.

I’ve worked out how to use Google Latitude’s public location badge to let you follow both me and Chris C along the way. I will set up a post on Friday afternoon and you’ll be able to follow both of us on our journey to Liverpool as well as our journey back towards Leeds assuming our batteries hold out for that long! If we have worked this out right it should just be a case of coming to the front page of this site and there will be two google maps boxes with our markers in.

On the interactive note; do text us support messages or e-mail us messages as we would love to get them!

This is my last proper update before we head out, Make sure you check back for GPS live tracking on Saturday from 5am BST (GMT +1)

As our neighbours to the south would say at this point “Allez! Allez! Allez!”

Pete

One Week to go…

That’s right guys just 7 days and as I type we will be somewhere on the final legs of our journey from Liverpool. If we listen to Chris C, we will be at Shipley by now with an imminent arrival back in Leeds. But, in the nicest possible way, I don’t!

I think we will probably be back in Bingley by 5.30pm next week with another 2 hours ahead of us. If we make it by 8pm I will be a happy chappy.

It’s been a nearly a week since my last update to you and I thought it was about time to fill you in on the goings on.

Firstly the total: have now raised, without gift aid, £1653 for Kidz Klub Leeds. I can’t quite put into words my gratitude to those people who have given money to us, some having given impossibly large large amounts. It truly lifts my soul and helps what are quite weary legs at this stage of the game recover that much quicker. I’m sure it’s the same for the rest of the riders as we reach the end of what has been a long countdown. Please, if you haven’t given any money but would like to, do so this week, it is a huge confidence boost and spur onwards for us.

The logistics are now sorted with cars prepped and a place to stay in Liverpool thanks to Mr and Mrs Clarke (Chris’ parents) who are kindly putting us up for the night in their church, a warm and heart felt thank you goes to them for the short notice support!

Here in Leeds the weather has been, well, typically Leeds in July. With hot sunshine mixed with strong wind and with very regular downpours but none the less us hardy souls have continued our training and pressed on. This included the incredible monsoon we had on Wednesday evening while I was cycling home. I know several of the others were out on their Kidz Klub visiting round as well. It was something else, I had to take shelter in a bus stop behind the Tetley Brewery as I just could not see through the intense rain and wind!

The weekend has now switched to gentle cycling for me rather than big long group rides as I cycle to work at least 3 days a week and going round mini roundabouts on empty roads in a Tour-de-France style has become a new favourite pastime as has my daily game of “Beat the Bus” where I seek to beat the X84 and 12/13/13a buses back home, currently the score is Pete 5 Bus 1 with one attempt abandoned due to the storm!

It’s been an incredibly busy few days with work, Kidz Klub and cycle ride prep (with actually a social event or two in there somewhere) leaving me nicely tired. I am looking forward to Saturday at 5am when all the planning and prep stops and we get down to business.

I should give you an Andy update, simply put, the guy is a legend and is coming along with us for the ride in one of the cars and will no doubt be kicking our backsides into gear with his good leg! He’s in very good spirits and his leg is healing faster than expected. I’m sure he’d like to pass on his thanks for all the prayers and support he has received, even if someone has drawn a Castleford Tigers badge on his cast, everyone knows the Rhinos are the best!

We will be GPS trackable on the journey, stay tuned to find out more.

We are ready to go now, this is it, last minute adjustments to diet, bikes and mental preparation are going on, fitness wise we are as ready as we can be.

Bring on the towpaths!!

Pete

Why should you give?

Well, my e-mail has been going crazy the last couple of days with automated messages from Justgiving.co.uk telling me that lots of people have been sponsoring us on our quest to cycle Liverpool to Leeds in a single day along the Leeds/Liverpool Canal.

Our current total as I write is £1168 before gift aid which is amazing! Everyone on the cycling team would like to convey a heart felt thank you to everyone who has given their hard earned cash and supported us in such a fantastic way.

However, we have set ourselves an ambitious target of £4000 for this event so we are around 30% there according to our totaliser on justgiving. Therefore we are still pushing to get you, the lovely people of the world to dig deep into your pockets and give as much as you can. To help convey why every sum even £5 or £10 can make a massive difference to the work Kidz Klub Leeds does I’m going to give you a few examples of where your money will go.

• Just £5 will help pay for a set of props for our 20 minute teaching section each week, this can vary from clothes, to cakes but it’s these visual aids that really convey a valuable message across to the children.
• £10 Will provide a child with the best prize we give out at Kidz Klub, the Silent Seats Special Certificate which means he or she was the best behaved kid in the whole of Kidz Klub. The effects of this prize can never be underestimated as it boosts confidence as well as rewards behaviour.
• £11 will provide us with a weeks worth of activity sheets that are given out to every kid who comes to Kidz Klub, that is currently 1400 children visited every single week!
• £12 pays for an Assembly in one of the 33 schools we regularly visit across Leeds allowing children across a wider area to hear the message we bring. We currently take between 80 and 90 Assemblies per term and we want to see this grow continually!
• £30 pays for a team training evening for the 110 volunteers across the 3 (soon to be 4) Kidz Klub venues in Leeds to make sure we are all up to date and can provide the safest environment for the children.
• £40 will pay for a weeks worth of sweets for the 400 kids who walk through our doors each week, every kid gets a sweet for coming along with many others given out as rewards and prizes during Kidz Klub.
• £45 will pay for the re-painting of the set which is re-decorated every term with a new theme by a team of artists and staff who give up their time for free to create a visually stunning backdrop to a Kidz Klub session!
• £50 will allow us to take a Kidz Klub family for a trip out to spend time with each other away from the stress of everyday life and whatever situation they are currently in. This is something many of us take for granted but what would appear to be “just a trip to Pizza Hut” can be priceless to a family in need.
• £120 will pay for a bus to go out this week and collect up to 70 children from areas across Leeds so that they can come to Kidz Klub, for free.

I must stress this last point, we do not, we never have and we hope that we never will charge a single penny for a child to come to Kidz Klub. Which means our income comes directly from people like you who donate their hard earned money to keep this wonderful project going. You can sponsor us through www.justgiving.co.uk/kidzklubcycleride (or by clicking the sponsor me button on the right of every page) or by cheque or cash directly. Leave a comment at the end of this post, visit www.kidzklubleeds.org.uk or send an e-mail to kidzklubleeds@btconnect.com for more information.

Please give as much as you can and help us reach our £4000 target.

Thank you

Pete

News…

• A rest week took place this week in an attempt to psych ourselves up for the big ride, most of us are now cycling shorter trips regularly and I am joining the cycle to work crew this week. I work in both Sheffield and Otley so my cycle to work was to Leeds train station and back today today! Tomorrow however I will be attempting the 13 mile cycle to Otley from my house in South Leeds and will be repeating this at least on Thursday and Friday as well. This is no mean feat as the route is not the flattest, nor the quietest when it comes to traffic, but it will save me considerable amounts of money and keep me in good condition. I know Chris C and Grace are already cycling to work regularly and Dave is keeping up regular bike rides down in the West Midlands and the others are putting in the miles on a regular basis.
• Andy popped into Kidz Klub on Saturday Morning to our surprise, he’s coping well with the cast on his leg and his spirits are good considering the situation. He’s due to be in the heavy cast (it’s huge, seriously!) for another 4-6 weeks by which point the bones will have healed but the ligament damage will take another 6 weeks or so in a lighter cast. We all hope and pray it will be a lot shorter than that and we will be furnishing him with as many DVDs and games as he can handle to help pass the time!

• We sadly say goodbye to Becca this week, she ventures back to New Mexico, USA tomorrow (Tuesday) and she will be missed greatly! She’s been a fantastic addition to the Kidz Klub family this year and great company on the cycle ride training and has put up with rain (lots of it), sun, wind and my semi spur of the moment trip up (and more frighteningly down) Ilkley Moor!

• I have created a logo for our little bike ride and it’s going live today! Expect to see more of this logo over the next three weeks and if you are out in the centre of Liverpool, the canal or in the centre of Leeds when we are doing the ride.
• It’s Tour De France time over in the pro sports world, one of my favourite sporting events of the year and I will be cheering on the Brits (we have plenty this year!) but in particular Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish. While I probably aspire more to the efforts of Wiggler with his all round ability and sheer grit on the hills as well as the flat you can’t help but be drawn in by Cav, the mystery of the man and the explosive power in the sprints. Hopefully the long wait for a British winner in Le Tour is not far away!

Finally, a reminder that you can sponsor us at the justgiving.co.uk page from where ever you are in the world just click on the “sponsor me” in the right hand tool bar of this website!

Ride 9: On Ilkla Moor Baht ‘at but with a helmet

View Larger Map

Who said cycling isn’t fun and interesting? I took the opportunity to spice things up a little with our long distance rides by leaving the tow paths behind a little bit. Grace, Becca and myself left Leeds at the sprightly time of 10am down the canal with the promise of Chris C catching us up pretty sharpish. It’s worth mentioning at this point Chris had jumped off a plane and a fortnight of holiday the night before and was rather jaded to say the least.

I felt that it might be a bit more interesting and visually stimulating to head off the canal for the day and take a trip up Ilkley Moor, neither Becca or Chris had ever been before and would give us a bit of hill training and work a few of those other muscles. The weather, might I add, was gloriously sunny and warm with a cooling breeze just when we needed it. Gracie, who is in the midst of dissertation madness with Roman Classics ended up rocking out at some pace, of course she was only travelling to Apperley Bridge and back (about 20 miles) rather than the 50 mile trawl and one of the UK’s larger hills to climb that the rest of us had in store.

Chris’ catch up game was slowed by the onset of yet another puncture just before Rodley and he eventually caught up half an hour later at Apperley Bridge. So substitutions in the group complete we made our way along the canal, powering up and beyond Bingley Five Rise Locks and into the unknown.

Following the trusty Google maps on my HTC Hero we veered off the canal in Micklefield and headed up hill, a long way up hill, through East Morton. While I am a mountain bike owner, I’ve not really taken it up anything remotely classed as a mountain as of yet so this was interesting for me! The others were armed with road bikes so were fine on the tarmac for the most part. First to fall climbing the hill was Chris, the tiredness from travelling from Espania was hitting him pretty hard and he too to foot power, shortly followed by me. With the bike being new there are always a few teething problems and reaching my lowest gears is one such problem, a visit to Woodrups this weekend for it’s 1 Month service is required! Becca, however was showing some of that American grit and muscle and with a few stops (but no walking) was the first to ascend the Moor with a big ole fist punch.

After a short break we set off again, and the road quickly became a gravel path, and the incline quickly became a descent. My territory now. The big chunky balloon tyres raced down the hill with plenty of control and stability and some speed! To prevent this from getting out of hand, the lovely people at Bradford City Council have put some concrete ridges across the road, it is possible to get round/over them but requires an element of brute force and suitable machinery.

As I charged down the hill as far as a very steep and sharp turn I waited for the road goers to join me, Becca appeared but not Chris. Turns out Chris had performed a crude parts exchange with Ilkley Moor with him taking a dive over one of the concrete ridges and ending up sliding down part of the hill, no real damage done just some scrapes and brumps and yet another puncture! Once Chris dusted himself off and patched the bike up we set off again, very slowly this time down the steepest part of the hill with more ridges as we went along. This was followed by some lovely sweeping tarmac corners as we entered the picturesque town of Ilkley. From here it was back up the other side of the Moor to the Cow and Calf pub for snacks and plenty of refreshments.

After some food and drink we headed off down what must be one of the best cycling roads in the UK between Ilkley and Burley in Wharfdale, fast, sweeping corners but no real need to break, if it wasnt for the road traffic we would have made it down in significantly less time than it did!

From here we went to Otley, the town I work in, a quick stop off for some chain lubricant and we were off up the Chevin ridge and onto Otley Road back into Leeds. We took a diversion down the Meanwood Valley Trail (one i’ve never done before) through the woods and along the river. This brought us out for some much needed refreshments from Grace (Thank you!) as we split off one by one to make our way back home.

If you are a mountain biker (or a the owner of a sturdy hybrid) I would strongly reccomend this route, the sights are fantastic and it is a really good work out. With 4 weeks to go until the big ride I feel we are starting to peak at the right time. Planning and logistics are coming on well and I am actually starting to look forward to doing this!

I must give you an update on Andy, his operation on Friday was successful and he is now in hospital waiting to be discharged. Unfortunately the pins and plate will have to stay in for a significant period of time with a second operation when they are ready to come out. Hope you are out of hospital and back on you feet really soon mate!

Take care all!

Pete

Group Ride 8: Every Dog has his Day

Well I say group ride 8, it’s more like Sunday ride 8, as it was just me and Gracie P on the towpath. Well, it was a loss for the others as the weather was perfect, not too sunny, not too hot, no rain to be seen anywhere. The tow path was flat and fast for large periods and it was a bit of a breeze going through.

With Grace just about fully recovered from her brush with a saloon car earlier in the week and the bike now in full working order we set off at a steady pace. When I say steady, I mean when we weren’t filtering our way through families, dogs, and families with dogs, dogs, and more dogs. It would appear that despite British Waterways’ attempts to encourage people to share the path with cyclists that it doesn’t seem to work all too well when people walking dogs meet other people walking dogs!

This was Grace’s first time attempting Five Rise and back and to give her credit where credit’s due she was going for it! The last time she was out on the towpath with us she called it a day at Saltaire. It wasn’t a record pace we set but with the foot traffic it was never going to be. I ascended five rise on pedal power for the 6th time with Gracie taking the sensible option of walking it!

On the way back we thought we would try something out, Chris wrote about doing some live tracking and telemetry stuff through Google Maps and Android Phones and I figured now was a good time to have a look at the technology. So you will find below (hopefully) a window with the route we took and if you go to the full screen version and you click on the red marker you will see all the details of how we did.

View Larger Map

As you can see, we made very good time on the way back, with 1hr 22 mins to do the just shy of 17 miles at an average speed of just short of 13mph. The most interesting thing is the height map, this is by no means a flat canal. There are lots of little elevations even away from the locks, but generally from Five rise there is a massive drop down towards Leeds.

I must mention my pride for Grace at this point, we went at a very quick pace on the way back and there was not a single complaint, just sheer grit and determination, If we keep this up then we will hopefully leave ourselves in great shape for the big ride.

Next up on Saturday 26th (Tomorrow) is a longer ride of 50 miles and a suprise in store for the people riding with me!

Pete

Injuries and Updates

It’s been a little while since we last posted anything here on the Kidz Klub Cycle blog, it’s ok, we’ve not gone anywhere! It’s been a bit of a busy turbulent week/10 days for us however with a few important bits of news we need to update you all on.

We’ll start off with the heavy hitters and there is no real way to beat about the bush, Andy has gone and broken his ankle, quite badly actually. He was involved in an accident playing football on Monday evening and has broken his ankle in two places and on top of that he dislocated it. He’s spent most of the week in bed and in a very heavy cast after they popped it back into place. He’s now been moved to another hospital in Leeds where as he is about to be (or in the process of being) operated on. He’ll have to have a steel plate and pins put into his ankle to fix it in place. We are all thinking and praying for him and for Jo that it is a successful operation and he can be let out of hospital as soon as possible.

Obviously barring a remarkable recovery this will be Andy out of action for a significant period of time and almost certainly won’t be doing any bike riding this side of August. I am absolutely gutted for him as are the rest of the group. Andy has been a huge encouragement on the rides we have done so far and has worked harder than anybody to get himself in a good condition for the big one. I’m really hoping he will still want to be part of the planning and logistical side of things and continue to serve as an encouragement for the rest of us.

The injuries keep coming as well over the last week or so. Grace “doing it for the Girls” Perryman ended up being hit by a car in NW Leeds last week on her way home. A very scary (but ultimately all too common) situation for a cyclist to be in and we are all incredibly relieved and thankful that she is completely fine with only a couple of bruises and scrapes to go with the skuwiff tracking alignment on her bike. Both Perryman and bike are fine and well and joined me on a short road ride on Friday last week and Group Ride 8 on Sunday afternoon (report to follow later this weekend).

Dave has been in the wars as well, he’s been training in Birmingham away from the group and borrowed a friend’s bike. I’m a bit fuzzy on the details but there was a snap of the chain and various pains resulting in stitches being required in his hand. I am also pleased to report that it will take a whole lot more than that to stop Dave and he is back out training before he finally moves up to Leeds in a week or so to join up with our rides.

To be honest it has all left us with a bit of a pondering as to what’s going to happen next! We are very much being challenged at the moment to our commitment and ability to complete the ride. I am sure we are all feeling a bit tense but ultimately determined to complete the ride on the original schedule.

Kidz Klub has been moved to a Sunday to allow for a Wedding at Bridge Street tomorrow so we are off on a bike ride tomorrow (Saturday) to attempt to get to Skipton and back. It’s supposed to be another glorious day so the jacket will be packed and the mud guards strapped on just in case!

Until the next time, take care!

Pete

Group Ride 7: Singing and Cycling in the Rain…

After a promising attendance earlier in the week a mixture of injury, work commitments and being unable to get hold of a bike left us with the truly hardy(!). Myself, Andy, Owen and Special Guest Becca on her second ride (slacking riders take note!) departed under kind of sunny skies towards Five Rise. It was cool with no wind and pretty much ideal conditions for a bit of high paced cycling. En Route I informed Andy that last week we had made it in 85 mins to Five Rise with the pros (Dyson and Clarke) and took it upon himself to set a quick pace to get up there in at least a close time.

Owen was up for it as well, after a few nervy moments through the fabled tight bridges through Kirkstall where he splashed down a month ago he pushed us on at our first scheduled 2 min breather in Rodley. Now we have done a few rides and the pain is significantly less than it was back on day one the tom foolery is starting to appear in our rides with me and Andy devising new and humorous potential methods to cause discomfort to each other without knocking each other off. We feel the ultimate discomfort would be to achieve a 15 mile an hour riding wedgie, do not try this at home kids, and adults, preferably dont try this at home either.

The other events of note was Becca’s close call with a poodle, well actually it could have been one of 8 different breeds of dog, all of whom had no awareness of what was approaching them as their owner attempted to coral them towards one side. Our top tip if you are walking your dog on the tow path, keep it on a leash unless they are very well behaved and can sit on command! Saves something getting squashed or ending up in the canal!

The other one was myself showing off my slick co-ordination skills (or lack of) in missing my bottle holder when trying to replace my water bottle, dropping it and it rolling into the path of Andy Langdale who fortunately only ran it over rather than avoiding it and going into a hedge or the canal! Anyway, no harm done and it was on to Bingley. The race against the clock was now on with 3 miles to cover in around 15 minutes to make it in 85mins, sounds easy peasy right? not with Three Rise Locks and the ascent up Five Rise Locks in the way and the added bonus of some persistent rain.

Andy and Myself powered off, with a bit of a personal record at stake and went for it through the concrete section in Bingley, as we went up three rise we were still ahead of time but the rain was now pouring down, we lined up for a shot at five rise and went for it. The new bike was handling well and made it up for my 4th ascent up the largest hill on our route, as for Andy his first attempt was dashed by the exploding chain back on that eventful Ride 5 but was determined to do it this time. To his great pride and a very large hi-five he made it up with a final big push. It is always a big personal milestone to cycle the best part of 20 miles then make it up what is an incredibly steep incline with the knowledge that there is another 20 miles before you get home and really does give you plenty of confidence (at least in the long term, usually it’s just pain in the short term!) Owen and Becca plodded up a couple of minutes later as we took shelter from what was now persistently heavy rain.

The way back became a real challenge, the rain if anything became harder and did not let up all the way through, I led the way and I admit, ended up in a zone of my own and got my head down and powered through leaving the others behind for a short time. When we reformed as a quartet it became a bit of a farce, we were so wet it was no longer hard or depressing, it was just amusing and we moved away from trudging through and started singing and playing the traditional wet weather cycling games teenagers would play, ie: how wet can we get the other people and how many puddles can we go through rather than avoid!

We all made it home safely (but very very wet and muddy) and I am pretty sure there are only 3 other people on this planet who know just how good my hot shower was on Sunday night! As an update, as of Tuesday morning, my trainers are still wet, they are now sitting on a radiator and will hopefully dry out in time for a ride next week. We are looking to step up a notch in a fortnight with a further longer distance run to Skipton and back, this will be a true test of how ready we are for the 132 in just 6 weeks time.

As a reminder, you can now sponsor us for the big one on the 24th July, please visit www.justgiving.com/kidzklubcycleride and give as much as you can! If you are reading this, know one of the riders personally and have not given any money yet, expect to be asked in person very soon!

Pete