Lands End to John O'Groats the Cycle Challenge!
Over eleven days, eight riders made up of Senior Members, EBGC Staff and EBGC supporters made it their aim to cycle a thousand miles from Lands End in the very south west of Cornwall to John O’Groats at the very north east of Scotland. Resting on various Boys and Girls Clubs gym floors overnight and powered on by Warburton’s Fruit Loaf everyone kept going through the aches and pains to make it to the finish. We were supported by a back up team of Ron and Dave Shelton and Shelts culinary skills were put to the test as he cooked in a wide range of venues and facilities over our time away.
The weather on the whole was incredibly kind to us as we cycled almost entirely without rain only faced the challenge of riding into the wind on a couple of occasions. The bikes held up remarkably well given the distance that we travelled. Other than the occasional puncture and Drew piling into the back of Roger when he failed to comprehend that a red traffic light means that you must stop and of course when Drew flying into a ditch after hitting some loose gravel there were thankfully few major road incidents to report of. Jethro was a constant source of entertainment with his various musings about life on the road and incredibly short shorts that he inflicted on the team and the wider general public.
We were given words of encouragement as we peddle powered on our way through towns and cities one elderly lady at a bus stop telling us to “come on move quicker” and another gentleman crushing Sam Woodgate’s spirit at the bottom of a large hill by telling him “there’s plenty more of those”. The longest day that we faced was between Coventry and Leeds at a 132 gruelling miles and it was impossible not to learn something about yourself and determination to keep going on that day alone. We stayed at a range of youth clubs and boys clubs and the willingness of those clubs to help us out and support us was brilliant and hugely appreciated and showed that the club network although now relatively un-coordinated on a national scale still has huge potential when clubs work together. Some of the clubs that we visited were hugely inspiring in terms of the work that’s going on: the Hunslet Young Peoples Club in Leeds was a great example of this. The whole place was buzzing with activity and you could tell the building was a real hub of the community.
The Cairngorms in Scotland provided the back drop of some stunning scenery and some big steep climbs even our resident mountain goat Roger had a look of discomfort on his face as he cycled past and then off into the distance on one such climb. As we got further into Scotland all the previous days seemed to blur together and it was increasingly difficult to remember where we had stayed on different dates and just what day of the week it was anymore! We had turned into cycling, eating and sleeping machines and it was a fantastic feeling to reach the end and even the slightly unusual behaviour in a nearby field between an over active cow and small horse couldn’t put a dampener on things as we rode into John O’Groats!
All in all a fantastic effort and one that everyone can be proud of, all that remains is to collect in all my sponsorship money which may prove to be equally as challenging as the cycle itself!
LeJog 2010 Participants: Sam Grimwood, Roger Cottee, Andrew Collings, Sam Woodgate, Seb Balmcombe, Jethro Bogdanov, Martin Solder, David Hassard
