The participation ride 2006 - post-ride analysis and comment

'Fat Nick' was right about Chris Boardman

At the end of his excellent report on Chris Boardman's Hour Record which can be read here 'Fat Nick' said:

"Suddenly, Sally Boardman was ushered to the front of our stand, opposite from Chris. He signalled someone to help him climb the track (still in his cycling shoes!), and was helped over to his wife and family. Ever the family man, he was soon giving interviews to the world's press, as he held one of his kids in his arms and held another to his hip."

Well the family strikes again with Sally booking a surprise trip abroad to celebrate their daughter's birthday. This means that Chris will no longer be able to be with us on Stage 7. In fact he's away for the whole ride. I've just received an email from Chris with sincere aplogies and offering to do whatever he can for the cause but he just can't be with us on Stage 7.

Not to worry - we will do it anyway - and we will stick to The Wirrall route. Frankly, I am grateful anyway as Chris at least provided an excuse to lengthen the trip from 9 to 10 days! And before you ask . . . . we are not changing it back again now!

Meet another of my supporters: George

This is the face of George created by Televirtual for the award-winning 'chatbot' of the same name.

I went to see George this morning at chat.jabberwacky.com to have a chat about the ride. You can read a transcript of our conversatiion here. Insightful is probably the kindest way to describe it.

First woman signs up

"Morning Simon
At last managed to get on to your site last week on a friend's computer - scary or what!!
Thought I might do stage 4 on 31/05 with you - Bristol to Bromyard. Can't remember how many miles it is but at least that end of the day means I haven't slowed you up too much . . . . . .  So, if you'd like a snail for company, I'd love to meet up with you . . . . . Trish".

Hum, snail indeed. Trish cycled from John O'Groats to Land's End this time-ish last year in 12 days. Her notes, guantlet throwing and encouragement fed into the research for this ride. Cheers Trish - see you on Wednesday.

Meet the team . . .

. . . or some of them. I will add photos later if I get a chance.
Andy: Andy is the David Beckham of Estimators to the Construction Industry. He's past his peak but still pretty good and has a very attractive wife (Hi Janice, OK?) and in Andy's case very attractive daughters too (I sure he won't mind me saying that . . . but on second thoughts . . ). Andy is a veteran cyclist and is one of the reasons I am in the saddle. Andy is consistent, year in year out.
Adrian: Adrian runs West Midlands Police virtually single-handed but rarely gets credit for this. Adrian and I were part of the team that cycled across the Yucatan to raise money for Acorns Children's Hospice in 2003.
Simon: Simon is the Saachi & Saachi of the voluntary sector all bundled up in one nicely proportioned man. He works with me at ruralnet|uk.
David: David also works with me at ruralnet|uk. He is the source of the Kryptonite that powers most of what we do. David's not cycling but meeting me at John O'Groats and bringing me back home. Thanks David.
Brian: Brian has the best bits of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates inside him (and they nearly don't fit!). On Brian's 50th we raced around an indoor track on Go-Carts which appeared mad at the time but on reflection . . . Brian won't be cycling either but has offered to lend me his new (yes new) Treo so I can keep the blog up to date on the move.
Luke: Luke is a Fine Artist cum 3D Animator. He is a pillar of the animation community in Norwich where he works for our answer to Pixar -> Televirtual.
Jane & Emma: My support team. More on them later.

Accommodation sorted!

I woke at 5am this morning in a cold sweat. There is so much still to do to organise this ride and I am working! I am down in the South West today and will not be back until Saturday afternoon . . . . don't panic!

So anyway I got up and cleared a few emails and did some planning . . . The key thing still to sort out is accommodation. I was worried about this as 29/5/06 is a Bank Holiday. My daughter Emma has been working all week but today was a day off so I asked if she could help. Anyway she has done a grand job. She was on the phone on and off all day and has arranged the accommodation. Thanks Emma. I will post the details shortly.

Great Support from the industry

I just wanted to acknowledge the support I am getting from Pashley Cycles in Stratford upon Avon (Dan Farrell) and Alex Moulton Bicycles in Bradford upon Avon (Shaun Moulton) in the preparation for this ride.

The work Dan is doing to get the bike ready has been fantastic, although we still have some anxiety about the freewheel! And Shaun has always been available to give advice. Thanks guys.

Chris Boardman MBE to join Participation Ride on 2/6/06

The campaign took a real boost today when Olympic Gold Medallist, and Britain's best known cyclist, Chris Boardman MBE, signed up for Stage 7 of the ruralnet|uk Participation Ride from John O'Groats to Land's End.

I was lucky enough to spend 10 days with Chris in 2003 as part of a Charity Ride across the Yucatan pennisula in aid of the Acorns Children's Hospice. An account of the Yucatan ride can be found here. He tried to infect me with his passion for diving but I was hopeless at it!

With Chris Boardman doing his bit, what could you contribute? There are many options and for most of them no cycling is necessary! Here are some ideas.

1 You can make a donation - click here

2 You can join a part of the ride yourself - sign up here or give me a call - 07932 107109 and leave a message - numbers for each stage will be limited.

3 You might be willing to comment and give advice via the Blog. Just click on any of the 'Comment' links at the bottom of each post.

4 You can leave a message of support via the Blog - go on be the first!

Made contact with Dan - Good & Bad News

Dan Farrell is famous for his fitness, his endurance cycling feats and his love for Moulton Bicycles. I first became aware of Dan when I read an account of his, virtually non-stop, ride from London to Edinburgh and back again!
Dan has also done the Paris-Brest-Paris audax ride and you can read about this here.
Dan was also involved in the Cardiff to London (in a day) ride which I was persuaded to participate in back in May 2003.
GOOD NEWS: Dan is also pretty good at getting bikes ready for long distance runs and has agreed to get my Moulton ready.
BAD NEWS: He has also asked "Why are you doing it the wrong way?". "More than 100 miles a day is no cake walk and if the wind is in your face . . . . ". I'm worried! I may have to do a re-think.

The planning

When you actually sit down to think how you are going to undertake this challenge, you realise that it's going to take a lot of planning. So much planning in fact that you might not even get past that phase. So it was time for a bit of Google research.

You soon find that lots of people have done this before! And, reassuringly, many of them are over 50!

There is a list of links to people who have documented the experience here: http://www.users.waitrose.com/~ianclare/links.htm

And it was here that I found Rob and Joe's story: http://www.beewee.co.uk/JOGLE2005index.htm. This is a superbly documented ride and better, in my view, than the many books you can buy. Rob and Joe have kindly agreed that I can draw heavily on their material to produce this blog. Thanks guys.