Sponsored cycle 2011 - WE MADE IT!!

We did indeed!!

Me + cycling mate Pete Smith ended up riding 1,230 miles unaided from Southampton to Assisi (Central Italy) in 10 days as planned, the longest day being the last one, 164 miles :-) (my longest one day ride ever, beating 155 from a few years ago). Total vertical gradient = over 18,000 metres (more than twice the height of Mt. Everest from sea level). We got to Assisi last Saturday, had a quiet day there on Sunday and then journeyed back on Monday, a day that held its own fair share of incident (more about that later).

We had so many adventures along the way, including cycling up the famous Mont Ventoux in rather pleasant drizzle (just south of the Alps at 1,909m altitude, 13 miles of climbing at an av. gradient of 8%), but then finding it freezing cold and windy on the top and even colder in the long descent!

All will have been in vain if we don't get the sponsorship in for Haiti (the 2 schools where we are going next year). My address is in a previous post :-) To make you even more impressed, Pete (aged 66, who also cycled down from Birkenhead in 3 days just before we left and who cycled back in 2 days, an extra 500 miles) did the last 5 days to Assisi with a suspected cracked rib/torn rib muscles after slipping in a bathroom... talk about tough as old boots!!!! He did the bulk of his ride back to the Wirral in just one day on Thurs.: from his sister's in Andover to Birkenhead = 193 miles in 14 hours, inc. stops!!! He's my hero :-)

Me + my hero, Pete, at the Basilica of St. Francis, the day after arriving in Assisi.

More snaps to follow, plus my diary entries for each day of the ride.