Picos Original Riders

Picos Original Riders
Highlights of 2010

Last of the Picos Riders - to Rome Alone!

Our first two charity rides were a huge success - raising over £20,000 for the South East Cancer Help Centre.

The Centre does a fantastic job of supporting patients and carers at the most difficult times of their lives. They make a real difference and you could help them in their work by contributing to our fundraising. Donations can be made via JustGiving.comhttps://www.justgiving.com/Tom-Vaz/ or directly into the Centre. For more details of the Centre and their work see their website at http://www.sechc.org.uk/

After 3 years of rest it seemed time to dust off the old muscles, bones and sinews and do one more spectacular ride in aid of this fabulous charity.

This time I will travel alone for 25 days, mainly following the ancient pilgrimage route to Rome, the Via Francigene, covering a distance of around 1,400 miles.

The route travels through Newhaven - Dieppe - Paris before I eventually reach the Via Francigene in Eastern France. From then on it is pretty simple apart from having to cross the Alps without an elephant!

Sunday 20 May 2012

I do Like to be Beside the Seaside

There comes a time in every father's life when he's realises that his child is bigger and stronger than him. For me the realisation came yesterday when Christopher and I went on a day trip to Brighton. A round trip of 95 miles.
On my previous day trip there,  I had travelled lightly and therefore quickly to Brighton and before eating a portion of chips with mayonnaise on the beach. The subsequent journey home was truly horrible and the chips were thrown up after the first couple of miles.
For yesterday's journey, Christopher insisted that I bring my big camera and at the last minute I threw in a couple of tools - all unnecessary weight for me I thought.We suffered a nightmare outward journey as the bearings on one of my pedals failed enroute resulting in frequent stops to bodge yet another repair. At least the tools came in handy! The picture above shows us stopped for a another repair with the South Downs at Ditchling looming in the background.
In the end I nursed the bike up Ditchling Beacon pedalling mostly with one leg and we ended up arriving in Brighton a mere 3 hours late. Crucially we didn't even have time to stop for tea at all!




After a brief visit at Evans cycle shop in Brighton to replace the offending item Christopher insisted on a fish and chips lunch. Oh the woes of short term memory, I foolishly agreed.
As you can guess, history repeated itself as we headed homewards and the sound of my caring son laughing echoed around the hills. I don't think he has done the sympathy course in med-school!!
I had done my research before leaving home and planned a relatively flat route home in case of emergencies. Of course the 'flat' route seemed even hillier than the outward journey. As I huffed and puffed up successive steep inclines the pain was only made worse by the little voice coming from behind urging me to "hurry up!"



Like most Dads I am still competitive with my offspring so my training regime will be stepped up. The test will be when I join the Anerley Club ride to Brighton and back in a couple of weeks time. Anyone for fish and chips?

1 comment:

  1. This article is going to cost you big time Tom!!

    ReplyDelete