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!

Tuesday 17 July 2012

And we are off

Chris and I set off at 5am for Horsham while Des and Ricky were still cozy and tucked up in bed. We had a 40km ride while they had a 50 minute train journey. Unfortunately their reward for being lazy was that Ricky hurt his back carrying his bike on board.
A satisfactory breakfast was followed by a short ride to Pulborough where Ricky claimed that he was too injured to carry on before heading off for a direct train to Portsmouth.
We reached the South Downs after 80kms and boy it was hard work. Des had a short cut which added a few miles and made us climb TWO unnecessary hills. Being on pilgrimage we could not express our gratitude but nevertheless we felt it!
Happily we were all reunited before boarding.
Lets hope tomorrow goes more to plan than today.

Facing the south downs

Ricky's leg injury worsens!
All aboard, a queue of cyclists!

1 comment:

  1. Well done guys for getting the first leg over with!! It can only get better from here on with sunshine, views and all the rest of the Spanish best!! - Nina

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