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!

Thursday, 19 July 2012

Cantabria into Asturias

Last night Christopher's bed collapsed leaving me wide awake and laughing while he rolled around on the floor.
Then followed a quiet day of cycling.
First a trip to the beach at Comillas for an ice-cream. Then a visit to the cemetry with the greatest view and onwards over the hills to San Vincente for a quiet lunch where we were convinced that the waitress had undercharged us and tried to argue with her!
We carried on around the headland to Pechon with its long climb and great sweeping descent.
As we have travelled we have encountered the same English family who are touring on assorted bikes with trailers for their luggage. At Uquera we met them and one of the bikes required a replacement part for the gear mechanism so we could recommend the bike shop in Llanes from past experience. We did see them at the end of the day looking satisfied and with the bike repaired.
Des only tried to kill us once today but was prevented from doing so when Christopher proved that the road he was heading onto was a motorway! Such fun...
So today we went from the beach to the mountains, through farms, forest and back to the sea again all in the space of 47 miles.
Fantastic place!


Uphill is no strain when you are young
Des goes to the edge for his photography


An eccentric English family on holiday


The cemetery in Comillas. Chris bows before a potential plot that Des is eyeing up




How to get Chris' attention
Ricky points the way
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous20 July 2012 at 09:27

    Poor Chris!! Hope you guys offered him your bed & didn't just laugh all night!! - Nina

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous22 July 2012 at 22:23

    Tom, am I imagining it or are you really twisting Chris's ear in picture number two??

    ReplyDelete

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