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!

Saturday 21 July 2012

Roughing it

We woke up to torrential rain in Llanes - at least Des woke us up to tell us it was raining and we could stay in bed a little longer. After waiting a while we headed off in a steady downpour which only lasted 3 hours. At Ribadasella we stopped for tea and liked it so much that we stayed for a picnic lunch.
As the rain stopped the hills came out and we faced a series of 10km climbs but the descents were amazing. Even more of a shock was the short cut recommended by a local (who may have mentioned it but we did not understand it). It was a mountain biking route!
This is our first night in a proper pilgrim hostel. Very friendly people on similar journeys. Nice day shame my legs hurt.
Reluctant to leave Llanes
No its not Durdle Door!
Lunch at Ribadasella




Enroute
There is a limit to what is cyclable

1 comment:

  1. I REALLY don't want to make you guys feel bad but there's only been g-l-o-r-i-o-u-s sunshine here since you guys left!! ;-)

    ReplyDelete