2014 Ride 100!
In August 2014, I will be taking part in the Prudential Surrey 100. This event is a legacy from the 2012 Olympics and follows a very similar route to Bradley Wiggins and Team GB. I want to raise money for Save the Children UK who is working globally to protect children’s rights, improve education and provide health care. Please sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/cycle-sci.
The route is displayed on this site and you can access it via the menu at the top of this page – please sponsor me first though 🙂
Training update
With a little under two week’s before the Prudential London-Surrey 100 cycle sportif, training is going well. So far this year, I have cycled over 3,100 miles, climbed 103,000ft and got trough 5 inner tubes (London roads are not always great!).
Fundraising for Save the Children is also in good shape. Geolink/CETel, is the first corporate partner to come on board to support me with a generous donation – Thank You!
Geolink/CETel is a leading provider of satellite internet services and currently linking 34 Save the Children sites to the rest of the world. These sites are in some of the most remote and dangerous places in the world. A reliable communications link is very important to our aid workers on the ground.
5 days to go
Its just 5 days to go and I have hit the pause button on training this week as I am sailing! I do intend to have cheeky training ride on Saturday!
My fundraising effort is also going well. TSF-Supply have today supported my ride by donating to my Save the Children fundraising page. Many thanks to Luc and the team from me.
I have been working with TSF Supply over the past year where they have delivered a turn-key power supply system to Merlin/Save the Children “Field Hospital”. TSF-S is also a leading provider of radio communications to the humanitarian sector.
One day to go!
Tomorrow is the big day and the weather is not looking good at all, but I am still riding!
Bike serviced today and new tyres and other parts have been added.
IT Lab has joined up as sponsors, so many thanks for your support. IT Lab provides IT support to Save the Children International.
The bike is now ready to go, a quick photo opportunity at my local pub “The Greyhound” where I will sample my last excellent pint before I set off to register!
And here is a close up of my bike – all ready for action!
Ride 100 complete – Over £1000 raised.
Tomorrow is the big day and the weather is not looking good at all, but I am still riding!
Bike serviced today and new tyres and other parts have been added.
IT Lab has joined up as sponsors, so many thanks for your support. IT Lab provides IT support to Save the Children International.
The bike is now ready to go, a quick photo opportunity at my local pub “The Greyhound” where I will sample my last excellent pint before I set off to register!
And here is a close up of my bike – all ready for action!
Another kind sponsor !
I would like to thank the team at IT Lab who have also sponsored my ride. This means that this fundraising effort for Save the Children is now over £1300.
IT Lab provides IT support to Save the Children International and to Merlin (Now part of Save the Children UK)
Time for another road trip!
I have started my grand tour for 2014- no pressure, over 600 miles of Spain but without the irritation of me asking you to sponsor me for some charity or other. I will try and post here each day, but if I do miss a day, don’t panic. It may be lack of internet or the call of Spanish Beer!
The real work starts tomorrow. Today we arrived in Santander on the LD Lines ferry. One of my challenges is to keep that hole in my head nice and clean. 9 stitches that have to come out at some stage.
OK that’s enough about the rider, here is the real machine – the 2014 version of the bike I had last year. My previous bide was stolen in London last year. This picture taken on the train yesterday (yeah I know,lightweight but this is not London to Africa)
And now today’s feeble effort map.
Day 1!
We are well on our way. As a hotel was not available at the original destination, we covered over 95 miles to get to where we are now. Over 7,000 ft climbed today!
Here is today’s route followed by some pictures!
The day normally kicks off with a decent coffee
The prize for getting the first puncture goes to Elaine at Mile 20. I am not gloating here as I join the puncture club a little further down the road and then suffer a further 3!
We are on the Camio de Santiagao Route for the first couple of days:
And the final destination is in the middle of ????? Scenery nice, Beer good. Food – OK sort of….
Day 2
Another puncture for me today, but Elaine escapes.
The injury to my head from that “ladder” incident last week improves. I can now put my helmet on which makes me and I am sure may others very happy 🙂
Today’s route:
Typical road along the Spanish plains. With wind from the north, this is not slow 🙂
Day 3
This has got to be one of the hardest days I have ever spent on a bike! Steep hills is not an issue but a long slight incline over tens of miles in a very strong headwind is a lot to ask of any cyclist! Glad I was not alone for this one as I would have just hopped on a train!
The day also started out with 2 punctures and a badly bent wheel (which I managed to true up at the destination).
This road looks easy in a photo, but the story this picture does not tell is one of 25 MPH wind +. Oh and its up hill for as far as you can see. As you can imagine, in 30 degrees plus of heat, we drink plenty of water.
It feels more like…
But we do get to the end of the day in one piece, Even if I have to share my hotel room with 50+ flies! Flies are fine, really. They sleep at night, so as they were well behaved and did not keep me awake, I did not need to kill them!
Oh… each days ends with one of these!
Day 4
Day four into the trip and I invest some time into sorting out the rear wheel. Good move as it performed well and this is my first puncture free day. Result!
The route is easier on us today. Scenery is stunning. Shortly after starting out, we get a nice view of some hills we will later wind our way through.
When most people think of Spain, its normally images of people being sick in gutters outside of venues in Malaga! Inland is real Spain. The picture below really sells what an excellent place this is (as far as possible from those cesspits as possible!)
Water is frequently topped up a great expense. Shortly before the downhill ride, we found a public mountain spring where we topped up with free and cool water. As we were topping up at Puerto Castilla, the locals also came to the spring with containers.
The road down a long valley bodes fast riding. Elaine’s bike is better set up for downhill with a pannier that does not wobble, so can ride faster without endangering life on the steep decent 🙂
By the time I catch up, down the hill, Elaine has found the bar that has a small beach. Beer followed by Swim and then another 20 miles of riding!
Day 5
Its day 5 and we have covered more than 1/2 the distance for this voyage. With nearly 420 miles covered already, There is still over 240 miles to complete between day 6 and 9.
Today’s route was yet another amazing day of good riding and stunning scenery. We did have to go 11 km beyond our intended destination as there were no places to stay!
With over 8o miles covered, not many pictures taken as we did start a little later. I had to visit the pharmacy for a few basic tools (More about that later!)
Here is a picture of a lake in one of the national parks!
Spain is full of small towns complete with castles. Looks great and always a super photo opportunity. 
The day ended with a soak in the bath followed by some self administered surgery. I removed stitches from my forehead. Its kind of difficult when trying to focus on a delegate task using a mirror.
I remember in previous career that I had attended the “Ship Captains Medical” course. This is where I was tought how to stitch wounds. The course never covered the removal of sutures! Thank goodness for YouTube!
After surgery the next activity was beer and food. Nuff said!
Day 6
Today, we covered just over 90 miles. The place we had planned to stop at had only expensive rooms available! So we pushed on beyond target and found a great hotel in a small rural village!
Today’s route;;;;;
The day starts off well enough in a very agricultural region. Tomatoes would appear to be one main product of Extramadura Region. The factory below is possibly supplying Tesco with tinned stuff for our bologna sauce! 
The local river that keeps those Tesco tomatoes watered!
Despite my best efforts to use Google streets, there is always a challenge. This road has been dug up for repair. Based on what we have seen so far, a good job will be done.. 
Roads have been long, straight and mostly in an uphill direction. The picture below shows a village we came from in the distance. The original start point for the day was well on the other side of those hills! 
Very pleased to see this sign at our destination. This is the end of a very long day.
Hotel is €40 per night. A/C, Pool, rustic building and this great garden where beer is served with nice sound of Cafe Del Mar. Nice end to the day – I will be back.
Hotel is off the beaten track, but well worth the stop if passing through Montemolin. Here is a link! http://www.booking.com/hotel/es/el-aguila-montemolin.en-gb.html for more information. 
Day 7
Its day 7 and the first week has gone so quickly. Here is today’s track
The picture below shows some brick huts. There were quite a few around over a wide area. Plenty of these were seen yesterday as well. They seem to have a “Army” look to them!
Elaine’s dad (AKA Micheal Fish) forecast rain for today. He was not wrong. Here we have found shelter under a motorway bridge.
Day 8
This is the last of our long distance days
Its hilly in places hence yet more nice views. As you can see, there is a little cloud to keep things nice and cool.
But, there is still enough sun and heat to keep this solar-thermal power plant running (About 20 miles north of Paterna de Riviera
The hotel at Paterna was great. We arrived in time to watch the last few minutes of La Vuelta (and a beer!)
Day 9
Sadly the final day 🙁
The little loop at the end is an extra 10 miles! The maps on bookings.com indicated that our hotel was in La Linea. The actual position was 10 miles away along a motorway or an off road track!
The day started out foggy which gave us this great view.
And this is what Gib looks like from 10 Miles away!
After completing 720 miles overall, its time to prepare for the trip home by plane. Elaine has decided to post herself back instead as it will be cheaper!
