Between the 25th may - 1st June three friends are commiting one week, 957 miles and around £350 of their own money in order to cycle the length of Great Britain in the hope of raising over £3000 for terminally ill children in the UK.

WE DID IT!!!!   Sam came through as the powerhouse...  Jez IS spannerman and I came through with logistics, together the three muskateers conquered the UK without having to use the limited first aid supplies I carried!!

In total we have enough video footage for an 8 minute DVD which is in the process of being edited..  KEEP IN TOUCH and many thanks for all your support.

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Training Update:
Friday April 20th  - Drinkwater arrived in Truro on the train .....  We had a cruise to Malpas just to stretch our legs and have a pint to discuss the weekends ride.  Major topics included a Satellite Navigation system Sam has been speccing up and plans to get 'for a monkey down the market',...    other gadgets he pulled out the panniers and the fact that he's never ridden his bike up a hill as yet... Well we'll soon sort that one out!

Preparation

Saturday April 21st - Jez rocked up at about 8am and we all ate some porridge before heading out for our first ride together...  our destination was Tintagel and back, given a conservative estimate of about 75 miles.  It all looked quite pro to start with as I pumped a bit more air in my tyres, Jez pulled out his dads front handlebar bags and Sam got creative with some serious WD40...! Thought I'd better take a little first aid kit just in case, a few power bars and our swimming shorts.  Beating hot day, we stopped off for a sandwich in Padstow, Cycled onto Wadebridge and then a long uphill to Camelford, which almost broke the Drinkwater spirit.

After a quick stop for powerade, hung a left and cruised along to the coast reaching our destination of Tintagel (Dont remember ever going before but it seemed like a bit of an anticlimax with loads of swords for sale and King Arthurs Pub).

Directions

Drinkwater managed to get some directions to the nearest beach from a feral looking Tintagel lass which turned out to be very wrong... good job I double checked with a half blind, half deaf Isreali imigrant who pointed us in the right direction to Trebarwith Sands Beach where we had a quick dunk in the freezing waters.

The return journey started with a 3 mile uphill climb and a breakaway effort by Drinkwater who was soon caught by the peleton, Jez then made a concerted effort to be first up the hill while I hung back noticing Sam's erratic hill climbing technique (Crunching gears and not settling in the saddle). We made it to the top together and arrived back at the BP garage to get some more Powerade and snacks...  (Jez pulled out the old I've never burped in my life technique and thought he could prove it by farting more in one afternoon than I have in the last 6 weeks. Note - must ask Jez's family if they have ever seen him have a sneaky burp..)

Heading Back

General consensus was on a B road back to Bodmin that Jez took praise for, and rightly so as it proved to be a good route culminating in a short steep climb up towards Bodmin hospital that almost killed Sam (a quick chat about satellite navigation soon took his mind off it!).

From Bodmin we rode a stretch of the A30 to just the other side of Newquay then turned off towards Laddock and through the valley to Probus leaving us one final long hill from Tresillian to Truro.

Final Stretch

A quick check of the cycle computer and we'd clocked up 93 miles!!!  At this point I'd inhaled three flies and been victim to Jez's farts. Jez was complaining his right knee was packing up and Sams whole Urinary system had failed. Whilst Jez & I took a quick 'Gypsies kiss' the Drinkmeister decided to charge ahead and give himself a headstart on the final mountain section.. three miles later still no sign of him and we were beginning to wonder if without the comforts of Sat Nav he'd taken a wrong turn so late in the day!!  Formation riding we hit the mountain...  with no sign of Sam ahead!!  Pumping the pedals we cracked on, heads down thinking of ice cold Magers and Shark steaks for dinner.. when ther he was ..  a glimpse of Drinkwater out the saddle and on his feet!!  Pushing his bike round a corner!!  700 yards behind we were catching fast and by the time we had visuals again he was back in the saddle waving his fist in recognition of our immenent capture..  We all arrived at the top in formation with Sam showing off some Essex technique to a queue of cars at the traffic lights..

97 miles on the clock!    We all broke some serious psychological barriers that day...Jez broke some serious wind and Sam broke his hill climbing cherry!! RESPECT

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Background Info:
Benedict Rowswell,a project co-ordinator from Truro College, along with his friends Sam Drinkwater and Jeremy Cock plan to cycle the epic journey starting from John O'Groats all the way to Lands end within 10 days, hoping to complete the route affectionately known as the 'End to end' in a target time of seven days.

The idea to raise money for terminally ill children came after Ben taught a first aid course to a class of 2nd year child care students at Truro College and Ben became aware of the work they had done in conjunction with 'Little Bridge House' a childrens hospice in the South West.

"The childcare students were obviously touched by their visit to a childrens hospice, this inspired me to make an enquiry to both the National Association of childrens Hospices as well as speaking to Nurses from Treliske Hospital in Truro who work in the community with terminally ill children providing support and care."

As part of our fundraising efforts we plan to continue fundraising until we complete the London Triathlon on August 4th. For both of these events were going to push ourselves way out of our comfort zone..... something terminally ill children and their families have to do on a daily basis.

Thank you for visiting our fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor us online.

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Association Of Children's Hospices will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So please sponsor us now!

Many thanks for your support.

Ben Sam Jez