*For those of you first reaching this page, the original story is after this section*

 

Great news! We finally completed the ride- despite all odds on the day.

 

After a week of training in Salisbury a week prior to the ride, we arrived at the start line(at 7.20am!) feeling prepared, if not a little sleepy.

 

It became clear early on that it was going to be a wet day, but we warmed up at a steady pace with our hopes high. However, little over 10 minutes into the ride, the worst happened- I (Elliot) got a puncture. Over the next 20 miles this wasn't the last- we ended up having to use all our spare tubes to keep rolling. With no tubes left, we relapped- for the 3rd time- everyone that had kept overtaking us on our stops. The sun came out and we shot past an optional rest-stop because let’s face it: we'd stopped enough already! We both still felt great physically, there was only around 75miles to go.

 

I got another puncture (it turns out that 1200miles of training on my tyres was too much for them to bear) and we were left shot. We waited for over an hour for Josh's dad to come help us out.

 

I want to stop at this point to thank everyone who has donated or offered us support. At this point morale was a little low, but we sat patiently for our backup, knowing that you guys were rooting for us!

 

Josh's dad came, and well, I rode his bike to the finish. It was a truly ridiculous upgrade on my own bike, so the next 68ish miles was done at an easy pace. Knowing we'd lost a lot of time, Josh in his traditional competitive fashion wanted to push on, but i tried to keep the pace at a conservative 16mph- I'd never done a century before!

 

About 12 miles before the finish, Josh's dad(who had been following us around all day in his van because of the luck we'd had- Thanks again!) found us on some quiet roads and drove in front of us to block the wind- letting us draft on at a quicker pace. Feeling hopeful, and wanting to just get the ride over with after such a 'character building' day, we put on a spurt of speed, overtaking countless people. People saw we were coming and tried to latch on, but couldn't keep up- The legendary Brassknocker Hill had taken a lot of victims and sapped all their energy, but not us! Josh's dad, having carried us so close to the finish, left us at 3 miles to go. 3 miles at the pace we were going. Easy.

 

However, just after the 2 mile sign, guess what happened? I got another puncture! It really did top off the day, and as one cyclist put it who we had overtaken and been relapped by several times as he cycled past- "Now that's just god being perverse"

 

With the puncture repaired, we trod on to the finish, finishing in 9h5mins.Excluding stoppage time, that would have been a solid 6h24mins. We really wanted to break the 6hr barrier(and bring on next year!) so I thank Josh for putting up with my first ever string of bad luck on a bike- He's been training hard, I wish him all the luck in future proper competitions!

 

All in all, sorry for the long write up- so much happened on the day that I couldn't just say that we'd done it- you guys deserve to know that you helped us through the ridiculous amount of ill-fortune we had. Who were we to think we could get away with cycling for charity when the rest of the world was remembering 9/11? Silly us.

 

Thank you everyone. The page will remain open for around two more months now- your donations have already been greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you for helping us make a difference.

 

Elliot and Josh.

 

*The original story*

Hello!

 

Just a few months ago, Elliot and myself met at the University of Leicester (where we are both studying for an English BA). We found out that we both shared a passion for cycling rather long distances whilst perched on the uncomfortable saddles of road bikes.

 

So, it was decided that we should use our slightly sadistic hobby to help the world (in a kind of 'less heroic than Superman' way). In order to do this we have entered the Wessex 100 Charity Bike Ride on 11th September 2011.

 

Taking place every summer, this 100 mile ride takes place in the countryside of Josh's home. Starting in Salisbury and heading out to Bath before returning back to the start in a huge (and reasonably hilly) loop. 

 

After finding out that we shared a passion for cycling, Elliot and I also discovered that we both had close relatives who had died or suffered from cancer. I have had both my grandfathers taken away from me as a result on the disease. Elliot has also lost a granddad whilst his mother has (thankfully) survived breast cancer.

 

As you can see, this is a disease that has directly affected both our families so we have decided to support Cancer Research UK, the world's largest independent cancer research charity. Their invaluable work aims to decrease the number of deaths caused by cancer, however in order to do this they rely solely upon public donation.

 

Although our £1000 does not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, it provides yet another small cog in a big machine, fighting against on of the UK's biggest killers.

 

I hope you feel as passionately about this cause as we do. You don't have to donate your life savings, just a pound from a 1000 people will help us hit our target.

 

Many thanks in advance,

 

Josh and Elliot