This is just a short note to say thank you so much for supporting our charitable endeavour to cycle from Belgium back to London. We're happy to report we completed the challenge without injury and suffering only a few punctures along the way.

The total distance was 525 kilometres (about 330 miles) across the three days due to a couple of detours and missed signs however we were both actively involved in propelling along bunches of cyclists along the way.

The first day from Liege to Ghent was fun. Lots of nervous tension resulted in some rather erratic cycling from most of the 130 riders which soon settled into a steady pace after lunch. During the day we were joined by Omega Pharma Quickstep Pro Rider Andy Fenn which got the ride quite a bit of publicity. We finished the day recording 196kms in just over seven hours ride time and found ourselves a nice little team to ride with.

Day two was from Ghent to Calais and we were joined by Tim Lovejoy (TV Celebrity from Sky's Soccer AM and BBC's Something for the Weekend). Chris unfortunately suffered three punctures in the first 50kms which saw us right at the back of the ride. A quick tyre change sorted the problem and we got our heads down, passing the majority of the field to arrive in Calais with only 8 of the 130 riders in front of us. The highlight of the day was passing through the Menin Gate and stopping for lunch in Ypres. The route, whilst fairly flat, took in a lot of canals which were very bumpy and a constant headwind left us both exhausted as we arrived into Dover. Cycling off a ferry was fun though!

Day three was probably the most challenging. Although shorter at 130kms, the weather turned and it was misty with light rain for most of the day. We rode with a group of eight but the rain had pulled flint stones into the road which resulted in seven punctures, one being Alastair this time. Despite this we soldiered on arriving to a heroes welcome in Greenwich at 4pm.

During the break stops and in the evening we took time to speak to the charity members about the work that Right To Play do. Current projects are in refugee camps in Africa and a lot of conflict resolution work is going on in Gaza. It was nice to hear how they like to use local people to run the programmes and how they are seeing people who have been on play schemes returning as adults to lead them. We are confident that the money we have raised is being put to really good use.

In total we expect to exceed £2000 between ourselves and the total from the ride looks to be in excess of £120,000. Once again thank you so much for your support.

Thank you,

Chris and Alastair