Thank you for your interest in 'Onya Bike'.

Well, we did it!  All 17 riders that left Oakhaven on the morning of Saturday 20th June, returned safely back to Oakhaven on Sunday 21 June after cycling to London, a total distance of 200 miles in one weekend.

The event was a great success, and at the last count we have raised a total of about £13000 for the charities.

For a description of how the weekend went, please read blow.

Also below is a link to our online photo album that includes all the photo's from the ride weekend.

And finally, below there are details of how you can donate.

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How the weekend went 

Before this event, none of the riders would have dreamt of cycling this kind of distance, so it was no surprise to see a few worried faces down The Mayflower Pub the Friday evening before the ride, where the ride group held a pre-ride social.

We left Oakhaven at 7.30am on the Saturday and headed for Brockenhurst.  By the time we arrived in Brockenhurst, the 17 riders had split into three groups.  The front group, all of who were on racers, raced ahead.  The middle group consisted of riders who couldn't control their competitive urges, they tried keeping up with the front group but failed miserably.  The back group, made up of mainly mountain bikers, brought up the rear.   

From Brockenhurst we rode through Lyndhurst and then onto Romsey, where we took a break at the end of our first 20 mile stage.

Once we were back on our bikes, we headed for Winchester, where on arrival we received news that although the middle group may well have had lots of competitiveness, they had little in the way of directions.  It turns out they had rode north from Winchester towards Stockbridge, instead of north east towards Preston Candover as the maps instructed.  Their argument "we didn't have a map!"  Idiots!

The back group finally caught up with the middle group in Fleet, where it was discovered whilst sitting in a pub beer garden that through getting lost, the middle group had not cycled the required amount of miles on arrival in Fleet.  This then led to the ludicrous situation of one of the riders of the middle group cycling laps around the pub car park to make up some miles!

Leaving Fleet, whilst still laughing at the pub car park imbecile, we headed for Kingston.

From Kingston we stayed south of the river Thames and then reached our final destination of Westminster Bridge.  The front group reached Westminster Bridge at 5.50pm, with the group behind arriving at 6.10pm, 10 hours 40 minutes after leaving Oakhaven that morning.

After a few photo's (please see our link to our online ride photo album below) on Westminster Bridge, we rode along the Embankment and over Tower Bridge to our hotel for the night.

A good few beers were had on the Saturday evening, but come 11pm, most had retired for the night, the struggle against the tiredness was futile.

Sunday morning we set off at 7.30am again.  This time we headed north over Tower Bridge so we could ride down The Mall, amongst the Union Jacks and past Buckingham Palace.  Most weren't fussed about this sight seeing detour but the Irish riders in the group demanded we go pay homage!!

After Buckingham Palace we rode in the opposite direction along the route we had used the previous day as we headed for Oakhaven.

Day two was when the support team really earned their corn.  Many of the riders became very tired.  Their constant words of encouragement and supply of drinks and energy bars offered by the support guys really helped everyone cover the distance.

We finally rode back through Lymington as a complete group, and then down Lower Pennington Lane, to be greeted by 40 cheering spectators at Oakhaven at 7.30pm, a full 12 hours after we left that morning, to complete the 200 Mile Challenge.

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Photo's from the ride weekend

Please click on the following link to see our ride photo's http://picasaweb.google.com/danieljames.mccool/TheLymingtonToLondonAndBack200MileChallenge?feat=email

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How to donate

Although the event has been completed successfully, we are still looking to receive donations before we finally pass over all the money we have raised to Oakhaven and Cancer Research.

Listed below are all the participants of the 200 Mile Challenge and their individual sponsorship pages.  If you know any of them, please feel free to visit their page and donate. 

Or you can donate via this page by clicking on the blue 'Donate Now' button above.

Thank you for your time,

From the participants of the Lymington To London And Back 200 Mile Challenge

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PARTICIPANTS OF 200 MILE CHALLENGE AND THEIR SPONSORSHIP PAGES

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Matt Brewer                  www.justgiving.com/mattbrewer200
David McWilliam         www.justgiving.com/davidmcwilliam200
Tom Sheppard            www.justgiving.com/tomsheppard200
Steve Burge                 www.justgiving.com/steveburge200
Trevor Belbin               www.justgiving.com/trevorbelbin200
Timmy Payne              www.justgiving.com/timmypayne200
Peter Borley                 www.justgiving.com/peterborley200
Lloyd Brewer               www.justgiving.com/lloydbrewer200
Chris Seton                 www.justgiving.com/chrisseton200
Danny McCool            www.justgiving.com/dannymccool200                 Luca Matera                www.justgiving.com/luca200                                     Vincent Canney          www.justgiving.com/vincentcanney200                         Steve Saunders          www.justgiving.com/stevesaunders200                       Lenny Dimaano          www.justgiving.com/lennydimaano200                          Andrew Rickards       www.justgiving.com/andrewrickards200                          Steve Baynes             www.justgiving.com/stevebaynes200                             Nigel Gemmell            www.justgiving.com/nigel200