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Well here goes with starting the page ... first off thanks to the guys on HMS Trafalgar for starting the ball rolling with the £360 raised at the decomissioning ball.
Also a big thanks to the guys at the Bike Shed (Exeter) for sorting the bike out and for discounting the gear ... the difference has gone to the charity .
I'm enjoying the training, it makes a big difference doing it on a moving bike above the sea I can tell you, and I am a lot thinner ...Helen says it suits me ... which I guess is a wife's way of saying you were fat before !
Should realy let you know what I am doing it for and where the money will be going. The Charities being supported are Sport Relief and the Dallaglio Foundation, which supports the following charities : Help for Heroes, Cancer Research, Leukemia Research, RPA Benevolent Fund (helps rugby players if they are forced to retire from the game through serious injury and their families in the event of their untimely death) and also DebRA supporting people with Epidermolysis Bullosa. These are all obviously really worthwhile charities and a few have very personal significance. I am both glad and a bit overwhelmed to be involved.
So to the event - it is a bike ride from Paris to Twickenham ... at least that is the part I am doing, the big man himself is going from Rome to Edinburgh via Paris, Twickenham, Dublin and Cardiff.
The website for the event is www.dallagliocycleslam.co.uk
Things of note so far with the training
1. ... falling off and bouncing off my head - suprisingly painless and considering there was no one around I did not even cry - lesson from that one - use the front break or the bike slews from under you!
2. ... broken chain - managed to repair it on the side of the road and got home in one piece - lesson from that one - look at the chain before you take it off so you have at least half a chance of remembering how it went back on... it did explain the noise coming from the chain for the rest of the ride ...
3. ...blow out in the middle of the countryside - lesson - check the spare tyre does not have a split in it and when you phone your wife expecting her to pick you up at least have an idea where you are... Big hand to the little old lady who stopped and offered to help although I was never going to get the bike in the back of her micra !
No doubt there will be more... I'll keep you posted!
Couple more lesson learned ...
4. ... hills - Devon is full of hills left to right or right to left it does not matter it is all hills and when the Town Planners of Seaton decided to call it "Long Hill" they were not being ironic !
5. ... manure - When you cycle through some manure do not then have a drink from your water bottle - you get a extra nutrients !
