Each year Mike Collins, Ian Taylor & Pete Taylor take on a long distance mountain bike challenge. This year its Lands End to John O Groats & we are supporting two charities - Marie Curie Cancer Care & The Alzheimer’s Society.

Starting on Friday 02/09/2011 from Lands’ End, our 1,039 mile route takes us to St Austell, Changford, Glastonbury, Monmouth, Church Stretton, Altrincham, Lancaster, Gretna, Dalrymple, Sandbank, Connel, Fort Augustus, Lairg, Strathy Point, finally reaching John O Groats on Saturday 17/09/2011. We will have climbed over 52,000 feet!

We ride for 10 - 12 hours a day . We navigate using Garmin 705 sat navs for bikes. We have planned each days ride on a web site using ordnance survey style mapping. The routes are a mixture of quiet country lanes, bridleways and off- road sections, taking us through remote and wild countryside, which is often hilly or mountainous. We use Mountain Bikes with Panniers to carry our day gear - consisting of food, drinks, energy bars, spare clothing, sun block, medical kit, bike spares and tools etc. So they weigh quite a bit! During the day, we eat anywhere we can, usually café’s, bakeries, pubs or petrol stations.

We stay in B&B’s overnight.

David Taylor [Ian & Pete’s brother], will be driving us & our bikes to Lands End, and moving our luggage between the B&Bs until we reach Dalrymple. From Dalrymple, our friends Fred & Veronica Allin will move our luggage between the B&Bs.

When we reach John O Groats on Saturday 17/09/2011, we then have the problem of getting home. We are being met by John O Groats transport, who will drive us, our bikes & our luggage the 120 miles to Inverness, where we stay in our final B&B.   John O Groats transport put our bikes in crates and courier them home for us. On Sunday 18/09/2011, we fly back from Inverness to Manchester, touching down at 19.30. Or at least that’s the plan…

We are giving our blood, sweat and tears [hopefully not]. Please give your money.

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