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Misha (my fifteen year old son for those who don't know him) just discovered the joy of off-road cycling  a few months ago when we were in South Africa.  After years of trying to get him on the saddle, it's great to have him hooked. 

Misha and I are going to cover at least 400miles between us over summer through forests, mountains, hills, mud and rain whenever school and work allows - mostly by participating in organised sportives. Each mile we hope will contribute to not only some muscle building, desperate map reading skills and disregard for weather -  but also some funds towards BRAC's work if you feel you can support us by donating a few pence per mile cycled towards BRAC UK. 

BRAC is doing some tremendous work around the world in large scale poverty alleviation. Quite literally turning around the life chances of over 130million people, their families and especially women and girls. The programmes are ground-breaking making the organisation rank No.1 in the latest Top 100 NGOs. Check out it's website to get a flavour of the personal stories, the innovative programmes and why the models of delivery are being used by the top business schools around the world: www.brackuk.net. 

Cycling for BRAC today brought back a memory from the 1980's, when as a BRAC programme worker in the field, I started the first learn-to-cycle sessions for the spirited women workers in Jamalpur (Bangladesh) against much opposition from the local community about this inappropriate mode of transport for women.  Today, there isn't a village that BRAC's female workers don't either cycle or motorbike to and it is an accepted part of the visual landscape. 

The so sore derrière has begun.

Latest Update 10th August: Sixty miles in the sun with the odd deer on our path. Only 26 miles to do and still a month of summer left so I think we'll be passing our target. 

Update 28th July: Finally, a dry ride without incident in Richmond. For me that is. We took the off-road route and Misha peddled 64 miles against my 50 miles - both of us averaging 18km/h. Misha chose to encounter the thunderstorm and was left drenched while I enjoyed a cappuccino. Almost at our target…86 miles to go!

Update 5th July: We added a combined 80 miles on our ride through Reading's forests last weekend - twenty more than anticipated as we ended up totally lost. It was an organised mountain bike event but there was a saboteur who removed the direction arrows - which when you are in the thick of trees and muddy ravines and don't know which fork to take, doesn't feel so funny. We won the battle and found our way to the finish line!  It rained for most of the ride, our maps were drenched and unreadable but the lovely English countryside, bleating lamb and all, kept us in good spirits.  200 miles to go! 

Update 17th June:  Misha and I completed 60miles in Hatfield coming ahead of two thirds of the riders in sloppy muddy conditions and thought we were ready to hit the valleys of the Cotswalds on the next official off-road cycle event.  A storm the night before made conditions treacherous - trees having fallen en-route and steep hills covered in slip-sliding mud. While there were some comical moments, this ride felt like a trial. Misha literally had a shoe sucked off his feet during a muddy interlude and I had a close miss with a concrete farm wall at the bottom of a steep run with horses looking on somewhat bemused. But we did it and another 60miles have been clocked up. 280 to go!

Thanks for checking in and for your support.

Best

Simone

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