Three men, two bikes, one car and a whole lot of miles to come

Day minus 1

As I write Today’s Blog, Chris Stanley, Francis O’ Leary and I are not far from Clevedon on the M5 motorway. The time is 3.26pm and the traffic is very heavy. It feels more like Bank Holiday levels than mid afternoon on a working Monday. Perhaps the amazing weather has caused people to down tools and head for the sun, at least those that have the resources and opportunity.

I have already flagged Chris Stanley as someone who I regularly ride with as part of the Swindon Road Club and he is the tallest in the picture of us about to leave from Mark House. Francis, the one with the beard is someone with whom I was best friends at Secondary School in Crawley.

Over the years we have got together every now and then, but the friendship has lasted and been easy to renew and pick up where we left off, even if the gaps have been longer than we would have wished. Francis will be our driver for the first six stages of the ride.

Before signing off, some thanks: Firstly to Michael, one of the staff of Halford’s Store in Swindon, for his help in putting together one of the bike racks on our car after it had defeated me!

Secondly, Mark, Mike, Matt and the Team at Hargroves Cycles | Swindon for their support in getting me on the road and their plan to raffle a brand new bike and give the sum raised to support our fundraising. Lastly, thanks to those who have contributed to the JustGiving site. It is warming up…

+Lee

Visit our JustGiving site to make a donation.