On Friday, I settled down post dinner to check out my evening TV viewing only to get immediately drawn into the 2016
Sport Relief show. Seeing so many household sporting, acting and comedy greats - Idris Elba, Jack Whitehall, Gareth Bale, Peter Crouch, David Walliams, Michael Crawford, Bradley Wiggins, James Corden and many many more - doing the most outlandish things in aid of Sport Relief got me thinking that the Sunday AVP ride I had planned should also be dedicated to this cause.
I contacted the club's committee to gain agreement to 'match fund' from our charity mission what ever we collected from our Sunday riders and published the change in ride agenda.
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| As usual, I'm on the Roubaix wearing the invisibility cloak |
The ride I had planned was along a route we started one Thursday evening but cut short due to time and Rex's failing brakes. This is one of the routes planned to be added to the Seaton Town website for visitors to the area to try out and which the AVP has been asked to test ahead of going public. Being one of my rides, there was also to be a welcomed coffee and cake stop at Sidmouth's Cycle Service .. where for this last weekend of the winter season, we get free cake if we turn up with 4 or more riders!
We met at the Coach Park at 09:00 am, an hour later than the normal Sunday ride that Quiff runs, but in his absence, I thought I'd add a bit of civility to the proceedings. Unfortunately, this also meant that those early risers determined to keep the faith were to miss out on our epic ride.
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A stop for fuel .. the way Ed was motoring,
there was definitely a question of mechanical doping to be raised |
In all, there were 6 riders in Team AVP cycling for Sport Relief .. Rex, David, Bobble, Ed, Handbag and I. After passing round the Sport Relief collection box and handing out my home made Sport Relief stickers, we headed out on our 36 mile, 3,500 ft climbing expedition; a worthy challenge for any cyclist. The route took in our spectacular East Devon views and a number of iconic cycling climbs, including Sacombe Hill, number 12 in the official book of 100 Climbs! What is also good about this route, is that you can split it into several smaller but still challenging circuits and passing through Colyton and Sidmouth there's more than enough opportunity to take on refreshments at either or both.
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| More cake than we thought we could eat! |
We made our planned stop at Cycle Service in Sidmouth where we were so well looked after: a selection great cake was laid on for our arrival and Richard, the resident mechanic, was on hand to diagnose Rex and David's latest mechanical issues and replace one of my pedals which I'd already trashed a Park Tools' spanner trying to remove!
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| The total raised @ 21-Mar-16 |
We completed this AVP Sunday Ride for Sport Relief in just under 3 hours (moving time) raising £30 which the Club generously fund matched from our charity mission, bringing the total amount raised to £60! If anyone would like to add to this total, please feel free to make use of our JustGiving page :)
http://my.sportrelief.com/sponsor/teamavp
