Hello,
It's almost that silly season again (no, I don't mean The Stones playing shows) when I attempt a fairly ill-advised cycling challenge. These have gotten steadily worse as the years have passed but this one marks a new low point, hah-hah!
While I'm here, a massive thank you to all the super-generous IORRians who have donated in the past: last year's Mont Venotux madness raised over £4000...all down to you.
This year I hopefully get to complete my one and only two-wheeled ambition: to cycle the Tour de France in the same time-frame as the pros i.e. what they do in a day, I do in a day...just spending a tad longer in the saddle!
The group that I'm cycling with will be starting in Utrecht this Saturday which is one week ahead of the pros: hopefully we will *stay* one week ahead of the pros too, hah-hah! We finish on the Champs Elysee in Paris three weeks later, after 2100 miles. Ouch!
You don't have to a cycling aficionado to recognise that there will be significant amounts of hurt along the way: guaranteed head-winds and cobbles in the north, and long, hot days slogging up mountains in the south.
Why bother, right? As ever I'm hoping to raise funds and this year it's for a UK charity (the William Wates Memorial Foundation) who give grants to projects in the UK that help underprivileged kids between 5-19 years old. The idea is to help turn young lives around and hopefully keep kids on the straight-and-narrow by showing them what they are capable of through sport, the arts, volunteering and the outdoors.
Basically they’re the acceptable version of ‘Children In Need’ and ‘Comic Relief’ i.e. no sign of Lenny Henry or the cast of Eastenders doing a song & dance number!
I'm paying the minimum sponsorship and the tour costs natch: if we can raise another £500 then that'll mean £4K. That would be excellent indeed!
If you can spare the price of a glass of wine, a decent coffee or a pint (or even better, all three!) then please click on the link below...
To sponsor SimonN please click on this!Thanks for indulging me with this: BV has kindly allowed this O/T...I hope that it doesn't annoy or upset any IORRians...you are a very generous bunch!
I'm keeping a blog as usual: the latest post has Stones content...maybe I'm not *that* O/T after all!
Click here for SimonN's blog!All the best,
Simon.