I've been reading this post with interest as i am indeed the 'daft bugger' whose organising it (thanks graham, you can always rely on your team mates eh?
)
the main reason behind the event itself is to encourage kids to 'get on their bikes' and to encourage a more active lifestyle away from their playstations. i can't remember the last time i saw a bunch of kids ride past wearing their coats as capes by putting the hood over their head. all i ever see is obese kids walking round holding bags of chips in their podgy little hands.
it's true that the event was thought up in a pub, as all the best ideas are i'm sure. i, however am incredibly stubborn and prepared to see it though though. it's exactly the same way i found myself seeing exactly how long it is to Tipperary last September.
I'm no stranger to long distances and despite living London am a reasonably good hill climber, much better than i am at sprints anyway. Like Graham said we are planning on training as a team and at present we meet once a month to go out together and rack the miles up. the fact that the team is spread all over the country does hinder this somewhat but it certainly won't stop us. A trip to the Peak District is looming.
Like I said the goal is to encourage kids to be more active so one side we are trying to raise money for charity - £500,000 for the Variety Club to be exact but we are also aiming to work with Local Councils and Youth Groups to set up localised cycling schemes and generally just get kids to use their bikes - things like, most high school students live within 5miles of their highschool. i want to address the reasons or 'excuses' in some cases, as to why only in some cases 5% of kids cycle to and from school. i think this approach rather than just throwing a bag of cash at it is much better in the long run.
as Graham said we will be a fully supported tour i really don't fancy the idea of lugging all my kit up the Pyrenees. as a result i've been speaking to the woodland trust for some trees to be planted to offset the carbon - you can't really preach about cycling being sustainable if you negate it by driving 3 50ft RV's through Western Europe, each with a 10 litre V10 engine, for 14 days - might be a couple more than a few trees actually.
anyway, hopefully the website will be up and running soon so you lot can all check on our progress, and untimitley donate some cash.
we're also looking at making the first leg London to Folkstone a kind of London to Brighton Dealy so keep checking the website for details of that.
website is
www.clock2rock.com
oh and keep giving Graham support, if he's happy then it gets passed on to the rest of the team.
cheers, Pete
