Nick And others Complete 900 mile Epic!

Myself and 35 riders, support trucks and drivers have just arrived back from a 900 mile ride in 3.5 days visiting the twin towns of Hastings and 5 countries to raise money for a super local charity www.charityforkids.com

We managed this by splitting into 3 teams and riding constantly day and night.

Day 1, We all met outside the Hastings town hall where we met the Mayor and had photographs taken. After that we all took off cycled to Dover where we caught the ferry to Calais. On arrival at Calais one team rode to the first twin town in France to Bethune to meet the Mayor whilst the remaining riders drove/slept.

Day 2, This was my teams turn to ride to Schoten and take in some very famous cobbled hill climbs. This was an interesting day with 4 crashes, first Luca trying to negotiate an unmade path hit a hole and went over the handle bars, luckily he was ok except a grazed face and bruising. One of the riders ahead (Phil) decided to turn back and see if everyone was ok, he drew up along side Luca laying in the dirt and forgot to unclip and promptly disappeared down into a ditch beyond sight.  We all rushed over to see if he was ok and saw him lying on his back, in a mud filled ditch with his bike on top on him, we all erupted in fits of laughter for ages, that was number two crash!

The cobbled hill climbs were very testing with very little or no grip if you got out of the seat, this is where Gary went over, thankfully no damage. Finally yours truly had an off!

Gaining speed down a hill, I didn't see a lorry coming up the lane as I was picking my line round the corner. Upon meeting the beast head on I had 3 choices, hit it head on, try to get by on its left hand side or go right into a field.  Right it was and off I came without damage thankfully.

When we arrived at Schoten  another team took over and headed of to Nijmegon and then another onto Schwerte while we took in food and slept before driving support/campers to Schwerte.

At all the twin towns our mayor met his counterpart for photos and food ETC.

Day 3. My team again and we had to ride to Mol. Only one crash today! Luca again! The old fella put his front wheel in a tram track doing 20+ and came off very badly. After a few minutes he managed to get back on and carried onwards cut, bruised and hurting but managed to complete the whole ride.

Upon reaching Mol we were able to rest/sleep and eat while the other teams rode to Kortemark and then Calais.

We all rode back from Dover to a fantastic reception in Hastings, met by family, friends, supporters and of course the mayor.

We had so far raised over £20,000!!!!!!

What a ride and experience, ITS NOT TO LATE TO STILL DONATE log onto the website.


Nick (no punctures, but a broken front wheel thanks to the cobbles) Sargant