Arrived safely at Hull

Monday 30th.
We arrived safely at Hull after adding about 50 unexpected kilometres to the distance. I knew we should have turned right at the start and not left! Total distance to Hull = 175km.



This is Tina at the Port of Hull, still smiling as well! I'm not sure the other passengers were quite ready to witness my overstretched Lycra but hopefully things will loosen as the ride continues.

Tuesday 31st
We have arrived in Rotterdam after a very early start. For those who remember 'hi de hi' we had the wake up roll call at 5am!! Our aim for the day was to get to Nijmegen but things didn't start to well when we realised that the ferry port was actually 30km West of Rotterdam! After getting lost trying to get through Rotterdam we decided that maybe Nijmegen was a bit ambitious but in the end we stopped about 20km away in a place called Leeuwen. We have cycled just over 125kms today an Tina's blisters have arrived. I could say where the blisters are but this is a family show! Trip total so far = 300km.




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Nearly ready to go!

Well we are nearly at the starting line. I could say that everything is organised and we are ready to go but that would be a lie! I am hoping that all will come together in the next few hours but somehow I doubt it.
We are leaving from Whitworth Civic Hall tomorrow morning at 10am and to show off our meticulous route planning skills we still haven't decided whether to turn left or right when we leave the car park!



We have attached a picture of Tina with our bikes all loaded up with 3 weeks worth of mars bars and a spare pair of shorts. The sunshine is misleading, we managed to get 2 minutes in between torrential downpours to take the picture, you can always rely on the Great British Summer!


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Lots of training

A big weekend's training for everyone! Pete and Danny cycled from Bacup to Liverpool on Saturday morning (around 85km). Danny and Joff cycled the Mary Towneley Loop on Sunday. For those who don't know of the Mary Towneley Loop, it is a 48 mile mountain bike ride around the hills of Rossendale and Calderdale and is probably one of hardest runs I have done. The attached photo is outside a pub 6.5 hours into the ride and we still have another 3 hours to go. 9.5 hours for 48 miles! You can just see Joff on the phone in the background, he is explaining that he might be a little bit late!

The Sunday morning run

Joff Baker out training on a Sunday morning.

Not bad considering he was out until 2am!









The Pennines have plenty of hills. Good practice for the Alps!

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A new team member

We have a new team member! Pete Connelly is joining us in Zurich and riding down to Florence. Now Pete has a reputation for always looking his best and we know there has been much debate in the Connelly household about how he will be able to carry his extensive wardrode on the back of his bike.

I am still waiting for an official photo of Pete so I have attached this likeness of him.

The power of gadgetry

The aim is to send regular updates of the trip via my iPhone. Hopefully this blogpost shows that it's possible for even me to make the technology work!


I have added a picture of Tina out training for the bike ride. We are just about to cycle up Cragg Vale which at 5.5 miles is apparently the UK's longest continuous climb!

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it's really going to happen

This is my first post on a blog ever and it could all go sadly wrong! I am starting to realise how much organisation is needed for a 2500 km bike ride but things are started to come together. As we have different members of the team riding different stages it's been like a mini travel agency. People are flying into and out of Zurich, Milan and Florence which is fine until you realise the airlines want the bikes all boxed up. How do you carry a bike box over the Alps?!

The team has grown to 8 people who are cycling parts of the route. I have included a photo of the St Gotthard Pass which is mainly cobbled and is our main crossing point for the Swiss Alps, when I showed this photo to my mates more people wanted to join the ride! So it's not just me that's mad.