News
Bike Europe
News
Decathlon, Gordon Foundation, Rough Guides & Bloc
Sorry for yet another long delay but organising Bike Europe takes preference over writing about organising Bike Europe!
A lot has happened since I last updated this news page. Basically our Bike Newham project has begun and we arranged a fantastic sponsorship deal with Decathlon who supplied the Bike Newham equipment. The deal includes £1000 worth of equipment to use for Bike Europe and the whole team are really excited about working with Decathlon. Bike Europe have also got permission to use the Bike Newham bikes for Bike Europe which is also great news.
The £1000 will cover the cost of a kit and basic spares. We have been into Decathlon in Surrey Quays to take a look at the kit and it looks superb - we can wait to get hold of it and ride as a team - we might even look like we know what we are doing! Thanks to Kuba, Michel and Mike at Decathlon for all your help, advice and generosity - we owe you!
We also received a grant from the Gordon Foundation this week to go towards the cost of our trip enabling us to maximise our fundraising potential. We would like to say a massive thank you to Gillian and the Gordon Foundation Trustees for being so generous it is a huge help.
Rough Guides sent us two guidebooks and four maps to use on the trip so we would like to thank them for their support. Inline UK have provided us with 6 pairs of very cool interchangable sunglasses to use in that southern European summer sunshine. Thanks to Lesley at Rough Guides and Tom at Inline UK.
Check out our blog for more on these stories and the latest Bike Europe news.
Bike Newham, Burnett & 290 Miles
Sorry for the delay we've been really busy for the last few weeks.
Bike Newham
Bike Newham is basically a spin-off cycling project inspired entirely by the excitement generated at the Swift by the Bike Europe project. The project, run mostly by the Bike Europe team, will introduce and enable young people to plan and take part in a range of road cycling activities. A programme of weekly workshops will be run during term times from May 2007 to end of January 2008 covering such topics as cycle maintenance, safe road cycling, route planning and map reading. The workshops will equip the young people to organise and take part in 3 weekend camping/cycling expeditions.
Bike Newham has just learnt that it's application for funding from the government's Local Network Fund has been successful and we will have money to buy bikes, equipment and cover expedition costs! Excellent news, watch this space...
Burnett
Sadly Matthew Burnett has had to pull out of the Bike Europe team because of Olympic commitments this summer. A number of competitions clash with the Bike Europe ride and his athletics career had to take priority. Kevin Kiruthi has kindly stepped in to take Matthew's place and will be an asset to the team.
Despite not being able to make the ride Matthew is still keen to help us with training and planning as well as organising the Bike Newham project.
290 Miles
Since the last news update we have continued our training regime covering over 290 miles in just 7 weeks. The upside is that the rides are getting easier but the downside is the equipment is on its last legs. Paul, Kevin and Simeon are having to use mountain bikes which are only just in one piece and weigh about a ton each which is not only affecting our training but also the morale of those stuck at the back. Hopefully we will get some help with bikes very soon, please contact us if you can help info@bikeeurope.org.uk.
Training took a significant step up over the Easter weekend with the team making the most of the excellent weather and extended weekend. Paul, Matthew and Simeon did 45 miles around Central London on Friday without getting run over. Nigel, Daniel, Paul, Simeon and Matthew did an epic 72 miles around Stevenage on Sunday with beautiful sunshine all day (leading to much excitement about the real ride). Then on Monday the entire team was out in the country lanes of Essex doing a 32 mile loop. This was our first test of riding on consecutive days and it definately felt like it!
Bring on May Bank holiday weekend...
Dates Set, Ferries Booked
Everything is now official as we have booked our ferry crossings. We will be sailing from Dover to Calais on 3rd August and Bilbao to Portsmouth on 4th September. This has cost us over £700 and we need help to cover this cost otherwise we won't meet our fundraising target.
As we have decided the dates and booked the crossings we can now go ahead and finalise the route which will be done in the next few weeks.
Training has been continuing with 20+ mile rides every weekend weather permitting. We are off on a 30 miler tomorrow and we will be joined by Kevin Kiruthi, a fellow Swift Youth Group member who is one of our back up cyclists.
Progess Update
Just an update to let you know how things have been going since our last post 10 days ago.
We had a very productive meeting with Clive Furness who has now been convinced that we are determined to do this ride and it is actually going to happen. This was largely due to Paul's excellent work planning a route and researching accommodation. Clive is now thinking of joining us for part of the ride if he can get the time off work. It is a massive boost to get Clive onboard as his experience and wealth of contacts will prove invaluable to us.
John Roff has confirmed that he will be our support vehicle driver and is actually quite excited about the idea already coming up with new suggestions. John's wife Jill has also expressed an interest in joining us for part of the trip albeit on a motorbike!
Unfortunately Simon Clewett has had to pull out of the ride because he won't be able to get the time off work for the entire month as he will be completing an industrial placement in Cardiff. He is still in the team though and will hopefully be able to make some of the ride and help out in the planning and training departments.
Webscript Designs has become our first official corporate sponsor! The well respected web design company based in Tunbridge Wells has agreed to help us with the website and any other media related aspects of the ride.
We received permission from Clive Andrews to use his fantastic photograph as the main image of the website. The photo was taken really early in the morning in Brighton after a ride along the sand flats at low tide. Very cool, thanks Clive. You can see more of Clive's photography at http://flickr.com/photos/cliveandrews
New Website Live!
The Bike Europe website goes live, although not officially launched to the world yet. We are adding content in between work, football, homework, training, etc... so it might take a couple of weeks to be completely ready.
The site also incorporates a blog which we will update regularly with our more informal thoughts and posts.
