100 Mile Bike Ride Report - By Gary S

After months of preparation and some hard training the day had arrived for the 100 mile challenge from Atherton Train Station to Penrith.

John Lee had kindly volunteered to be our support vehicle and mechanic in case of any problems along the way and brought wife Sandra and Marie Moran for support, we dedicated the ride in memory of Angela Marie’s sister and was raising over £500.00 for MacMillan.

On a perfect day for cycling the four of us (Gary S, Craig B, Sean S and Brenda) set off on our first leg which was a 35 mile leg to Garstang

It the nice to see Andy Coates join us for the first 10 miles of our journey, unfortunately Andy had to be back for a birthday party so couldn’t do the full ride. Paul Bohannon also bumped into us at Chorley and rode along with us to Preston before making his way home.

We encountered our first problem of the ride when Sean got a puncture around Preston but managed to get it sorted with Paul’s assistance. We arrived at Garstang making good progress for a 30 minute toilet / refreshment stop, 35 miles gone and 65 to go!

The 2nd leg was a 40 mile ride through Garstang/Lancaster/Kendal, for those who did the Radcliffe 10km last week you remember the sting in the tail, well this 40 miler had a sting to say the least called ‘Shap’.

As we made our way through Lancaster and over the half way point we entered pure countryside and lovely fast roads which are ideal for cycling with little traffic, at this point my computer was indicating 17.5mph average which was well above expectation. Going through Kendal the surroundings started to change to just pure hills and what a stretch in store, 10 absolute gruelling miles of climb after climb which made Newbrook Road look flat!

At the 75 mile point we decided we needed to stop for refreshments and i pulled over and waiting for the others. The conversation and laughter of the previous miles had gone and our serious competitive faces had arrived as reality was now on us that this ride was ‘bloody hard’ and definitely not for inexperienced cyclists. Brenda to her own admission had hit the wall and was feeling very unstable and a bit delirious. In the distance i could see a road which was without doubt the biggest climb i had ever encountered; to put it into prospective there was snow in the distance.

We set off for the final 25 miles to Penrith towards this killer climb; i got to the top and pulled over waiting for the others with Sean not far behind. Craig followed just in front of Brenda who punched the air with pride as she made the climb and it was all downhill now into Penrith.

Penrith arrived with a huge sense of achievement but that was short lived as Sean said we had only done 94 miles at the point so we continued for another 6 miles to make our 100.

The 100 miles finally done in just under 6 hours, we all had the A&T customary handshakes and made our way to John’s van for a change of clothes and a much needed meal in the local pub.

A great day was had by all and a real sense of pride by myself who in December after my illness wanted to do something a little different other than just running. I’d like to personally thank Craig for being there every step of the way and to Sean who although not a member of A&T is Mr Reliable and has helped with the training. Let’s not forget Brenda who only decided to do the ride 2 weeks and is an absolute amazing athlete for her age, i will never forget how she managed to climb those hills and never once show any signs of giving up when countless others would have done.

Conversation amongst us soon got onto the next challenge next year and it would be great if more members join us, keep posted to the blog.