Hello everyone!
Can you believe it’s almost the end of September already and another Ride4Life is upon us in only a day’s time! It’s certainly crept up on me, and although they won’t thank me for saying so, I think it’s crept up a bit on some of the riders too!
But a lack of preparation has never slowed them, or me down before, so here we are!
As you’ve probably seen this year’s event is taking place in Ireland, and marks the first time (apart from the dreaded ‘Doncaster Loop’ brought about by Covid) the ride won’t end in Leadenhall Market, instead finishing in Galway’s famous Eyre Square. A decent substitute, as they go!
Ardonagh cyclists (and the slightly less important comms members such as myself) are currently making their way to Galway from all over the UK & Ireland and as a result I find myself sitting in what might be the worlds smallest bar at Terminal 3 of Manchester airport with a few hours to kill…
So I thought, what better way to spend them than on a blog post reminiscing about last year’s ride, and talking about what to expect from this one!
The Lost Blog Post
If you’re an avid follower of the site (I’m pretty sure they don’t exist, but you never know) you’ll have seen that after the last stop of the 2022 ride I sort of promised a final blog post from the finish line that never came.
Well, I’m here to try and convince you that it did! Having celebrated with the riders and eaten one of the best steaks I’ve ever had at Boltons Restaurant just off of Leadenhall Market, I headed back to my room and sat at my desk with a nightcap.
I wrote out a post about the finish line antics, how the guys had got caught up in London traffic, but how they had all made it safe and sound to complete another epic journey.
I even edited and attached an interview I conducted with Max, Gary and Gav in a small underground bar called Old Toms.
I hit post, crashed for the night and had a thoroughly enjoyable time in London thinking nothing more about it. So it came as a bit of a shock when I logged in about 2 months ago and it was nowhere to be seen.
I can’t explain it, although I suspect it may be to do with automatic backups that we have running on the site at midnight (right around the time I would have been posting.)
But anyway, I won’t bore you with the technical details, other than to say that blog post is now lost to time… however the interview isn’t!
The Finish Line Interview – from 23.09.22
Having spoken to Max and Gav at the final stop around an hour earlier, and seeing how Max seemed to be in a state of semi-delirium, talking about the different animals they’d seen along the way, I thought it best to let them get a beer or two in and recover before trying to speak to them again.
When we finally reconvened in Old Tom’s they had this to say…
… and just like that we’re at that aforementioned next year, and who would have thought it would be a tour of Ireland!
Memories of 2022
I probably have a different perspective of the 2022 ride to that of the guys on the bikes, as for Adam and I in the support van it was pretty smooth sailing. We made it to all of the stops in plenty of time, sampled some of the nicest coffee and cakes that part of the world had to offer and barely hit any traffic as we navigated through London.
Meanwhile the team were hit with multiple punctures, a crash, a little bit of dubious weather and a traffic jam in the big smoke, but thankfully they were still in high spirits when they made it to The Lamb about 45 minutes behind schedule.
Both drinks and stories were shared into the early hours, both about rides past and present and about… well, other things.
All I’m at liberty to say is stay away from Mr. Lerway’s pockets.
The support from Samaritans was fantastic and although we’ve let them know multiple times already I’d like to echo Gav’s sentiments in the interview above and add another big thank you from all of us. Just seeing representatives at the stops and hearing a little about how they got involved with the charity was a real boost to everyone.
I’d also like to say thank you personally to the riders for making it such an enjoyable experience being in the support van. I didn’t know a lot of you that well last year, but I couldn’t have been made to feel more welcome and the kind words afterwards were really appreciated.
On to 2023!
2023 brings with it a slew of changes!
New locations, new riders, new bikes and a new charity!
This year the ride is proud to be supporting Cancer Fund for Children, who you can find out more about on our Charity page. They are a fantastic Irish based charity who offer support, advice, access to specialists or even short breaks in one of their dedicated lodges, the Cancer Fund for Children aim to ensure no child has to face cancer alone.
You already know about the new location (and can find out more here) but joining returning Ride4Life 2022 riders Gav Pumford, Max Burrows, Nick Lerway and Paul Longhurst, we also have returning rider Rob Worrell and newcomers Cathal Lowe, Colm Scully, Artis Abrams, Darren Leech, Ryan Coles and Paul Emery.
They may also be joined by some other names as the ride progresses, and there’s talk of a special guest cyclist but I can’t say any more at the moment….
An Early Totaliser
Normally we wouldn’t be throwing a totaliser in so early in the event, but we’ve done so well already we just wanted to shout about it!
As of writing this post we’ve already smashed through the original £5000 target, we’ve blown away last years total of £9500 and we are currently £17 off the £10,000 mark, so if any of you lovely people want to be the one to hit that milestone go donate now!
Thank you so much to everyone who has donated so far, there have been some very generous contributions on the Just Giving page and a special shout out to the Geo Agriculture office who arranged a bake sale to raise money!
As you can see Gav looks thrilled to be cutting into a cake bearing his visage.
Anyway, as my plane draws near (although not that near as it’s been delayed by an hour) I’ll sign off.
As always I’ll be bringing you updates throughout the ride, with fascinating insights in to all the different places the riders will be passing through. I’ll be honest though if they didn’t make it into the Doomsday Book I might be struggling…
Until tomorrow!