Altitude Training

Taking the family for weeks' skiing in France.

First time for us all and I'm hoping to further hone those leg muscles on the pistes and get the benefits of exercise at altitude.

Or more likely, get knackered on day one, helicoptered off the nursery slopes, and spend the next month in traction.

Watch this space!

Why the big ride?

As I mentioned back at the beginning, my wife Jo and I are adoptive parents to two Chinese girls; Ruby Xing Xing (4), and Kate Ling Xian (6). They are a delight and so richly reward the love, patience, and time we have been fortunate enough to give them. We are blessed to be their 'forever family'.

Every year thousands of Chinese babies, mostly girls, are unable to be kept by their birth parents and many end up in orphanages, or 'Social Welfare Institutes'. These are, in the main, staffed by hard working and dedicated staff, who make the best of very limited resources.

Nick and I are riding to raise awarenss of the plight of China's orphans and to support a charity that works to improve their lives. 'Love Without Boundaries' is a group of volunteers who run medical, surgical, nutrition, education, and foster programs. Like Nick and I, they pay their own way and every penny we raise goes directly into improving the lives of China's forgotten children. You can see more at http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/.

Nick's wife, Arlene Howard, is currently in China with Love Without Boundaries, and I hope to post some of her photos on the blog when she gets home.

return trip

Having concluded that life's too short to master Network Rail's advance ticket purchase labyrinth, we've booked to fly home from Inverness to Bristol. This leaves one or two technicalities to resolve, such as the 110 miles from John O'Groats to Inverness , but I'm sure we can work through them.

Continuing the experiments with liquid refreshment. Last week's cold water, tea bag & sugar was a good start, maybe I'll have a go with Earl Grey. Talk about living on the edge!

....through the wind barrier

The CACH (Children Adopted from China) reunion was good fun. A chance to catch up with our friends from across the UK, listen to some interesting speakers, and watch our kids having a ball. All too soon it was over, and this morning Nick and I had to contemplate the bike ride back home from Nuneaton. So, having ingested a non-trivial portion of my body weight in bacon sandwiches, we helped our respective families load the cars, donned the Lycra, and 'biked up'.

As luck would have it, the wind gods had been hard at work overnight. Their industry transforming Saturdays balmy 15c (don't what this is in Frankenstein, but here in England water freezes at 0c and boils at 100c) into 7c with a wicked 30mph wind from the West/South West.

The more advanced of you will have already twigged that Nick and I were headed WSW for approximately 95% of our 70 mile ride. Deep joy. The first ten miles were the worst, and then it got worster. I felt all day that the wind was slowly but determinedly trying to push my teeth out through the back of my head - suppose I should have kept my mouth shut.

Between Warwick (lovely castle) and Stratford (birthplace of Shakespeare) the wind kicked in a gear and we were clobbered by a truly biblical hailstorm. Huddling behind a completely useless screen of bushes, for ten minutes the world became white, icy, and very painful. At about this time our familes were tucking into lunch back at the hotel. We, on the other hand, dined under the 'Golden Arches' at Straford. Not food, fuel. Left our bikes outside but sadly no-one stole them!

The afternoon passed slowly, our route below the Cotswold escarpement seemed to funnel the wind toward us. As if all ths wasn't enough fun, just as we got into Cheltenham (my home town) I ran over a thumbtack and got a puncture. As Nick had another 8 miles to get home, I told him to keep going while I sheltered in a doorway and put in a new tube, entertained all the time by another hailstorm. Truly, the sprinkles on my doughnut.

Got home to find Nick in my garage, fixing his own flat. What are the chances of that?

Well, I think if we can get through days like today, we can face most of what the big ride has to offer us.

More later!

Conquering the Cotswolds

Yesterday, Nick & I did our major first practice ride. From our homes to the annual reunion of Chinese adoptive families.

68 miles (75 for Nick) scaling the mighty peaks of the Cotswolds. Not too bad, except we both have succumbed to'baboon bum'.

Thinking of donning the Lycra again tonight to drum up some sponsorship at the gala dinner. I think they'll pay good money just to get rid of us!

wheels restored

Hello.

Me again.

Got my road bike back from the cycle hospital. The very nice men have fixed the headset that I'd cruelly neglected, turning to a ring of rust with a peppering of crunchy ball bearings. Nice!

Also fitted my new wheels - a birthday present from my darling wife. Much potty-mouthed cursing as I struggled with the inner tubes - deep section wheels need tubes with longer valves (so I know now). Never too old (or stupid) to learn.

Is this boring? I really must get out more!

update test

test of update from mobile email

Tickets to ride!

Today Nick and I purchased rail tickets to get us to Penznace on Friday 27th April. Slightly more complexity in arranging the tickets back from Scotland, but that will give something to talk about on our ride - all to do with the Kafka-esque nightmare of getting bikes onto trains. In summary, we (Nick and I) can be fully flexible but our bikes have to be booked and we can't tell when we'll finish the ride and so when we'll need to travel. So much for integrated transport.

That's Nick in blue, me in grey. By way of training, next weekend we'll be cycling from to Cheltenham to Hinckley and back to attend the annual re-union of familes who have adopted children from China. Some good practice, and hopefully an opportunity to raise some cash while we are there. Sensibly, the wives and daughters are taking the car! By Friady I hope to have my road bike back from the menders, where the rusted headset is being replaced.

counting down

Hi, I'm Lester Evans, a 46-year old father of two from Cheltenham, UK.

Myself and Nick Howard, who like me is old enough to know better and also like me has adopted from China, are cycling the length of Great Britain. That's about 1000 miles and we hope to do it in less than two weeks. Starting on April 28th, we'll be cycling without support (or stabilisers) - just us two old gits and our bikes.

It's not that we are pathetic middle-aged losers desperately trying to cling to the vestiges of our long-vanished youth and vitality. Oh No! We are pathetic middle-aged losers with a mission! We are doing this to raise money for 'Love Without Boundaries'

http://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/

This is a group of volunteers who work to provide social, health. education, and fostering services in China's orphanages.

Nick and I are paying all the expenses for the trip ourselves. Every pie, pasty, pint, and poultice, every bed, breakfast, banana, and bandage will come from our pockets.

So, every penny/Euro/dollar you donate will go directly to help improve the lives of some of the thousands of children in China's orphanages. Specifically Nick and I are hoping to fund a series of cleft palate operations and physiotherapy services.

You can make a direct credit card donation at
https://www.lovewithoutboundaries.com/DonateForm.php?Category=Other,
putting 'UK Bike Ride' in the 'Note' box.

Nick and I are really looking forward to this challenge and we hope you will consider this worthy of a little of your hard-earned cash.

Just about seven weeks to go and the panic is beginning to creep in!

On the plus side, some people have already donated or pledged money. The down side is we are now committed to do it! Also, I've had a load of good advice from fellow cyclists on the route and on what to take/leave behind.

On the forward planning front, I was hoping that Nick & I could use some accumulated BA airmiles to get back from Wick. As luck would have it BA has now sold all those routes to 'Flybe', who don't recognise BA miles so it's back to the drawing board - any ideas?

I guess the real worry is whether Nick & I are physically up to riding 80 or so miles every day. We've been doing half day rides of about 40 miles in the Cotswolds with plenty of up and downs but we're facing twice that distance daily.