We raised £2,249.23 for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity which we are really pleased about – thank you so much for your generous support. http://www.justgiving.com/oxed
Annoyingly the distance we covered was half a mile short of 400 miles!!! Here is a nice overview map of the route generated by VeloViewer.com
So the 2016 charity cycling challenge is Oxford to Edinburgh – 400 miles over 3 days! Originally we (Anthony and I) were going to attempt to do it over 2 but we looked at the route and decided that was too crazy – doing it over 3 days will still be very hard – day 3 will be particularly hilly.
We are raising money for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity (who we fundraised for in 2014 when we did Lands End to John O’Groats) – who are particularly close to my heart at the moment as my dad recently had an operation there to remove a rare GIST tumour.
Here is the plan – in late May we set off:
Day 1 Oxford to Worksop just north of Sherwood Forest
https://www.strava.com/routes/4419428
The longest day at 138 miles (222KM) and 1,900m climbing
Day 2 is Sherwood Forest to Stanhope
https://www.strava.com/routes/4409732
132 miles (214KM) and also 1900m climbing
Day 3 is Stanhope to Edinburgh!
https://www.strava.com/routes/4409855
Shortest day but more hills 123 miles (199KM) and 3071m of climbing
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Really enjoyed riding around Garda earlier in the month. Mata Cycles near Salo are very friendly and helpful and I rented one of their bikes for 3 days. 
This is quite a cool way of seeing our route, created by veloviewer.com which does great things with your Strava data.
I think photos and videos are pretty much complete now – on the Google Photos Album here:
Real mix of crazy ones, landscapes and lovely MAMIL shots!!!
We did it! More details including stats and all the photos to follow! Some bits on twitter and here is a YouTube of Nick swimming at JoG:
Nick takes a dip after #lejogon: http://youtu.be/lOPr3L_QCys
More soon – still feels surreal that we completed it and that other than feeling a bit tired I am ok!
Cheers
Ollie
Nick asked me to post this on his behalf:
I’d like to Thank
Obviously my wife….
James from The Malden Centre for making Andy and I bionic enough to do this.
Ed and the gang at Bright Cycles, New Malden, for making our bikes bionic enough to do this.
Roland and family at the Real Meat co butchers, next door for taking our bikes early hours and giving them to Ed. Plus supplying us with the finest protein you can buy.
The piper in the video is called Alan and the guy taking the picture is Ian.
The girl in the grocery store North of Hereford…need to Streetview it to work out the name of the shop. She gave us free Mars bars!
Quote of the week so far:
‘Remember, the pain will fade but the memories will last forever.’ – Mary, propriety at the John O’Groats Guest House, Broo.
‘No, don’t stop!’ – Andy, in his sleep, Windermere Youth Hostel.
More later perhaps.
So I thought I’d put up some more information about the charity cycling expedition I am taking on with Andy, Anthony and Nick from the 10th May.
We are doing it over 8 days so about 115 miles a day with some serious climbing. Even with the training we are doing its going to be painful! We are doing it unsupported – carrying minimal baggage and staying in basic B&B and Youth Hostel accommodation.
Quick link to our charity fund raising page is here.
So here is the route we are planning to take each day along with the elevation profiles! Yes we are crazy! Note that Day 2/3 has changed slightly – will update the maps below when I get a moment. Route is still the same just shorter day 2 longer day 3.
Total distance = 1,474 KM or 916 miles!
If you can please do support our charities – we are riding for St Mungos Broadway (a homeless charity) and Royal Marsden Cancer (who provide world-class care for cancer patients, and undertake pioneering work in cancer research and education).
You can make a donation via our fund raising page here. All donations help motivate us to go through the pain of training and it will be good to know we have your support when we are on the road doing it!
Many thanks for reading!
Ollie
Will be Lands End to John O’Groats! (LEJOG) with 2 friends – for a Cancer Charity.
Over 8 days in May 2014.
Training regime must therefore continue…
More details to follow!
Friends and family – if you are interested in joining me then let me know!!!
Have been very lucky to get in some great mountain bike riding over the last few weeks. Couple of really good rides (albeit challenging and tiring ones!) in the Peaks including riding down Jacobs Ladder (which I was really pleased I managed to ride without coming off in a massive and very painful way!!).
Photos here, here (Ladybower classic ride), here (Bakewell and Chatsworth trips – not riding)
Couple of nice loops nearer to home with friends over the weekend (photos), unfortunately Kat came off her bike recently and has bruised herself quite badly – which she is annoyed about as is having to hide her legs in the hot weather we are having at the moment!!.
Now back to the office and the realities of work (it would be nice to just do an epic day ride every sunny day in the summer wouldn’t it?!!!)
