Belgium biked!

Well, Debs and I completed the 220 mile cycle ride to Belgium yesterday, 3 days after setting off from the Reigate and Redhill YMCA center in Redhill. It was a fantastic weekend and we got to meet so many lovely people and had a great time!

Not to lose sight of the purpose of this ride, we are also really pleased to say that we raised over £750 for the YIPPEE! project, which offers parents and siblings with a child with challenging behaviour, physical difficulties or finds it hard to interact with mainstream children valuable respite each week. Thank you to all who have donated and there’s still time if you haven’t!

So, the trip started off with a 79 mile ride to Folkstone on the Thursday, which took us through some beautiful English country side. Norm and Keith put on a splendid lunch for us and we chilled out after about 40 miles with some good tucker and a bit of chat. We lucked out with the weather and made it to Folkstone with about 2 hours to spare! A fish supper later and some well deserved beers and we were on the train, bound for France! HURRAH!

Friday saw us set off from Calais, after a wonderful evening in our hotel with a few French ales! We only had to cover about 55 miles to get to Ypres in Belgium, so we took it easy and had a great ride. The weather was fantastic and our route along the canals was really amazing, broken up by yet another tasty YMCA supplied luncheon. That evening, we had several Belgian ales and some food and took in some of the local sights, including attending the Last Post ceremony at the Menin gate.

On Saturday morning we set off for the final leg of the trip. An 80 mile ride to Brussels awaited us and the weather didn’t hold out! Some wonderful cycling in the countryside was interrupted by some horrific rain and wind! At one point it looked like several of Team B would be transported to Brussels in the gale force powered YMCA marquee! It all added to the challenge though and we made it to the centre of Brussels by around 7pm, having travelled round some really beautiful canal-side paths and some horrific, historic paved roads! A celebratory meal and booze up awaited us and finished off the weekend just nicely (well, apart from losing my wallet and the police being called as two ‘mysterious’ British visitors danced the night away outside the hotel with some random Italians, a Fiat Punto, loud music and some dancing girls – as far as I know, their identities were never discovered!)

A huge thanks to everyone who sponsored us and to the people of Team B! It was an honour and a pleasure to meet you all and hope it won’t be the last time we do!

You can find a whole load of pictures from the ride on my gallery site!

Oli