Richard A and I are planning a 7.15a.m start on Saturday for a flat 2 or so hour ride – we will ride to keep the group together. We will follow this route:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4261520

If we get enough people out we can practice some group riding skills and maybe a bit of ‘through and off’. It’ll be just like being in the peloton (errmmm maybe not). But we might get to see the Phantom Cyber Rider and a glimpse of ‘The Hare’ as he goes past …..

First of all many thanks for letting me join your event, which looks like it’s going to be great fun and all in a worthy cause.  As yet I haven’t met any of you in the flesh, which prompted ‘obiwan’ to describe me as a “phantom cyber rider”, which would be a pretty cool cycling nickname, but alas probably too cool for me! 

Totally unrelated to this event my wife Ali has already given me the nicknames “fiddlin an’ tweakin” and ”cog fiddler” on account of I am never happy with the set up of my bike and it often gets ‘fiddled with’ more than she does!   I have therefore left open quotation marks for my nickname and leave it to your judgement and sense of taste and decency which nickname is appropriate (if any). 

 A brief biography would read born and bred in Sheffield and while at school I was a useful middle distance and cross-country runner and also rugby player, where I had another nickname -”twinkle toes”!  My sporting interests then took a backseat after I went off to University in Leeds and discovered beer! Back in those days a pint was 50p and cross country soon became a distant memory.  After Uni I moved to London where I lived (North, South, West but never East) for nigh on 16 years.  While in London I never learned to drive so a bike became a necessity.  I also quickly became fluent in cycling sign language and gestures!  My first London bike was an Ammaco rigid frame mountain bike with the delightful and somewhat camp model description of ‘Cappuccino’ and in a nice shade of purple too!   I then got a Specialized Crossroads in sickly bright green and at that time I also discovered the practicalities (and stigma) of wearing lycra.  Max Wall appearance aside I now have a fine collection of lycra garments and have even indulged by bum with some Assos shorts!  After the Crossroads I got a Marin Sausalito, which lasted about 2 years before the frame cracked after hitting one too many London potholes. Luckily the warranty guaranteed a replacement, which I also upgraded to a Marin Point Reyes, which I still have but my brother-in-law now rides.  After moving to Nottingham in 2003 I bought a Cannondale XS800 cyclocross bike (half price from Evans), which is now on ebay to pay for my latest self build project – Specialized S-Works, E5 frame (another Evans sale bargain), which I fitted out with mainly Dura Ace, a Reynolds carbon fork, custom wheels, Thomsom stem and seat post and Fizik Aliante saddle-the best and most comfortable purchase ever.  An image of my bike is posted, minus the ‘phantom cyber rider’ of course!  Putting the components together and getting them to work smoothly has been a challenge (who’d have thought that two wheels, a chain and some cogs could be so complicated) but ultimately fun.   However, I ‘d never call myself a bike mechanic, just an enthusiastic amateur and sometimes bodger!

I haven’t done much group riding and ride mainly solo or with my next door neighbour, however, I am sociable!  Rides of note include London to Brighton (solo - the last hill of the Downs brought tears to my eyes, as did the A27 when I accidentally joined it after getting lost on my B route!).  This summer I rode from Nottingham to Fakenham in Norfolk and is my longest one off ride to date at 181K in ~6 1/2 hours.  I also got my first proper cyclists tan!   I am a spring/summer cycling commuter riding from Upper Broughton to the University via the back roads.  It’s not that I don’t like rain but the winters are too dark to ride with the nutters who drive those roads.

 Looking forward to meeting you all and riding with you.

My cycling career is not particularly illustrious, which is shame really because when I started doing triathlons it turned out to be far and away my best event. I should probably put that in context, I couldn’t swim more than 20m of front crawl when I decided to do my first race.

I learnt to ride on a splendid blue and yellow, solid rubber wheeled number thanks to my dad repeatedly launching me down a slope in the garden. Move forward to my teenage years in a village in South Bedfordshire and I’m cycling everywhere. I seemed to pick girlfriends that kept me fit.

It was around this time I got my first proper bike, a blue metallic 10-speed Peugeot racer. Everyone else had Grifters and BMXs but I was never one for tricks and off-roading. Speed was my thing.

A few years later a friend and I, full of ambitious schemes as we always were, decided to cycle across Europe. We trained, a bit, and got ourselves prepared ready for the off. Unfortunately he found love in the shape of a bewitching red-head (they often are in my experience ) and I was left to do it on my own.

Not feeling like giving up, off I went to Portsmouth (on the train) and across to Cherbourg. Now when I say we’d trained a bit, we’d never actually trained with any load onboard. My memory of arriving in Cherbourg was struggling up an enormous hill with 4 panniers stuffed to the gills, a not particularly light tent and a guitar on a bracket I’d rather ingeniously fashioned out of a hanging basket holder I’d found in the garage. Oh and did I mentioned I was on a mountain bike with knobbly tires.

I lasted a couple of days, but bored of being on my own and tired of dragging far too much around Normandy I cycled back to Hampshire, dropped my bike off and hitch-hiked round Europe instead. One day I’ll go back to Cherbourg and discover it was a minor incline that has manifested itself in my memory, much like a Wagon Wheel does (though they really have got smaller).

And that’s about it for my cycling career. I cycle to work in the centre of Nottingham most days on my trusty Brompton (come on Adrian, that would really be a challenge), get some road miles in on my Cannondale when I can, and compete in triathlons when I’ve squeezed in enough training around family and work.

Looking forward to a great trip, raising some serious money and showing our children what’s possible.

I was born in Brighton in 1963 and spent my youth climbing and falling out of trees and riding and falling off of bikes. I bypassed the girly teenage years in favour of more challenging pursuits and even enjoyed cross-country running.After four great student years including a six month stint in West Berlin when The Wall was still definitely up, I sojourned to the Far East for a number of years, where I worked as an English teacher in Singapore and Japan. I briefly returned to the UK to do a PGCE to become a bonafide teacher but quickly left again and went to Germany for a couple of years working in a British Army school. During this time I took up cycling again and became used to the Euopean attitude to cyclists, where drivers wait, give you space, and neither shout abuse nor cut you up.My next adventure was a year of voluntary work on a developing island in the South China Sea, where I worked at the island primary school teaching English. Cycling took a back seat here mainly as there were no roads! I returned to Britain eleven years ago and due to a bizarre twist of fate I ended up living and working in the East Midlands – an amusing irony for my family and friends! Brighton, London, Berlin, Singapore, Tokyo, Tioman, DERBY!  I have worked at Round Hill since 1996 and have always found it a uniquely interesting and fun place to be. I am the school’s ICT coordinator and Advanced Skills Teacher, which is why I am not always in school. I spend some of my working days in other schools and delivering papers at conferences about research projects I have undertaken in to creative teaching and learning using technology.  I cannot pretend that I am the new Nicole Cook. My main pastime is running.  I have belonged to Long Eaton Running Club for years and regular race all distances between 5km and marathon.  I have, however, been known to slowly ride up some of the Pyreneen Cols and gasp at the view and the ridiculous realisation that the Tour riders sprint up what appear to be vertical climbs.  I am apallingly bad at bicycle repairs so I have acquired a full-time mechanic, called Paul!

Just to let people know that I have contacted Evans Cycles with a view to sponsorship.

Cycling in to work today I began thinking about the idea that people may not be blogging because they cannot think up a nickname. I bet that people think about more interesting things than I do probably ….. However in the spirit of helping people I thought I would write down some of my ideas for nicknames:

Debs ‘Frenchy’ Amos (I just thought this might get a Grease theme going – we could then have John and Dave in ‘The Pink Ladies’ Support Gang)

John ‘Chopper’ MacCay (He doesn’t want to take you out but if it is for the good of the team then he will)

Graham ‘The Boss’ Taylor (Obvious I know)

Richard ‘Big Ring’ Anderson (He rides up big hills in a high gear – for fun!?)

Paul ‘The Hare’ Moffett and Zoe ‘The tortoise’ Fletcher ( It was Zoe’s idea – not mine!)

Tim ‘Mapman’ Barraclough

That’s as far as I got before I had to go into work ……

Hello again,

Sorry not to blog this, but I don’t know how to do it!!! Could you forward this to the routemasters as i don’t have their email addresses.

Just been having a little look at YHA accom for 1st and poss 2nd nights as that’s where my discount contact is so thought I would do that first.

There is a hostel in Epping Forest, Loughton, Essex and one in Beaconsfield, Bucks.

Epping Forest option via A roads (only did this via AA route planner) is 135 miles.

Beaconsfield is 125 miles.

YHA hostel also at Alfriston in East Sussex – Beaconsfield to Alfriston is 88 miles, we could use this if we were going to take the ferry on day 3. Alfriston- Newhaven is 11 miles.

If we were going for the eve ferry on day 2, Beaconsfield to Newhaven is also 88 miles.

Can you let me know if any of these options would fit in with the routes you may be considering. These are the only YHA hostels I can see that would be in the area we need. If no good, then I will start to explore other options.

Thanks,

Amities!

Deb.