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Amsterslam2006
29th June - 2nd July 2006
275 Miles in 4 days, from York to Amsterdam and back!

What started out as a 200 mile ride from York to Amsterdam and back turned out to be over 275 as 11 novice cyclists tried to break the £2500 barrier for Marie Curie Cancer Care!

Each of us emailed all of our friends and collegues and pushed sponsorship forms under the noses of any family member that dared to cross our paths. We also managed to attract some excellent corporate sponsors for this event - some of whom gave money to the charity, some sponsored individual riders, and one (Ultimate Pursuits) donated 11 cycling helmets and 11 food packs (including drinks bottles) worth £400! Click here to see a list of our sponsors for this event!

  • Thursday morning arrived and we gathered at the York Designer Outlet where a press photographer took our pictures and we gave two breakfast show radio interviews, fixed our first puncture and then set off for Hull some 60 miles away where our overnight Ferry to Rotterdam was waiting. After a night of dancing and copious amounts of alcohol (probably not a good idea!) we got some much needed sleep in our compartments.
  • Friday morning and Rotterdam arrived too soon! We gathered our bags, made our way to the bikes and rode off the ferry. We thought today was a simple 60 mile flat ride up the coast. Unfortunately we were wrong on both counts! The coast cycle track, although not severely hilly was up and down more than people were expecting. With no support car for this trip we were carrying all of our spares and clothes in rucksacks and in the 35 degree heat we were soon found flagging. Add to that the fact that this route into Amsterdam was 85 miles and you can see why tempers were fraying when we finally arrived at our hostel at gone 10pm! We secured the bikes, grabbed a bite to eat and then hit the sack.
  • Saturday morning: 11 badly aching cyclists all worried about getting back to the ferry by 7pm after yesterdays trip meant a mad dash through the middle of the country to Den Haag and then down to Rotterdam. Amazingly enough we cut 15 miles off the trip and arrived at the port in time for the 5pm kick-off of the England game (despite 3 punctures en-route)which we duly watched whilst eating fish and chips! Back onto the ferry in good spirits and - as was now customary - danced and drank the night away! After all, we'd only cycled 70 miles today!
  • The last 60 miles back to York seemed like a walk in the park now, although the cycle route from Hull to York was less than wonderful compared to the luxury of Holland! We got to the outskirts of York for about 5pm where we stopped and changed into our green ride t-shirts (see pics) for our dramatic arrival! As we cycled back into the York Designer Outlet car park there were champagne corks popping, a ribbon tied across the entrance to ride through, cameras going off left, right and center and most importantly cases of cold beer to celebrate with! It was then we heard that we'd raised an amazing £5800 for Marie Curie! We were gobsmacked!

Click here to see larger version! Click here to see larger version!

 

Thanks so much to all who sponsored us for this event, and remember, we're re-running this trip in 2007!!

Contact us to register your interest in taking part.

It's been mentioned that we will be taking with us a mystery celebrity as well as the local Marie Curie representative - Louise Bamford :o)

Click here to see our justgiving page for this event!