Thursday 26 July 2012

Team WP raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer

After months of hard work training in the sun, wind and mostly rain, a small team from Woodhead Publishing recently took part in the London to Cambridge bike ride to raise money for Breakthrough Breast Cancer. Team member Sarah sums up the day here.....

The day got off to a wobbly start when, early Sunday morning, three key members of Team WP were unable to squeeze onto the first train to Pickett’s Lock. In the interests of team morale, we sent a sympathetic text to the unhappy group stranded in south Cambridgeshire before abandoning them to their fate.
Cathryn, Richard, Mandy, Nell and I zoomed through the start shortly after 9am, straight into busy London traffic.   The first few miles were hectic, with the cars, junctions, roundabouts and other cyclists making it difficult to settle into a steady pace.  Within the hour, however, we had left industrial Enfield behind and were making good progress towards The White Hart at Roydon.
Having made it to the first stop, and with no word from Steve, Rachel and Jonny, we paused for a quick drink (of water!) outside the pub before continuing on our way. The next leg was fairly uneventful for Team WP, although the muddy playing fields at Widford, stop number two, caused a few sticky moments for some of our fellow cyclists. We were pleased to find ourselves averaging a respectable 13mph, having completed the first 20 miles in well under 2 hours.

We knew by this time that the others were on their way, and seemed to have expectations of catching us up! This spurred us on through the rather hilly third section of the ride. However, a mile or so before Furneaux Pelham, it became clear that all was not well with my bicycle. As my team-mates whizzed ahead (thanks guys!) I prodded at my worryingly soft back tyre.  After I’d limped up the final hill to stop  number three, we pooled our resources (mostly Mandy’s) and expertise (mostly Richard’s) to change the punctured inner tube. After losing an essential nut and finding it again, and a little mild profanity, we were ready to go – or so we thought.

A few minutes and some distressing rattling noises later, Richard and I were heading back to Furneaux Pelham in search of a mechanic, while the others continued on their way. Luckily, with the right tools the problem was easy to fix, and we were also pleased to see some familiar faces arriving while we waited.  Starting out again up the steep hill from Furneaux Pelham was grueling, especially after losing so much time.  It was well worth the effort though since this was the prettiest section of the course, and the lovely views and brilliant sunshine were welcome distractions.


We caught the others up at Langley and sprawled on the village green with our ice-creams, delighted that all the members of Team WP were finally in the same place.  However, our three late starters had pushed very hard to catch us up, and elected to take a longer rest stop while the others pressed on. The long stretch to Duxford was the most challenging part of the route, with some fiendish hills to climb, which seemed to come just as I was feeling at my most tired.

 From Duxford we were on home-ground, however, and I managed to pick up the pace for the final 10 miles, even resisting the temptation to take a short-cut through Shelford. Although we had become rather strung out over the last section, Nell, Mandy and I caught up with Cathryn and Richard, and so we crossed the finish line within a few moments of each other.  We gratefully accepted our pink medals and bottles of water from the marshals before collapsing on the grass at Midsummer Common to await the arrival of Rachel, Steve and Jonny. They weren’t far behind us, and we managed to rally for some team photos at the finish.


Here are a few statistics from the ride:

Distance: 57.86 miles
Cycling time: 4h:49m:32s
Average speed: 12.0 mph
Max speed: 30.4 mph (!)
Calories burned: 3433
Fastest mile: 2m:45s

Congratulations to everybody that took part! There are a few more photos of the ride on our Facebook page

No comments:

Post a Comment