On the way to Lapland.

The first frosty roads of the year met me this morning as Dave and I headed up to the 12th Man for the start of the Club ride today. Even though the roads were glistening, I decided to take the carbon bike today, as the forecast was for dry weather, and I like the saddle more than the one on the winter bike. If you missed last weeks blog, the reason I needed a comfy saddle was that the club was taking part in a charity ride with a difference today.

The Charity Northern Lights takes seriously ill children to Lapland for the ultimate Christmas experience. This year they are taking twice as many children as usual, and to help them raise the funds to achieve this, they came up with the idea to ride from Neston to Kittila in Lapland, 2235 miles, on Turbo's!

Anyone who has used a turbo will know that this is a daunting task. I personally hate turbo's, I'd rather ride in snow and gales than get the turbo out and sit in the kitchen spinning. But this was for charity so worth the effort.

 Dave and I met up with Jon, Andy and Carla at the 12th, then headed off to Bromborough to meet Tim and Ken. We then rode on to Cheshire Oaks, where the event was taking place, and although we got a little lost on the way (I blame the Garmin) we were there ready to start just after 9am. 

The previous day, the first of 3 days, the riders had amassed a stunning 1200 miles, so the pressure was on. 

The seven of us got set up on the turbo's and then it was time to get spinning. Luckily we were warmed up after the 15 mile ride to Cheshire Oaks, so I was quickly into a rhythm and getting the miles in. And thankfully, the generous shoppers, surprised to see seven Lycra clad cyclists at the outlet village riding but going nowhere fast, started to fill the collection buckets.

Spirits were high, and we had a laugh as we encouraged the less generous shoppers to part with their hard earned. It was a different kind of club ride to the usual, but good fun all the same.
After an hour though, it wasn't as much fun! Sitting in one position without the usual interruptions we face on the road, legs start to tire, and even the most comfortable saddle starts to hurt! I had originally agreed with the organisers that 6 of us would ride for one hour, then 4 would ride for a second hour, but with only seven of us and an extra turbo, when the 10 o'clock riders turned up, only two of the lads had to get off and the rest of us carried on. One of the new riders was another Palefish CC rider Paul, who had opted for a later slot to get some beauty sleep!
I set myself a target of 40 miles, which I achieved in just over one and a half hours, so I had a chance to have a coffee and get a bit of sugar on board before the return journey!

In total Tim, Dave, Carla, Andy, Jon, Ken, Paul and myself racked up 285 miles. Not bad for two hours work.

If you would like to donate to the Northern Lights Charity please follow the link to their website or you can text a donation via your mobile by texting NLCC25 and your donation amount to 70070 e.g. NLCC25 £5, or click on the following link to donate using your credit or debit card via – https://mydonate.bt.com/events/cycletolapland/90424

We only suffered one casualty today, unfortunately Carla's tyre decided to split on the side, but luckily we were only just up the road from Cheshire Oaks cycles, so we nipped in to see the lads there to get a new one fitted. We then headed back across the Wirral this time via the lanes. In total I rode just over 77 miles today, the furthest I have ridden for a while, and my legs certainly let me know! However congratulations have to go to the Turbo King Dave (Badders) who with his Turbo 60miles rode 101 miles in total today.