Sussex gossip

And they're off.....

Hours to go

The night before. I think most things are organised. It has been utterly exhausting and I'm not in great shape. But as of this evening we had already raised over £177,000 from friends, colleagues, employers and complete strangers. I'm starting to think we can do even better by the end of the weekend. We leave at 3pm friday - waved off by Jon Snow and Emily Reuben after lunch at Channel 4. We should be at Padella D'Oro in Newhaven by 8.30 in time to make the ferry sailing at 11pm. Then who knows....

You'll be able to track my progress using Garmin Connect. My satnav will be live with speed and other depressing stats. Stephen Hird will be uploading videos of our progress. And there will be a still picture every five minutes from Martin Collett. I hope you enjoy following it more than I will enjoying doing it! And if you can help us raise just a little bit more that would be lovely too.

Two Days to Go

A great day for sponsorship. Lots of people seemed to remember that the day is imminent and went to the donation pages. Ed Miliband, who I collared at Google's Big Tent last week, remembered to give us a donation. We got a great boost from Richard Desmond's charitable foundation who sponsored David Abraham to the tune of £5000. Yes that's the owner of Five paying the CEO of Channel 4 to cycle to Paris for charity. Who said TV was a cut throat business? We also discovered that a couple of our riders have been quietly raising lots of money on Virgin Giving and JustGiving that I wasn't aware of. So if you add up all our sponsorship we're already over £90,000. Add in the £47555 from C4's "Five Minutes to a Fortune" and we've raised well over £135K and the ride hasn't begun. We want to smash through £150K by the time we get to Paris. Please help. It really will make a huge difference to Duchenne Children's Trust who need to raise £1 Million by September to co-fund a medical trial.

Meanwhile I've stopped training. I believe they call it tapering. I call it getting fat again. And my knee hurts a bit. And I'm getting a cold. Suddenly all that confidence I had on Monday is slipping away. Cycling - it is all about psychology.

Final ride

Sadly on my final ride I learnt that riding in the countryside is so much more fun than in town. Here are some snaps of the Berkshire/Wiltshire countryside. Nothing more i can do now.....

Latest Fundraising + Line-Up Changes

Saturday update :

Fundraising is going well but this week is the big push. Together with different levels of match funding from Google, Channel 4 and others plus the £47.5k we won from "Five Minutes to a Fortune" we've raised over £125,000 so far. It would be fantastic to smash through £150k. If you're struggling to choose who to support you can back the whole team at www.justgiving.com/bike4good

In other news: 

We have two late additions to the team. Top bespoke tailor and style guru Timothy Everest and TV's Mike Ramsden who now works in comms have taken the bold move to join us with less than a week to go. 

Sadly due to injury Cheryl Hicks is unable to go all the way to Paris so she and Jamie Baulch will be retiring at Newhaven. Ini Edsberg has sadly had to withdraw also due to injury. 

Pearson 150 training ride

So we managed the Pearson 150 on Sunday. Even me. And at a pace that means that we do have a chance of making London to Paris in under 24 hours. Just. It was painful, and we got split up. Our riders are a very mixed ability group - from the very fast to the very slow (me). But even I managed the 93 miles in about seven hours of cycling plus various stops which can be trimmed I am sure. Ditchling Beacon was awful, as were the long climbs around Box Hill and Epson Down. Around 2000m climbing - which is the same as the whole 130 mile stretch from Dieppe to Paris. So I am hoping that will feel easier over a longer distance. If you want to see the Garmin track of my ride it is here and Martin Collett's altogether more impressive stats are here   

 Top of Ditchling Beacon

Setting off at 7.45am

Olympic hero Jamie Baulch with Cheryl Hicks

Fabrizio, Krishnan, Liam. Ben and Alex finish