FourChurches2006
1-3 September 2006
135 Miles in 48 hours, from Selby Abbey to Durham Cathedral!


This was a re-run of the 2005 FourChurches trip, but this time we were raising much needed money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service. We set ourselves a fundraising target of £1000 as we organised the event quite close to the date we were due to set off but we were still staggered to find that people still dug deep into their pockets and pushed us over that amount. By the time we'd collected in the money from various sponsorship forms and added that to the online donations we were only a few quid short of £1500!

This was the first of our events that we decided to start writing ride reports, so I'm not going to go into too much detail about things here, but please, please read the reports below (one has a few pictures in it even!). You'll get a great understanding about the cameraderie these ride generate as well as a couple of giggles along the way I hope!

We we're carrying a prayer to be blessed by the senior ministers of Four Churches , Selby Abbey, Riccall St. Mary's, York Minster & Durham Cathedral. The prayer was for the crew of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and any patients unfortunate enough to need their help.

  • We set off on Friday 1st Sept - left Selby at about 6:30pm, cycled 25 miles stopping at Riccall and York to bless the prayer, and then cycled onwards to the camp-site at Linton Locks - a gorgeous place by the river, great pub, a quick bite to eat - pitched the tents in the dark and tried to get some much needed sleep.
  • On Saturday morning we set off for the White Horse and a hill climb up and over the Yorkshire Moors - the support cars carried our tents and equipment to meet us at the campsite on the foothills at the other side of the Moors. There we camped in a lovely pub campsite with a great meal and a few beers thrown in to help us sleep.
  • Sunday morning and we were up early and set off down the bank into Middlesbrough, along to Hartlepool for lunch by the sea and then worked our way inland to Durham Cathedral and the final blessing via old railway lines.

The route was mainly traffic free - we trundled through countryside, amazing views and some fabulous industrial architecture in Middlesbrough. It was a tough ride (as you'll read in the ride reports!), but we had plenty of time to do it - even the novice riders made it to the end, and they felt exhilarated when they finished at the huge doors of the impressive Durham Cathedral.

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!!

See the final hill climb video here!!! (warning, 12MB) <download>

Contact us to register your interest in taking part in 2007.

Click here to see our justgiving page for the 2006 event!