We made great time today and were back in Sheffield at around 15:00 after travelling across from the other side of The Peak District. Morale remained high for the course of the weekend and this was very evident in our final review before going separate ways late this afternoon. I can report that Troy did in fact make a train on time but unfortunately for him, the train he caught was for Derby and not London. Ben and Adam both made it safely back to camp last night which was pretty good going.
We next meet on Wednesday to discuss fundraising ideas, so if any of you blog followers have your own great ideas, let us know on the comments secton below - all help is appreciated! A more thorough overview of the weekend will follow, but currently I (and I assume the rest of the group are too) am shattered so this will have to wait... As if this isn't enough to look forward to, there will also be more pictures of our beautiful faces and some photos of our even more beautiful bicycles.
Sunday 27 February 2011
Saturday 26 February 2011
Bed time
Well we are coming to the end of what has been a rather eventful day. The full stories are going to have to wait until after this weekend as I'm confined to using a mobile for these updates. Most of the group is now camped by an abandoned house just off a track the other side of glossop. Troy had to leave early due to work tomorrow but whether or not he made it back through snakes pass on time for his train isn't known. Unfortunately Ben had trouble with his pedal and had to take the bike back to Sheffield for parts. Currently Adam is waiting for him at glossop station where he is expected in at 11. We will be putting 2 people out at the end of the track from about half 11 on a rotational basis so they can find us. I guess this means its not quite good night for the group, but we shall hopefully all wake up ready to return to Sheffield in the morning.
Friday 25 February 2011
First day
A complete change of route has left us camping in some woods not far from The Fox House pub and slowly the group is emerging from tents after what was a slight improvement on the first nights sleep from selection weekend - 5 hours sleep. We had a lot of rain most of yesterday evening and last night so there will be plenty of wet saddles today. And don't forget... teamwork, makes the dreamwork. James is getting a fair amount of stick after coming out with that quote in the pub stop yesterday evening. A lack of signal means this blog post may be up late, so just for the record, its 7:30am
First Training Weekend
The first training weekend is upon us and it looks like we're going to be more fortunate with the weather when compared to all the snow we had back in December for the selection weekend. In fact, the only rain that is forecast is for the early hours of Saturday morning, by which time we should all be nicely asleep in our tents! We meet at 18:00 this evening so look out for mobile updates between then and our return on the Sunday afternoon. This will mark the first time that the whole group will be on bikes together, so it should be interesting to see how our 'pod system' (groups of 4-5 riders) works out. Hopefully we don't lose anyone!
Saturday 19 February 2011
Sponsorship
We can announce that Decathlon have kindly agreed to sponsor us with printed cycling jerseys as well as various accessories and cycling tools. Look out for us in our Decathlon gear - I'm sure group photo's will follow in the not so distant future. Decathlon offer a wide range of sports clothes, equipment and accessories for a variety of sports so we are very grateful to have their support for Africa Expedition 2011. We welcome any other potential sponsors to contact the team, details of which are on the 'contact page' of this blog.
Monday 14 February 2011
Route for training weekend #1
The planned route for our first training weekend can now be viewed below. At 114km the route should give us a good gauge of what our current fitness levels are at as well as providing us all with a short term target for which to train for. The route follows stages of the trans pennine trail and will be a suitable surface for touring bikes making it as realistic as possible to the sort of terrain we will be encountering this summer. The profile of the route is in our favour with the longest climb being right at the start and the final 8km or so being a descent back in to Sheffield. With our departure date being just under two weeks, the whole team is looking forward to what will have been the first time we have all been together since the selection weekend.
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