LONDON TO BRIGHTON
WELL WE DID IT! I am delighted to confirm that all 8 of our team members completed the course in a little over 4 hours despite one or two hiccups the night before and morning after! As we had a ridiculously early start time of 06.00 (Our choice!) we had no alternative but to stay in London the night before and the agreed plan was for an early team building dinner with a glass of wine or two to relax those pre-race nerves followed by an early night in readiness for the next day’s exertions. Then it was announced that England’s first game of the World Cup would be played at 23.00 on the Saturday night! Despite my best efforts as self-nominated team leader and Managing Director of course, two members of the team remained in the hotel bar until 02.00 and another two did not go bed until 04.00 bearing in mind we had arranged to meet at 06.00! Upon check out I discovered that one or two individuals (who shall remain nameless) felt that numerous pints of Stella Artois (other brands are available!) and pizza would be the ideal preparation!
I will leave it to your imagination how the next morning panned out but suffice to say we did not set off until after 07.30 and that was only after nearly breaking the door down to one of our rooms! All that said we had a great couple of days and whilst enjoying ourselves managed to raise in excess of £2,600.00 for our chosen charities, obliterating our original target of £1,000.00! I am also proud that seven out of the eight of us managed to cycle all the way up the Ditching Beacon and surprise, surprise the person who did not quite make it was in the bar until 04.00! Fail to prepare, prepare to fail as he was told many times whilst rehydrating in a friendly Brighton bar and no, it was not me! I should also report at this juncture that whilst we were enjoying our rehydration therapy our Gary James was cycling all the way back home, an additional 40 miles or so!
Thank you to everybody who sponsored us and sent messages of support and advice and finally I would like to personally thank our Carl Smith who gave up his weekend freely and willingly to drive our support vehicle and act as personal trainer to his uncle, Jeff Riley, bearing in mind that it was Father’s day and Carl is a proud Father of 3! London to Paris next year?
Neil F. White – Managing Director – Crosscount Limited
