"Universally Challenged" - Quiz night

Sarah did an AMAZING job organising the quiz night yesterday. It was a total success, the room was full, everyone had a great time, the pub takings trebled and the ladies almost drank the pub out of dry white wine, so if you go along to the Garden House tonight it will need to red instead. The in-house quizmaster was absolutely brilliant, very entertaining, sporting an impressive handlebar moustache. There were 12 teams of up to 8:- the "Oldies" started badly but put on a late spurt, the "Universally Challenged" were the dark horses and "E for Idiots" fulfilled their expectations. There was a special individual prize for guessing how many baked beans are contained in 24 cans and somewhat amazingly 3 people from different tables all came up with exactly the same number - it wasn’t the correct number (9,600 as determined by our appointed baked bean counter) but it was the nearest. This was totally unforeseen and a tie-break question was needed urgently. "How many kilometres will be covered in this year's Tour de France?" enquired the QM. The winner was the nearest with 2,100km (a gross underestimate as the real answer is 3,360) and she took the prize envelope.  Michelle had also devised a fiendish supplementary test to occupy the contestants as they arrived which was to build a tall tower using only spaghetti and jelly babies. Some of them were beautifully engineered and the winning tower reached almost 2 metres tall!

Spaghetti and jelly baby tower - under construction

Many thanks to all of you who attended. All the raffle tickets sold out so thank-you to all who bought tickets and to those who have supported the ride.

The quiz night was a lot of fun and raised another £590 for the William Wates Memorial Trust.

The Tour of Wessex - survivors will be shot AGAIN.

Last Weekend Michelle, Bruce and Nick went to do the Tour of Wessex. B&B accommodation was arranged at the All's Well Farmhouse where there were some very stark warnings against intruders but Maureen, Dave and their 2 Jack Russells  proved to be excellent hosts. Michelle was not cycling as she was saving herself for the Norwich 50 the next weekend so after the chaps left at just after 7am she had 3 breakfasts every day!

Bruce has done quite a few long rides with Nick and Matt though mostly with Nick over the last few months when he has been a great help as a training companion particularly on the epic rides to the Butt and Oyster in Pin-mill and the Downham Market loop. This was Bruce's first trip to the ToW and he was very impressed with the organisation but as the long hilly days wore on his enthusiasm wained. He expressed concern about what drives all these cyclists for endless miles, over hills, hills, and more hills, sustained only by crap food (actually the food was good for such an event).







Cycling food!

He spoke in hushed tones (unusual for him) about the poor impression given of cyclists by grown men relieving themselves in bushes along the route and he did have a point. Nick felt the food did the job, the sandwiches at lunch with a cup of tea really hit the spot and the jelly babies were very handy when sugar was getting low. 



Without question the Tour of Wessex offered spectacular challenging cycling with three hundred and fifty miles going through beautiful scenery and over some of the toughest hills England has to offer. Stunning views of Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Devon rewarded the gut-busting effort of climbs like those through Cheddar Gorge and up the New Toll Road at Porlock.

The last day took in Exmoor with its highland cattle, wild ponies, belligerent sheep and howling desolation; this day was certainly challenging but not so pretty. For anyone thinking of sampling the ToW the chaps recommend trying one of the first 2 days, the last day (according to Bruce) is for brain dead socio-paths - that would be Nick then!

See picture of cyclists sporting Tour of Wessex medals below (Bruce is the photogenic one with the Frankenstein like scar on his forehead - incurred on a recent climbing holiday).

Most days they met up with other Tour de Force riders all out to cement their training before setting off for the big ride towards the end of June. The riders are a very mixed bag some are clearly very young and fit with obvious cycling credentials and at the opposite end of the scale we have Nick - well he tries!


TDFers on the starting line -first day.- Fashion tip. White Nora Batty tights are not a good look!



Humiliating initiation ritual

The knee problem has dealt a killer blow to Matt's Tour of Wessex.
 There will be only a few opportunities for more big rides before leaving for France so the ToW with 3x110 mile plus days each with 2-3 kilometres of vertical ascent was intended to be the last mega-workout to build and cement the riders' fitness. Unfortunately Matt was forced to stay at home to ice his knee and feast on naproxen capsules while Nick, Michelle and Bruce went to the ToW over the bank holiday weekend without him. He elected to continue training on the turbo but with high cadence (pedalling fast) and low load as he is rather optimistically trying to maintain his cardiovascular fitness and leg strength without overstraining his knee. This a very fine balancing act as he needs to be fit, strong and recovered by June 22nd so there is only one month to go. He has had help from his physiotherapist and from Tim at the bike shop where they are working on his pedalling by adding wedges and using cleats with more "float". For those who are non cyclists cleats are plastic connectors on the soles of cycling shoes - they are the things that make cyclist walk with their bottom sticking out and click with every footstep. To use cleats all cyclists are required to go through a humiliating initiation ritual at least once where they must make a dramatic stop in front of a large group of people at traffic lights, or a junction, or ideally in front of a bus queue and then fall over for no obvious reason (but actually because they have forgotten to release their feet from the pedals). Non-cyclists find this behaviour incredible and some actually laugh out loud. The cleats fix the shoe and maintain contact between the foot and the pedal enabling the user to apply pressure throughout the whole pedal cycle, even during the upstroke, where the pedal can actually be lifted on one side to aid the downstroke on the other. Unfortunately, by fixing the foot to the pedal Matt's cleats may also be reducing the mobility of his lower leg resulting in knee strain causing pain and it is for this reason his physio has suggested using cleats that allow more rotation between the foot and the pedal.

Over the weekend Matt and Sarah have collected more prizes for the raffle on pub quiz night. It is amazing how generous local shops have been. The prizes include a night in a Premier Inn, restaurant vouchers, Adnams vouchers, luggage, a ladies bowling ball and 2 tickets to an Ollie Murs concert, plus more.

“The Gardens of Eaton” go viral!!!

Well, things around the Norwich Tour de Force HQ have become a little fraught. Fund raising guru Michelle has developed another massive headache in the form of “The Gardens of Eaton”. This is an open gardens event she has been organising to raise money for the repair of the stained glass windows in Christ Church Eaton. “ The Gardens of Eaton” is scheduled for Saturday the 15^th and Sunday the 16^th of June however last night Michelle was very surprised to receive a phone call from The Friends of Norwich in Bloom (fame at last) asking for details of the event. This gave her a really sleepless night worrying about how the local gardeners would cope if “The Gardens of Eaton” went viral! She tossed and turned, worrying about the  gardens being over run by visitors from all over the South East of England!! She imagined the tormented local gardeners having to fend off masses of marauding horticulturalists rioting or venting their frustration at being unable to get more than a glimpse of the tantalising displays. Perhaps she should get the St John’s ambulance to support this event!

What would you like first, the good news, or the bad?

The really good news!

This ride has raised over £4,000 already and there are almost 2 months to go before the end! The whole team would like to say a big thank-you, THANK-YOU, THANK-YOU! The number of donations has been quite touching, it is really encouraging for the riders to know that the whole thing has such great support. The generosity of everyone has been staggering, friends and family have really got behind the whole thing and the jewel in the fundraising calendar - the quiz night, is yet to come!

The Bmycharity site has worked really well but a comparable amount has also been donated as cash or cheques. Not only that, some of our supporters have paid money directly to the WWMT and we have no record of those donations as these are not recorded on our page. If you have donated in this way it is not possible to thank you personally unfortunately. It could be that our riders may have actually have raised considerably more for the charity than we know about.

This year’s total target for the Willam Wates Memorial Trust is £500,000 so if all riders have raised a similar amount we could hit this figure before the end of the Tour. Hitting the target really would give everybody something to celebrate in Paris – if our riders survive!!  

We understand that most of our supporters are really busy people so we would like to make it very easy to support us. Please use whatever method you prefer, you can give a cheque or cash directly to Nick, Matt, Michelle, or Sarah. If you are a UK tax-payer and we also have your address or postcode we can claim gift-aid too. For us the easiest way for you to donate is via the Bmycharity web-site, go to: http://www.bmycharity.com/Woodall  first enter the amount you choose to donate then pay online.  Please do not feel intimidated by the extreme generosity of some donors, we want all the support we can get, no donation is too small. Our fund raising team pressure no-one to donate and we will not do so, but all are really pleased when anyone does.  We appreciate all our supporters even those enthusiasts who are just about to ..... but never actually do!
 

And now for the bad news.

The riders have both had problems and Matt may have hit a crisis point. Last week he was doing circuits of the Olympic triathlon cycle route up through the hills of Stoke Holy Cross and when he was on the third loop, well into the ride and well warmed up after having done about 50 miles he developed severe knee pain. This got progressively worse so he struggled home. The following Saturday Matt went out on a different bike he had borrowed from Nick which had more low gears, the idea being to reduce the strain on Matt’s knee. Nick and Matt cycled together to Southwold and strengthened by a double egg and beans on toast breakfast in the sea front cafe they set of for Bury. After fuelling up Matt seemed to be flying along easily, but a few hours, one puncture and 50miles later the pain set in. He, like Bradley Wiggins, was forced to abandon the rest of his ride and somewhat dejectedly came home from Bury St Edmonds on the train. On Monday he was at Dr DV’s surgery and he seems to have torn some of the fibres attaching the muscles to his kneecap. This is a major concern at this stage so he will be icing it, take non-steroidal painkillers and make a trip to the sports physio. Nick’s injury is probably less serious but a bit more embarrassing. The hours in the saddle have been producing pressure problems and after long rides he has blisters which he first noticed after the 150miler to Tunbridge Wells. The problem resurfaced after the Southwold/Bury/ Norwich loop on Saturday so he has been trying a range of shorts and creams to try to manage the problem, watch this space ...... or perhaps don’t!!

Pub Quiz night - all set to break the 4K barrier!

With the last bike ride the team Woodall raised over £5000 for Breast Cancer Campaign and they  learned a lot from that event. This time around they have been a tad better organised and they started fundraising much earlier. As things stand the team are teetering on the brink of having raised £4,000, with another 6 weeks to go until the start and over 2 months to the end.

The whole team is really keen to raise as much money as possible for the William Wates Memorial Trust, so Sarah and Matt have been kept even more busy than usual arranging a pub-quiz with a raffle too. The local support has been fantastic, the Garden House Pub (http://www.gardenhousepub.co.uk/ ) is kindly providing a room and Sarah has approached local businesses for the prizes. Things are all set for a really great night, so put Thursday May 30th in your diary and get a ticket (£5) from either Matt, Sara, Michelle or Nick.

If you can't come, how about sponsoring the riders instead? If you haven't donated yet follow the link below and go straight to the Bmycharity page at: http://www.bmycharity.com/Woodall .

 Thursday May 30th the date to remember!

Cycling saboteurs!

Well, on Sunday Michelle and Nick made their way to Horsmonden in Kent for their annual trip to the Horsmonden cycle ride. This ride runs through some truly beautiful countryside and although it started only a few years ago it has become an annual event. The organisers raise money for our wounded servicemen and women. Michelle and Nick had both been looking forward to the trip but their attitudes and enthusiasm for cycling diverge slightly. Nick intended to do the 75 mile route for a little extra training and Michelle was going to cycle the 25 mile route with their friends (and sponsors) Liz and Scott. Last year Michelle unfortunately had to sit-out the event because of a bad back and would you believe it, this year she fell downstairs with a few hours to spare and hurt her ankle - drat! No cycling again this year!

The whole event was brilliantly arranged as usual and it was a lovely sunny day. Michelle and Liz went to the last feed station to meet the cyclists before they finished the last few miles where Nick was surprised to see them as he thought he was only just over halfway round. However it transpired that the event had been sabotaged; the signage had been removed thus cutting short the route by about 10 miles. Needless to say Nick (the cyclopath) felt somewhat aggrieved having cycled 160 miles from Norwich (and then spent half the night on the loo after that 'One Stop' wrap) to get to the start only to be cheated out of his last ten miles. He was relatively easily calmed though with 2 pints of the delicious 49er which was available on the village green at the end.

One can only wonder about the mentality of people who are prepared to sabotage a charity bike ride  set up to raise money for "Walking With The Wounded". Perhaps they don't like servicemen, or cyclists or maybe they don't like strangers coming through their village or perhaps they just haven't got anything better to do! - They could always get a bike and ride to raise some money for a good cause - but they probably won't.

Where did you come from; Today!

Nick set off to ride from Norwich to Royal Tonbridge Wells today. After leaving at 07:30 he phoned Michelle at 10:30 to say he didn't think he would get there before 10pm! The wind was the problem- but he always says that.

The wind was  forecasted as a 15 to 20mph South-Westerly, so he expected to do about 15mph at best but by the time he got near Bury St Edmund he was running out of gas and was adjusting his estimated speed down to about 12mph. By 1pm all water had been drunk and fuel was needed so when a "One-Stop" came into view just after Braintree he parked up and bought water, Mars bars, Coke, a chicken wrap and a Scotch egg and after that little lot he was too bloated to move so he had a power-siesta on a park bench before setting off again. The route through Essex was not as windy as Norfolk and Suffolk so progress improved and Nick rolled into Tilbury at about 4:30, at which time the satnav packed up! It is a miracle that the Tilbury-Gravesend passenger ferry is ever used as it is so cleverly hidden. Nick asked several people for directions and finally, when standing unknowingly in the ferry car park Nick asked a bloke where the ferry port was - he gave him a strange look and said "you're standing next to it mate". The map shown on the right is an approximation of the route because the actual GPX file was too large to be uploaded onto the mapometer.com web-site. The actual route avoided main roads but was by necessity 40 km longer.

The passage across the Thames was smooth but Nick was soon lost in Gravesend, eventually escaping into the Kent countryside (taking care to avoid the Trevor MacDonaldesque faux pas). Kent was by far the hilliest of the 4 counties and in the distance Nick spotted a cyclist toiling up an incline. Over the next 2 miles he gradually overhauled him and sneakily cycled along behind for a bit of shelter, whilst simultaneously examining the Alfine rear hub of the bike in front. Eventually the other rider spotted him and said "Hi," Nick pulled level and they exchanged pleasantries. "Are you from around here?" Asked the other rider. "No I'm from Norwich," Nick replied. "Wow! what a coincidence" said Alfine hub. "I have just cycled here from Diss!" Alfine was a bit disappointed when Nick didn't seem very impressed. "Where have you come from?", "Norwich", Nick responded, "No!, Where have you come from today!" "Norwich" Nick repeated. Alfine could understand why Nick had not been overly impressed - its a small world. Alfine - the other rider was in training for the monstrous LEL (London, Edinburgh, London) bike ride which is probably the toughest cycle event in the UK The riders only stop to sleep and eat - the whole thing is a continuous, time-limited race against the clock. Nick rolled into RTW just before 8pm in time for his usual favourite recovery fuel, beer and loads of peanuts, plus some cake - bliss!