10in10 Stage two.

When we landed at Rotterdam it was dull and cold. Before we could start riding the bikes we had to put cold weather kit on. It really felt as if it was November. It wasn't until this afternoon that the weather started to warm up.
Quote of the day was from JD who came out with "it's so quiet it feels like a Sunday" our reply "it is a Sunday John".
We have had a comms problem all day....no phone connections or i-net. It was only sheer luck that we managed to meet up with Dave twice during the day...the comms is almost sorted now.
Most of today's riding has been on cycle paths....not perfect due to the gravel and other rubbish which finds it's way on to the paths from the road.
We are now in Westerlo Belgium and have now cycled in three countries.
Spirits of the team are high at the moment and we are looking fo

Stage One

Well we've started the 10in10 ride. This morning we loaded the bikes on the motorhome
packed all our kit and camping gear and set off for Colchester.
Mind you even though we had tried the bikes out on the rear rack at our training camp it still took us almost an hour to sort them out.....truth be told none of us could remember the order we had decided was the best way to stack them
Anyway job was done in the end and we were dropped by Dave south of Colchester. The plan today was to have a short legspinner ride just to loosen the legs and give the bikes a shakedown to ensure that everything was running ok.
It was nice to actually get started even though all of today's ride was into a headwind. I can report that the bike and riders are all fine. Today's ride was just a thirty mile spin just to get us ready for the real distances which will start tomorrow with about 96 miles across the Netherlands and into Belgium.
We are now in the ferry queue and will be boarding in about an hour....leaving the UK at 23.15hrs. We land in Rotterdam at breakfast time tomorrow.
Hopefully by tomorrow evening we will have touched three of the ten countries.......
The picture in this post shows the lads unloading the bikes before today's legspinner...........

All ready to set off....

Well, after months of talking about it, the team is ready and tomorrow the Ten Countries in Ten Days cycle ride sets off....a new adventure waiting to unfold....

We have reached the target that we set ourselves in respect of the fundraising for Cyclists Fighting Cancer.....but this doesn't mean that the fundraising now stops....No....No....No...
If you have been intending to support us but haven't got around to it yet, now is your chance..... 

Everything extra that comes in now will have the effect of turbo charging our cycling efforts, so don't hold back just empty your pockets of that loose change and click on the justgiving button on this blog and pay it in...
It is a fantastic cause that we are cycling for and all donations really are appreciated...

We will be tweeting throughout each daily stage and a review of the daily stages will be posted on this blog every evening subject only to us having a signal......

All the team have worked really hard to prepare ourselves for the 10in10 and it's not as if any of us are youngsters anymore and that makes it an even bigger challenge for us all....

Us 'oldies' take a bit longer to recover after a big day's ride, so ten days back to back without a rest day, with daily mileages up to 100miles and climbing up to 9,000ft of ascent on the latter stages of the ride really is a pretty major challenge.....

We will all be doing our very best to succeed....... 

The New Member of the 10in10 Team.....

The New 10in10 Team Member- Como the Bear

A few weeks ago I told you here on the purpletraveller blog that the 10in10 team had lost our mechanic Steve Milsen due to unforseen circumstances.

Well I am now pleased to announce the recruitment of a new team member....COMO  the bear.

Thanks to Jon Joynes's mum who has been busy in bear production, Como will be joining us on our 10in10 trip.... Como's special job will be to show you all the various places that we will be passing through as we endeavour to achieve our ten countries in ten days challenge....

I have been told that pictures of Como will be posted on twitter and this blog throughout our ride...he will 'star' in photos on the bike....on the ferry....crossing borders....and of course at Lake Como which is where his name comes from.....

Yes Como the bear will be the star of the 10in10 ride....... Sorry JD... Not you this time!!

My last ride outdoors before the 10in10........

The Bikes.....

Yesterday I did my last proper outdoor ride before I set off on the 10in10 ride which starts this coming Saturday....
I was invited by my daughter Verity and her husband Scott to join them and my two grandsons on an offroad MTB ride from their home near Wimborne to Upton House and Country Park near Poole...riding along the Castleman Trailway....

Now it must be a good twenty years since I last rode a mountain bike and I have to say that riding with my grandsons was a revelation. The youngest, Jack, at six years of age seems to have no fear at all....seeing him tackle a steep downhill on a rough rutted scree like surface with a bend at the bottom was a sight to see. 
On the flat he tended to lead me into a false sense of steady speed, because every so often his legs went into turbo power and he would shoot off at a rate of knots that even I found difficult to reel him back from.

We had a great time at the park and after a picnic they all seemed set on exhausting me with games of cricket, football and frisbee.....
A great time was had by us all and the kids showed no sign on the return journey of slowing up at all....Just what I needed on my last ride before the ten countries in ten days ride....

During this week I will be doing some short controlled sessions on the indoor bike more to keep everything moving than anything.... Lets face it, if I am not ready for the ride by now, a few more rides won't change anything......

The 10in10 Giveaway.....

Further to my last post when I told you about Andrew Sykes the author of 'Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike called Reggie' supporting us on our Ten Countries in Ten Days ride with an article on his Cycling Europe site................

Well, he has been even more supportive and has sent us three signed copies of his book which we can use to help raise more funds for our chosen charity Cyclist Fighting Cancer.

So this is what we are going to do:

The FIRST THREE DONATIONS of £25 (Twenty Five Pounds) or more that we receive after 0900hrs British Summer Time on the morning of SUNDAY 02nd JUNE 2013 will not only have the pleasure of supporting children and young people affected by cancer but will also receive from the 10in10 Team & Andrew Sykes one of the signed copies of his book...

So: The FIRST THREE Donations
of          £25.00GBP      or more
received after 0900hrs BST on SUNDAY 02nd JUNE 2013
will get a signed copy of 'Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a Bike called Reggie'.

The winners of these books, which I must say is a first class read, will be announced on the PurpleTraveller Blog following the third £25.00 donation... I will tell you at that time how you can send us your address details.........
We will cover the postage of the book and this is open to ALL, wherever in the world you ride your bike........

The excitement is building......

With just eleven clear days left until the start of our Ten Countries in Ten Days ride the excitement is really starting to build up. 
All the months of planning and the Highs & Lows of our training are all about to come together... 
No matter how many of these various cycle challenges I do I can't help but get excited as the start date draws closer for a new ride.... 

The extended 'cycling family' is really starting to get behind us judging by the level of support we are now seeing from donations to our team site . 
We are now starting to get into striking distance of the target we set ourselves as the fund raising goal for this ride.... Lets hope we have a similar level of success with the actual ride itself.... 

Talking about the extended cycling family.... following our article in the latest edition of Cycling Active magazine we have now got Andrew Sykes the author of the book 'Good Vibrations: Crossing Europe on a bike called Reggie' supporting us on our 10in10.

Andrew has posted an article about us on his Cycling Europe website. You can see it HERE .
He will also be retweeting our tweets as we progress on our ride and might be posting further coverage on CyclingEurope.org . 

As I said the extended cycling family is really starting to get behind us on our challenge. It all helps to build the excitement.....