We are pleased to announce that the latest set of Ride25 adventurers arrived in Paris on Sunday after their epic journey from Leeds. This particularly tough ride saw the riders cover 300 miles in the first 3 days – notching up a total of 430 miles to arrive at the Eiffel tower on Sunday afternoon – with a few bottles of champagne to celebrate!
It wasn’t plain sailing (or cycling!) all the way – this tour proved to be a huge challenge for most of the riders – even those who would consider themselves some of the more experienced riders in the group. Indeed, one rider said that this trip was ‘More difficult than climbing Everest!’ One of our riders ended up in A&E after bonking on the 2nd day for not taking in enough energy. (A painful lesson learnt not to ignore our advice to take in energy at least every hour!) The Ride25 riders also suffered a few punctures, wrong turns and sore limbs… however their huge amount of effort, both physical and mental meant that they have collectively raised a whopping £20k for various charities including Simon on the Streets, British Heart Foundation, Woodenspoon, Candelighters, Yorkshire Against Cancer and Tommy’s.
The riders will readily admit that they couldn’t have done it without the incredible Ride25 support team who were there at every step of the way – offering mechanical support for their bikes, the odd lift in the support car, mental encouragement, bananas, sweeties, water…and may be even the odd hug!
Suffice to say, through thick and thin, through the highs and the lows, everyone pulled together and by the end of the tour everyone had achieved a huge personal goal – and made some great friends along the way. Many of the group are already talking about their next Ride25 leg which will see them cycling from Paris to Geneva next year. Bring it on!
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