My Big Bike Ride for Diabetes UK

Well I did it, a little slower than hoped, I did complete my ride for Diabetes UK on Saturday August 24th.

The headlines are 224 miles moving for 14 hours 18 minutes, being on the go for just over 17 hours in total.

The size of the task I’d set myself really hit home on the drive to Uppingham, with traffic hold ups and trying to be clever and get round them it took in the region of 5 hours to get to the start point by car.

After a better than expected night’s sleep, I left the hotel carpark at 5:15am in the dark and rain. Hey things can only get better from here I thought to myself and they did not long later when the sun rose.

After just over an hour I was joined by my 1st ride companion, my cousin’s husband, close to their home in Bingham. Stuart rode with me until Sutton on Trent where my cousin met up and delivered possibility the best tasting Bacon & Sausage barm / butty / bap sandwich (delete as appropriate for your location). With such an early start I had only had a light snack before setting off so my view could be a bit skewed.

After that I was facing the next 90 or so miles up to Sowerby Bridge via Grimethorpe solo. Although my mum and daughter were leapfrogging me in the car in the event of needing assistance.

I eventually got to Sowerby Bridge to meet up with another support rider, then into Hebden Bridge we met up with a couple of my friends who’d ridden over from Preston to go back again with me. With the worst of the climbs about to start & a head wind, I was very grateful of a couple of wheels to sit behind. Just over the border back into Lancashire I started to feel a bit like a human relay baton as a couple more friends joined the group and the support car duties were very kindly taken over by Robin from Standfast and Barracks Stores.

On to Preston & a couple more changes of teammates & to the Fylde coast where the majority of the landmarks significant to dad were located. After the final stop off at Bloomfield Road where dad’s ashes are buried we’d got caught in a tropical cloud burst, well in terms of severity it was tropical, there was nothing tropical about the temperature at 9pm at the end of August in Blackpool.

And so to the final leg back to Longridge where my mum, wife & daughter all joined in the fun for a symbolic last little bit of the ride back to mum’s for pizza and beer.

It was a pretty long and very rewarding day. It was quite humbling that so many friends and relations went out of their way to help achieve my goal.

Even more humbling is the amount people have been willing to donate to Diabetes UK through this adventure to date I’ve raised just over ￡1900, thank you to everyone who has already donated. My Just Giving page is still live and can be found via the following link??https://www.justgiving.com/page/roger-kaye-1711056510532 if there is anyone else willing and able to contribute.

Thanks for the support and if you made it this far for reading my story of the day.