The Canal Cycle Challenge 2017
On the weekend of 16th and 17th of September, some of our staff cycled 129 miles along the canal from Liverpool to Leeds! We’re very proud of all the staff who took part, ranging in age from 17 to 59.
On 5am Saturday morning a minibus collected a sleepy team from Head Office, arriving at the start of the canal for a 7am start. Cycling past Aintree Racecourse, DW Stadium (the home of Wigan Athletic) and Ewood Park (Blackburn Rovers) progress ended up quite slow due to mud! One puncture and one fall later the team arrived at the halfway point of the canal and had lunch in Adlington (great food!).
After lunch, concentration slipped slightly and the team took a wrong turn at a branch line of the canal resulting in a 1 mile detour. Later they got lost in Burnley looking for the hotel…
Starting again at 8am on Sunday things were going well until the team discovered that they couldn’t cycle through the 1 mile long Foulridge Tunnel and had to take another detour. After a well-earned tea break at Foulridge Café they reached the highest point of their journey at Greenberfield Top Lock where they had a breather and watched a canal boat using the lock.
8 miles of muddy terrain later the team arrived in Skipton for a short rest, then had lunch at Bingley 5 Rise Locks.
At Shipley a crank arm fell off one team members’ bike resulting in him needing to be pushed along but the team finally arrived at Head Office on Sunday before it got dark.
Great efforts from all involved – we are all very proud of their hard work for such great causes!
See all the photos plus videos at the team’s Facebook group page.
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