Picos Original Riders

Picos Original Riders
Highlights of 2010

Last of the Picos Riders - to Rome Alone!

Our first two charity rides were a huge success - raising over £20,000 for the South East Cancer Help Centre.

The Centre does a fantastic job of supporting patients and carers at the most difficult times of their lives. They make a real difference and you could help them in their work by contributing to our fundraising. Donations can be made via JustGiving.comhttps://www.justgiving.com/Tom-Vaz/ or directly into the Centre. For more details of the Centre and their work see their website at http://www.sechc.org.uk/

After 3 years of rest it seemed time to dust off the old muscles, bones and sinews and do one more spectacular ride in aid of this fabulous charity.

This time I will travel alone for 25 days, mainly following the ancient pilgrimage route to Rome, the Via Francigene, covering a distance of around 1,400 miles.

The route travels through Newhaven - Dieppe - Paris before I eventually reach the Via Francigene in Eastern France. From then on it is pretty simple apart from having to cross the Alps without an elephant!

Sunday 5 August 2012

Our Last Spanish Ride

Today was our last ride together and it was certainly spectacular.
We left Covadonga at 8.30am and headed through Arenas de Cabrales following the spectacular gorge of the Rio Cares before leaving Asturias for Cantabria at the modern river bridge at Panes.
Here it was lunch time and mis-translation of the menu left me with a meal of chicken and chips. As I dont eat meat it meant a huge meal for Chris and a plate of chips for me. Not good fuel for 100km of quite hilly cycling but better than nothing.
After Panes we had a Des "special" short cut to look forward to and so we climbed for 7km and enjoyed views to the coast at San Vicente.
Final resting spot before we hit Santander tomorrow is the splendid Hotel El Pucheru - a real country hotel feel near Santander.
Chris and I still have the 120km trip from Portsmouth to Purley but there is a 48 hour rest first.
And of course in preparation, it has started raining....